articles 11 to 20 of 321
Marketing to Kids: Toy Sellers' Bonanza or Parental Danger Zone?
As toy companies increasingly use the Internet to market to young consumers, some parents and children's advocates worry that kids are not mature enough to know the difference between advertising and entertainment. They also worry that exposure to these ads -- which often appear on a child's personal electronic device -- are much harder for parents to monitor and control.
From: December 05, 2012
Convincing the Swing Vote: How to Lure 'Non-customers'
Companies spend a lot of time and money keeping their current customers satisfied. That investment increases significantly, experts say, when it comes to luring "non-customers" or "swing voters," those who use a product or service only occasionally. To bring these consumers into the fold, a company must be willing to research, test and experiment, looking for the "sweet spot" product that offers whatever non-customers found lacking in the firm, while also not alienating its existing loyal user base.
From: September 26, 2012
Turning the Retail 'Showrooming Effect' into a Value-add
With the rise in popularity of smartphones and the proliferation of online retailers, showrooming -- the practice of browsing products at one store but buying them elsewhere to get a better price -- has become a growing problem for bricks-and-mortar retailers. The key to combatting showrooming, experts say, is to resist the temptation to block customers' efforts at price comparisons, which are only going to become easier as technology evolves. Instead, retailers should capitalize on the advantages that bricks-and-mortar stores can bring and experiment with new ways of offering an omni-channel shopping experience.
From: September 26, 2012
'Moral Decoupling:' How Consumers Justify Supporting a Tarnished Brand
The breaking news on Lance Armstrong's decision to give up his fight against accusations of performance enhancing drug use is just the latest example of the countless popular figures, companies and brands that have found themselves at the heart of a public scandal. However, some of these entities not only survive a crisis, but thrive beyond it. In a recent research paper, Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed and two Wharton doctoral students explore the role of "moral decoupling" -- or when consumers separate out morality from other considerations -- in how those companies, brands and public figures are judged in the court of public opinion.
From: September 12, 2012
Finding the Right Tool to Unlock the Power of Data
In today's business world, managers have an arsenal of increasingly powerful tools to translate their data into decisions. But the growing number and sophistication of available data sets -- as well as the modeling tools used to analyze them -- have created a challenge for managers: how to select the right tool to use with the given information. In a new paper, Wharton marketing professors Eric Bradlow and Peter Fader and PhD student Eric Schwartz present a way of "picking the winner" that is "sophisticated in its science but quite simple in its practical application."
From: August 29, 2012
The Tricky Game of Olympic Sponsorship
The start of the summer Olympic Games in London marked the opening of a window that comes around just once every four years for many gold medal-favorites -- the chance to shine in front of a huge international audience and to land lucrative sponsorship deals. But athletes and the companies that sponsor them are in a tenuous situation -- just one mistake is often the difference between a relationship that could be worth millions and one that stalls before it ever starts.
From: July 27, 2012
Transmedia Storytelling, Fan Culture and the Future of Marketing
The current multi-channel, multi-screen, "always on" world is giving rise to a new form of storytelling, dubbed "transmedia," that unfolds a narrative across multiple media channels, including television, movies, comic books, video games and Twitter feeds. Look at how the worlds of Stars Wars and Indiana Jones have expanded beyond the original movies, says Andrea Phillips, who got hooked on transmedia in 2001 when she encountered a mysterious website railing against sentient robots. Phillips, now a full-time transmedia author, talked about the phenomenon, its allure and what it means for the future of marketing during a recent interview with Knowledge@Wharton.
From: July 03, 2012
E-book Price-Fixing: Finding the Best Model for Publishers -- and Readers
In a case that has attracted worldwide attention, Apple and five book publishers were sued this spring by the U.S. Department of Justice on the grounds that they colluded to fix prices for e-books sold on Apple's iBookstore website. The legal controversy over Apple's efforts to use the so-called "agency model" when selling books directly to consumers offers a good opportunity to examine the benefits and costs of adopting that approach, both for online retailers and their customers, notes Wharton marketing professor Z. John Zhang, who has co-authored a recent paper on the topic.
From: April 25, 2012
Matching the Medium with the Message in Word-of-mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth buzz is highly valued by marketers, but generating it can be a tricky proposition. In a new paper, Wharton marketing professors Jonah Berger and Raghuram Iyengar discuss how marketers can be more precise in crafting their campaigns to achieve better results. It's not as simple as blanketing the web with pop-up ads or blasting the airwaves with commercials, they note. It's about picking the right medium for the right message.
From: April 11, 2012
Big Brother: Have New Advertising Models Become Too Aggressive and Intrusive?
Does the Internet empower consumers? Or does it make them more vulnerable to manipulation by companies and potentially the government? While both statements might be correct, the balance tilts definitely toward the latter, according to Joseph Turow, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School. Turow, who wrote a book titled, The Daily You: How the Advertising Industry Is Defining Your Identity and Your Worth, talked with Knowledge@Wharton about "one of history's most massive stealth efforts in social profiling."(Video with transcript)
From: April 04, 2012
