Marketing is critical for organic growth of a business and its central role is in creating, communicating, capturing and sustaining value for an organization. Marketing helps a firm in creating value by better understanding the needs of its customers and providing them with innovative products and services. This value is communicated through a variety of channels as well as through the firm's branding strategy. Effective management of customers and pricing allows the firm to capture part of the value it has created. Finally, by building an effective customer-centric organization a firm attempts to sustain value over time.

Our faculty addresses a broad array of topics in all of these areas. Our work attempts to get a better understanding of how consumers use information and make choices and how these choices affect the firm's strategy for new product development, customer relationship management, branding and other marketing efforts. We examine issues related to branding, business marketing, global marketing, distribution channels, pricing, direct and interactive marketing, sales management and return on marketing investment. Some of our faculty specializes in specific industries such as retailing, agribusiness, social enterprise, media, arts and entertainment.

There are several new developments in marketing that offer opportunities for us to make important contributions in the future. The current economic crisis is changing consumers' current and future purchase and consumption patterns. Search engines have changed the way consumers obtain information and make decisions and they are also dramatically changing the advertising industry. Social networks and user generated content have opened a new way for consumers to engage with each other as well as with brands and companies. There are significant changes in the attitudes of consumers and companies about social issues. Consumer preferences and choice of products are increasingly influenced by social factors. Companies are recognizing that there is a large market at the "bottom of the pyramid" and marketing to these consumers may require a new framework. These and related developments provide great opportunities for the marketing faculty to make a significant impact in the future.

In The News

Recent Publications

  • RECENT PUBLICATION: Case

    Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2020

    Brand Storytelling at Shinola

    , Giana M. Eckhardt and Michael B. Beverland

    Detroit, Michigan, aka “The Motor City,” is most known as the birthplace of most of the American classic automotive brands. It is a city filled with the rich history of the industrial age, the pride of American manufacturing, and of the soulful sounds of Motown music. It is also a place that more recently has become synonymous worldwide with rustbelt urban decay, characterized by abandoned factories, commercial buildings, and homes, soaring unemployment and homelessness, and a sense of despair since the city’s declaration of bankruptcy in 2013, which led to its other nickname, “America’s Warzone”. It was a surprising place to find the headquarters of a new luxury brand. Shinola, a luxury watchmaker and purveyor of stylized, retro-chic, and hipster-cool products, had aggressive goals to grow to 75-100 stores and consumers and store employees, many of whom had never been to Detroit, would need to become familiar with the Shinola brand narrative. Recent expansions of the brand into lower price point timepieces and the hospitality sector would have to be monitored, and future brand extensions and brand partnership opportunities evaluated to support an evolving new luxury lifestyle brand positioning. As they continued to expand the Shinola brand into international markets, the brand’s story, rooted in Detroit’s imagery, history, and lore, might have to be reconsidered to appeal to non-American audiences. Finally, the company found itself the subject of legal and cultural critique. A “RETHINK SHINOLA” artist movement was questioning its commitment to Detroit. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission had recently fined Shinola for unfairly claiming that its products were “made in Detroit,” putting its brand storytelling under the microscope.

    Keywords: Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Advertising; Luxury; Consumer Products Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Detroit; United States; North America;

    Citation:

    Avery, Jill, Giana M. Eckhardt, and Michael B. Beverland. "Brand Storytelling at Shinola." Harvard Business School Case 520-102, May 2020.  View Details
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  • RECENT PUBLICATION: Working Paper

    Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2020

    Spreading the Health: Americans' Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)

    Sorapop Kiatpongsan and

    The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act intensified debates over the role of government in the distribution of healthcare. A nationally-representative sample of Americans reported their estimated and ideal distributions of healthcare (unmet need for prescription medications) and death (gains in life expectancy). Respondents across the demographic and political spectrum wanted mortality and healthcare to be distributed more evenly among the rich and poor than they estimated them to be. For example, respondents estimated that Americans in the poorest quintile lived 1.5 months longer over the previous 20 years while those in the richest quintile lived 4.7 months longer, but reported ideal figures of 2.5 and 3.6 months – both were far more equal than the actual figures: -1.8 and 7.2 months. Despite heated debates about healthcare, Americans share a consensus belief that current disparities in death and healthcare are far from their ideals.

    Keywords: healthcare; mortality; inequality; justice; equity; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Public Opinion; United States;

    Citation:

    Kiatpongsan, Sorapop, and Michael I. Norton. "Spreading the Health: Americans' Estimated and Ideal Distributions of Death and Health(care)." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-114, April 2020.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsSSRN Read Now Related

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Doctoral Students

Ximena Garcia-Rada Benavides

Michael Els

Dafna Goor

Serena Hagerty

Byungyeon Kim

Emily Prinsloo

Lucy Shen

Anne Wilson

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Harvard Business School seeks candidates in all fields for full time positions. Candidates with outstanding records in PhD or DBA programs are encouraged to apply.

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Contact Information

Marketing Unit
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Marketing@hbs.edu

HBS Working Knowledge

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re Jill J. Avery
Many brands have turned off their marketing efforts during the pandemic, but Jill Avery and Richard Edelman argue that now is the time when customers need to hear from you most. But what do you say?

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