Marketing

Division of University Advancement

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

Researchers discover that subtle prompts designed to encourage consumers to make a particular purchase can have negative consequences in the long term

Marketers have found so-called “nudging” to be an effective way to influence consumer behaviour – but new research suggests those who are prompted, either subtly or directly, to select a particular product or service may be quicker to abandon it.

A recent study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, is among the first to consider the long-term impact of the widely utilized marketing tactic, which capitalizes on psychology and carefully designed prompts to encourage people to make a particular purchase. Examples include limited time offers or presenting people with a “compromise” option between two extremes.

Study co-author Sam Maglio, a professor of marketing and psychology at the ��Ƶ Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management, says the research findings make it clear that nudging can have negative consequences for brands.

In particular, he points to subscription offerings, which are becoming more prominent across a broad array of product and service categories.

“If you want someone to continue renewing or using whatever service you provide for a long period of time, it turns out that nudges backfire,” he says.

Maglio conducted two experiments to test three of the most popular nudging strategies to see how they affected long-term utilization.

In the first experiment, he offered students and faculty a free air plant. Among the control group, participants were offered the choice between a plant that was said to be lower maintenance and lower quality, and another that was higher maintenance and higher quality. For the nudged group, he offered a third “middle” option that was average in both maintenance and quality.

In reality, all plants were identical.

“Research has shown that when people look at three options that include one extreme and another extreme, they gravitate towards the middle, compromise option,” Maglio says. This form of nudging is referred to as the ‘compromise effect,’ and proved effective in this experiment.

In exchange for getting a free plant, participants received an email every two weeks asking whether they still had the plant. After the first 10 weeks, Maglio says there was little difference in the likelihood of caring for the plant between the nudged group, who were subtly persuaded with the “compromise” option, and the control group.

“[But] once you get to about three months in, then we start to see the rate of [retention] separate,” he says. “People in the nudged condition who picked the middle option were more likely to start saying, ‘Yep, I let it die,’ or ‘Yep, I threw it out.’

“It ended up being a total of nine months that we kept checking in, and the longer we waited, the bigger the gap between those two groups got.”

At the end of the experiment, the researchers found that those who were nudged into a selection were 16 per cent quicker to discard their plant than those in the control group.

In the second experiment, researchers offered participants a free membership to a website that provided a new “fun fact” each day. In the control group, members were offered the choice between a “Trivia Expert” subscription plan or a “Back to School” membership option.

Another group of participants were automatically opted-in to the “Trivia Expert” plan, but were provided the option to switch, utilizing a nudging strategy known as the “default effect.” In the final group, a third “decoy” option was added, titled “Trivia Expert for Kids,” which was designed to nudge the adult participants towards the “Trivia Expert” option.

As with the previous experiment, all of the options led to an identical product and both nudging strategies proved effective at influencing participants’ behaviour – and both had a negative impact on participant retention.

“In the control condition, where they just chose between ‘Trivia Expert’ and ‘Back to School,’ they [logged in consistently] about 14 days in a row, and then they stopped,” Maglio says. “In both of the nudge conditions – default and decoy – they were only logged on for an average of eight days, so it’s a hefty drop-off after getting nudged as far as losing interest in the subscription.”

Yet, despite the findings, Maglio suggests that nudging shouldn’t be abandoned as a marketing strategy, as its effectiveness in influencing buying decisions is well established. Instead, he suggests marketers think twice before leaning on such tactics “in situations where you care about longevity, or you want the customer to use your products for a long time.”

Maglio adds that there is little data on the long-term consequences of nudging, which could have significant implications for brand loyalty and consumer trust.

“We need to get more specific about which kinds of nudges have a counterproductive effect, which kinds of nudges have no effect – and which tactics work as a win-win for customers and brands,” he said. “We’re coming in with two experiments after decades of nudging, so there’s still a long way to go.”

