Faculty & Research

Marketing

Marketing

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About the Unit

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.

Recent Publications

Project Maji: Pricing Water in Sub-Saharan Africa

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Esel Çekin and Dilyana Karadzhova Botha
  • October 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In July 2021, Sunil Lalvani, founder and CEO of Project Maji, a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in Dubai that had already provided sustainable, clean water solutions to 80,000 people living in rural communities across Ghana and Kenya, was facing an important decision. Traditionally, fees collected from community members covered the operating and maintenance costs of the solar-powered water kiosks, while donations paid the initial capital expenditure and setup costs. Yet Lalvani needed a more scalable financing solution to reach a hefty goal: impacting 1 million lives by 2025. Serving larger, more affluent peri-urban communities was a viable alternative, as the additional revenue could be channeled to rural projects. Thus, Lalvani and his team worked on a pilot for three peri-urban sites and looked to Danone Communities, a venture capital fund that invested in social businesses, to provide a loan. The team mapped out a feasible system, but debated what fees to charge residents. A low price meant that Project Maji would pay off the loan for the first four years, and only then start accumulating funds to support its activities in rural areas. This would delay scaling. Alternatively, a high price, coupled with an offer to establish direct connections in more well-off households, would allow Project Maji to generate excess earned revenue from the get-go, but it would also raise questions of equitability. All of this weighed on Lalvani as he pondered what price point to include in the investment proposal.
Keywords: Africa
Related

When It's Time to Expand Beyond the Base

By: Marco Bertini and Nader Tavassoli
  • September–October 2017 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review
Related

Interview with Julio Bruno (Time Out)

By: Eva Ascarza
  • September 2021 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur (B)

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Henry McGee
  • September 2021 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Art of the Entrepreneur

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Henry McGee
  • September 2021 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
The case supplement videos are intended for students to view, along with the written case, before class.
Related

Adobe's Customer Journey

By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Celine Chammas
  • September 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Related

AI Can Help Address Inequity—If Companies Earn Users' Trust

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Kannan Srinivasan, Param Singh and Nitin Mehta
  • September 17, 2021 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
While companies may spend a lot of time testing models before launch, many spend too little time considering how they will work in the wild. In particular, they fail to fully consider how rates of adoption can warp developers’ intent. For instance, Airbnb launched a pricing algorithm to close the earnings gap between Black and white hosts. While the algorithm reduced economic disparity among adopters by 71.3%, Black hosts were 41% less likely to use it, and so in many cases it made the earnings gap wider. The company needed to better consider how the algorithm would be perceived, and address that in its rollout to encourage its target audience, Black hosts, to trust it. This presents two lessons for companies: consider how an algorithmic tool will be perceived and create a targeted plan to build trust.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Algorithmic Bias; Technological Innovation; Perception; Diversity; Equality and Inequality; Trust
Related

STARZPLAY: Shooting for the Stars

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini and Alpana Thapar
  • September 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In mid-2021, Maaz Sheikh, cofounder and CEO of STARZPLAY, a Dubai-based subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider that catered to the Middle East and North Africa region, was wrestling with how to find the right balance between continued subscriber growth and profitability. Founded in 2015, the company was the first major SVOD player in the region providing high quality and affordable Hollywood content. STARZPLAY rapidly grew its subscriber base through a business model sensitive to the varied tastes and payment preferences of households in the region and was able to maintain leadership even after global players like Netflix and well-funded homegrown companies entered the market. At the time of the case, several U.S. major studios, including the likes of Disney, Paramount, and HBO, were in talks with local operators about potential partnerships. Sheikh needed to prepare an appealing proposal, knowing full well that other regional players were likely doing the same and that these studios might decide to enter independently. He had to think carefully about the company’s brand position and its plans regarding content, pricing and payment options, and marketing spend in order to fuel continued growth, while managing the increasing pressure from investors to drive the business toward profitability. Sheikh and his management team had big ambitions for STARZPLAY. What would be the plan that ensured the company continued to prosper despite the mounting competition?
Keywords: Pricing; Growth; Profitability; Subscription Business; Business Model Innovation; Fintech; Subscription; Performance Measurement; Promotions; International Marketing; Streaming; Competition; Marketing; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Measurement and Metrics; Business Model; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Middle East; North Africa
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Contact Information

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