Find the latest and most impactful research on consumer attitudes and behavior, including drivers and trends, here. All the research listed comes from the ARF or one of its subsidiaries: The Journal of Advertising Research (JAR), the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) or the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). Feel free to bookmark this page, as it will be updated periodically.
Engaging consumers on social media platforms is extremely advantageous for firms. Yet, sustaining engagement is not always easy. Usership often drops off. The field experiment described in this Marketing Science Institute (MSI) working paper shows helpful ways to sustain social media engagement and offers insights into the positive effects of offering certain members power in their online community (OC).
Many researchers struggle with developing and writing about their work in a way that is relevant to advertising and marketing practices. This article offers a process—a toolkit of sorts—for crafting qualitative research that is both accessible to industry readers and impactful to the practices of advertising and marketing. A webinar link featuring the authors presenting their findings is also provided for members in the summary below.
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When firms communicate about their environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities, they should consider not only what matters most to which stakeholders, but what results make the most impact with which stakeholders as well. While consumers prefer to invest in brands perceived positively on environmental and social issues, institutional investors focus less on these aspects and far more on governance.
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Using consumers as “ambassadors” has many benefits, research has shown. They can help organizations promote their prosocial messages about the environment and other issues and might even become the impetus behind positive behaviors across social networks. However, the greatest impact and the most persistent one, may be on the ambassador themselves, especially those who were less than environmentally conscious at the outset.
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Markets are growing increasingly transparent. While one of the easiest ways to segment customers is by gender, pricing differences based on this factor are becoming more apparent and harder to justify. Women perceive such pricing discrimination for comparable product as unfair. This reduces purchase intent and their liking of and appreciation for the brand, while men tend to rationalize such differences as justified by product attributes (e.g., dry cleaning a “blouse” versus a “dress shirt”).
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Promotions should be crafted toward the shopper’s mindset to be most effective and enhance the shopping experience. For routine purchases of low-involvement product categories, shoppers are often in a “deliberative mindset,” and so they respond well to general promotions. Brands in high involvement categories, however, must engage shoppers in an “implemental mindset.” To be effective, promotions must be equally focused and specific.
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Can reading online customer reviews (OCRs) influence the opinion of a consumer who has already experienced a product? The answer is yes, new research finds. It turns out, consumers are far more persuaded by online customer reviews than previously thought, according to this research. The findings have significant implications in how best to communicate with customers post-purchase.
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Even though consumers “opt-in” to sharing their personal data at the initial point of disclosure, they continue to maintain certain expectations on how their data will be used. According to this study, this is especially true when such data is shared online through voice rather than text. To meet these concerns, managers should adapt data capture, storage and use policies to meet evolving concerns.
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Lockdowns and other widespread Covid-19 disruptions caused significant changes in buyer behaviors. For instance, it was a major catalyst in shifting buying behavior from in-store to online. With the pandemic receding, how can we know which trends may persist and for which categories, and which might drop off? Since all consumers were affected, no untreated experiment control group exists. However, one strategy could prove fruitful, age-period-cohort (APC) analyses. APCs offer an alternative way to analyze changes in consumer behavior before and after the pandemic.
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How can the use of colors and design elements improve the effectiveness of ads? New research provides a different blueprint for graphic designers, depending on whether the ad is functional or experiential.
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