Eric Bradlow - Faculty Research in Knowledge@Wharton

Bing Gives Microsoft a Boost, but Can It Compete with Google?

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:41:52 EST

Early reports show that Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, has managed to draw more users than its predecessor, Live Search. According to Wharton faculty, however, while Microsoft's campaign to promote Bing has been successful so far, it is unclear whether its well-funded effort will make significant inroads in a market dominated by Google. On the other hand, they believe the campaign helped pressure Yahoo into an important partnership agreement after months of fitful negotiations.

Technological Evolution Stirs a Publishing Revolution

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:41:52 EST

According to Wharton faculty who follow the complicated, emotionally fraught subject of how we buy and sell literature, devices such as Amazon's Kindle and an on-demand book-printing machine called Espresso are helping to upend longstanding customs in the slow-to-change business of book publishing.

In a Recessionary Summer, Hollywood's Fondness for the Familiar Only Grows

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:41:52 EST

Why is Hollywood in love with tried-and-true sequels and established franchises rather than producing original scripts? According to Wharton faculty, the industry's embrace of the sequel is an attempt to minimize its risk during an uncertain time, when the motion picture business finds its usual sources of funding and revenues under pressure from the recession. "If studio [executives] launch a movie where ... the merchandizing channels already exist, they are less likely to walk into a big box office disaster which could bury them financially when they can least afford it," says one expert.

Marketing for Financial Advisors: Harness Data, Drill Deep into a Niche -- and Thrive

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:41:58 EST

Financial advisors face difficult challenges given the global economic and financial crisis. Yet advisors can not only survive the downturn, but also thrive during it, according to the authors of a new book, Marketing for Financial Advisors: Build Your Business, Bring in Clients, and Establish Your Brand. Indeed, Wharton marketing professors Eric T. Bradlow and Patti Williams, and Keith Niedermeier, director of Wharton's undergraduate marketing program, suggest that the struggling economy provides an opportunity to "attack" and gain market share. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, the three authors discuss how financial advisors can build their business -- even in a down economy -- by adopting data-driven and niche marketing principles.

Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:08:51 EST

A generation is growing up with social networking web sites such as Facebook and MySpace, casually posting accounts of their lives for their friends -- and the world -- to see. Few of these users realize that the information they post, when combined with new technologies for gathering and compiling data, can create a fingerprint-like pattern of behavior. The information provides opportunities not only for legitimate businesses, but also for identity thieves and other predators, according to faculty at Wharton and elsewhere.

Advertising Yourself: Building a Personal Brand through Social Networks

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:21:37 EST

With the economy mired in a recession, even some full-time employees are joining independent consultants, writers and musicians in learning how to use online social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter to increase their contacts and tap into possible customers or clients. Indeed, according to Wharton experts and others, developing a personal brand can be as important for a financial advisor as for a rock musician.

Time for a Data Diet? Deciding What Customer Information to Keep -- and What to Toss

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:34:51 EST

Heartland Payment Systems, a credit card processor, may have had up to 100 million records exposed to malicious hackers. Payment processors CheckFree and RBS Worldpay, and employment site Monster.com have all reported data breaches in recent months, as have universities and government agencies. Experts at Wharton say that personal data is increasingly a liability for companies, and suggest that part of the solution may be minimizing the customer information these companies keep.

Urgent Deadline for Newspapers: Find a New Business Plan before You Vanish

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:53:55 EST

It was a tough year for newspapers. The owner of The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune declared bankruptcy; The New York Times borrowed against its headquarters and even accepted ads on its front page. Detroit's two dailies announced the end of home delivery on all but three days of the week. According to Wharton faculty, if newspapers can't find a new business model quickly, they may soon be printing final editions.

The Financial Crisis Reaches a New Arena: Professional Sports

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:25:28 EST

For decades, sports have existed in a protective bubble. Even in recessions, fans could be counted on to keep buying tickets to games and keep beefing up the huge television audiences that draw top dollar from advertisers. But the current recession seems to be bursting the bubble. Says Wharton professor Eric Bradlow: "Advertising revenue is down. Corporate boxes and corporate sponsorships are going to be down. There's no question the [financial crisis] is going to affect the economics of the sports industry."

Tuning in a Post-merger Strategy: Sirius XM Must Cut Costs and Build Its Case

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:03:03 EST

Now that the FCC has approved a merger of the two satellite radio companies, Sirius XM's big challenges are to stop the flow of red ink and settle on a strategy to compete with the myriad of other portable music providers. Says one Wharton professor: "They may have one more shot at a Hail Mary pass."

