Consumer Segmentation - Publications - Faculty & Research

2023
Article

Moral Escalation: Contested Category Emergence and Its Consequences in the Toy Industry

Preexisting research has outlined the cognitive, competitive, and economic barriers to market category emergence. Yet scholars have paid scant attention to the processes and consequences of moral resistance to nascent categories. Through a longitudinal, qualitative... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Market Entry and Exit; Product Positioning; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

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March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

ASOS PLC

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

Launched in 2000, ASOS was one of the world’s largest online fashion specialists in 2018. Focusing on young consumers aged 16–25 years, the company offered over 85,000 items on its websites, many times more than the largest fashion stores, and added several thousand... View Details

Keywords: ASOS; AsSeenOnScreen; Online Fashion; Online Apparel; Nick Beighton; Nick Robertson; E-commerce; E-Commerce Strategy; Online Retail; Multichannel Retailing; Omnichannel; Social Media; Marketplaces; Shipping; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Startups; For-Profit Firms; Customer Focus and Relationships; Age; Gender; Currency Exchange Rate; Profit; Revenue; Geography; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Business History; Selection and Staffing; Journals and Magazines; Human Capital; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Succession; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Positioning; Social Marketing; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Vertical Integration; Segmentation; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; England; London

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August 2022
Background Note

Retail Media Networks

By: Eva Ascarza, Ayelet Israeli and Celine Chammas

In 2022, retail media was one of the fastest growing segments in digital advertising. A retail media network (RMN) allows a retailer to use its assets for advertising. Retailers set up an advertising business by allowing marketers to buy advertising space across their... View Details

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July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

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March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details

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10 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 10, 2018

Abstract—Executive development programs have entered a period of disruption catalyzed by the digitalization of content, connectivity, and communication and are driven by renewed demand for high-level executive and managerial skills. Unlike other View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

11 Feb 2008
Research & Ideas

Does Democracy Need a Marketing Manager?

marketing can be used to create a political process that entices consumers (voters) rather than makes them cynical. "We wanted to elevate understanding of the power and importance of marketing as a force for social good," the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

July–August 2013
Article

A Joint Model of Usage and Churn in Contractual Settings

By: Eva Ascarza and Bruce G.S. Hardie

As firms become more customer-centric, concepts such as customer equity come to the fore. Any serious attempt to quantify customer equity requires modeling techniques that can provide accurate multiperiod forecasts of customer behavior. Although a number of researchers... View Details

Keywords: Churn; Retention; Contractual Settings; Access Services; Hidden Markov Models; RFM; Latent Variable Models; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Behavior

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30 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

value of the product is low and there aren’t too many undecided consumers, to offer the price match doesn’t give you much in terms of extra profits from the segment that comes to the store,” Ofek says. “By price discriminating across... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

Research Summary

Understanding Customers

In conventional business case studies, protagonists almost never have the option of stepping back to seek a new understanding of the customer. But to be effective in practice, managers need both the self-assurance and ability to initiate and pursue, with rigor and... View Details

August 2018
Teaching Note

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

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20 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 20

consumers and producers, and such changes typically required the mobilization of political power to overcome resistance to such changes. In order to support such developmental changes, the political authorities of capitalism had to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2021
Teaching Note

Drinkworks: Home Bar by Keurig

By: Sunil Gupta and Jonathan Levav

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-010. In the summer of 2018, Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis needed to make a number of go-to-market decisions ahead of his company’s upcoming product launch. Formed through a joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch... View Details

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Web

Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

credit-market booms. See Robin’s other research here , Sam’s other research here , Andrei’s other research here , and Jakob’s other research here . More Info Segmented Arbitrage By: Adi Sunderam , Emil Siriwardane & Jonathan Wallen NOV... View Details

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

large economies for the 2001 to 2005 period. We investigate reasons why Chinese firms are more diversified than companies elsewhere. Design/methodology/approach—We collect data on the number of business segments in which publicly traded... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2016
First Look

March 1, 2016

profitably through acquisitions and organically for two decades. In late 2015, Hain faced challenges on several fronts. First, new consumers were interested in these products, and these consumers had... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Middle East & North Africa - Global

Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit at HBS, the discussion explored how businesses can leverage AI for content optimization, automated customer insights, AI-powered customer service, and enhanced consumer... View Details

16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

would not have risen to what is now, a $2.5-billion-a-year industry, without a revolutionary shift to outside-in thinking that allowed companies such as Fresh Express to realize that busy consumers wanted companies to make the whole salad... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

01 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Better by the Bundle?

Nintendo, this gives the company a way to separate out segments of consumers—we call this dynamic customer segmentation." Some consumers don't care much about the specific game and will go for the bundle,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2005
Background Note

Overview of the Japanese Apparel Market

By: Rajiv Lal and Arar Han

Provides an overview of the Japanese apparel market, which was a 13.1 trillion yen industry in 2003, reflecting 5.5% year-over-year shrinkage since 1997, when retailers logged 17.5 trillion yen in sales. Compared to their global counterparts, Japanese apparel shoppers... View Details