Read the story at the Rotman Insights Hub

Five key things: U of T’s Brand Portal

ksoobria — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:41:41 +0000

Five key things: U of T’s Brand Portal ksoobria Tue, 02/20/2024 - 11:41

An organization’s brand is more than a logo, colour or slogan. It encapsulates its vision, mission, character, aspirations and essence. The ��Ƶ’s brand expression, Defy Gravity, reflects and conveys the community’s spirit of discovery, drive to overcome obstacles and promise of inclusive excellence.

To help the U of T community bring Defy Gravity to life, the university recently completed a major revamp of its Brand Portal, which brings together resources, guidelines, strategy and assets.

“The Defy Gravity brand is an evolving story, and we wanted to ensure that the brand portal evolved as well,” said Tanya Kreinin, U of T’s assistant vice-president, brand strategy and chief marketing officer. “The new portal is an enterprise solution based on extensive consultation with the U of T community and in-depth analysis of best practices in both public and private sectors.”

Here are five key features of the relaunched Brand Portal:

Understand the brand. Strong brands are built on strategies that authentically capture an institution’s vision, mission, values and character. The Brand section in the portal includes U of T’s brand story and brand themes and explains Defy Gravity’s underlying philosophy.
Telling the brand story. One of the ways by which the brand is defined is its ‘voice.’ That ‘voice’ can be heard in news stories, social media posts or even signage around campus. The portal has information about tone, storytelling principles and a comprehensive editorial style guide for anyone writing on behalf of or about the university.
Visualizing the brand. From logos and typography to image layout and video endplates, visual elements are among the most easily recognizable aspects of a brand. The Brand Portal includes extensive guidance on U of T’s visual identity, including university signatures, typography, brand colours and how to use the Defy Gravity logo.
The story in numbers. The recently added section on reputational materials, stats and rankings is a one-stop-shop for reputational and brand-building content. It includes frequently updated rankings and data, the Impact Presentation and key messaging so that the most current information is always accessible and easy to find.
Brand assets. Whether you’re building a multi-platform campaign, planning an event or just looking to update an email signature, the Brand Portal has assets that faculty and staff can leverage to animate the brand in all university communications. Some of the tools and templates users will find include presentation templates, event signage, branded merchandise, marketing and communications planning templates and ready-to-use video content.

Five key things: U of T’s Brand PortalFive key things: U of T’s Brand Portal

Kevin Soobrian

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‘A message of hope, optimism and humanity’: U of T’s Defy Gravity brand to showcase the university to the world

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:32:32 +0000

‘A message of hope, optimism and humanity’: U of T’s Defy Gravity brand to showcase the university to the world

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 02/10/2022 - 11:32

Cutline

The Defy Gravity brand will showcase how U of T brings together top minds in every discipline, background and perspective in one of the world’s most diverse urban regions – and gives them the platform to achieve incredible things (photo by Neil Ta)

Topic

Diversity and Inclusion

Alumni

Research and Innovation

Climate change. Racial injustice. Mass technological disruption and pandemic recovery.

These are just a few examples of the pressing challenges the ��Ƶ seeks to address by drawing on the depth, breadth and diversity of research and scholarly expertise across its three campuses – all informed by a core commitment to inclusive excellence.

They also play a central role in U of T’s new brand – Defy Gravity – which focuses on the many ways that students, faculty, staff, alumni and others are stepping up to solve intractable global problems, create new knowledge and effect meaningful change in the world, defying obstacles and expectations along the way.

“From groundbreaking medical discoveries to reinventing literary criticism and revolutionizing artificial intelligence, the ��Ƶ has a long history of breaking barriers, challenging conventions and transforming society through research, teaching, and innovation,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “Defy Gravity is our way of capturing the spirit and mindset of a place that has never viewed the impossible as a foregone conclusion.”

Created by U of T’s in-house Brand Hub marketing team, the Defy Gravity brand was developed following consultations with students, faculty, staff, alumni, prospective students and others who are invested in U of T’s mission. The team also drew on the global research capacity, data and insights of U of T’s agency of record, McCann Global.

