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→
  • Academic Units
    • Academic Units
    • Accounting & Management
    • Business, Government & the International Economy
    • Entrepreneurial Management
    • Finance
    • General Management
    • Marketing
    • Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
    • Organizational Behavior
    • Strategy
    • Technology & Operations Management
    →
  • Marketing
    • Marketing
    • Faculty
    • Curriculum
    • Seminars & Conferences
    • Awards & Honors
    • Doctoral Students
    →

Marketing

Marketing

  • Faculty
  • Curriculum
  • Seminars & Conferences
  • Awards & Honors
  • Doctoral Students
Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students
    • Featured Publication

    Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb

    By: Shunyuan Zhang, Nitin Mehta, Param Singh and Kannan Srinivasan

    Nominated for the 2022 John D. C. Little Award.

    They study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Their empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by hosts as a quasi-natural experiment.

    • Featured Publication

    Frontiers: Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb

    By: Shunyuan Zhang, Nitin Mehta, Param Singh and Kannan Srinivasan

    Nominated for the 2022 John D. C. Little Award.

    They study the effect of Airbnb’s smart-pricing algorithm on the racial disparity in the daily revenue earned by Airbnb hosts. Their empirical strategy exploits Airbnb’s introduction of the algorithm and its voluntary adoption by hosts as a quasi-natural experiment.

    • Featured Case

    Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation Case

    By: Julian De Freitas, Jeremy Yang, and Das Narayandas

    During the early part of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic, Hometown Foods, a large seller of flour-based products, thrived as consumers hoarded baked goods and took up baking to pass the time and find comfort. Then, amid growing shortages in commodities, a vaccine arrived, businesses began to re-open, and consumers benefited from federal relief aid. This perfect storm of high demand amid stock shortages generated the highest inflation in 13 years.

    • Featured Case

    Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation Case

    By: Julian De Freitas, Jeremy Yang, and Das Narayandas

    During the early part of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic, Hometown Foods, a large seller of flour-based products, thrived as consumers hoarded baked goods and took up baking to pass the time and find comfort. Then, amid growing shortages in commodities, a vaccine arrived, businesses began to re-open, and consumers benefited from federal relief aid....

    • Award

    Winner of the 2016 Case Centre Award in the Marketing category for “The New York Times Paywall” (HBS Case 512-077).

    By: Sunil Gupta, Vineet Kumar, Bharat Anand, and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

    The Case Centre Awards and Competitions recognize worldwide excellence in case writing and teaching, and are considered the case community's annual 'Oscars'. The winners of this category are the Marketing cases that were used in the largest number of organizations across the globe in the preceding calendar year.

    • Award

    Winner of the 2016 Case Centre Award in the Marketing category for “The New York Times Paywall” (HBS Case 512-077).

    By: Sunil Gupta, Vineet Kumar, Bharat Anand, and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

    The Case Centre Awards and Competitions recognize worldwide excellence in case writing and teaching, and are considered the case community's annual 'Oscars'. The winners of this category are the Marketing cases that were used in the largest number of organizations across the globe in the preceding calendar year.

    • Article

    Minimum Advertised Pricing: Patterns of Violation in Competitive Retail Markets

    By: Ayelet Israeli, Eric Anderson, and Anne Coughlan

    We study the extent and depth of MAP violations among online retailers and confront managerial wisdom with empirical data.

    More Information

    • Article

    Minimum Advertised Pricing: Patterns of Violation in Competitive Retail Markets

    By: Ayelet Israeli, Eric Anderson, and Anne Coughlan

    We study the extent and depth of MAP violations among online retailers and confront managerial wisdom with empirical data.

    More Information

    • Award

    Outstanding Case Teacher

    By: Anita Elberse

    This world-wide Case Centre competition recognizes an excellent practitioner in the case classroom.

    More Information

    • Award

    Outstanding Case Teacher

    By: Anita Elberse

    This world-wide Case Centre competition recognizes an excellent practitioner in the case classroom.

