Publications

Consumers have always had relationships with brands, but sophisticated tools for analyzing customer data are finally allowing marketing organizations to personalize and manage those relationships. With this new power comes a new challenge: People now expect companies... View Details

September 2016 (Revised March 2021)
Case

DBL Partners: Double Bottom Line Venture Capital

By: Shawn Cole, Mark Kramer, Tony L. He, Anshul Maudar and T. Robert Zochowski

This case explores the origins and current practices of DBL, a San Francisco–based venture capital fund and one of the first impact investment funds to achieve significant financial returns to scale. This case allows for a competitive analysis of DBL's investment... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Tanzania

June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Marketing Capabilities

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson

P&G had become known and recognized as a marketing machine. It was the largest advertiser in the world, with 2010 spending of $8.68 billion. From the company's early exploitation of broadcast media (radio and television) for its soap products to more recent experiments... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Change Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

supplies in the 1980s. "As the rise and fall of De Beers exemplifies, while a diamond may be forever, power is not." But in recent years, competition from other diamond sellers has increased, providing customers with many more... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

07 Jul 2021
Book

Good News for Disgraced Companies: You Can Regain Trust

new book The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It, Sucher and her coauthor, HBS research associate Shalene Gupta, highlight those social media examples along with a global list of companies that have either... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

December 2004 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Nectar: Making Loyalty Pay

By: John A. Deighton

Loyalty Management UK (LMUK) manages British supermarket chain Sainsbury's frequent-shopper card program, called Nectar. LMUK uses Sainsbury's sponsorship as the magnet to attract other retailers into a profitable, multisponsor loyalty network. Examines the economics... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Business or Company Management; Supply Chain Management; Marketing Strategy; Networks; Marketing Channels; Advertising Campaigns; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development; Retail Industry; Great Britain

May 2024
Teaching Note

The Meteoric Rise of Skims

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jill Avery and Leonard A. Schlesinger

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 524-023, "The Meteoric Rise of Skims." View Details

20 May 2014
News

Mastering the Intermediaries

January 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Paydiant

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Elizabeth C. Williamson and James Weber

Kevin Laracey, founder of Paydiant, needed to figure out how to launch a payment processing company with a new technology based on smart phones. Consumers had increasingly turned to electronic payment methods such as credit cards and debit cards to make purchases.... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Credit Cards; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Industry Structures; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Cooperation; Technology Adoption; Retail Industry

2024
Working Paper

Webmunk: A New Tool for Studying Online Behavior and Digital Platforms

By: Chiara Farronato, Andrey Fradkin and Chris Karr

Understanding the behavior of users online is important for researchers, policymakers, and private companies alike. But observing online behavior and conducting experiments is difficult without direct access to the user base and software of technology companies. We... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Technology Adoption; Behavior; Research; Consumer Behavior; Internet and the Web

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22 May 2024
HBS Case

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

Businesses that dismiss TikTok as merely a platform for teenagers looking to create and consume cat and dance videos do so at their own peril. That’s the message of a Harvard Business School case study tracing the video-sharing app’s... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

20 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry

further investigation into the development of the consumer electronics and computer industries. Here is an excerpt.I have just completed an initial sketch of the evolution of two industries—Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Consumer Products

12 Oct 2017
News

Telemundo: The Fastest Growing TV Network in the United States

Article

From TV to Web: Content Strategies for Ads That Drive Online Sales

By: Thales S. Teixeira

Consumers have become avid media multitaskers, moving seamlessly between their TVs and digital devices. Shorter TV commercials have reduced both the quantity and quality of consumer attention during prime-time viewing hours. In this new media environment, can TV... View Details

Keywords: TV Advertising; Multitasking; Infotainment; Television; Prime Time; Advertising; Online Advertising; Advertising Industry

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24 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

The 'Amazon Effect' Is Changing Online Price Competition—and the Fed Needs to Pay Attention

unusual to find stores from the same chain selling a product for different prices in different regions or online. Cavallo attributes this to the transparency afforded by the internet and customers’ concerns about fairness. “The web allows View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail

31 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn’t, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'?

share and then progressing through this wheel of retailing is in the past. Smaller retailers are gaining influence by playing in very special niches where they don’t have to win with low prices ” Nick C said: “Perhaps it is a function of expanding View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Retail

May 2006 (Revised February 2012)
Case

General Electric's 20th Century CEOs (Abridged)

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo and Mark Benson

General Electric thrived in every decade of the 20th century. Since its founding in 1892, GE has placed a high value on picking and training the best people. Staff members worked with other scientists in the company's research lab to design and manufacture new and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Leadership Style; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Style