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New research on marketing from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including advertising, crisis communications, social media, digital marketing techniques and strategy.
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Why Online Retailers Should Hide Their Best Discounts

by Michael Blanding

Online retailers should take a tip from brick-and-mortar shops: Shove your best deals to the back of the store. Research by Thales Teixeira and Donald Ngwe. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Big Hits: The Best of the 2018 Super Bowl Ads

Re: Multiple Faculty

Harvard Business School marketing experts Jill Avery, Stephen Greyser, and Thales Teixeira discuss the best ads and how they reflect American society. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Beware the Lasting Impression of a 'Temporary' Selfie

by Rachel Layne

Some social media apps promise to delete your messages after they are read. The problem: The memory of your uninhibited behavior lingers. Research by Leslie K. John and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Charitable Organizations Can Thwart Excuses for Not Giving

by Michael Blanding

Charitable organizations provide all kinds of reasons for donors to give money—but sometimes their messaging does just the opposite, shows research by Christine Exley. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Fearing Fox News, Democratic-leaning Companies Delayed Negative Announcements

by Jen Deaderick

Jonas Heese and Vishal P. Baloria explore strategies used by companies to reduce the risk of potentially negative press, focusing on Fox News and the 2000 presidential election. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

'Likes' Lead to Nothing—and Other Hard-Learned Lessons of Social Media Marketing

by Dina Gerdeman

A decade-and-a-half after the dawn of social media marketing, brands are still learning what works and what doesn't with consumers. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Better is the Enemy of the Good

by Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

Previous research has shown that individuals’ self-serving responses to information may arise when payoff information is subjective or uncertain. This study, in the context of charitable giving, shows that individuals’ ability to respond to payoff information in a self-serving way even includes situations when information is complete and certain.

Does Le Pliage Help or Hurt the Longchamp Luxury Brand?

Re: Jill J. Avery

Longchamp's iconic but affordable Le Pliage bag is a conundrum for the company, explains Jill Avery in this podcast. Does an affordable luxury product work against the top-tier brand? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Revolution in Advertising: From Don Draper to Big Data

Re: John A. Deighton

The Mad Men of advertising are being replaced by data scientists and analysts. In this podcast, marketing professor John Deighton and advertising legend Sir Martin Sorrell discuss the positives and negatives of digital marketing. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Op-Ed: It’s a Bad Idea to Ban Customers From Recording Videos

by Benjamin G. Edelman

With videos of bad business practices routinely going viral, it might be tempting to prohibit customers from recording their surroundings. But banning cameras is the wrong way to go, says Benjamin Edelman. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Cellophane Changed the Way We Shop for Food

by Carmen Nobel

Research by Ai Hisano exposes cellophane's key role in developing self-service merchandising in American grocery stores, and how its manufacturers tried to control the narrative of how women buy food. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Cellophane, the New Visuality, and the Creation of Self-Service Food Retailing

by Ai Hisano

Offering a visual perception of freshness, the expansion of cellophane packaging material dramatically altered how consumers understood food quality. This paper examines the importance of cellophane as “scientific” and “modern” in the early to mid-20th-century United States. It shows how business strategies helped shape, and were shaped by, cultural narratives about cellophane. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Reinventing the American Wine Industry: Marketing Strategies and the Construction of Wine Culture

by Ai Hisano

Since the 1960s, the United States has seen spectacular growth in wine consumption. This paper explores how businesses reinveted the image of wine. This creation of the new market, like other consumer products, had social and cultural consequences. In the US, wine became a status symbol and a renforcer of social and class divisions.

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

by Carmen Nobel

Pauline Brown, a former top executive with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, now teaches a Harvard Business School course called The Business of Aesthetics, which culminates in a competition called “Aesthetic Idol.” Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Comparing Apples to Apples Online Leads To More Fruitful Sales

by Dina Gerdeman

The items displayed next to a product in online marketing displays may determine whether customers buy that product, according to a new study by Uma R. Karmarkar. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Having No Life is the New Aspirational Lifestyle

by Michael Blanding

It used to be that we equated power and prestige with a leisurely, luxurious lifestyle. Today, lack of leisure time is the real status symbol. Anat Keinan discusses what that means for consumer marketing. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

by Dina Gerdeman

Skin-lightening creams are a fast-growing market in India. Rohit Deshpandé explores what firms should do when a product is decidedly popular—but may be promoting discrimination. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Can Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center Save Jazz Music?

Re: Rohit Deshpande

With its listenership in steep decline, jazz legend Wynton Marsalis is looking to rebrand the genre and engineer its comeback. Rohit Deshpande discusses his recent case study on the effort. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Wayfair Built a Furniture Brand from Scratch

Re: Thales S. Teixeira

What was once a collection of 240 home furnishing sites is now a single, successful brand, Wayfair.com. How that brand developed over time and the challenges and opportunities presented by search engine marketing are discussed by Thales Teixeira. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Standardized Color in the Food Industry: The Co-Creation of the Food Coloring Business in the United States, 1870–1940

by Ai Hisano

Beginning in the late 19th century, US food manufacturers tried to create the “right” color of foods that many consumers would recognize and in time take for granted. The United States became a leading country in the food coloring business with the rise of extensive mass marketing. By 1938, when Congress enacted the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the food coloring business had become a central and permanent component of food marketing strategies. This paper shows how food manufacturers, dye makers, and regulators co-created the food coloring business. Food-coloring practices became integrated into an entire strategy of manufacturing and marketing in the food industry.