Kodak: A Parable of American Competitiveness
| Published: | February 6, 2012 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 15 Comments posted |
When American companies shift pieces of their operations overseas, they run the risk of moving the expertise, innovation, and new growth opportunities just out of their reach as well, explains HBS Professor Willy Shih, who served as president of Eastman Kodak's digital imaging business for several years.
Published in 2011
HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock
| Published: | December 12, 2011 |
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| Feature: | HBS Cases |
| Forum: | open for comment; 7 Comments posted |
There had not been an innovative breakthrough in alarm clock design since the snooze button until entrepreneur Gauri Nanda created Clocky. Her runaway hit has been the inspiration for several cases written by Professor Elie Ofek.
Creating Online Ads We Want to Watch
| Published: | October 12, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 3 Comments posted |
The mere fact that an online video advertisement reaches a viewer's computer screen does not guarantee that the ad actually reaches the viewer. New experimental research by Thales S. Teixeira looks at how advertisers can effectively capture and keep viewers' attention by evoking certain emotional responses.
What Loyalty? High-End Customers are First to Flee
| Published: | May 16, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 24 Comments posted |
Companies offering top-drawer customer service might have a nasty surprise awaiting them when a new competitor comes to town. Their best customers might be the first to defect. Research by Harvard Business School's Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell, and Frances X. Frei.
From SpinPop to SpinBrush: Entrepreneurial Lessons from John Osher
| Published: | March 31, 2011 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
At a panel discussion on entrepreneurship, professor William A. Sahlman and several successful start-up veterans discussed the case of John Osher, father of Dr. John's Products, Ltd., and the wildly popular battery-powered toothbrush, the SpinBrush.
Clay Christensen's Milkshake Marketing
| Published: | February 14, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
| Forum: | open for comment; 102 Comments posted |
About 95 percent of new products fail. The problem often is that their creators are using an ineffective market segmentation mechanism, according to HBS professor Clayton Christensen. It's time for companies to look at products the way customers do: as a way to get a job done.
Published in 2009
The Devil Wears Prada? Effects of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Cognition and Decision Making
| Authors: | Roy Y.J. Chua and Xi Zou |
|---|---|
| Published: | November 25, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | November 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Gandhi once wrote that "a certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help." This observation raises interesting questions for psychologists regarding the effects of luxury. What psychological consequences do luxury goods have on people? In this paper, the authors argue that luxury goods can activate the concept of self-interest and affect subsequent cognition. The argument involves two key premises: Luxury is intrinsically linked to self-interest, and exposure to luxury can activate related mental representations affecting cognition and decision-making. Two experiments showed that exposure to luxury led people to think more about themselves than others.
Published in 2008
The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands
| Q&A with: | James E. Austin and Herman B. Leonard |
|---|---|
| Published: | December 15, 2008 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
What happens when small iconic brands associated with social values—think Ben & Jerry's—are acquired by large concerns—think Unilever? Can the marriage of a virtuous mouse and a wealthy elephant work to the benefit of both? Professors James E. Austin and Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard discuss their recent research.
Connecting with Consumers Using Deep Metaphors
| Published: | May 5, 2008 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Consumer needs and desires are not entirely mysterious. In fact, marketers of successful brands regularly draw on a rich assortment of insights excavated from research into basic frames or orientations we have toward the world around us, according to HBS professor emeritus Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman, authors of Marketing Metaphoria. Here's a Q&A and book excerpt.
Radical Design, Radical Results
| Published: | February 19, 2008 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Consumers appear increasingly willing to make purchase decisions based upon their emotions about a product—how it looks, or sounds, or makes them feel using it. But the traditional design process based on user experience goes only so far in creating radical innovation. Harvard Business School visiting scholar Roberto Verganti is exploring the new world of "design-driven innovation."
Published in 2007
B2B Branding: Does it Work?
| Published: | November 28, 2007 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Does it make sense for B2B companies to take a cue from consumer companies and invest in brand awareness? Many B2B CEOs say no, but HBS marketing professor John Quelch disagrees in his latest blog entry.
How Marketing Hype Hurt Boeing and Apple
| Published: | November 7, 2007 |
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| Feature: | Views on News |
In his latest blog entry, professor John Quelch looks at the examples of Boeing and Apple to investigate why shareholders have little patience for companies that hype high but deliver low.
"Blank" Inside: Branding Ingredients
| Published: | October 10, 2007 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
When Intel launched the Intel Inside campaign in the 1990s, many marketers thought the chip giant was nuts. Who cared about the microprocessor inside their PC? Turns out Intel created a branding sensation and raised awareness of the importance of ingredient branding, says professor John Quelch. Today's best example: The Boeing Dreamliner.