The new brand will inform a storytelling approach that showcases how U of T brings together top minds in every discipline, background and perspective in one of the world’s most diverse urban regions – and gives them the platform to achieve incredible things.

“Having a sterling academic reputation and ranking among the world’s best universities goes a long way, but you also need a strong brand to help convey who you are, what you stand for and the urgency and relevance of your mission,” said David Estok, U of T’s vice-president, communications. “Defy Gravity does that.”

The brand aims to support and amplify the important work of U of T’s many faculties, colleges and divisions, and underpins U of T’s new fundraising and alumni engagement campaign, which was launched in December.

“Defy Gravity presents a positive and hopeful vision for the world at a time when we need it most,” said David Palmer, vice-president, advancement. “It speaks powerfully to our values of inclusive excellence and reminds all of us that U of T is one of few places in the world that can bring talent, ideas, and disciplines together to solve complex challenges and deliver much-needed change – at home and abroad.”

U of T News recently spoke to Estok and Tanya Kreinin, assistant vice-president, brand strategy and integrated marketing, about how the Defy Gravity brand came together – and the types of stories it will be used to tell.

Can you explain the importance of developing a brand for a university like U of T?

David Estok

Estok: The post-secondary sector is a highly competitive market where we are all vying for people’s time, attention and interest. The stakes are high, compounded in turn by the pressures brought on by the pandemic.

Just like everyone else, we want the best talent. We want students, faculty and staff to come here. We want our researchers to get the funding they need to thrive and succeed in groundbreaking research that will impact the country and the world at large. Our success depends on attracting the best students, faculty and staff, and building excellent partnerships with government, industry, alumni, donors and other supporters.

Having a sterling academic reputation and ranking among the world’s best universities goes a long way, but you also need a strong brand to help convey who you are, what you stand for and the urgency and relevance of your mission. Defy Gravity does that. It captures not only the impact and excellence of our university, across so many different disciplines, but it also speaks to our aspirations and optimism for the future.

With Defy Gravity, we’ve created a brand that speaks to our immense diversity, our excellence, our commitment to providing opportunities for all and our status as one of the world’s top public universities. And it does so in a warm, inviting and emotionally appealing way that will help our community tell a more consistent, inspiring and memorable story about our impact on the world.

What would you describe as the core elements of the new brand?

Estok: The brand is a distillation of the university’s vision, mission, values and spirit. We spent several months consulting with students, faculty, staff, alumni and other key internal and external stakeholders to capture insights on what made U of T unique and compelling.

The responses were remarkably consistent. They were proud that U of T is one of the few universities worldwide that’s not only excellent in so many fields but also accessible to students from every background. They were also proud of our record of discovery, innovation and impact and our insatiable drive to take on complex problems. And they highlighted our ongoing efforts to build more supportive and inclusive environments for students, faculty and staff across our three campuses. These insights helped us develop a brand that stood for excellence, as well as being accessible – and for caring, inclusive communities.

Tanya Kreinin

Kreinin: Defy Gravity captures these insights in a vivid and relatable way. It speaks to how our university somehow competes with the world’s top private universities on a sliver of their budgets and without compromising on our commitment to access and equity. It describes a community of problem-solvers that sees the impossible as a dare and are willing to defy all obstacles and expectations to solve problems and accomplish great things.

We think it’s an ideal way to express our values, character, mettle and collaborative DNA. You’ll see that through the stories we’ll be sharing of brilliant people coming together to create a more just and inclusive world and simply refusing to give up when things get tough.

Can you describe how conversations with students, faculty, alumni and others helped shape the brand development process?

Kreinin: This is the first time in U of T’s history that we’ve developed a brand at such a scale. We conducted hundreds of hours of interviews and received fantastic input from stakeholders across all three campuses and from alumni worldwide. And it’s really thanks to their time, generosity and thoughtfulness that we were able to build something that represents our community’s vision and aspirations.

When you interview so many bright, diverse and passionate people, you always face a strong possibility of receiving a lot of conflicting opinions and expectations. But David and I were pleasantly surprised – and encouraged – to see tremendous alignment in our community’s views.

