Research on The Findings Report

The Market for Human Connection Is More Complicated Than We Think

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 04:30:00 -0700

I am nearing the end of another semester of teaching, and my courses are fast approaching the moment when students submit group projects they have been working towards for months. A familiar theme usually emerges. Without fail, a few groups present ideas for dating apps or products designed to help people be more social. Often, these ideas are genuinely well-crafted and creative. Sometimes, they are even technically impressive. They’re all built around the same premise: people are lonely, and the tools we have for connecting just aren’t working. Let us introduce you to the better solution for your problem.

Men 2.0

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0800

A year after the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the groundswell behind #MeToo, many experts are turning their attention to our cultural attitudes about masculinity. What does it mean to “be a man” and how do our answers to this question encourage harmful behavior? More explicitly, how is advertising and media helping or hindering our progress.

In this extended edition of the podcast, actor/writer Michael Iam Black joins us to discuss his forthcoming book, A Better Man, which is written as a letter to his son, and aims to reframe our thinking about masculinity. We also talk to Gary Barker, the founder and Director of Promundo, a nonprofit advocacy group that conducts global research and programs about manhood. Lastly, we interview Linda Tuncay Zayer, a professor and researcher at Loyola University. She shares insights from over a decade of research on advertising and media professionals, and their hidden biases about portrayals of men in media.

Trust

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0800

We’ve got trust issues. Trust is one of the characteristics many brands use to differentiate themselves from competitors. But consumer trust is in decline. 2018 may go on record as one of the low points for trust in government, media and business. What’s the solution? Does trust matter anymore?

Ben Boyd, Edelman’s Chief Client Strategy Officer, joins us to share insights from the latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer. The report is in its 18th year and depicts a challenging scorecard for the state of trust across the globe. Then, we chat with Kent Grayson about his work disaggregating the components of trust.

Nostalgia

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 09:03:00 -0800

Once considered a contagious malady, nostalgia is a powerful emotional force with proven psychological benefits. Music, in particular, is a potent nostalgia delivery device and in this episode of the podcast we talk to three experts about why nostalgia and music go well together and how to use them effectively to persuade and delight your audiences.

Music marketing maven Jesse K discusses the latest throwback trends and how many music artists are leveraging multiple media to amplify nostalgic effect. Researcher Rob Kozinets shares insights from his studies on retro subcultures and the boundaries of consumer tolerance for brands and beloved memories. And psychologist Petr Janata unpacks how nostalgia affects our brain and the scientific reasons behind its unique power to revive our memories and animate our bodies.

Pets

Fri, 23 Nov 2018 00:00:00 -0800

We’re in the midst of a new type of baby boom. Call it the pet boom. Some experts suggest that there are more pets in American households than children. The market certainly supports this findings, as the pet care industry continues to grow. What’s driving the trend?

In this special Black Friday edition of the podcast, we explore the key drivers of the Pet Boom and also the attitudes and behaviors of its most ardent participants. Portfolio manager Dan Miller joins us to share facts and figures behind the market, as well as learnings from the businesses who are gaining the confidence of pet parents. Then celebrity pet manager Loni Edwards sits down to share insights from the pets who are influencing our decisions. And actress Renée Felice Smith walks us through the joys and challenges of being a very dedicated dog mom.

Middleborns

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00:00 -0800

American families are getting smaller. Since the 1970s the average American family has shifted from three or more children to two or less. Which raises the interesting question: what happens to culture when there are fewer middle children. The middle child has prevailed as the most reliable narrator in many novels, television shows and movies, but will their reign last when fewer people can relate?

In this episode of the podcast, we talk with writer Adam Sternbergh about his fascinating article in New York Magazine: “The Extinction of the Middle Child." We also talk to Dr. Catherine Salmon, a psychologist who studies birth order, among many other nuances of family dynamics. Through it all, we reveal the many reasons why middleborns make the world better and why Americans need to preserve their legacy.

Timing

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 00:00:00 -0700

It is often said that timing is everything. Yet, there’s very little insight on how to improve your timing. In the season two opener, we explore the nuances of time and how our brains are wired to think differently at different times of day. The implications are astonishing. From being better at work to choosing what you buy at the grocery store, timing matters.

Bestelling author Daniel Pink joins us to discuss his latest book, When: The Scientifc Secrets of Perfect Timing, while researchers Jonah Berger and Kelly Gullo share findings from their latest study on time of day and variety seeking.

