Marketers often look to position products in ways that resonate with both the personal and professional lives of consumers. But is this strategy effective? In a recent Journal of Marketing Research study, “,” authors Nita Umashankar, Dhruv Grewal, Abhijit Guha, and Timothy R. Bohling offer cutting-edge insights into this question. The study provides a comprehensive perspective on the effectiveness and pitfalls of “work–life positioning” in marketing campaigns.

Through rigorous field experiments on social media, this research challenges a prevailing assumption in marketing that products can effectively address multiple needs simultaneously without unintended consequences. The authors explore whether highlighting the work–life interface in marketing communications drives consumer engagement. The study reveals that while work–life messaging can enhance interest in simpler products (e.g., personal care, daily planners, apparel), it often backfires for resource-demanding ones (e.g., education, cosmetic surgery, travel, computers).

Why Does this Strategy Backfire?

While combining work–life elements in marketing may seem like a “win–win” approach, consumers may view this messaging as a reminder of the conflicting demands of their lives, triggering stress and reducing interest in the product. According to the study authors, “this is the first time we’ve realized that bringing personal life and professional life together in product messaging is very risky.”

For practitioners, this highlights the importance of avoiding overgeneralized “win–win” positioning for products that address resource-intensive aspects of consumers’ lives. It’s important for marketers to consider the intricate and ever-evolving nature of consumer psychology.

While combining work–life elements in marketing may seem like a “win–win” approach, consumers may view this messaging as a reminder of the conflicting demands of their lives, triggering stress and reducing interest in the product.

The findings also have broader societal and organizational implications. The research provides a deeply personal and compelling perspective on work–life balance, particularly its significance for women navigating professional and personal responsibilities. Study author points to the reality of many women leaving the workforce during childbearing years, not because they lack ambition or capability but because workplace policies often fail to offer the flexibility they need to balance these dual roles. Nita emphasizes the importance of adaptive marketing strategies that accommodate consumers’ diverse life stages and challenges.

It was our pleasure to interview Nita, who shared how her own journey of motherhood transformed her professional outlook and helped her to work smarter, prioritize her activities better, and increase her output. She said that these lessons were universal, transcending the specifics of parenting into the general contexts where the personal and professional domains meet.

Q: Since the current study relies on social media ad clicks as a key measure of consumer interest, how can businesses account for platform-based biases (e.g., Facebook vs. LinkedIn) when designing and interpreting the effectiveness of work-life ads?

A: The two platforms attract different types of consumers or cater to different consumer mindsets while using the app. Therefore, based on the target consumer’s demographics and mindset (whether they are using the platform to socialize for fun [Facebook] or to network for work [LinkedIn]), businesses can emphasize or downplay work–life elements accordingly.

Q: The research classified products as “resource-demanding” and “resource-undemanding.” How can brands tailor resource-demanding product messaging to align with diverse consumer lifestyles and incomes?

A: Brands should avoid messaging that highlights the work–life interface, as it may evoke perceptions of work–life conflict. This is particularly relevant for consumers who experience work–life conflicts regularly, such as working mothers or executives.

Q: How can businesses use insights about work–life conflict to refine their targeting strategies and improve resonance with high-conflict segments?

A: Businesses naturally tend to position products for busy consumers to meet multiple needs, such as those related to work and personal life. However, this approach may be triggering for these consumers. Therefore, depending on the product, we recommend emphasizing either work or personal life, but not necessarily both.

Q: What additional metrics could help businesses better understand consumer engagement beyond ad clicks, such as the time spent viewing or deeper interactions?

A: Our findings extend beyond digital advertising to product positioning in general. Metrics such as time spent on ads, engagement rates, and qualitative feedback can provide deeper insights into consumer interests and preferences.

Q: What ethical guidelines can help businesses responsibly use work–life messaging without inadvertently amplifying stress or conflict among their customers?

A: If our findings suggested that signaling work–life conflict led to increased ad clicks, it would present an ethical dilemma. However, our results indicate that priming the work–life interface is unwise if it is perceived as conflict rather than enrichment, as this reduces product interest. Therefore, this approach is both a smart business decision and an ethical one.