Estok: We really were. People had a very strong sense of what makes U of T special and relevant in today’s world. It definitely made our job easier as we translated these insights into a cohesive brand strategy that’s so authentic. We also partnered with our agency of record, McCann Global, to conduct additional local and global research to ensure we came up with something that would resonate and stand out.

A collection of marketing materials created by U of T's Brand Hub for the launch of Defy Gravity.

Did you encounter any challenges during the brand development process?

Estok: U of T is a large, complex place with a huge variety of stakeholders. This presents a challenge for brand development because you have to come up with something that captures the aspirations and strengths of so many distinct faculties, colleges, divisions and communities. It’s hard to get it right.

How will the Defy Gravity brand support the work of the U of T community now and in the future?

Estok: Telling a consistent and powerful brand story about U of T will benefit everyone. It will help our target audiences internalize why we exist and why we matter, and give them reasons to care about our work. It will help our faculties and divisions craft messages and marketing materials that help them recruit the best talent, attract funding, engage alumni and spark partnerships and collaborations with other top institutions.

Kreinin: Our goal with Defy Gravity is to create a unified voice for our institution. But for us, unity is not the same thing as conformity. We know that U of T has many distinct communities and they all defy gravity in their own way. We strongly believe that our communities need to tell their stories in their voice. What a strong, central brand offers is a way to connect this storytelling to a much larger story about the institution. It allows people to tell their stories in a way that enriches the university as a whole.

How are the challenges posed by the pandemic – and the U of T community’s response to them – reflected in Defy Gravity?

Estok: It’s difficult to overstate how challenging the last couple of years have been for so many people in our community and beyond. But the way people have risen to the challenge is truly inspiring. Our experts have worked tirelessly to lead us through this crisis. Our students and faculty have adapted to new ways of teaching and learning with unflagging creativity and ingenuity. To see how well our community has responded to the pandemic gives me hope for the future. Obviously, this reality was on our minds constantly as we developed the brand – and Defy Gravity is a testament to that hope and optimism.

Kreinin: The pandemic revealed just how resilient and indispensable our community could be during a time of crisis. This is a community that doesn't shrink from complexity or just accept the world as it is. We have a defiant streak. We're a community that wants to change the world for the better. We may not always succeed, but we don't let that hold us back. We use every setback as motivation to push onwards. We’ve seen this time and again during the pandemic. We’re a place where people come together to work on problems and overcome seemingly impossible challenges. This is a message that we think will resonate with people as we help our city and world recover from this pandemic.

What do you hope people ultimately take away from the Defy Gravity brand? What personally excites you about it?

Kreinin: As David said, it’s really a message of hope, optimism and humanity. And ultimately, we hope it will instill even greater pride in our community and inspire others to join us to take on the massive challenges we’re facing. I think what excites me the most is that it’s not a stodgy brand but one that’s incredibly human and emotional. It will allow us to tell so many great stories both locally and globally, individually and collectively.

Estok: I’d have to say it’s the storytelling that excites me the most, too. Stories not only about scholars revolutionizing their fields or trying to cure diseases, but students who are the first in their family to attend university and people who have overcome adversity, dug in their heels and kept going. These stories, featuring an incredibly diverse range of people and perspectives, are all around us at U of T and it’s an immense privilege to be able to help share them with the world.

UPPERCASE or lowercase? The way brands write their names sends a subtle message to consumers

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 15:34:52 +0000

UPPERCASE or lowercase? The way brands write their names sends a subtle message to consumers

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/09/2021 - 11:34

Cutline

A study by U of T Scarborough's Sam Maglio explores the effect of using upper- or lower-case letters on the way consumers view brands and their products (illustration by Anatoliy Babiy via iStockPhoto)

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

��Ƶ Scarborough

Brand names are often written using a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters. Others defy convention by using all lowercase, such as amazon or ebay, or all uppercase, such as IKEA.

