Some would argue (my dad for one) that all the research effort we put into marketing or communications could probably be better spent curing cancer or something foolish like that! But then we wouldn’t have nifty papers like this one from Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger (full disclosure: one of the supergeniuses went to Penn). His research suggests that subtle environmental cues can influence consumer choices. They begin their report by offering the example of Mars Bars, which saw an increase in sales after NASA landed the Pathfinder spacecraft on Mars on July 4, 1997. “Although the Mars Bar takes its name from the company founder and not from Earth’s neighboring planet, consumers apparently responded to news about the planet Mars by purchasing more Mars Bars,” the authors write. Crazy, right? Try putting a Mars landing expedition in next year’s line item budget.
Filed under: consumer choice , advertising overload, big cats, consumer choice, environmental advertising, wharton