Q: As highlighted in the paper, consumers often navigate the complexities of the work-life interface. How did you identify the need to explore the effects of work–life positioning strategies on consumer behavior and ad effectiveness? Additionally, what motivated you to pursue this fascinating and impactful research area?

A: The idea emerged while teaching in the MBA program, where I observed students managing both professional and personal domains. The program emphasized personal growth alongside professional development. This research is very close to my heart. We began working on this paper shortly after I had my first child and continued through my second pregnancy and beyond, so work–life conflict and work–life enrichment played a significant role in my life.

Source: Nita Umashankar, Dhruv Grewal, Abhijit Guha, and Timothy R. Bohling (2024), “Testing Work–Life Theory in Marketing: Evidence from Field Experiments on Social Media,” Journal of Marketing Research, 61 (2), 307–29. doi:

Go to the Journal of Marketing Research

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Pop-up SIGs are temporary entities (formed for a period of one to three years) created to address emerging topics in marketing that typically fall at the intersection of existing SIGs or around new substantive/thematic developments in the field. The Organizational Frontlines group has been successful in holding programming and attracting members from diverse SIGs in the past and that is the pilot as a Pop-up SIG. These may transition into SIGs of their own if they have enough members at the end of three years or may be folded into existing SIGs (provided the SIG agrees to merge with the Pop-Up). It is a way for ��������� to promote new topic areas within marketing, and to highlight topics at the intersection of different sub-fields in marketing.

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Brands are constantly updating their visual identities. Intel in half a century, and its new logo has iconic symmetry, balance, and proportion. The underlying geometry is apparent in the design. Could visual design characteristics influence consumers’ perceptions about the brand?

In a , we find that a sense of order and structure can reinforce claims about a brand’s utilitarian benefits. Intel’s visual marketing not only communicates the company’s vision and positioning but also reinforces them through specific design properties. We identify a variety of design properties that can influence perceptions of structure in visual elements, including symmetry, balance, geometry, regularity, proximity, and similarity.

It is well known that customers are subliminally influenced by visual marketing tools such as logos, packages, and retail displays; they use them as a basis to make judgments about brands delivering on their promise. For brands that promise utilitarian (functional, instrumental, and useful) benefits, we find that consumers are encouraged by visual designs perceived as more orderly and structured. This suggests marketers can capitalize on the power of perception to influence beliefs about brand performance, which ultimately influences product interest and choice.

Utilitarian vs. Hedonic Brands

At the other end of the spectrum are brands such as Pepsi, which promise benefits related to enjoyment, pleasure, and experiences—collectively referred to as hedonic benefits. In this case, marketers can benefit from using visual design properties that convey lack of structure. The visual elements of Pepsi’s marketing communications are relatively more asymmetric, free-flowing, unbalanced, and irregular. Our research suggests that these characteristics reinforce consumers’ beliefs about the performance of hedonic-positioned brands.

In short, we find that visual design characteristics that encourage structured perceptions of visual communications (such as when the visual elements have high proximity, high similarity, and symmetry) can reinforce beliefs about utilitarian-positioned brand performance. On the other hand, visual design characteristics that encourage unstructured perceptions of visual communications (for instance, when the visual elements are asymmetrical, have low proximity, or low similarity) can reinforce beliefs about hedonic-positioned brand performance. These reinforcements occur because structure and lack of structure have specific associations that consumers use to make inferences. Our suggestions are supported by a series of carefully designed experiments, both in the lab and in the field, and an analysis of industry data.

First, we found that in a large-scale field experiment, when a perfume was positioned as utilitarian (“Long-lasting. Great for work and everyday occasions”), consumers were more likely to click on the advertisement depicting the perfume with a visual design perceived as more structured than its unstructured counterpart. When the perfume was positioned as hedonic (“Delightful. Great for special and fun occasions”), consumers were more likely to click on the advertisement depicting the perfume with a visual design perceived as more unstructured than its structured counterpart.