It turns out this unconventional use of text does more than simply draw our attention – it could influence how we think or feel about a brand or product if there’s a strong gender connection.

“Our first encounter with a brand quite often is seeing its name splashed in text. But how that text is used can go a long way in influencing our initial attitudes about that product,” says Sam Maglio, an associate professor in the department of management at the ��Ƶ Scarborough.

In a study published in the journal Marketing Letters, Maglio and co-author Aekyoung Kim from the University of Sydney looked at how the use of text influenced people’s attitudes towards certain products. Across four experiments they found a link between using lowercase letters and femininity, and uppercase letters and masculinity – and these gender perceptions influenced how favourably certain products were viewed.

“We found that female-specific products are viewed more favourably when presented in lowercase, and male products were viewed more favourably when presented in uppercase,” says Maglio, an expert on consumer behaviour.

They also found that the effect seems to hold regardless of font size. In one experiment, brands were shown using a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters as well as different font sizes (large 100-point font, and smaller 20-point font). The result was that switching font sizes had little effect on gender perception compared to using uppercase or lowercase letters.

The study builds on past work by other researchers that looked at how use of lowercase brand names, such as adidas, was more closely associated with traditional female gender attributes such as friendliness. It found that using uppercase and lowercase letters for brand names can have an unconscious effect on consumers’ attitudes based on gender associations.

The study by Maglio and Kim focused on how specific products like scarves and fragrances can be gendered using uppercase or lowercase letters.

Maglio says the lesson for marketers is there could be a benefit to using all lowercase or all uppercase if there is a clear gender connection to a particular product. If you’re selling women’s perfume, for example, lower-case letters may resonate more with customers. If you’re selling men’s aftershave on the other hand, using uppercase letters may be more effective.

For products where there is no clear gender connection, Maglio says it’s likely most effective to use a combination of uppercase and lowercase.

“The simple message is they may want to line up their signals – in this case their use of text – with what their product delivers. So, if it’s men’s cologne, putting the name in uppercase letters could mean that consumers might like it more.”

Maglio says the study focused on scarves and fragrances specifically because those products tend to have versions for different genders. He says they also found no difference in response to vacuum cleaners, which have been traditionally marketed to women.

“If people had a strong association between femininity and use of a vacuum cleaner, we should have seen a difference in our data depending on whether its brand name was written in all lowercase, but we didn’t,” he says.

“It’s not like ‘This type of product is for this gender, but it’s not for that gender', which would veer into problematic gender stereotypes.”

As for why our attitudes towards a product can be influenced by the use of text, Maglio says it comes down to how our brain processes information in order to derive meaning about the world around us.

“When you see a new brand and you don’t know anything about it, you can’t help but draw on a lifetime of experiences in making those snap judgements. People will latch on to whatever information they can in order to help them make sense of what they see.

“This effect works best for things with a strong gender connection, like a men’s cologne, than if the connection is less obvious, like a vacuum cleaner.”

Failed bill to limit food marketing to children generated intense industry lobbying: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:12:19 +0000

Failed bill to limit food marketing to children generated intense industry lobbying: U of T study

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/25/2021 - 09:12

Cutline

Researchers looked at at more than 3,800 lobbying interactions in the three years before the Child Health Protection Act failed and found that over 80 per cent were by industry (photo by Chalisa Thammapatanakul/EyeEm via Getty Images)

Jim Oldfield

Topic

Our Community

Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition

Food

Nutritional Sciences

Researchers at the ��Ƶ have found that food industry interactions with government heavily outnumbered non-industry interactions on Bill S-228, also known as the Child Health Protection Act, which died in the Senate of Canada in 2019.

The researchers looked at more than 3,800 interactions – including meetings, correspondence and lobbying – in the three years before the bill failed. They found that over 80 per cent were by industry, compared to public health or not-for-profit organizations.

They also found that industry accounted for over 80 per cent of interactions with the highest-ranking government offices, including elected parliamentarians and their staff and unelected civil servants.

