Marketing & sales

A feeling so common it has an acronym: fear of missing out. But what happens when activities are unavailable due to the coronavirus? Lalin Anik, an expert on consumer behavior and social connections, discusses FOMO in the pandemic: how it’s changed shape, the effect on mental health, and how we may balance it with risk aversion as states open up.

How Jeep and Bill Murray responded to a pandemic: a popular Super Bowl commercial for an SUV reincarnated as a message encouraging consumers to stay home and off the road. Here are an expert marketer’s observations of how brands shifted when faced with an integral shift in the way the world did business and people lived their lives.

University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Lalin Anik joins the Batten Institute’s Sean Carr to explore the evolution of consumer behavior in response to COVID-19, how brands are reacting, and what the future may hold as people look to them for trust and meaning amidst the uncertainty.

Peloton disrupted the home fitness space, bringing a boutique exercise experience to users’ homes and reaching a value of $4 billion by spring 2019. It was a complex business model of factors ranging from interactive technology to star power to retail success to connection to a firmly connected social media community.

People are romantically drawn to warm, kind people who treat others well. But when it comes to how a partner treats us, we really want special treatment. Both desires stand to reason, but are they equally important? (Hint: They’re not.) What are we willing to sacrifice to get what we want from a partnership?

Professor Kimberly Whitler shares five characteristics that better ads tend to have in common.

Everything really is better in moderation: Research shows that once a person hits the satiation point, consuming more of something means enjoying it less. A new study by Professor Manel Baucells offers a model charting where that point is and what to do about it — with implications for business as well as optimizing your own personal experiences.

Home entertainment has transformed. In a matter of years, we’ve gone from rabbit ears on the television to — come the November debut of Disney Plus — mouse ears on streaming media. What does that mean for Netflix and other competitors? What will the future bring for these companies and consumers?

The psychology of the set list: How can we increase enjoyment of an experience in the moment and in our memories? And how can this be used in business? After all, memory drives good reviews, return business and lasting satisfaction. Luckily, there’s a mathematical model for it.

China’s marketing landscape is a different machine than Western companies may be accustomed to. How a country evolves impacts consumer habits — which, in turn, should impact marketing practice. Western multinational firms seeking to expand need to shift their strategies — and might find they can apply some lessons to other markets.