Marketing

Consumers are biased, and shoppers are clueless.

One of the biggest challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers is competing with online-only sellers such as Amazon. The conventional "omnichannel" strategy...

Social media was supposed to usher in a golden age of branding. But things didn't turn out that way. Marketers originally thought that Facebook, YouTube,...

Key account management (KAM) is one of the most important changes in selling that has emerged during the past two decades. KAM is a radically different organizational process used by business-to-business suppliers to manage their relationships with strategically-important customers, and it produces measurable business benefits. Not surprisingly, smart suppliers are keen to implement KAM. But, […]

Touchpoints matter, but it’s the full journey that really counts.

The Toyota Production System is a paradox. On the one hand, every activity, connection, and production flow in a Toyota factory is rigidly scripted. Yet...

To really win their loyalty, forget the bells and whistles and just solve their problems.

Effective management consulting has eight fundamental objectives: responding to a client's request for information; providing solutions to specific problems;...

Many of the management tools and techniques used in service businesses were designed to tackle the challenges of product companies. Although they are...

When the dot-com bubble burst 10 years ago, the ensuing collapse wiped out half of all online retailers. Today, e-commerce is well established and much...

You tell customers what makes you great. Do your employees know?

For all the dollars spent by American companies on R&D;, there often remains a persistent and troubling gap between the inherent value of the technology they develop and their ability to put it to work effectively. At a time of fierce global competition, the distance between technical promise and genuine achievement is a matter of […]

Companies spend lots of time and money on complex tools to assess customer satisfaction. But they're measuring the wrong thing. The best predictor of...

Gauging—and communicating—what your products and services are worth to customers has never been more important.

Though social and digital media are rapidly transforming marketing and new tools emerge daily, in most firms the organization of the function hasn't changed...

This interview offers a deeper look inside Dell's highly publicized success and offers managers a model of how traditional relationships in a value chain...

Following on the first article on defining customer experience, this second installment looks at the first essential step of improving the experience you deliver, which is mapping out your customer journey. A customer journey map is a very simple idea: a diagram that illustrates the steps your customer(s) go through in engaging with your company, […]

As digital technology has enabled shoppers to easily research and buy products online, sellers have been scrambling after them, trying to understand and...

Veteran product launch PR executives Joan Schneider and Julie Hall examine the five most frequent reasons why new products flop: The company can't support...

Despite a long-term decline in the circus industry, Cirque du Soleil profitably increased revenue twenty-two-fold over the last 10 years by reinventing...

Starbucks, the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, must respond to recent market research indicating that the company is not meeting customer...

Not all customers are created equally. Figure out if the dollars you invest today are delivering the high-quality customers of tomorrow with HBR's Customer...

GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch...

Whether you're dealing with a problem employee or praising the good work of a colleague, you need to communicate in a way that promotes positive change...

In 2014, Chiara Ferragni, a globe-trotting founder of the world's most popular fashion blog The Blonde Salad, had to decide how to best monetize her blog...

The 'Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in 2010' case examines the industry structure and competitive strategy of Coca-Cola and Pepsi over 100 years of...

At the end of 2014, Apple Inc. recorded the most profitable quarter of any firm in history, and its market capitalization soon topped $700 billion. 'Apple...

Joan Macey, Rohm and Haas' market manager for Metalworking Fluid Biocides, found that sales of a new biocide, Kathon MWX, was utterly disappointing. This...

Is your company spending enormous time and energy on strategy development, with little to show for your efforts? We've combed through hundreds of Harvard...

The marketing director of a new minor-league baseball team must design, conduct, and then interpret survey research to determine optimal ticket pricing...

Describes a conflict that has arisen between an account manager and a creative director at Tassani Communications, a Chicago-based advertising agency...

Sir Alex Ferguson, the most successful manager in British football history, is preparing for the 2012-2013 season-his record-setting twenty-sixth as manager...

In 2015, Uber is building what may be the largest point-to-point transportation network of its kind; it is literally changing the way the world moves....

Managers face countless challenges every day that require immediate solutions and demand a wide range of skills. Build, broaden and refresh your management...

The case 'HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2.0' introduces the concept of inbound marketing, pulling customer prospects toward a business through the...

The first ten pages of the case 'Walt Disney Co.: The Entertainment King' are comprised of the company's history, from 1923 to 2001. The Walt years are...

In mid-2013, Tesla Motors was riding a wave of success: It had launched its first really mass-produced car-the model S-to rave reviews; had recently raised...

The HBR Tool for Market Sizing will help you turn your own market data into a compelling business case for your next great idea. Strategizing the launch...

Explores channel management issues in the U.S. food industry. Natureview Farm, a Vermont-based producer of organic yogurt with $13 million in revenues,...

Examines Beer's actions on assuming leadership of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the world's sixth largest advertising agency, during a period of rapid industry...