“Industry interacted with government much more often, more broadly and with higher ranking offices than non-industry representatives in discussions of children’s marketing and Bill S-228,” said principal investigator Mary L’Abbé, a professor in nutritional sciences and at the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition in U of T's Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The study was published in the journal CMAJ Open this week.

The researchers drew data from Health Canada’s meetings and correspondence on healthy eating database, which was set up in 2016 and details the type and content of interactions between stakeholders and Health Canada on nutrition policies. They also used Canada’s Registry of Lobbyists, which tracks the names and registrations of paid lobbyists but provides limited details on the content of the meetings.

“We’re fortunate to have access to this information in Canada, as it offers insight into the story of government bills,” said Christine Mulligan, a doctoral student in L’Abbé’s lab and lead author on the study. “Industry stakeholders bring important viewpoints, but the volume and breadth of their lobbying on this bill was clearly disproportionate, especially compared to public health.”

The food industry has a long history of effective lobbying in Canada and other countries, and a growing body of research has documented both that extensive influence and the need for policy-makers to be aware of it when creating policy that promotes the health and safety of all citizens.

Health Canada met with industry 56 per cent of the time regarding the 2016 Healthy Eating Strategy, researchers at the University of Ottawa found last year. During the creation of the recent Food Guide, Health Canada restricted industry lobbying – so effectively that industry persuaded officials at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to lobby Health Canada on their behalf, as the Globe and Mail and other organizations reported.

Mulligan says the disparity in interactions with government among stakeholders was even greater for S-228, and that it marks a stark contrast between this bill and interactions on the Healthy Eating Strategy more broadly.

Industry lobbying has also been prominent on a stalled bill to introduce front-of-package labelling that would inform consumers about foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat, said L’Abbé, who advised Health Canada on both bills and the Healthy Eating Strategy.

L’Abbé said that more transparency on interactions with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and other federal departments would help, as would more detail in the Registry of Lobbyists. All stakeholder comments related to proposed regulations are part of a public docket in the U.S., and some groups have called for a similar approach in Canada.

“We desperately need better management of the consultative process on legislative bills for public health policy in the public good,” said L’Abbé.

The research was funded by the Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Big expectations: U of T study finds small businesses held to higher standard of friendliness

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 20:05:16 +0000

Big expectations: U of T study finds small businesses held to higher standard of friendliness

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/11/2019 - 16:05

Cutline

Companies who are perceived to be smaller are more likely to feel the wrath of customers when they make a misstep, according to a study co-authored by a U of T Scarborough researcher (photo by Max Black via Getty Images)

Don Campbell

Topic

Breaking Research

U of T Scarborough

Customers hold small businesses to a higher standard than their bigger counterparts when it comes to being friendly and helpful, a ��Ƶ study has found.

The research, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, looked at how a company’s size not only affects consumer expectations, but how customers react differently to bad behaviour by small and large businesses.

“It feels very wrong when a small business mistreats us because we expect them to be warmer and friendlier,” says co-author Pankaj Aggarwal, a marketing professor in U of T Scarborough’s department of management and at the Rotman School of Management.

“On the other hand, we don’t expect larger companies to be particularly warm or friendly, so when they fail to be nice it doesn’t come as a big surprise.”

Across five studies, Aggarwal and co-author Linyun Yang, an assistant professor at the Darla School of Business at the University of South Carolina, found perceptions of size affect consumer expectations for behaviours that are described as communal – meaning more friendly, caring, honest and helpful. By contrast, perceived size did not determine whether customers expect a company to be efficient, effective or organized.

Pankaj Aggarwal is a marketing professor in U of T Scarborough’s department of management and at the Rotman School of Management (photo by Ken Jones)

Aggarwal says customers’ differing perceptions likely stem from our expectations about power. For instance, we expect a CEO to behave in a certain way compared to someone in an entry-level position. In the same way that power based on employee status, socio-economic standing and gender shapes people’s expectations, Aggarwal says power based on size can shape expectations for small and large companies.

