Blockchain technology is a decentralized database tracking a transaction as it moves from its source to the destination (third parties add a data ‘block’ of information to the chain with each step of the journey). Blockchain technology, which is still evolving, is used in a wide variety of applications. A recent study by a team […]
Subject: Marketing
Consumers Reject New Products To Stay In Control
Some people have a greater desire for control than others. Specifically, they need to feel that they have control over their surrounding environment — that they are in control of producing the results they want to produce. Previous studies have shown that desire for control can guide certain consumer choices, such as a preference for […]
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Matching the Creativity Supply Side to Your Marketing Demand
Creativity, once thought an innate, unteachable attribute, is now seen as possible for all. One doesn’t have to be a genius to be creative. But creativity does require the right environment to thrive, which is why organizations need to have the right structure and resources and incentives in place to enhance and encourage employee creativity. […]
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CMO Survey: Value of Company Spending on Social Media
Companies spend 12% of their marketing budget on social media, which is three times more than in 2009. And this trend is only going to accelerate: marketing leaders expect that in the next five years, companies will increase social media’s slice of their marketing budgets to 20% — representing an increase of more than 70%. […]
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The Good, Bad and Ugly of Covert Marketing
The steadily declining effectiveness of traditional marketing approaches — from advertising to direct mail in the mailbox to email blasts — has been well-documented. Traditional marketing is too often equated with ‘junk mail’ or ‘spam,’ or annoyingly long commercial breaks that take you away from your favourite TV program. As explained in a recent article […]
Why Promotions Work Better for Luxury and Hedonic Purchases
Many consumers find it more difficult to justify buying frivolous, hedonic purchases — in other words, purchases from fine chocolates and DVDs to vacations that are motivated by fun and are often frivolous or luxurious — than to spend money on utilitarian purchases, such as food or gas. New research from Columbia University and Tsinghua […]
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How User Reviews Replace Advertising
The popularity of customer review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor have turned these sites into an important element of a service company’s marketing package. According to the results of an in-depth research project exploring the correlation between hotel advertising spending and TripAdvisor reviews and user ratings, many hotels are using positive reviews as a […]
Contradictory Attitudes of Consumers to Bundling
Bundling products and services together impacts the perceived value of the individual items in that bundle in surprising ways. Recent research from professor Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, working in collaboration with doctoral student Franklin Shaddy, shows an asymmetry in the valuation of individual items depending on whether the […]
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How to Make and Keep Customers Grateful
Many companies develop their relationship marketing strategies based on the assumption that their customers are unerringly cold and calculating, and driven by one question: what kind of a financial deal can you give me? While discounts, for example, can be effective, this is a short-term and hard-to-sustain relationship marketing approach to customer relationship. A team […]
How Practical Features Sell Luxury Products
Marketing luxury products requires connecting with consumers’ often emotion-driven desires, aspirations, and/or fantasies. However, many consumers cannot put aside their ‘rational’ mindset, and as a result feel guilty when purchasing purely hedonistic products. How can luxury companies appeal to the pleasure-seeker in their consumers while reducing the guilt from such pleasure-seeking? The answer, according to […]