Customer Power - Publications - Faculty & Research

A company’s ability to create and refine its products, customer experiences, processes, and business models—in other words, to compete—is deeply affected by its ability to experiment. Digital giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Booking.com have found... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Competitiveness; Competition; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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2011
White Paper

Brands Are People Too! Harnessing the Power of Brand Warmth and Competence

By: Chris Malone, Jill Avery and S. T. Fiske

Research in customer behavior has revealed that the way humans respond to brands is simply an extension of the way they instinctively perceive, judge, and behave towards one another. Understanding how consumers judge brands using social processes akin to those used in... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Brand Positioning; Brand Equity; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry

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2021
Book

The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta

Trust is the most powerful force underlying the success of every business. Yet it can be shattered in an instant, with a devastating impact on a company’s market cap and reputation. How to build and sustain trust requires fresh insight into why customers, employees,... View Details

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16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business (Harvard Business Press). Gulati, whose research explores leadership and strategic challenges for building high growth organizations in turbulent markets, is the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

04 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

Don’t Lose Money With Customers

Investors diligently manage financial portfolios to maximize returns on their assets; yet corporate managers who invariably proclaim their business customers to be "valuable assets" rarely manage their relationships with them... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

May 2010 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Delta Electronics Hybrid Power Train

By: Willy C. Shih and Jyun-Cheng Wang

Delta Electronics, the world's largest manufacturer of switching power supplies, hoped to enter the market for gasoline-electric hybrid power trains for automobiles by being a major component and subsystem supplier. While most public awareness of hybrid vehicles fell... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Intellectual Property; Emerging Markets; Industry Clusters; Partners and Partnerships; Electronics Industry; China

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July–August 2014
Article

Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships

By: Jill Avery, Susan Fournier and John Wittenbraker

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

Keywords: Brand Management; CRM; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States

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21 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The New Math of Customer Relationships

"New Age" Internet-based businesses such as Rackspace Managed Hosting, and for that matter Google. Q: One of the most powerful ideas presented in the books is the realization that not all customers... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Building a Powerful Prestige Brand

drew large crowds of shoppers who came to see the entrepreneur, have a makeover, and sample her products. She had learned early on that touching her customers was a very effective way of establishing a connection with them. Photograph... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn; Beauty & Cosmetics; Consumer Products; Retail

2020
Book

Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments

By: Stefan Thomke

Don’t fly blind. See how the power of experiments works for you. When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition,... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Experiments; Market Research; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Customers; Research

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08 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

A Balanced Scorecard Approach To Measure Customer Profitability

far simpler and much more powerful than traditional ABC. "Time-driven" ABC, introduced in a recent Harvard Business Review,1 requires obtaining information on only two parameters: the cost per hour of each group of resources... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

Unlock the Mysteries of Your Customer Relationships

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

2016
Book

Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan

The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services that customers want to buy and are willing to purchase at a premium price.... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Consumer Behavior

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October 1994 (Revised November 1994)
Case

British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer

By: W. Earl Sasser and Norman Klein

Explores the uses of scanning technology, interactive software, and powerful data bases to assist customer relations representatives in resolving customer complaints. Competitive alliances in international markets are noted, but the focus is on the evolving commitment... View Details

Keywords: Debates; Customer Focus and Relationships; Globalized Markets and Industries; Service Delivery; Alliances; Information Technology; Aerospace Industry

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06 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

The Right Way to Manage Customer Churn for Maximum Profit

they spend any more money or do any additional work. The only thing we are suggesting is that they change their algorithm.” About the Author Michael Blanding is a writer based in Boston. [Image: RyanJLane ] Related Reading The Profit View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Service; Financial Services

March 2006
Background Note

Influencing Customer Behavior in Service Operations

By: Frances X. Frei and Amy C. Edmondson

Explores ways in which service firms can influence the behavior of their customers. Drawing from research on employee motivation and applying it to customer motivation, the note describes two levels of managerial control: instrumental control, which shapes behavior... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Governance Controls; Consumer Behavior; Service Operations; Emotions; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Service Industry

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