Label Me This

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0800

We encounter labels every day, in products and across categories. Gluten free, organic, local, craft, artisanal … these simple words contain a lot of hidden power. In the season one finale of The Findings Report Podcast we explore the case of Red Bull and vodka, and we follow the story of a research team that had a hunch there was more to its power than “wings.”

Guests Aradhna Krishna and Yann Cornil share insights and the details of their recently published study. And beer industry expert Christina Perozzi discusses the finer points and suggestive power of the labels behind your favorite craft brew.

Do-Gooders

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0800

Cause-related marketing has been around for a long time. It happens when a business or brand goes to market with a product or service and a promise to support a worthwhile cause. These tactics can include promotional offers linked to charitable giving or more integrated approaches such as the one-for-one model made popular by Tom’s and Warby Parker. The question is: how successful are these programs at driving sales for the marketer and for driving good deeds for the public.

When Consumers Delegate

Sun, 11 Feb 2018 16:53:00 -0800

When we lived in the same city, my best friend Hap and I made a habit of having breakfast together every Friday. The venue was usually the same, but as we both considered breakfast the most important and underrated meal of the day, we enjoyed trying new restaurants as often as we could. It is in this context that I recall a pet peeve, and also a hook to some new research on consumer behavior.

How Curiosity Closes Sales

Sun, 28 Jan 2018 16:07:00 -0800

We’ve all heard the proverb, “curiosity killed the cat.” Perhaps less well known is the proverb’s conclusion: but satisfaction brought it back. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research addresses both angles.

The study’s odd title, “I Want to Know the Answer! Give Me Fish ’n’ Chips!” is an allusion to one of its main experiments, in which respondents were given the option of a healthy salad or a plate of beer-battered fish and chips after being taunted by a riddle. The respondents who were provided with the riddle’s answer chose equally between the two options, but those left hanging opted for fish ’n’ chips by a significantly large measure.

Sounds Appealing

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:00 -0800

Sound is one of the most powerful consumer senses. It affects the brain in more ways than we imagine. It can actually change our perception of our other senses. In the latest episode of The Findings Report Podcast we explore this very dimension, and how marketers can target the ears to make favorable perceptions and drive satisfaction.

Professor Michael Lowe shares findings from a study he co-authored with Kelly Haws and recently published in the Journal of Marketing Research. In their experiments they uncovered a strong connection between acoustic pitch and consumer perceptions of product size.

More Than a March

Sun, 21 Jan 2018 20:11:00 -0800

Yesterday, millions of women gathered in cities across America to march together for social change. The second annual Women’s March occurred after a year that shocked us and reminded us of the gender-based imbalance of power in our culture. If there is a silver lining, it may be that 2017 will go down in history as a cornerstone year for women—a year when the issues could no longer be ignored.

Femvertising

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:02:00 -0800

Fearless Girl was the darling of the 2017 advertising awards shows. It rode a new wave of feminism that spanned from the Women’s March to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, leading Time Magazine to declare “The Silence Breakers” as the annual person of the year.

In this episode of The Findings Report Podcast we delve into female-forward marketing strategies. From Dove’s Real Beauty campaign to Always Like A Girl, we dissect the initiatives that succeed in forging a connection with women. And … those that don’t.

Blame it on the Clown

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:01:00 -0800

IT was one of the biggest hits at the box office in 2017. The reinterpretation of the Stephen King classic also became one of the highest grossing horror films of all time. And it enjoyed a particularly strong draw from younger audiences.

In this episode of The Findings Report Podcast we explore the power of fear to bring audiences closer to your brand. A stream of new academic research has shown that fear can be a useful strategy in the marketer’s playbook. We interview producer Matt Kaplan for his take on why IT and Stranger Things are such great success stories, and how marketers can better leverage investments in shock to connect with their target market. Then, we chat with researcher Lea Dunn to unpack a study she co-authored in the Journal of Consumer Research that found a curious connection between fear and consumer brand attachment.

Choice Without Preference

Sun, 07 Jan 2018 18:47:00 -0800

As marketers, we hold certain truths to be self-evident. We believe that lower prices lead to higher sales, satisfaction leads to loyalty, and choice is driven by preference. In fact, there are many cases when every single one of these “truths” can be decisively refuted. They persist as axioms because they are generally true in ordinary circumstances.