Second, when consumers made choices considering functional goals (such as choosing a restaurant that provides a fast and reliable experience), they were more likely to pick a restaurant perceived as structured. However, when the choice involved hedonic goals (such as choosing a restaurant providing an entertaining and exciting experience) they were likely to pick the option perceived as unstructured. Importantly, we consistently find that these effects, across a variety of visual marketing communications, induce a structured versus unstructured perception in different ways.

Finally, we find that for brands perceived as more utilitarian, structured perceptions are associated with greater financial brand valuation and customer-based brand equity than unstructured perceptions. The opposite is true for brands perceived as more hedonic.

This research offers actionable insights for marketers and visual design specialists working with design, advertising, social media communications, visual merchandising, and the appearance of retail environments. Specifically, the findings suggest that perceptual structure can be used as an efficient marketing communication tool. And it can encourage consumers at the point of purchase, being a relatively costless way to reinforce brand positioning.

Lessons for Chief Sales Officers

• Brands may want to consider using design elements that encourage structured/unstructured perceptions of logos, products, product packaging, and retail store design if their brand is primarily associated with utilitarian/hedonic benefits.
• The implications of our research extend to many other visual marketing communications, including print advertisements, website layouts, and app user interfaces. Marketers can take advantage of our findings and anticipate the consequences of key visual design decisions.
• Brands could benefit in the long term from shifting the structure of their visual marketing communications to align with their brand positioning.

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From: Felipe M. Affonso and Chris Janiszewski, “,” Journal of Marketing.

Go to the Journal of Marketing

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The studies presented provide compelling evidence that when consumers consider that recyclables are transformed into something new, they recycle more. The authors also provide insights into how companies can use product transformation messages to increase consumer recycling. Two industry experts offer their own perspectives and support for the research. The recycling conversation needs to change from “Where does this go?” to “What can this make?” so consumers are inspired to recycle to make new products.

The full article is available at

This session was held as a part of the 2020 ��������� Summer Academic Conference. Also available are a series of for the classroom presented by conference sponsors.

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Leonard Berry | University Distinguished Professor of Marketing, M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University

Underuse of Palliative Care and Hospice Services

One of healthcare’s most important jobs is to help people with advanced illnesses live as comfortably as possible until they die. Yet, many patients do not die how they wish, which is to be as pain-free as possible and at home surrounded by family. Two services are available in the U.S. for patients with advanced illness—palliative care and hospice. Both services provide comfort care (such as pain control) and emotional support for patients and their families.

However, palliative care and hospice services are grossly underutilized in the U.S. ���������t 60% of patients who could benefit from palliative care do not receive it and 25% of hospice patients die within three days of enrollment even though insurance covers it for six months. How can marketing help improve the utilization of these valuable services that can help people live better at the end of life?

Poverty and Health

Another important topic is the impact of social determinants on health. Factors such as quality of housing and education, income levels, physical activity, and social support are far more influential in overall health and length of life than medical care. For example, life expectancy in a low-income Chicago area drops 16 years compared to an affluent neighborhood. Poverty’s links to health may seem an impossibly big and complex topic for marketing academics to tackle, but research teams can break this big puzzle into manageable pieces and make extraordinary contributions. Consider, for example, the opportunity for marketing to reimagine housing for low-income people such as being done in designing “purpose-built communities” such as Villages of East Lake in Atlanta, GA. Think of “purpose-built communities” as a complex new product to serve the needs of its customers and other stakeholders. We in marketing have the expertise to make these “products” much better.

Punam Keller | Senior Associate Dean of Innovation and Growth, Charles Henry Jones Third Century Professor of Management, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University

Ecosystem goal: The Role of Business and Marketing in the BIG Picture

Multiple factors determine health outcomes. As the current pandemic shows, health outcomes are the result of interactions across global and social elements, technology, governments, and organizations. Thus, to tackle health problems, marketing should work more with the parties that it has not done so very often in the past. For example, collaborative work with global organizations such as WHO, WTO, and COP can be advantageous.

