Brand Strategy - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

Managing Alignment as a Process

men's outdoor shoes and clothing had become saturated. A comprehensive strategy review revealed that the Sport-Man brand could be extended to other apparel lines. Furthermore, its retail footprint in major... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Retail

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

purchasing life. The CLV formula incorporates metrics that capture the outputs of three key customer strategies that firms employ: asset acquisition (attracting new customers to the firm); asset maximization (maximizing the value the firm... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

26 May 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Market Research in a Recession

recession, it's essential to get a clear read on existing core customers, including those who are most loyal to the brand and those who are most profitable, rather than fritter away research resources on potential or peripheral consumers.... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

November 2002 (Revised February 2009)
Teaching Note

Value Retail (TN)

By: Arthur I Segel and Ani M Vartanian

Teaching Note for (9-803-008). View Details

Keywords: Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Performance Effectiveness; Brands and Branding; Planning; Strategy; Luxury; Milan

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April 1978 (Revised January 1985)
Case

Searle Medical Instruments Group (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

SMIG, a division of G.D. Searle, was a fast growing high market-share company in the field of nuclear medical instruments. It manufactured two basically different product lines, one very successful and the other less so. Although marketing was separate for these... View Details

Keywords: Change; Brands and Branding; Market Participation; Production; Success; Performance Capacity; Expansion; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

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February 2008
Teaching Note

Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box (TN)

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Matthew Bird

Teaching Note for [306064]. View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Sales; Customer Value and Value Chain; Brands and Branding; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry

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12 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Entrepreneurship and Multinationals Drive Globalization

global standard. This was historically contingent on the unique circumstances prevailing at that time, but once the standard was in place, the marketing and branding strategies of firms helped to make it... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Pharmaceutical

August 2011
Supplement

John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic Society, In-Class Comments, 2/11/11

By: David Garvin

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Sales; Environmental Sustainability; Business Strategy; Web Sites; Publishing Industry; Washington (state, US)

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February 2022
Case

Launching the Social

By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn

This case features the same protagonists as Ample Hills Creamery (HBS No. 822-073), and can be used as a continuation of that story.
Ample Hills Creamery started in 2010 as a temporary ice cream pushcart in Brooklyn, New York City. On the strength of inventive... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Small Business; Brands and Branding; Partners and Partnerships; Expansion

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03 Dec 2007
Research & Ideas

Authenticity over Exaggeration: The New Rule in Advertising

girls reveal insecurities about their looks, showing the harm done by unrealistic standards set by the industry. (Dove is also the subject of a new case by Deighton.) “Authenticity becomes a much more desirable property than exaggeration.” "The story of Dove is one of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Publishing; Advertising

23 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Status: When and Why It Matters

like to believe that people pay for status for purely symbolic reasons, but the empirical evidence for that has been weak at best," says Harvard Business School's Daniel Malter, an assistant professor in the Strategy unit who studies... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘A Social Strategy’

Twitter—establishing an account, getting people to follow the firm, and hoping that those people will respond in kind. Such strategies have allowed firms to engage in an activity that's very familiar to them: broadcasting content to... View Details

August 2011
Supplement

An Interview with John Fahey, President and CEO of National Geographic Society

By: David Garvin

In January 2010, John Fahey, president, CEO, and chairman of the board of trustees' executive committee of the Washington, D.C.-based National Geographic Society (NGS), must decide how best to organize the 121-year old mission-driven organization for a world of... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Brands and Branding; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Natural Environment; Business Strategy; Web Sites

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December 2010
Article

Why You Aren't Buying Venezuelan Chocolate

By: Rohit Deshpandé

The article discusses the "provenance paradox," wherein consumers are unwilling to buy high-quality products from regions not commonly associated with excellence in certain product categories. Venezuelan chocolate maker Chocolates El Rey does little international... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Emerging Markets; Food and Beverage Industry; Venezuela

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25 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

The Powerful Strategic Tool Companies Should Not Try to Control

their fan groups stand to gain valuable insights and build loyalty at a much lower cost, according to Harvard Business School’s Frank Nagle, an assistant professor of strategy, and Sonali K. Shah, associate professor of strategy and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

In this three-part series, we start with an overview of why retail experts Rajiv Lal, José B. Alvarez, and Dan Greenberg believe retail is at an inflection point. In Part Two, coming next week, they identify effective strategies for... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

15 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 15

Gallagher Group Limited (GGL), the world's largest electric fence company, was about to present a new branding strategy to the company's senior managers and Bill Gallagher, Jr., CEO. After spending more than... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2016
Teaching Note

Filene's Basement: Inside a Fired Customer's Relationship

By: Jill Avery and Susan Fournier

How, in a business climate in which building relationships with customers has dominated both managerial thought and marketing budgets, could Filene's Basement have fired a loyal customer, one who was formally and informally recognized as a best customer? This case... View Details

Keywords: CRM; Customer Profitability Analysis; Customer Lifetime Value; Consumer Behavior; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Retail Industry; United States

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01 Nov 2016
First Look

First Look - November 1, 2016

with key players from the frontlines of digital change, The Content Trap aims to reorient strategy and offers lessons for businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals trying to figure out what to do next. Companies that flourish in a... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova? (Abridged)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea—helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors... View Details