Marketing

Marketing

Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students

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.

Honoring Professor Emeritus Al Silk, HBS and Family Virtual Gathering (December 10, 2021)

Recent Publications

Analytics for Marketers: When to Rely on Algorithms and When to Trust Your Gut

By: Fabrizio Fantini and Das Narayandas
  • May–June 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review
Advanced analytics can help companies solve a host of management problems, including those related to marketing, sales, and supply-chain operations, which can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. But as more data becomes available and advanced analytics are further refined, managers may struggle with when, where, and how much to incorporate machines into their business analytics, and to what extent they should bring their own judgment to bear when making data-driven decisions. In general, humans are better at decisions involving intuition and ambiguity resolution. Machines are far superior at decisions requiring deduction, granularity, and scalability. How can you find the right balance? There are three common approaches to analytics: descriptive, where decisions are made mainly by humans; predictive, which combines aspects of the other two; and prescriptive, which usually means autonomous management by machines. This article describes when and how to use each approach and examines the trade-offs and limitations. Although the focus is on marketing and sales, the principles may be applied more broadly.
Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Decision Making
Related

National Customer Orientation: An Empirical Test across 112 Countries

By: Ofer Mintz, Imran S. Currim and Rohit Deshpandé
  • June 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Marketing Letters
Customer orientation is a central tenet of marketing. However, less is known about how customer orientation varies across countries and time. Mintz, Currim, and Deshpandé (Eur. J. Mark., 56: 1014–1041, 2022) propose a country-level construct, national customer orientation, and develop theoretical propositions on how a country’s wealth and average customer price sensitivity affect national customer orientation during and after global economic shocks without providing an empirical test. This paper tests drivers of national customer orientation by employing World Economic Forum and World Bank annual panel data from 112 countries between 2007 and 2017. The results show that customer orientation is a greater luxury of richer nations and price sensitivity is a partial mediator of that relationship; however, both relationships only transpire in non-recessionary times. The empirical test furthers scholarly research on national customer orientation and provides managers with country-level customer orientation benchmarks across countries and time.
Keywords: Global Range; Customer Focus and Relationships
Related

Quigley-Simpson & Heppelwhite: The Ad Agency Model in the Age of AI

By: David C. Edelman and James Barnett
  • May 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In October 2022, Quigley-Simpson & Heppelwhite CEO Carl Fremont considers how the advertising agency will integrate artificial intelligence tools into the business.
Keywords: Marketing; Strategy; Advertising Industry; United States
Related

Twitter Blues: Does Paid Verification Check Out?

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman
  • May 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Elon Musk proposes to offer verification status on Twitter to paying subscribers. Chaos ensues.
Keywords: Marketing; Technology Industry
Related

Away: Scaling a DTC Travel Brand

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Jill Avery
  • May 2023 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 520-051. 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?
Related

IBM’s Ginni Rometty: Leading with Good Power

By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Stacy Straaberg
  • May 2023 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In March 2023, Virginia (Ginni) Rometty published Good Power: Leading Positive Change in our Lives, Work, and World, which covered her personal history and career at International Business Machines (IBM). Rometty was IBM’s ninth and first woman CEO from 2012–2020. Her tenure followed John Akers, Louis Gerstner, Jr., and Samuel Palmisano, CEOs who helmed IBM through the PC revolution, IBM’s brush with insolvency, the company’s rebound, and its early attempts at commercializing AI technology as well as its late entry into cloud computing. Prior to joining IBM, Rometty’s upbringing taught her the value of hard work, education, and serving others. Once at IBM, Rometty advanced through the ranks, notably negotiating the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCooper’s consulting unit and integrating its people into IBM. As CEO, Rometty developed a leadership philosophy of good power, based on wielding authority for the benefit of others. She also defined IBM’s purpose as Being essential to clients and society. Strategically, Rometty rebalanced IBM’s product portfolio to align with changes in the tech ecosystem such as the rise of cloud computing and AI. Rometty also committed to hiring and upskilling workers to achieve IBM’s goals including using a SkillsFirst approach that prioritized job proficiencies over credentials. Outside of IBM, Rometty signaled her commitment to the entire ecosystem of stakeholders by signing the Business Roundtable’s 2019 revision of the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, and she co-founded OneTen, which sought to employ and promote 1 million Black Americans without four-year degrees into living-wage jobs. From 2012–2020, IBM’s revenue declined every year but one and share price trailed other large tech firms. However, in 2022, IBM’s share price bested other large tech companies. What factors contributed to IBM’s underperformance during Rometty’s tenure and the company’s improved performance in 2022—predecessor impact, good power tactics, market factors, or her initiatives?
Keywords: Transformation; Acquisition; Trends; Gender; Diversity; Education; Training; Values and Beliefs; Profit; Revenue; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Negotiation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family and Family Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Personal Characteristics; Perspective; Social Issues; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Health Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; New York (city, NY); United States
Related

A New Approach to Building Your Personal Brand: How to Communicate Your Value

By: Jill Avery and Rachel Greenwald
  • May–June 2023 |
  • Article |
  • Harvard Business Review
For better or worse, in today’s world everyone is a brand. Whether you’re applying for a job, asking for a promotion, or writing a dating profile, your success will depend on getting others to recognize your value. So you need to get comfortable marketing yourself. In this article a branding thought leader and a professional dating coach present a guide to creating your personal brand. It’s an intentional, strategic practice in which you craft and express your own value proposition, and it involves seven steps: (1) Define your purpose by exploring your mission, passion, and strengths, and thinking about whom you want to make a difference to and how. (2) Audit your personal brand equity by cataloging your credentials, doing a self-assessment, and researching how other people view you. (3) Construct your personal narrative by identifying memorable, resonant stories that will best convey your brand. (4) Embody your brand by paying attention to the message you’re sending in every social interaction. (5) Communicate your brand through speeches, social media, the press, and other channels. (6) Socialize your brand by getting influential people to share your stories. (7) Reevaluate and adjust your brand by doing an annual audit to find deficits to fix and strengths to build on. This process will not only allow you to better control your image and the impact you have on the world but also help you uncover and share the unique abilities you have to offer it.
Keywords: Personal Brand; Influencer Marketing; Leadership Development; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Identity; Reputation; Competency and Skills
Related

Adobe's Customer Journey

By: Sunil Gupta, Rajiv Lal and Celine Chammas
  • April 2023 |
  • Teaching Note |
  • Faculty Research
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 522-033.
Related
More Publications

In the News

More Faculty News

HBS Working Knowledge

More Working Knowledge Articles

Harvard Business Publishing

→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