The Use -- and Misuse -- of Statistics: How and Why Numbers Are So Easily Manipulated

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:52:07 EST

When a report prepared by former Senator George J. Mitchell indicated that Roger Clemens and others used illegal, performance-enhancing drugs, a marketing agency prepared a voluminous report that relied on statistics to make the case for Clemens' innocence. But an article written by four Wharton faculty -- Justin Wolfers, Shane Jensen, Abraham Wyner and Eric Bradlow -- questions the methodology used by the marketing agency, noting that the validity of any statistical analysis is only as good as its individual components. And these components, they add, can be easily misinterpreted.

'Dead-tree Medium' No Longer: For Many Marketers, Print Outperforms Digital

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:57:40 EST

Paper costs are rising, mail rate hikes are looming and competition from new media continues to grow. Yet marketers' use of direct mail and other printed materials is stronger than it's been in years. Thanks to variable-data printing, companies can now tap purchase-history databases to design, create and print entirely personalized catalogs that cross-sell products and services to individual consumers. They can also combine print with other media in the evolving discipline known as cross-channel marketing. But whatever strategy a company adopts, experts note, the challenge is the same: Finding the right way to communicate with customers.

For New CEO John Donahoe, 'It's eBay's Game to Lose'

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:51:11 EST

On January 29, online auctioneer eBay unveiled plans to revamp the fees it charges sellers, reduce fraud and increase the volume of transactions. It's the first move by CEO-elect John Donahoe, who will take over the reins of eBay on March 31 in the wake of long-time CEO Meg Whitman's announcement that she plans to step down. Donahoe's mission is to reinvigorate a company that remains dominant in online auctions, but is vulnerable to increased competition from both large and small rivals. Wharton faculty and others offer Donahoe a game plan for moving forward.

Super Bowl Showstoppers: Despite the Economy, the Big Game Is Still on for Advertisers

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:49:57 EST

Even against the backdrop of an increasing likelihood of recession, television advertising spots for February's Super Bowl XLII were nearly sold out by early January -- several weeks sooner than in the past -- and advertisers are paying record prices. While the power of television has waned as new media compete for consumers' attention, the Super Bowl appears to have retained -- and solidified -- its position as the ultimate in television marketing, according to Wharton faculty and industry analysts.

Beware the 'Walking Dead': Analyzing Customer Data from a Multi-Service Firm

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:33:58 EST

Think of them as the "walking dead," a type of customer who currently maintains service with a particular company, but whose next action will most likely be to discontinue that relationship, according to a new study that examines how the customers of a telecommunications firm acquire and discard services over time. The paper -- "Modeling the Evolution of Customers' Service Portfolios," by Wharton marketing professors Peter Fader and Eric Bradlow and a former Wharton PhD student -- focuses in part on whether it is possible to predict future purchasing patterns by looking at past buying behavior.

The 'Traveling Salesman' Goes Shopping: The Efficiency of Purchasing Patterns in the Grocery Store

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:45:38 EST

If a traveling salesman has to visit a set number of cities in a set number of days, what is the shortest route he can take to cover all his stops and then return home? And does the answer to this question relate in any way to the manner in which a shopper navigates her way through a grocery store? In a new paper, Wharton marketing professors Peter S. Fader and Eric T. Bradlow and doctoral student Sam K. Hui use a concept known as the "Traveling Salesman Problem" to study the efficiencies -- and inefficiencies -- of grocery shoppers.

Promises, Lies and Apologies: Is It Possible to Restore Trust?

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:03:13 EST

In the workplace, trust is essential to day-to-day business, whether it's one colleague trusting that another will do her share of a project, an employee trusting that his boss will reward him for working long hours to meet a deadline, or a customer trusting that a company will fill an order correctly and deliver it on time. The intertwining issues of trust, deception, apologies and promises are explored in a new research paper titled, "Promises and Lies: Restoring Violated Trust," by three Wharton professors who came up with a unique laboratory experiment to see what happens when trust breaks down. "While deception may be tempting because it can be used to increase short-term profits for the deceiver," the researchers note, "we find that the long-term costs of deception are very high."

Has Major League Baseball Hit a Foul in Its Recent Skirmish with Online Fantasy Leagues?

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:41:34 EST

Major League Baseball's decision to square off with CBC Distribution and Marketing, an online baseball fantasy-league operator based in St. Louis, Mo., might make good legal sense, but it's bad for business, according to Wharton faculty and baseball industry spectators. For several years, CBC paid a fee to the Major League Baseball Players Union for the right to use players' names and stats for its virtual leagues, in which fans draft pro players onto imaginary teams and then compete with each other based on their players' statistics. But last year, Major League Baseball Advanced Media bought the Internet and wireless rights to the names and stats from the union, and informed CBC that it wouldn't renew its license. CBC has filed a law suit in response, but the league isn't backing down. By picking a fight with CBC -- and the $1.5 billion fantasy league industry -- baseball risks alienating fans, damaging its brand and sacrificing future revenues for a small gain, experts say.

If You Were in Charge, How Would You Market These Products?