“We often romanticize small businesses,” says Aggarwal, whose past research looked at brand anthropomorphism, the idea that we often give human traits to companies and products.

“We are drawn to them because they are unique, offer locally made items or create an authentic experience. But because they lack relative power in the marketplace, they have to be nicer to their suppliers, their vendors and, most importantly, their customers.”

Aggarwal and Yang stressed that it is the perception of size, and not absolute size, that really drives customer expectations.

For example, in one study they compared Yelp data from Peet’s Coffee in Boston, where there are only six locations, and in San Francisco, where there are 26 stores. If the reviews mentioned behaviour that was low on warmth and friendliness, the researchers found that average Yelp ratings dropped nearly one star in Boston, where the retailer was perceived as a smaller brand.

“This means companies may have more control over customer expectations than previously thought,” says Aggarwal.

“If a company is perceived as lacking warmth or friendliness, for example, it could pre-empt the criticism by positioning itself as a larger company.”

Meanwhile, many large companies intentionally brand themselves as being smaller than they actually are. Aggarwal says that, while this can help with their image as being warm and friendly, it also means they may suffer more when they fail to live up to expectations.

By the same token, large companies who present themselves as such may have a previously unrecognized advantage: the ability to be less warm and friendly without incurring extra punishment relative to their smaller competitors when they disappoint customers.

“Customers may perceive a company like Amazon as less warm and friendly than a smaller competitor,” Aggarwal says, “and they may punish Amazon less when it engages in that behaviour.”

The research received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Decision-making: Go with your gut, and you’ll be more certain about your choice, new U of T study says

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 20:10:24 +0000

Decision-making: Go with your gut, and you’ll be more certain about your choice, new U of T study says

noreen.rasbach Wed, 09/12/2018 - 16:10

Cutline

“Those who focus on their feelings in decision-making come to see their choices as more consistent with what is essential, true and unwavering about themselves,” says Sam Maglio, an associate professor at U of T Scarborough (photo by Yana Kaz)

Topic

U of T Scarborough

When we make a gut decision, we end up holding it with greater conviction because we see it as a more accurate reflection of our true selves, a new ��Ƶ study finds.

“Those who focus on their feelings in decision-making come to see their choices as more consistent with what is essential, true and unwavering about themselves,” says Sam Maglio, an associate professor of marketing in the department of management at U of T Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

“Not only that, it also seems they are more committed to those choices.”

The research, co-authored with Taly Reich, an assistant professor of marketing at Yale University, included four experiments in which participants had to choose from a selection of items (DVD players, mugs, apartments and restaurants). In each experiment, participants were asked to make their decisions in an intuitive, gut-based way or in a deliberative, logical manner. They were then asked follow-up questions about those choices.

Maglio says that focusing on feelings in decision-making not only changes attitudes, it can also affect behaviour. One study asked participants to choose between two different restaurants – again based either on intuition or deliberation – and were then instructed to publicize their choice by emailing their decision to their friends. Those who picked a restaurant intuitively shared their choice with more people.

“Not only are those who made intuitive choices more certain, they’re also more likely to advocate for them,” says Maglio, an expert on consumer behaviour.

Past marketing and consumer behaviour research has tended to focus on what particular brands people chose and why – in other words, looking at choice as an end rather than a beginning. And while marketers are certainly interested in how consumers interact with products once purchased, what’s novel about this research is that it focuses on what happens after a choice is made by focusing on how the customer made their decision in the first place.

“Academic interest in choice tends to end the moment choices are made, but we wanted to look at choice more as a beginning,” explains Maglio.

For marketers or even consumers making product choices, it’s important to understand how people come to hold certain attitudes about those choices. But it’s also important to build resilience in those choices, he says. If you want consumers to stick with an exercise program or pick a box of granola bars over a chocolate cake, it’s important for people to be committed to those choices.

“The way you feel about the choices you’ve made – like seeing it as being a truer reflection of your personal identity – can have a big impact on how you interact with those choices over time,” he says.

