Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,277)
- Faculty Publications (251)
- November 2017
- Teaching Note
Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap
By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery
CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big... View Details
Keywords: Brands; Brand ＆ Product Management; Big Data; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Consumer Behavior; Predictive Analytics; Forecasting; Preferences; Operation Management; Distribution Channels; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Forecasting and Prediction; Data and Data Sets; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; North America
- October 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
HTC and Virtual Reality
By: David B. Yoffie, Andy Wu and Allison M. Ciechanover
In fall 2017, HTC CEO and Chairperson Cher Wang was driving the company to focus on virtual reality (VR). HTC's first VR product, VIVE, released in spring 2016, was applauded for its superior immersive room-scale capabilities. However, early adoption of VR beyond... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand
By: Shelle Santana, Jill Avery and Christine Snively
The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a cohort that had previously eluded JPMorgan Chase and its competitors. With the one-year anniversary of the launch approaching, managers are focused on... View Details
Keywords: Brand ＆ Product Management; Product Strategy; New Product Development; Credit Card; Customer Acquisition; CRM; Millennials; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Credit Cards; Product Development; Product Launch; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Demographics; Financial Services Industry; Service Industry; Banking Industry; United States; North America
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Propel
By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra
In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details
Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Govtech; Food Stamps; EBT; Mobile App; User Research; Financial Services Referrals; Grocery Marketing; Customer Discovery; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Model; Research; Social Enterprise; Poverty; Welfare; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States
- Article
Beyond the Target Customer: Social Effects in CRM Campaigns
By: Eva Ascarza, Peter Ebbes, Oded Netzer and Matthew Danielson
Customer relationship management (CRM) campaigns have traditionally focused on maximizing the profitability of the targeted customers. The authors demonstrate that in business settings characterized by network externalities, a CRM campaign that is aimed at changing the... View Details
- June 2017
- Article
Creating Reciprocal Value Through Operational Transparency
By: Ryan W. Buell, Tami Kim and Chia-Jung Tsay
We investigate whether organizations can create value by introducing visual transparency between consumers and producers. Although operational transparency has been shown to improve consumer perceptions of service value, existing theory posits that increased contact... View Details
- May 2017 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap
By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery
CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic brands and promoting a collective creative ecosystem fueled by the input of big data. Rather than relying on artistic vision, Peck wanted the company to use the mining of big... View Details
Keywords: Retailing; Preference Elicitation; Big Data; Predictive Analytics; Artificial Intelligence; Fashion; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Brands and Branding; Consumer Behavior; Demand and Consumers; Analytics and Data Science; Forecasting and Prediction; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United States; Canada; North America
- 2018
- Working Paper
Opportunistic Returns and Dynamic Pricing: Empirical Evidence from Online Retailing in Emerging Markets
By: Chaithanya Bandi, Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and Zhiji Xu
We investigate how dynamic pricing can lead to higher operational costs through more product returns in the online retail industry. Dynamic pricing has been widely applied by many online retailers. Research has shown that, in response to dynamic pricing, some customers... View Details
- February 2017
- Article
Resident Networks and Corporate Connections: Evidence from World War II Internment Camps
By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Christopher J. Malloy
We demonstrate that simply by using the ethnic makeup surrounding a firm’s location, we can predict, on average, which trade links are valuable for firms. Using customs and port authority data on the international shipments of all U.S. publicly traded firms, we show... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised July 2017)
- Background Note
Brand Portfolio Strategy and Brand Architecture
By: Jill Avery
While companies choose to brand their products and services in many different ways, there are some central tenets that help define an optimal brand portfolio and associated brand architecture. Brand portfolio strategy involves the design, deployment, and management of... View Details
- August 2016
- Case
CSI Ingenieros
By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague
CSI's business unit managers gathered around the downstairs conference room for the company's weekly meeting to discuss project bids. Cristina WaldAshley Hartman, who was in charge of finding projects for the engineering firm to work on, read through several she had... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Governance; Board; Board Committees; Board Dynamics; Organization; Organization Alignment; Dynamic Capabilities; Organization Design; Organizational Prototyping; Organizational Silence; Organizational Learning; Organization Behavior; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Manufacturing Industry; South America; Uruguay
- July 20, 2016
- Article
To Increase Sales, Get Customers to Commit a Little at a Time
By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Hoffeld
This article discusses what behavioral research does and does not tell us about factors that aid the "closing" of a sales call. View Details
- June 17, 2016
- Comment
Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers
By: John A. Quelch
Recent events in Orlando underscore an important marketing truth: consumer safety and security are mission critical. A popular nightclub, Pulse, known as a safe place for the LGBT community, is put out of business at least temporarily by a terrorist act. Not far away... View Details
Keywords: Consumer Safety; Public Safety; Brand Attraction; Risk Management; Safe Environment Benefit; Marketing Safety; Global Brands; Advertising; Change Management; Disruption; Volatility; Crime and Corruption; Customers; Music Entertainment; Animation Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Problems and Challenges; Safety; Corporate Strategy; Business Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Tourism Industry; Travel Industry; United States
- June 2016
- Teaching Note
Relating to Peapod
By: Jill Avery and Susan Fournier
This case concerns the topics of relationship marketing, customer acquisition and retention, brand loyalty, service failure and recovery, new product introduction, and the use of consumer ethnography to study consumer behavior. Specifically, the case explores the... View Details
- 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
- June 2016
- Teaching Note
HubSpot: Lower Churn through Greater CHI
By: Jill Avery, Asis Martinez Jerez and Thomas Steenburgh
HubSpot, a web marketing startup selling inbound marketing software to small- and medium-sized businesses, is under pressure from its venture capital partners to rapidly acquire new customers and to maintain a low level of customer churn. The B2B SaaS company is in the... View Details
- 2016
- Chapter
Navigating Natural Monopolies: Market Strategy and Nonmarket Challenges in Radio and Television Audience Measurement Markets
By: Hillary Greene and Dennis Yao
This paper explores how firms within the audience measurement industry, specifically its radio and television markets, have navigated myriad market and nonmarket challenges. The market strategies and the nonmarket forces that constrain those strategies are largely... View Details
- March 2016
- Teaching Note
Catalina in the Digital Age
By: Uma R. Karmarkar and Robert J. Dolan
"Catalina in the Digital Age" considers how a company with a dominant market position should evolve its established product lines given the rise of novel digital technologies. Since its founding in 1983, Catalina had enjoyed a distinct position in the world of consumer... View Details
- Article
The Perils of Proactive Churn Prevention Using Plan Recommendations: Evidence from a Field Experiment
By: Eva Ascarza, Raghuram Iyengar and Martin Schleicher
Facing the issue of increasing customer churn, many service firms have begun recommending pricing plans to their customers. One reason behind this type of retention campaign is that customers who subscribe to a plan suitable for them should be less likely to churn... View Details
- December 15, 2015
- Article
Don't Turn Your Sales Team Loose Without a Strategy
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Steve Thompson
When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are typically important categories. But only customers buy. Hence, for most firms, de facto strategy and much resource allocation are the aggregate result of the deals their salespeople close. However, few firms clarify... View Details