Marketing & sales

We may be proud of our own interests as well-rounded and complex, but when it comes to others, we’re quick to assume a narrow spectrum of tastes. Professor Tami Kim explains why this matters in a range of situations, whether companies are marketing to consumers or physicians are consulting on life-or-death matters.

How successful firms use data: Car insurance comparison site Compare.com drove completion rates thanks to its analysis of customer behavior and web traffic. It serves as a case in point on the five key traits of organizations with exceptional cultures of experimentation.

Darden Professor Thomas Steenburgh and co-author Michael Ahearne discuss how salespeople and companies can better sell new products business to business.

As executives and recruiters choose talent for boards, they should consider knowledge and functional diversity.

Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation, a USAID-funded program, and Popoyán, a Guatemalan agribusiness, partnered to commercialize a line of biological products for smallholder farmers in Guatemala.

To compete effectively in a fast-paced environment, companies are realizing they need to build deeper attachments with customers. They want customers who will do more than just shop — who will influence others, make referrals and even co-create new products.

What makes a product or person “cool”? Darden Professor Lalin Anik presents a theory of coolness and explains four traits that contribute to coolness.

Sanitation Marketing Systems in Bangladesh was a finalist for the annual P3 Impact Award, which recognizes leading public-private partnerships that improve communities around the world.

In recent decades, marketing efforts have grown in sophistication, speed and expense. Now the field’s metrics need to catch up, so that marketers can effectively assess what a campaign did — or failed to do.