Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

Shelle  Santana; Jill  Avery; Christine  Snively

Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2017 (Revised November 2018)

Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

by Shelle Santana, Jill Avery and Christine Snively

Abstract

The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a cohort that had previously eluded JPMorgan Chase and its competitors. With the one-year anniversary of the launch approaching, managers are focused on retaining customers attracted by a one-time signup bonus of 100,000 reward points and on acquiring new customers now that the bonus had been reduced to 50,000 points. They were also refocusing on the remainder of the Chase Sapphire product portfolio to assess differentiation among the products and to identify white space in the market that could support additional new product launches.

Keywords: Brand ＆ product management; Product Strategy; New Product Development; credit card; customer acquisition; CRM; millennials; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Product Development; Product Launch; Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Demographics; Financial Services Industry; Service Industry; Banking Industry; United States; North America;

Language: English

Format: Print

23 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Santana, Shelle, Jill Avery, and Christine Snively. "Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand." Harvard Business School Case 518-024, September 2017. (Revised November 2018.)

Away, a direct-to-consumer, digital native e-commerce seller of travel luggage, is debating how to invest its latest round of venture funding. How quickly could and should Away scale and what were the most promising growth trajectories to maximize its potential? Three decisions face the founders. Should Away continue to invest in driving growth in suitcases and other travel bags or was it time to begin to expand into other adjacent travel categories? How should they use the results of the company’s first customer segmentation study to select target segments and quantify their growth aspirations? What were the right distribution strategies moving forward following a series of pilots that included company-owned stores, temporary airport kiosks, and pop-up experiences with retailer partners?

In 2016, Fitbit remained the world’s leading producer of activity trackers—an increasingly crowded space—with over 21 million units sold that year. Fitbit’s suite of products allowed users to track the number of steps taken, calories burned, and heart rate activity. Fitbit devices were marketed to individual consumers as well as corporate wellness programs and employers. Though Fitbit was primarily focused on wellness, should management consider evolving into a chronic disease management company?

Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2020

Influencer Marketing

Jill Avery and Ayelet Israeli

Despite a heavy barrage of advertising, most consumers declare that their purchases are most influenced by the experiences, advice, and recommendations of others, and not by marketers. Interpersonal communication between and among consumers serves as a potent path for influence, and by 2022, marketing managers are expected to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing, a marketing technique in which companies partner with people with specialized knowledge, expertise, authority, social position, and/or personal relationships that enable them to have influence over others to co-produce marketing messages to promote their brands via offline and electronic word-of-mouth. This technical note provides an overview of influencer marketing and discusses the various roles that influencers play for marketers, including delivering marketing messages in a more authentic voice and setting than that offered by more traditional advertising media where messages are authored by firms. It categorizes different types of influencers, explains the social psychological processes that make interpersonal influence work, and provides guidelines on how to identify people with influence. It discusses the opportunities and challenges related to measuring the performance of influencers and assessing the costs and return-on-investment of influencer marketing programs. Finally, it highlights emerging risks in the contemporary influencer marketing landscape.

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Advertising Industry; Consumer Products Industry;

Citation:

Avery, Jill, and Ayelet Israeli. "Influencer Marketing." Harvard Business School Technical Note 520-075, March 2020. View Details

Cite View Details Educators