Aesthetics are critically important to market acceptance. In the automotive industry, an improved aesthetic design can boost sales by 30% or more. Firms invest heavily in designing and testing aesthetics. A single automotive “theme clinic” can cost over $100,000, and hundreds are conducted...

In 2003 the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) introduce and conducted its inaugural Practice Prize Competition. The reports and papers that follow are the finalists from that competition, representing the best examples of rigor plus relevance that our profession produces.