Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • June 2016
  • Teaching Note
  • HBS Case Collection

Relating to Peapod

By: Jill Avery and Susan Fournier
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:16
ShareBar

Abstract

This case concerns the topics of relationship marketing, customer acquisition and retention, brand loyalty, service failure and recovery, new product introduction, and the use of consumer ethnography to study consumer behavior. Specifically, the case explores the relationships formed between consumers and the Peapod consumer-direct grocery delivery service, as revealed through an ethnographic study of Boston-area Peapod shoppers conducted between summer of 1997 and fall of 1999. Three representative case histories are brought to life using extensive quotes from these selected longitudinal case history interviews. The cases are constructed to allow insights into the factors prompting relationship formation between consumers and service brands, the types of relationship contracts that are formed, and the dynamics that work to strengthen, weaken, and rupture consumer/brand contracts over time.

Keywords

Brand Management; Customer Relationship Management; CRM; Customer Behavior; Consumer Behavior; Retailing; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Channels; E-commerce; Retail Industry; United States

Citation

Avery, Jill, and Susan Fournier. "Relating to Peapod." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 316-175, June 2016.
  • Purchase

About The Author

Jill J. Avery

Marketing
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2024 (Revised June 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light

    By: Jill Avery and Celine Chammas
    • June 2024 (Revised October 2024)
    • Faculty Research

    FARM Rio: Bringing a Brazilian Fashion Brand to the World

    By: Isamar Troncoso and Jill Avery
    • May 2024
    • Faculty Research

    HubSpot and Motion AI (B): Generative AI Opportunities

    By: Jill Avery
More from the Authors
  • Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light By: Jill Avery and Celine Chammas
  • FARM Rio: Bringing a Brazilian Fashion Brand to the World By: Isamar Troncoso and Jill Avery
  • HubSpot and Motion AI (B): Generative AI Opportunities By: Jill Avery
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.