The reason why people see intuitive choices as a more accurate reflection of their identity comes down to something called the true self, says Maglio. Essentially our feelings can arise automatically and uncontrollably in the same way that we can’t escape our true, fundamental selves.

Maglio plans on exploring some of the common experiences consumers face after making choices, particularly if those experiences are negative, like if a product or service fails to meet expectations.

“It would be interesting to see whether people try harder to defend their choice in those negative circumstances. It could be that people may be more willing to discount the negative things and grant their products greater slack if they were chosen intuitively,” he says.

The research, which is published in the journal Emotion of the American Psychological Association, received funding from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada.

Give United passenger free travel for life to end PR nightmare: U of T expert

ullahnor — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 19:06:42 +0000

Give United passenger free travel for life to end PR nightmare: U of T expert

ullahnor Wed, 04/12/2017 - 15:06

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David Soberman says United Airlines' blunder may be the worst he's seen for a company (photo by Anna Zvereva via Flickr)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

City & Culture

Travel

Video of a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight sparked a wave of public outrage this week, leaving the airline the subject of mocking Twitter memes and the punchline of late night talk shows.

In fact, two recent incidents – the doctor dragged off a flight in Chicago to make room for a United employee and two teenagers barred from flying for wearing leggings – have made a serious dent in the airline's image and profits, says David Soberman, professor of marketing at U of T's Rotman School of Management.

“Of all the blunders I have seen by companies, this is one of the worst,” he says.

Shares of United Airlines' parent company were down as much as 4.3 per cent in trading on Tuesday amid reports that millions of people in China, the world’s fastest-growing air travel market, have called for a boycott because the man dragged off the flight was Asian-American.

U of T News spoke with Soberman about how United, previously known for breaking guitars, can climb out from under the negative publicity.

Can United Airlines come back from a series of fiascos like this? How?

With any marketing disaster, time is the best healer, but of all the blunders I have seen by companies, this is one of the worst.

United Airlines needs to examine whatever managerial systems they have in place that allowed this to happen and fix them because what was done makes no sense at all. Apologies are important, but they need to be accompanied by changed behaviour.

United needs to communicate the concrete actions with regards to its managerial structure that will prevent this from happening again.

When this occurs, a simple auction for all passengers on the plane would have solved the problem. This is what is done before passengers have boarded an overbooked plane, and United needs to outline the steps that would be taken to implement such an auction.

They will need to compensate the passenger (with free travel for life or something like that) and also provide compensation to the other passengers who witnessed this.

Is the practice of overbooking a bad thing? Should companies like United get rid of it?

No. Overbooking is a completely normal practice in a world of uncertain demand.

Whether it makes sense is an economic question that the firm needs to answer, i.e. the cost of empty seats versus the cost of getting people with booked seats to fly later. Independent though of whether a firm should do it, they should always do it right, which means putting the customer first. If a firm wants a passenger who had paid for a seat to fly later, the firm needs to offer enough money such that the customer voluntarily chooses to fly later.

Are there lessons here on how companies must respond to situations like this in the days of social media and cellphones?

Companies need to work out ahead of time, how things will look to the public at large…especially in a world of digital communications and cellphone videos.

Sometimes being right isn’t enough. Here, being right (that is having a legal right to do something) can be the same as being 100 per cent wrong from the customer's point of view.

If a company puts its customers first, it should not be dragging them off a plane unless they have physically threatened or assaulted someone in the context of the service being provided. Obviously with terrorism or violent passengers, police may at times have to enter planes, but this is not one of those cases.

Want to attract shoppers to your online brand? Go offline, says U of T marketing expert

Romi Levine — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 16:56:51 +0000

Want to attract shoppers to your online brand? Go offline, says U of T marketing expert

Romi Levine Fri, 12/16/2016 - 11:56

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Having a physical store may help online retail, says Rotman professor (photo by Chris Parker via Flickr)

Romi Levine

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Romi Levine

Topic

Global Lens

Retail