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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019 (Revised April 2020)

  Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

  Jill Avery and Joseph B. Fuller

  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?

  Keywords: brand management; DTC; e-commerce; brand extension; lifestyle brand; customer segmentation; retailing; Scaling and Growth; Startup; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Consumer Behavior; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry; Travel Industry; United States; North America;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill, and Joseph B. Fuller. "Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand." Harvard Business School Case 520-051, November 2019. (Revised April 2020.)  View Details

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• 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

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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | January 2020 (Revised January 2020)

  Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

  Jill Avery

  Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised an average savings of 40% versus national brands through the elimination of the BrandTax™, the hidden costs the company claimed consumers paid for a national brand. As the venture-funded startup entered the fiercely competitive CPG industry, it was simultaneously taking on both the world’s greatest brands and the world’s most dominant retailers. Could Brandless change the way consumers bought the essential items that filled their pantries and medicine cabinets? Industry pundits had long predicted both the death of brands and the death of brick and mortar retailing in the contemporary marketplace. Would Brandless be the final nail in the coffin?

  Keywords: brand; brand management; DTC; e-commerce; private label; groceries; packaged food; personal care; Startups; retailing; Amazon; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Business Startups; Disruption; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Avery, Jill. "Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 520-058, January 2020. (Revised January 2020.)  View Details

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