Essay on When New Products and Customer Loyalty Collide

Words: 2141
Pages: 9

When New Products and Customer Loyalty
Collide
by Regina Fazio Maruca and Amy L. Halliday

Harvard Business Review
Reprint 93608

C A S E

S T U D Y

Pacer Shoes expanded its line and entered a new market.
Now the returns are coming in, and they’re not good.

When New Products and Customer Loyalty
Collide
by Regina Fazio Maruca and Amy L. Halliday

Henry Carson, president and CEO of Baltimore-based Pacer Athletic
Shoes, stood at the edge of the track behind company headquarters and watched as the fourth group of runners completed their final lap. They were testing a new line of running shoes, now in the final design stages, which Pacer planned to introduce in 1995. Henry examined the cracks on the surface of the track. He had hoped to put

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els, the RaceOne, but less than a week into practice, the toe stitching on half the pairs started to fray. Pacer immediately sent her a new shipment, free of charge, and dispatched a sales rep to make sure