Publications

10 Mar 2021
News

Action Plan: Brewing Awareness

at the bars of Harvard Square—and carried that affinity with him to New York, where he took a job in finance at Perella Weinberg. At a Whole Foods located on the first floor of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; beer; India; leadership; COVID-19; manufacturing; marketing; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

September 2009 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Nantucket Nectars: The Exit

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Noam Wasserman

The founders of Nantucket Nectars are trying to decide whether and how to sell their company. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Decision Choices and Conditions; Auctions; Food and Beverage Industry; Massachusetts

01 Mar 2009
News

Damon Silvers

congressional bailout than Wall Street? No. The reason Congress voted in October to allot $700 billion for financial institutions was the risk that multiple bankruptcies would place the economy in jeopardy. Let’s apply that reasoning to the automakers. They are at the... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Administration of Economic Programs; Administration of Economic Programs; Administration of Economic Programs; Administration of Economic Programs; Administration of Economic Programs

19 Aug 2019
News

These Brothers Are Helping Busy Leaders Eat Better Than Ever

01 Jun 2014
News

Case Study: A Souped-Up Strategy

Bookalokal is a social dining platform that launched in Brussels in 2012. The initial concept: Connect travelers with locals through home-cooked, gourmet meals in people's homes. Prospective diners search through Bookalokal's online database View Details

05 Mar 2014
What Do You Think?

When Will the Next Dot.com Bubble Burst?

the Internet and promised one-hour delivery of a wide range of products, including an entire evening's complement of food and videos, with no... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Publishing; Retail

12 Jan 2016
First Look

January 12, 2016

existing, entrenched systems and processes of the larger enterprise. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/816048-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 816-042 Clover Food Lab: Building... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

April 1994 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Mrs. Fields, Inc. (1977 - 1987)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Keri O. Pearlson

Describes a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage of MIS... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizations; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

May 2022
Case

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case provides an overview of “Franz for Life,” an advertising campaign that independent advertising agency Mekanism created and executed to revitalize the brand image of Franzia, a low-cost boxed wine. For several years, Franzia’s popularity declined among... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

May 2022
Supplement

Thinking Outside the Wine Box (C): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign

By: Tomomichi Amano, Elie Ofek, Mengjie Cheng and Amy Klopfenstein

This case reveals the events that took place after the conclusion of the cases “Thinking Outside the Wine Box (A-B): Mekanism and the Franz for Life Campaign.” After selecting a creative direction for the Franz for Life 2.0 campaign, independent advertising agency... View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Digital Marketing; Social Marketing; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning; Advertising; Communication Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Social Media; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

December 1990 (Revised November 1992)
Case

Anheuser-Busch and Campbell Taggart

In 1984, the SEC accused Paul Thayer and eight others of insider trading. Some of Thayer's inside information came from his position on the board of Anheuser-Busch, where he had learned about Busch's 1982 merger with Campbell Taggart before the merger was publicly... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Capital Markets; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

soup a year. Dorrance was named president and general manager of Campbell Soup in 1914, and purchased the company’s first subsidiary, Franco-American Food Company, the following year. View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

Colby M. Chester

Under Chester’s leadership, General Foods’ annual sales rose from $25 million in 1924 to $120 million in 1935. In 1927, Chester began manufacturing Sanka Coffee, and in 1928, he acquired the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company, makers of Maxwell... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

April 1995 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Pillsbury: Customer Driven Reengineering

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Pillsbury is transforming itself from an integrated producer of flour and bakery products to a value-added supplier of premium branded products. After initial successes applying activity-based costing to manufacturing operations, two senior executives decide to... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Production; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Food and Beverage Industry

May 1995
Case

Hannaford Brothers: Leading the Grocery Channel Transformation

The merchandising manager of a supermarket chain leads an effort to reorganize the process of buying and delivering products from manufacturers to their warehouse for further distribution to stores. The company is an early mover in implementing efficient consumer... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Supply Chain Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

laboratory experiments in food service contexts that suggest that the introduction of operational transparency improves service quality and efficiency. The introduction of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2008
Supplement

Mr. Nelson Peltz, Founding Partner, Trian Partners. Interviewed by Professor John Quelch

By: John A. Quelch

Professor John Quelch interviewed Mr. Nelson Peitz, Founding Partner of Trian Partners on events and decisions leading up to the decision to acquire the Snapple brand and the results of that corporate decision. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Investment; Brands and Branding; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

December 2023 (Revised February 2024)
Case

21Seeds: Taking Shots at Breakout Growth

By: Elie Ofek, Julian De Freitas, Michael Moynihan and Nicole Tempest Keller

21Seeds, a female-founded flavor-infused tequila startup launched in 2019, had made inroads into the alcoholic beverage industry by focusing on an underserved consumer segment in spirits—women, primarily in their 30s and 40s, many of whom were moms—and by following a... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Distribution Channels; Sales; Food and Beverage Industry