Individual Behavioral Goal: Message-Behavior Tailoring Using Technology and AI

Switching the focus from the ecosystem level to the individual level, marketing should note that technology can be readily adapted to encourage behavioral changes that promote better health outcomes. For example, smartphones can be powerful if combined with tailored messages alerting patients when to take their medications. We can study the efficacy of the types of text messages across segments of patients to understand which types of message are most successful at promoting positive behavioral changes.

Irina Kozlenkova | Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Virginia

Mitigating the Effects of Physician Turnover through Relationships

Relationships have an important role in healthcare marketing. Among many players in the healthcare ecosystem (which includes payers, purchasers, suppliers/distributors, and regulators), the physician-patient relationship is central to healthcare and is also related to other entities in the ecosystem.

One problem that has not been understood well is mitigating the effects of physician turnover. In 2017, healthcare jobs experienced 21% turnover, which is second only to the hospitality sector’s turnover rate. It is costly to replace health professionals ($100,000 to replace a registered nurse, $1,000,000 to replace a physician) and doing so negatively affects patients and organizations. It has been shown that typical retention initiatives that work in other industries do not work well in healthcare.

Relational mitigation strategies may be key to mitigating the negative impact of turnovers. We conducted qualitative interviews with employees from all levels of a big healthcare organization (from high level executives, physicians, nurses, to receptionists) and a patient survey, which we later matched with turnover data and patient health data. The data revealed a big variance between various departments in terms of staff structure – some had consistent structures, while others were more ad-hoc. We learned that it is important to pay attention not only to physician turnover, but also to other parties (RNs, MAs, PAs). Continuity of care with the other parties improves patient outcomes, such as retention by 45–75%. While often the most attention is paid to the central relationship between a physician and a patient, we found that to many patients, their relationships with other members of the healthcare team (e.g., nurses, medical assistants) were as or more important as the relationship with their physician. Proactive communication with recommendations for a replacement of a leaving party has also been shown to improve outcomes (41–91%).

Off-Labeling Prescribing

Another important problem to address is off-label prescribing. It is legal in many countries to prescribe drugs for conditions for which they have not been approved. This is a very common practice (over 20% of prescriptions are off-label), yet patients are often unaware of it because doctors are not required to tell them. Since drugs are used for conditions for which they have not been tested and approved, it can be risky, and sometimes deadly. Some populations (e.g., children, pregnant women) may disproportionally receive off-label prescriptions. Research shows that over 70% of off-label uses have little to no scientific support.

Two important research questions surrounding this issue are how to regulate off-label prescribing without stifling innovation and understanding how physicians make off-label prescribing decisions. Our preliminary research findings from a field conjoint study, matched with the actual prescription data, show that physicians are more likely to prescribe an off-label drug when they are similar to the patient (in gender or experiencing the same “issue”) and when they have more experience in the specialty. Also, higher prices of the approved drug tend to diminish the use of the cheaper off-label drug.

Cait Lamberton | Alberto I. Duran Distinguished Presidential Professor in Marketing, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

Micro: Biases Specific to Care Choices?

While we have done quite a lot of work to show that well-established biases exist in healthcare (as they do in any context), we also have a lot to learn about specific biases that may arise in healthcare choice making. One example is anti-community bias. Health outcomes are superior closer to home, given that closer-to-home facilities offer better accessibility and a closer relationship with doctors. With no other information, patients seem to prefer to stay close to home. However, when given a choice, patients tend to reject community hospitals in favor of more distant university-based hospitals, which do not necessarily lead to better outcomes for many standard procedures. Moreover, in rural areas (where 20% of the U.S. population resides) such biases may have long-lasting negative effects, as we see the increasing closures of community hospitals in rural areas. Given this tension between rural and community hospitals versus urban and university-based hospitals, understanding how patients make choices weighing different factors across these two types of hospitals and contemplating how and when marketing should tip the scales become crucial.

Macro: Satisfaction (with Healthcare)?