The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?
| Q&A with: | Arthur A. Daemmrich |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 24, 2007 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
With the possible exception of the Internal Revenue Service, no other governmental agency touches the lives of more Americans than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which ensures the safety of $1.5 trillion worth of consumer goods and medicines. Harvard Business School professor Arthur A. Daemmrich discusses the impact and challenges of the agency and his new book, Perspectives on Risk and Regulation: The FDA at 100.
How to Profit from Scarcity
| Published: | September 14, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
This past summer's launches of the iPhone and final Harry Potter book were textbook examples of companies profiting in part by creating the illusion of scarcity. Professor John Quelch explains the advantages of this strategy when executed well, and tells how to recover from a real product shortage.
Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right
| Published: | August 27, 2007 |
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| Feature: | Views on News |
Mattel has been criticized heavily for having to recall not once but twice in as many weeks 20 million toys manufactured in China. But Mattel also deserves praise for stepping up to its responsibilities as the leading brand in the toy industry. Harvard Business School professor John Quelch examines what Mattel did right.
Published in 2006
The Promise of Channel Stewardship
| Published: | June 12, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
For many companies, distribution channels serve neither customers nor channel partners well. In a new book, Harvard Business School professor V. Kasturi Rangan outlines the concept of channel stewardship. An excerpt from Transforming Your Go-to-Market Strategy.
Managing Alignment as a Process
| Published: | April 24, 2006 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
"Most organizations attempt to create synergy, but in a fragmented, uncoordinated way," say HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan and colleague David P. Norton. Their new book excerpted here, Alignment, tells how to see alignment as a management process.
Lessons from the Browser Wars
| Q&A with: | Pai-Ling Yin |
|---|---|
| Published: | April 10, 2006 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The first-mover advantage is well chronicled, but it didn't help Netscape when Microsoft launched Internet Explorer. What drives technology adoption, and do browser upstarts such as Firefox stand a chance? A Q&A with professor Pai-Ling Yin.
Winners and Losers at the Olympics
| Q&A with: | Stephen Greyser |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 6, 2006 |
| Feature: | Views on News |
We know which athletes won and lost in Turin, but what about the companies and individuals looking for business gold? Professor Stephen A. Greyser looks at the results—and the possibilities ahead in China.
Oprah: A Case Study Comes Alive
| Published: | February 20, 2006 |
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| Feature: | HBS Cases |
Writing a business case on the icon of daytime television and chief executive of a major media empire was challenge enough for HBS professor Nancy Koehn and colleagues. Oprah Winfrey's visit to campus to talk with graduating students made it ample reward.
Turning High Potential into Real Reward
| Published: | February 13, 2006 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Transforming high-potential ventures into high-performance ventures, says professor Joseph Lassiter, depends on combining what, how, and who you know. From New Business.
What Customers Want from Your Products
| Published: | January 16, 2006 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Marketers should think less about market segments and more about the jobs customers want to do. A Harvard Business Review excerpt by HBS professor Clayton M. Christensen, Intuit’s Scott Cook, and Advertising Research Foundation’s Taddy Hall.
Published in 2005
Unilever: Transformation and Tradition
| Published: | November 28, 2005 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
In a new book, professor Geoffrey Jones looks at Unilever's decades-old transformation from fragmented underperformer to focused consumer products giant. This epilogue summarizes the years 1960 to 1990.
Is Less Becoming More?
| Published: | November 7, 2005 |
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| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | closed | 21 Comments posted |
Americans these days have a lot more choices in products and services. But do consumers and suppliers suffer from choice overload? If so, what does this abundance mean for companies?
When Product Variety Backfires
| Q&A with: | John T. Gourville |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 6, 2005 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Consumers like choice—but not too much of it. Presented with too many options, buyers may run to a competitor, says professor John Gourville. Here's what new research says about "overchoice."
Selling Luxury to Everyone
| Published: | April 18, 2005 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Few retailing segments have been as hot in the past several years as luxury goods. Even as middle-priced stores have struggled, luxury goods and luxury brands have, in many cases, outperformed the rest of retail. How?
Prosper with Multi-Channel Retailing
| Published: | April 18, 2005 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Reps from Abercrombie & Fitch, the Gap, and Bath & Body Works traded pointers in a panel session at the HBS Retail and Luxury Goods Conference on April 3. The upshot: Keep your brand message consistent both in-store and online.