    More Information

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

KaBoom! Play at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Sarah Appleby and Christine Snively
  • September 2023 |
  • Teaching Plan |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 517-025.
Citation
Purchase
Related
Rangan, V. Kasturi, Sarah Appleby, and Christine Snively. "KaBoom! Play at Scale." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 524-025, September 2023.

The Meteoric Rise of Skims

By: Ayelet Israeli, Jill Avery and Leonard A. Schlesinger
  • September 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Since its founding in 2019 by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede, Skims, a solutions-oriented brand creating the next generation of underwear, loungewear, and shapewear with an eye toward body-type and skin-tone inclusivity, has experienced a meteoric rise. Kardashian, who was a well-known media personality, socialite, influencer, and businesswoman, served as the brand’s creative director and aesthetic muse and brought her cultural impact and followers into the brand. CEO Grede and COO Emma Grede had experience managing celebrity brand relationships and founding other celebrity brands. In July 2023, the company was valued at $4 billion, an incredible achievement for a direct-to-consumer products company. Skims seemed to be bucking the trend that was dragging down other DTC brands, which for the first time in a decade were having trouble raising new venture money, raising money in down rounds that diminished the valuations of their companies, or seeing sharp stock price declines post-IPO. Instead of looking to other DTCs for inspiration, Skims’ founders were inspired by brands such as Nike, Apple, and lululemon, hoping to propel Skims to iconic brand status. With the recent $4 billion valuation, Skims’ investors would pressure the management team to drive exponential topline growth while managing profitability. Could Skims continue to accelerate its growth trajectory or would it fall prey to the same forces slowing down the growth and profitability of other DTC brands?
Keywords: Brand; Branding; Direct-to-consumer; DTC; Influencers; Influencer Marketing; Fashion; Growth; Direct Marketing; Influence; Reputation; Social Inference; Consumer Goods; Consumer Products; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Brand & Product Management; Competitive Advantage; Online Followers; Retail; Retail Formats; Retailing; Online Retail; Celebrities; Celebrity; Celebrity Endorsement; Go To Market Strategy; Apparel; Startup Marketing; Startups; Brands and Branding; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Distribution Channels; Digital Marketing; Advertising; Power and Influence; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States
Citation
Educators
Related
Israeli, Ayelet, Jill Avery, and Leonard A. Schlesinger. "The Meteoric Rise of Skims." Harvard Business School Case 524-023, September 2023.

OOFOS Recovery Footwear

By: Sunil Gupta and Celine Chammas
  • August 2023 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 523-003.
Citation
Purchase
Related
Gupta, Sunil, and Celine Chammas. "OOFOS Recovery Footwear." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 524-024, August 2023.

Kariyer.net: Recruiting AI

By: Shunyuan Zhang, Fares Khrais and Namrata Arora
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In 2017, Fatih Uysal (AMP 2021) became CEO of Kariyer.net. By then, the business was already the industry leading online job board in Turkey. However, faced with stalling growth, a turbulent macroenvironment, and growing competition from international players, Uysal kicked off a transformation of the business from an online job board to a horizontally diversified recruitment company, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The case chronicles the transformation, highlighting new AI-driven tools built both for internal use and as products to be sold. The case also describes two new business lines (employer branding services/ virtual job fairs, and an online tech-talent job board coupled with training services) that showed potential to become new core products. By 2023, Uysal and his team were targeting doubling revenue and growing the contribution of non-job ad revenues from 30% to 50% of the total over the next three years. Uysal and his team were constantly balancing exploring promising new products and verticals against doubling down on those generating revenue today. In order to reach their financial targets, Uysal and his team were debating not only which product(s) to pursue but how to do so efficiently.
Keywords: Online Technology; Marketing; Websites; Artificial Intelligence; Innovation; Two-sided Platforms; Internet and the Web; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Job Search; Employment; Transformation; Volatility; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Management Practices and Processes; Business Growth and Maturation; Competitive Strategy; Business Startups; Talent and Talent Management; Cost vs Benefits; Macroeconomics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Digital Platforms; Employment Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Middle East; Turkey
Citation
Educators
Purchase
Related
Zhang, Shunyuan, Fares Khrais, and Namrata Arora. "Kariyer.net: Recruiting AI." Harvard Business School Case 524-014, August 2023.