Yet, the third of these simple truths—the belief that preference drives choice—is perhaps the most blindly accepted. In my experience working with brands, I have sat through presentation after presentation where this belief was re-asserted without so much as a fidget from the most discerning of participants. Indeed, I myself have written many a slide that demonstrates the importance of driving preference in order to drive performance for the brand. Unfortunately, this assertion neglects a powerful quality of human life: self-control.

When We Throw Caution To The Wind

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 07:31:00 -0800

Did you buy the new iPhone X?

Despite a lot of consumer jawboning about the oddly placed top notch, the loss of the home button, and the hefty price tag, the Internet was abuzz on Friday with mostly favorable reviews and complaints of short supply.

For someone who came of age with the personal computer, I have a love/hate relationship with product upgrades. In the 80s and 90s, technology was too expensive to upgrade with every product cycle. Yet, the tech nerd in me obsessed with rapt desire over the new features and innovations. I was the guy friends mocked for being too much of an early adopter. Today, most of the technologies we carry are designed to be fleeting companions. In fact, Apple (along with many other product manufacturers) has faced minor backlash over allegations of planned obsolescence—a practice of designing products to have a shelf life that guarantees purchase of new models.

The Gender Quotient

Sun, 29 Oct 2017 08:29:00 -0700

The late David Ogilvy is credited with one of marketing’s most famous axioms. “The customer is not a moron; she is your wife.” The quotation reminds managers that we are all customers, but it is striking because of its decisive use of pronouns. The pivot from “customer” to “she” brings the message home. It is a prime example of the role gender can play in our communications.

Gender has become a challenging landscape for marketers. On the one hand, there are brands that are creating value by aligning themselves with gender-specific themes. One example is the femvertising trend, in which brands such as Dove, Always and GoldieBlox have tailored their messaging campaigns to feature stories of female empowerment. The approach is not exactly new. Although distasteful to today’s more enlightened audience, Virginia Slims wooed women to tobacco by celebrating the strength of the female sex.

When Brands Betray Us

Sun, 15 Oct 2017 11:11:00 -0700

Harvey Weinstein dominated the news this week. The revelations of his abusive, predatory behavior set off a firestorm that drove a who’s who list of celebrities and politicians to speak out against him and create distance. Meanwhile, women all over the country shared harrowing stories of their own experiences with men who assume that their advances are always welcome, and that the quid pro quo of access for sex is equitable and part of doing business.

Where Has the Time Gone?

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 08:58:00 -0700

Cocooning is a word that entered popular lexicon in 1981, coined by trend guru Faith Popcorn. While a novel concept at the time, four decades later it is a fact of life. Nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the leisure habits of Americans.

Executives in the media industry often talk about digital cocooning and shifts in viewing patterns, but a lot of that talk is anecdotal and relayed through hunches and personal observations. A good source of hard data can be found in the American Time Use Survey that is published each year by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. ATUS is a comprehensive breakdown of the ways in which Americans spend their time, with adjustments for weekdays, weekends and holidays. The data is used by economists, policy makers, social scientists and many others to understand everything from how much time we spend working at home to how much time we spend sleeping. One fascinating and often overlooked dimension of the study is the ways in which we spend our leisure time.

When Father Wants To Know Best

Sun, 27 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0700

It's an interesting time to be a parent in America. Last year, the birth rate hit a historic low, at 62 births per 1,000 women. Provisional estimates for August, 2017 indicate the trend is continuing.

While we're having fewer babies, we are also taking a new approach to parenting. Nowhere is this more evident than in two segments of the parenting population: Millennials and dads.

You may be sick of hearing the M-word, but this moment in time is an important inflection point for the generation-that-shall-not-be named (those born in the 1980s and '90s). This year, more than one million of them will become parents for the first time, according to the Pew Research Center. Demographers have been fascinated with Millennials because of their relative size and the circumstances of their coming-of-age. They were raised with a slightly older sibling called The Internet, and nurtured by a protective parenting generation that delighted in warning fellow drivers that there was a "baby on board." One would think that such influences would make them the most confident generation of parents in American history. The early data somewhat confirms this hypothesis, with one notable exception.

Is ESPN Destined to Become the Next Ticketmaster?

