Marketing Readings

Creativity in Advertising: When It Works and When It Doesn’t

Creative advertising is often praised, but does it really boost sales? Research analyzing 437 German TV ad campaigns found that creative ads generally improve sales performance. However, not all creativity is equally effective; originality and elaboration help more than humor or artistic value. Brands should align creativity with their product category and consumer preferences to maximize effectiveness​

Creativity within the bounds of the audience’s preferences, not just baseless creativity or humor for shock value

When It Comes to Influencers, Smaller Can Be Better

Brands increasingly favor "nano" and "micro" influencers (fewer than 100,000 followers) over celebrity influencers. Smaller influencers offer better engagement, authenticity, and ROI. They drive more meaningful conversations with consumers, which often translates into better sales results compared to mega-influencers who primarily deliver impressions​. Mega influencers don’t actually speak to their followers and their followers might be less engaged with their ads because they feel more similar to corporate ads based on budget, etc.

Advertising Analytics 2.0

Traditional advertising measurement methods are outdated. Analytics 2.0 uses big data, cloud computing, and real-time predictive modeling to understand how marketing activities interact across channels. Companies applying this method see marketing ROI improvements of 10%–30% without necessarily increasing budgets. There are tons of new tools with the rise of the internet/social media, so old methods aren’t as useful in comparison to advertisers’ new abilities, particularly in directly-tailored ads

 Ads That Don't Overstep

Targeted ads based on personal data can backfire if perceived as "creepy." Transparency is critical—consumers respond better when they understand why and how their data is used. Marketers should avoid targeting sensitive topics and prioritize building trust through honest communication. Hand-in-hand with article 21, there’s a fine line between using data to create perfectly tailored ads and using it to create more generic ones. People will usually favor the generic ones, because they don’t feel like they were watched to get information

How to Stop Customers from Fixating on Price

In highly competitive markets, customers focus too much on price. Companies can shift attention to value by changing pricing structures, introducing deliberate overpricing to stimulate curiosity, or pricing components separately to highlight benefits. Clever pricing strategies help distinguish products and reduce price sensitivity​. Seemingly overpricing and split pricing are more interesting to customers than just normal price gouging/competition

How Retailers Use Personalized Prices to Test What You’re Willing to Pay

Retailers are increasingly experimenting with dynamic, personalized pricing based on consumer behavior data. This lets them fine-tune offers for different customers, often without public notice. While profitable, such strategies must balance transparency and fairness to avoid consumer backlash. Things like getting an email with a personalized coupon or code

Marketing in the Age of Alexa

Voice technology like Amazon Alexa changes consumer behavior by removing traditional visual marketing cues. Brands must adapt by optimizing for voice searches and ensuring their products are selected by smart assistants, which now act as gatekeepers to purchasing decisions. Sort of like search engine optimization, but for Alexa

Selling on TikTok and Taobao

Short video platforms such as TikTok and Chinese platform Taobao have revolutionized social commerce. Success requires authentic content, fast-paced engagement, and seamless pathways from video views to purchasing. Influencer-driven, informal marketing is key. Things like TikTok shop are the main ways influencers can create the direct to purchase route

Marketing in the Age of Resistance

Consumers increasingly hold brands accountable for social and political issues. Companies must be genuine in their stands and expect greater scrutiny. "Purpose-driven marketing" needs to align closely with corporate behavior, not just ad slogans, to avoid being called out​. Like creating a product to be “green” while corporation dumps chemicals in lakes

Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them

Some companies intentionally frustrate customers (for instance, by making cancellations hard) to boost short-term profits. However, exploiting customer inertia can backfire in the long term, damaging brand reputation and loyalty. Roadblock method only works a small number of times before people get fed up

Nudge Your Customers Toward Better Choices

"Choice architecture" helps steer customers toward healthier, wiser, or more profitable decisions. Techniques like default options, simplification, and social proof can meaningfully influence behavior without restricting freedom. The example in class of leaving organ donor as the default vs making people choose to donate organs or not leading to 90% of people not changing their status and being organ donors

The Hidden Traps in Decision Making

Managers often fall prey to cognitive biases like anchoring, status quo bias, and sunk-cost fallacies. Recognizing and countering these mental traps can lead to better decision-making in marketing and beyond

Anchoring: Setting an initial “anchor” like a certain price point before showing customers a discount. The initial price they saw will act as an anchor, making them feel that the discount is a really great deal, even if the discount would be the normal price and the store artificially inflated the price to access this bias

Status Quo Bias: Customers are more likely to stick with their current choice rather than change, even if a new choice is better

Sunk-Cost Fallacies: Thinking you need to take into account lost funds from poor investments, or continue the poor investment just because you put money into it

Want Your Ad to Go Viral? Activate These Emotions

Viral ads often trigger strong emotional responses, particularly awe, amusement, anger, or anxiety. Positive emotional intensity matters more than the valence (positive or negative); thus, marketers should design ads to elicit powerful emotional reactions​. The emotional “arousal” of the post matters more than if it’s happy or sad

Breaking Up Facebook Won’t Fix Social Media

Simply breaking up large tech companies like Facebook won't solve the underlying problems in social media. Issues like misinformation, harmful algorithms, and data privacy stem from the structure of the platforms themselves, not just market concentration. Policy interventions must address systemic issues, not just company size​. Echo chambers exist outside of Facebook, etc