Published in 2004
Luxury Isn’t What It Used to Be
| Published: | August 16, 2004 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The $60 billion global luxury goods market’s most recognizable brands—Thomas Pink, Steuben, Godiva, among them—are refreshing products and creating lower-priced lines.
Ground-Floor Opportunities for Retail in India
| Published: | April 19, 2004 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
India is overcoming tradition and poverty to create opportunities for retailers ready to take a chance on a new playing field.
Loyalty: Don’t Give Away the Store
| Q&A with: | Rajiv Lal |
|---|---|
| Published: | March 22, 2004 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Loyalty programs are profitable—if used correctly. HBS Marketing professor Rajiv Lal discusses how grocery stores get it wrong. But you can get it right.
Marketing Wine to the World
| Q&A with: | Michael Roberto |
|---|---|
| Published: | February 16, 2004 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
From consolidation to the growing clout of mass retailers, structural changes have hit the wine industry. Professor Michael Roberto discusses the move from elitism to mainstream appeal.
Published in 2003
Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry
| Published: | October 20, 2003 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
There is plenty of history to be written about the birth of consumer electronics and the computer, says HBS professor emeritus Alfred D. Chandler Jr.
Peeling Back the Global Brand
| Published: | June 16, 2003 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The global brand is a hard nut to crack. In a session devoted to these seemingly all-powerful brands, professors and practitioners exposed the fault lines.
Published in 2002
Unilever—A Case Study
| Published: | December 9, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
As one of the oldest and largest foreign multinationals doing business in the U.S., the history of Unilever's investment in the United States offers a unique opportunity to understand the significant problems encountered by foreign firms. Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones has done extensive research on Unilever, based on full access to restricted corporate records. This recent article from Business History Review is the first publication resulting from that research.
In the Virtual Dressing Room Returns Are A Real Problem
| Published: | April 15, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
That little red number looked smashing onscreen, but the puce caftan the delivery guy brought is just one more casualty of the online shopping battle. HBS professor Jan Hammond researches what the textile and apparel industries can do to curtail returns.
How a Juicy Brand Came Back to Life
| Published: | February 4, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
"Some brands just want to have fun, and from birth Snapple was one of them," says HBS professor John Deighton. As he explains in this excerpt from Harvard Business Review, the odyssey of the fun-loving beverage contains smart lessons for managers on branding and company culture.
Published in 2001
Alfred Chandler on the Electronic Century
| Published: | November 19, 2001 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr. examines the development of two pivotal industries in post-World War II America—the consumer electronics and computer industries.
Why E-commerce Didn't Die With the Fall of Webvan
| Q&A with: | John A. Deighton |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 17, 2001 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The Internet grocer Webvan died a nasty death along with many other online delivery services—or did it? HBS professor John A. Deighton describes how the forces that propelled it are here to stay.
Control Your Inventory in a World of Lean Retailing
| Published: | January 22, 2001 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
"Manufacturers of consumer goods are in the hot seat these days," the authors of this Harvard Business Review article remind readers. But there is no need to surrender to escalating costs of inventories. In this excerpt, they describe one new way to help lower inventory costs.
Published in 2000
Building a Powerful Prestige Brand
| Published: | October 30, 2000 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Leveraging ambition, customer input, intuition, and a keen commercial imagination, a daughter of immigrant shopkeepers created a leader in the global prestige cosmetics market. HBS professor Nancy Koehn examines the genius of Estée Lauder.
More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry
| Published: | September 25, 2000 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The "power of modularity," write HBS Dean Kim Clark and Professor Carliss Baldwin in their new book, rescued the computer industry from a problem of nightmarish proportions and made possible remarkable levels of innovation and growth in a relatively short period of time.
Cable TV: From Community Antennas to Wired Cities
| Published: | July 10, 2000 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
The cable television industry has long outgrown its roots as a source of better TV reception to achieve its present place as a key player in the emerging telecommunications infrastructure. That change, writes HBS Professor Thomas R. Eisenmann in Business History Review, amid different managerial respondes to the twin—and sometimes competing—objectives of stabilty and growth. In this excerpt, Eisenmann looks at the formative years of the industry, from 1948 to 1975.
Published in 1999
Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution
| Published: | October 12, 1999 |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
A simple bar code scan at your local department store today launches a whirlwind of action: data is transmitted about the color, the size, and the style of the item to forecasters and production planners; distributors and suppliers are informed of the demand and the possible need to restock. All in the blink of an electronic eye. It wasn’t always this way, though. HBS Professor Janice Hammond has focused her recent research on the transformation of the apparel and textile industries from the classic, limited model to the new lean inventories and flexible manufacturing capabilities.