Sun, 02 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0700

I travel a lot. It has always been part of my work life. Like many seasoned travelers, I rely on a bevy of ritual behavior, from packing my bags at home to organizing my hotel drawers at my destination. But I recently realized that one of my important travel rituals has all but disappeared. For years, my first action upon arrival was to turn on the television and find ESPN. I haven’t done that in a long time. According to recent data, I’m not alone.

From Badging to Hacking

Sun, 25 Jun 2017 16:06:00 -0700

Last week the marketing elite gathered in Cannes for the annual pilgrimage sometimes called “ad agency spring break.” Meanwhile, Publicis announced that all of its agencies would take a year off from awards events like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to focus its investment on new artificial intelligence named “Marcel,” sparking considerable angst within its ranks. Meanwhile, Amazon purchased Whole Foods and Walmart purchased Bonobos. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Sex and Brands

Sun, 14 May 2017 16:39:00 -0700

Let’s talk about sex.

Actually, let’s talk about the fact that Americans are having less sex. A study reported in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior earlier this year found that Americans who were married or living together had sex 16 fewer times in 2010-2014 vs. the same interval of time in 2000-2004.

The trend is not isolated to those who are partnered. The 2017 edition of the General Social Survey, which is a nationally representative study of 26,707 Americans fielded by San Diego State University, found that young Millennials are considerably less sexually active than their Gen X predecessors. 15% of those age 20-24 reported that they had no sexual partners since the age of 18. Compare that stat to the smaller 6% of Gen Xers who reported the same in previous waves of the study.

Unapologetic Data

Sat, 15 Apr 2017 16:03:00 -0700

The last two weeks have been particularly trying for a couple of the world’s biggest brands. As you undoubtedly know, Pepsi launched a campaign that was intended to strike an emotional chord of hope and social unity. Instead, it reverberated with tone deafness and sparked immediate and justifiable outrage. Then United Airlines stumbled into the spotlight when it forcibly removed a passenger from an overbooked flight in Chicago.

In both cases, the bad brand behavior was made worse by fumbles at apologies.

And that's the way it is

Tue, 29 Nov 2016 08:25:00 -0800

In 2009 America bid a final farewell to its “most trusted man,” Walter Cronkite. Though not always liked, Cronkite was nearly always respected. He embodied a bygone era in journalism when the national news media gained consumer loyalty and credibility because of its dedicated pursuit of facts, objectivity and perspective. It was a time when the tech darling of the day (television) provided a massive platform for audiences to connect with a single, authoritative voice that helped them curate the events of the day. This loyal following crossed all generations and cast a halo on its network. If the news was on CBS and Cronkite reported it, it had a preferential seat at the table of our judgment.

Brand Dependence

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 09:25:43 +0000

It’s been a very busy past few months, which is why there hasn’t been much activity here on this site. Much of my time has been focused on UTA Brand Studio’s new research platform which we developed with uSamp and call the Brand Dependence Index. It measures an oft-overlooked dimension of consumer brands known as Brand Attachment, pioneered by my friends and colleagues C.Whan Park and Deborah MacInnis at USC’s Marshall School of Business.

Healthcare for Brands on A Budget

Sun, 09 May 2010 00:15:16 +0000

Average Americans aren’t the only ones fretting over healthcare issues. Brand health is becoming one of the hottest topics in the CMO community. Two forces are driving the sudden interest in metrics and “brand dashboards.” Managers are growing more metrics-focused because of the rising use of online media in the total marketing mix. Online media allows managers to see a direct cause-and-effect relationship between a demand generation initiative and sales. It’s only natural that the same managers would start to ask, “How much is my brand driving sales?”

Toward Sustainable Branding

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:56:52 +0000

“Realistically, this thing must live for three to five years.” He was the CMO of a rapidly growing technology company and his disclaimer came shortly after he approved our strategy recommendation. He justified it with two reasons. First, he needed a shelf life of three to five years to justify the financial investment. But his second reason was far more interesting. “We’ll be bought by then and we’ll either have to lose the brand or re-invent it to match the new company.”

Brand Preference, Experience and Memory

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:58:59 +0000

Brand marketers often fall prey to a massively faulty assumption. They assume that consumers are rational. I’ve sat through many detailed client presentations, replete with volumes of data, wherein a brand platform is justified on the basis of a logical argument that will convince consumers the client’s brand is better than a competitor’s. They believe that touting the virtues of their brand attributes will persuade a consumer to try, switch or buy more. It makes logical sense, they say. When the consumer weighs the choice, we’ll come out ahead.