Knowledge@Wharton -- Marketing

On Samoa Air, Fatter People Pay More to Fly: Good Business or Bad Customer Relations?

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:19:46 EST

When Samoa Air last week announced it was going to start charging people for airline tickets based on their weight, it set off a flurry of comments, some supportive, some not. Is this new policy an example of discrimination or a smart business model? Are there better ways to achieve the same objective? And will other airlines adopt the same approach?

'Contagious': Jonah Berger on Why Things Catch On

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:11:21 EST

If you have watched and shared PSY's "Gangnam Style" video or gone into an unknown restaurant simply because it was full of people and appeared to be popular, you have the basis for understanding what makes things go viral. Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger's new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, distills six principles that cause people to talk about and share an idea or product. (Video with transcript)

How 'The Road Not Taken' May Be Undermining Your Choices

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:11:21 EST

Feeling satisfied with a decision isn't just about what you choose -- it's also about how you choose it, according to recent research co-authored by Wharton professor Cassie Mogilner. In a series of experiments, Mogilner and her co-authors found that people who made a choice after seeing all of their options simultaneously were happier with the outcome than those who saw them one by one. The culprit behind this lack of satisfaction, they add, was 'the imagined road not taken.'

Daniel Pink on Why 'To Sell Is Human'

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:48:41 EST

Whether you are an educator, an art director or a project manager, you are in sales. So argues bestselling author Daniel Pink in his new book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving Others. Pink recently visited the University of Pennsylvania as a guest lecturer in the Authors@Wharton series. Wharton management professor Adam M. Grant interviewed Pink while he was there to learn more about the ideas in his book, including why consumers mistrust salespeople, what the new ABCs of selling are and why questions may be the greatest selling tool. (Video with transcript)

The Hazards of Celebrity Endorsements in the Age of Twitter

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:13:57 EST

As Chanel recently learned from its viral, widely panned perfume advertisement starring Brad Pitt, celebrity endorsements in the age of social media are a tricky proposition. Although using celebrities to promote a brand is a time-honored marketing strategy, rapid-fire feedback on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can quickly turn a marketing gaffe into a national joke. Yet celebrities will still get a brand noticed, Wharton experts say. How, then, can companies harness star power while avoiding the potential pitfalls of social media?

Daniel Pink: Putting Your Best Pitch Forward in a Society of Salespeople

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:51:29 EST

Most consumers have a negative view of salespeople. But the truth, according to author Daniel Pink, is that we all spend at least some part of our work or personal lives selling something, whether it's marketing a product or service or convincing someone to go out on a date. At a recent Authors@Wharton lecture, Pink detailed what he has learned about selling, described what personality types make ideal salespeople and suggested the best ways to make a sales pitch -- all topics covered in his new book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.

Coffee in Colombia: Waking Up to an Opportunity

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:43:08 EST

Every day, more than 500,000 coffee growers throughout Colombia fulfill a family tradition, one that has been passed down from generation to generation. Growing premium-quality coffee beans across nearly 2.2 million acres of Colombian highlands is an important part of their heritage. Even today, coffee growing remains the largest source of rural employment in the country, which makes it vital that the country represent and defend the coffee growers' interests.

Tourism in Colombia: Breaking the Spell of Negative Publicity

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:42:34 EST

The greater Colombian economy -- specifically its tourism industry -- is the best positioned of any in Latin America to expand steadily in the coming years. However, it has failed over the last decade to capitalize on this advantage through poor brand management, a misunderstanding of the importance of its international perception and a number of larger, strategic infrastructural challenges. Other Latin American countries, even some with violent histories, have better managed these challenges. Yet according to a number of analysts, Colombia can still transform itself into the premier tourism destination at the center of the Americas.

The Future of French Wine: Overcoming 'Terroirisme' and Stagnation

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:41:24 EST

If there is a product whose provenance consumers care about, it is wine. There are two methods of classifying wine -- cépage (varietals), which identifies the wine by the type of grape used in its production, and terroir (land-based), which highlights the geographical origin of the wine, its region-specific taste and the winemaker's skill. In defiance of marketing trends in the wine industry, many French winemakers continue to identify and market their wine based on terroir, even though this limits its accessibility to new consumers and hinders sales. What's ahead for the French wine industry?

Social TV: People Are Talking -- How Marketers Should Listen

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:03:01 EST

Television networks and advertisers alike are using social media to build buzz about programs and products -- but are their efforts really resulting in increased sales or higher ratings? Wharton professor Shawndra Hill is taking to Twitter and the airwaves in an effort to figure out how marketers should best employ user-generated content in trying to get consumers to pay attention to their products, or to make solid recommendations to existing fans. (Video with transcript)

Marketing to Kids: Toy Sellers' Bonanza or Parental Danger Zone?

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:03:01 EST

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.

Convincing the Swing Vote: How to Lure 'Non-customers'

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:34:05 EST

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.

Turning the Retail 'Showrooming Effect' into a Value-add

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:34:05 EST

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.

'Moral Decoupling:' How Consumers Justify Supporting a Tarnished Brand

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:09:11 EST

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.

Finding the Right Tool to Unlock the Power of Data

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:41:42 EST

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."

The Tricky Game of Olympic Sponsorship

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 13:54:00 EST

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.

Transmedia Storytelling, Fan Culture and the Future of Marketing

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:27:41 EST

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.

E-book Price-Fixing: Finding the Best Model for Publishers -- and Readers

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:51:05 EST

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.

Matching the Medium with the Message in Word-of-mouth Marketing

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:27:58 EST

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.

Big Brother: Have New Advertising Models Become Too Aggressive and Intrusive?

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:57:18 EST

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)