Zegna

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Dante Roscini and Elena Corsi
  • August 2023 (Revised September 2023) |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
A traditionally mono-brand menswear luxury company faces growing competition from international groups and changes its brand focus from formal wear to leisure wear
Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Fashion Industry; Italy
Citation
Educators
Purchase
Related
Deshpandé, Rohit, Dante Roscini, and Elena Corsi. "Zegna." Harvard Business School Case 524-021, August 2023. (Revised September 2023.)

Pricing and Customer Psychology

By: Elie Ofek
  • August 2023 |
  • Background Note |
  • Faculty Research
This note provides an overview of how psychological principles may be used as part of a seller’s pricing strategy. The note defines the concept of psychological pricing and explains the motivations for firms to engage in it. Prominent practices and tactics, with detailed reference to the psychological and behavioral principles at play, are featured. Numerous examples are given to illustrate the material covered. The note also highlights several concerns companies might have in employing psychological pricing techniques, along with thoughts on how to mitigate or counter these reservations.
Citation
Educators
Purchase
Related
Ofek, Elie. "Pricing and Customer Psychology." Harvard Business School Background Note 524-019, August 2023.

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (B)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani
  • August 2023 |
  • Supplement |
  • Faculty Research
In April 2023, as the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, prepared to hand over the firm’s reins to his successor, he proudly reflected on the last decade. His quest to digitally transform HUL into an intelligent enterprise that used data and technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness across the value chain had started yielding results. Many of HUL’s independent directors felt that HUL “looked more like a tech company which also sold FMCG goods.” While Mehta believed HUL “was still far away from that,” he was confident of handing over a “fertile business that his successor could keep growing.”
Keywords: Distribution; Decisions; Organizational Change And Adaptation; Experimentation; Transformation; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Competition; Performance; Business Strategy; Marketing; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India
Citation
Related
Gupta, Sunil, and Rachna Tahilyani. "Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 524-022, August 2023.

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (A)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani
  • August 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In the fall of 2019, the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, is wondering what to do about their experiments to digitize distribution. Despite three years of intense efforts, their apps to empower retailers have not seen any traction. Is it time to shut them down and focus on another area with more potential for digital transformation?
Keywords: Distribution; Decisions; Organizational Change And Adaptation; Experimentation; Transformation; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Competition; Performance; Business Strategy; Marketing; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India
Citation
Educators
Related
Gupta, Sunil, and Rachna Tahilyani. "Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (A)." Harvard Business School Case 524-020, August 2023.
More Publications

In the News

    • 01 Sep 2023
    • Forbes

    Former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly: ‘Refounding’ a Company Can Lead To Real Growth

    Re: Hubert Joly
    • 31 Aug 2023
    • Fortune

    Legendary Retail CEO Hubert Joly’s Playbook for Navigating the Culture Wars

    Re: Hubert Joly
    • 25 Aug 2023
    • New York Times

    For Some Culture Executives, a Housing Perk Is Rolled Back

    Re: Rohit Deshpande
→More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

    • 25 Jul 2023

    Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

    Re: V. Kasturi Rangan
    • 10 Jul 2023

    The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

    by Dina Gerdeman
    • 26 Jun 2023

    Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

    Re: Julian De Freitas
→More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

    • October 2013
    • Article

    Ferguson's Formula

    By: Anita Elberse and Sir Alex Ferguson
    • August 2023
    • Case

    Kariyer.net: Recruiting AI

    By: Shunyuan Zhang, Fares Khrais and Namrata Arora
    • 2018
    • Book

    Driving Digital Strategy: A Guide to Reimagining Your Business

    By: Sunil Gupta
→More Harvard Business Publishing

Seminars & Conferences

There are no upcoming events.

→More Seminars & Conferences

Faculty Positions

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.
→Learn More

Contact Information

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

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