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:49:23 EST

With more and more advertising vehicles crowding today's marketing environment -- including traditional print, television and radio ads, product placements, Internet buzz, viral campaigns and cell phone messaging -- marketers have new opportunities to reach vast pools of potential customers. But the tangle of options also requires any successful marketing plan to take into account the nature of the product, its durability in the public's mind and the advertising budget needed to make it all work. As Wharton professor David Bell notes: It's very hard to find "the one big lever that can reach a whole lot of people in a way that is cost-effective." Knowledge@Wharton asked four Wharton marketing professors how they would go about launching two hypothetical products, a summer blockbuster movie and a cell phone.

Will Microsoft's New 'Ultra-Mobile' Computer Fly or Flop? Past Experience Offers Some Clues

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:54:43 EST

Although Microsoft recently unveiled an 'ultra-mobile personal computer,' or UMPC, in a move to fill a market niche between laptops and handheld computers, it remains to be seen whether this latest innovation from the software giant will be a hit or flop. While Microsoft is following a "build-it-and-it-will-sell" strategy with the UMPC, technology history is littered with innovative products that never found a market, say experts at Wharton. As Wharton professor of operations and information management Eric K. Clemons puts it: "Build-it-and-it-will-sell strategies are a mixed bag."

Going Once ... Going Twice ... The Bidding Behavior of Buyers in Internet Auctions

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 16:31:18 EST

Would you like to go on an Internet auction site and know how much to bid for a certain item -- and also know that you didn't overpay for that item? How about when you sell an item in an online auction: Would you like to know what price to set that ensures you don't leave money on the online table? Wharton marketing and statistics professor Eric T. Bradlow can't provide specific answers. But he does offer guidance on the behavior of potential buyers in a new study entitled, "An Integrated Model for Bidding Behavior in Internet Auctions: Whether, Who, When, and How Much," recently published in the Journal of Marketing Research. Bradlow co-authored the study with Cornell marketing professor Young-Hoon Park. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to model formally the behavioral aspects of bidding behavior for the entire sequence of bids in Internet auctions," the authors write.

Tag Team: Tracking the Patterns of Supermarket Shoppers

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 17:22:46 EST

To the untrained eye, the presentation looks like little more than a child's randomly drawn zigzag pattern. But to Wharton marketing professor Peter S. Fader, those seemingly random lines represent a new dataset showing the paths taken by individual shoppers in an actual grocery store. The data -- charted for the first time by radio frequency identification (RFID) tags located on consumers' shopping carts -- has the potential to change the way retailers in general think about customers and their shopping patterns. Fader, Wharton marketing professor Eric T. Bradlow and doctoral candidate Jeffrey S. Larson analyze this data in a new research paper entitled "An Exploratory Look at Supermarket Shopping Paths."

2002: The Year of the Apology

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 00:00:00 EST

Earlier this fall, Safeway, a food retailer based in Pleasanton, Calif., took out radio and television ads apologizing to customers of some recently-acquired grocery stores for changes in these stores� operations. Safeway joined what seems to be a long list of apologizers � from investment bankers to fast food corporations � who have recently expressed regret for a variety of mistakes. With a year full of apologies now coming to a close, Knowledge@Wharton looks at how effective apologies are, what they signal, when they should be offered and whether they can backfire.

Can Amazon Survive?

Wed, 30 Aug 2000 13:27:32 EST

Amazon.com is arguably the biggest name in online shopping, the gold standard against which all dotcoms are judged. Is it really possible, then, that someday we will be forced to live in a virtual world without this mammoth bookseller? Certainly, it�s too soon to write a eulogy. But on the savage frontier of Internet commerce, even the biggest and toughest � though they may have been the first to stake the choicest claim � are not assured survival. Knowledge@Wharton discussed the company's future with Wharton faculty members and industry experts.

Three Marketing Lessons from the Love Bug

Wed, 24 May 2000 14:45:39 EST

Millions of users are recovering from last Thursday�s swift, silent attack of the Love Bug virus. For the past few days, newspaper pages and television screens have been filled with accounts from Manila, as the hunt continues for the hacker who unleashed the pandemic that crippled corporations and governments around the world. And yet, one of the most fascinating aspects of the Love Bug was the speed of its global proliferation. According to experts, it flashed around the world in just two hours. As CEOs and marketing directors ponder global marketing strategies for their products, can they learn any positive lessons from the Love Bug�s global odyssey? Three Wharton professors believe they can.

The Little Engines That Could

Sat, 27 Mar 1999 05:02:53 EST

Searching for information on the Internet has become common. But which search engines provide the best results when executives are looking for business or marketing information? Wharton�s Eric T. Bradlow and David C. Schmittlein tested six popular search engines�AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, Northern Light and Lycos�to investigate that issue. Their conclusions might inspire managers to go fishing.