At the macro-level, marketing can focus on hospital satisfaction measurement. HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) measures patient experience including communication, pain management, and the quietness of the hospital environment. It is a widely used measure, freely available and, more importantly offers a huge opportunity to conduct interesting research. For example, an interesting area of research is the difference in the mode of delivery where more positive responses are attained through mobile devices than through computers. Researchers can also investigate the role of pain and the way it may be framed to help consumers deal with it in the most healthy manner, what types of advertising work well for healthcare facilities and providers, and how we can more accurately capture patient satisfaction as fully-conceptualized, and likely to be rooted in different, healthcare-specific experiences like empathy and respect for dignity, than might drive satisfaction with other goods and services.

John Lynch | University of Colorado Distinguished Professor, University of Colorado-Boulder

Health Care System Infomediaries

Healthcare expenses have experienced a six-fold increase in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1970. One major factor contributing to this increase is the absence of consumer price sensitivity. Insurers, the payers of this expense, cap the maximum out-of-pocket costs for the consumer. Even when patients are paying, they are often willing to pay all they can for a few more months of expected life. Furthermore, prices are opaque, even to doctors. This means that doctors do not know how much patients will be charged for a given procedure. They view it as impossible to know because it is dependent on insurance and not their job to know. How can marketing help incorporate price sensitivity in healthcare? Can we design pricing infomediary models to help doctors be better price shoppers for their patients?

Health Privacy & Quality of Care

Another interesting topic is health privacy and quality of care. HIPPA regulations govern the uses and disclosures of personal health information. Patients have rights over their health information and can authorize certain health records to be disclosed. How many consumers know who has what records and how does this affect the transmission of health history information that could benefit care?

Utilizing health data is analogous to the literature on customer identification in advertising, pricing, and personalized recommendations. Sharing information has benefits, but there are also risks of exploitation. Can we develop models for patient ownership and sharing of personal health information that promote better health outcomes?

Detelina Marinova | Sam Walton Distinguished Professor of Marketing, University of Missouri

Physician-Patient Digital Communications for Improved Health Outcomes

Provider-patient interactions are crucial in healthcare and we see a shift of the mode of communication from in-person to digital platforms, especially during the pandemic. However, research has just started to address digital communication in healthcare. Digital communication can be beneficial because it reduces office visits, which can improve efficiency. However, it can also increase physician workload in other ways and digital communication bears a risk of miscommunication. Thus, it is important to understand why and under what conditions digital communication between patients and providers contributes to patient compliance, engagement, and improved health outcomes.

Managing Frontline Interactions for Patient Well-Being and Hospital Revenue

Hospital spending constitutes 30% of national health expenditures, yet it is challenging to deliver high quality and cost-efficient health outcomes. With this tension, there are trade-off s between hospital revenue and patient well-being. One crucial aspect affecting both hospital spending and health outcomes is frontline interactions, which includes proactive actions by physicians and nurses and reactive actions by staffs. These often shape patients’ behavioral approach to medical conditions and treatments, thereby influencing the patients’ well-being. Moreover, it can be either a revenue source or a high-cost factor for hospitals. Therefore, one potential research question is how proactive and reactive actions of frontline agents contribute to or alleviate the trade-offs from the dual-emphasis on hospital revenues and patient well-being.

Vikas Mittal | J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing, Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University

Health Care & Marketing

Conducting successful research in healthcare has a few issues that are uncommon in other sectors. First, problem-solving and practical relevance is critical in healthcare. Collaborators in health systems may not be interested in laborious “theory.” Hence, it is important to focus on relevant problems with basic rigor rather than thin-slicing or engaging in complicated quantitative analyses.

Second, research modesty is important for successful collaboration. A marketing perspective can contribute to solving healthcare problems, which is a much better approach than trying to solve a marketing problem with healthcare only as a “context.” For example, problem-oriented research questions may be: 1. How can a pharmacy chain manage its segmentation in different locations? and 2. How can nursing homes improve employee retention to improve healthcare outcomes?

Third, it is important to learn the differences in process as well as in incentive structures. In healthcare, grants are more critical than publications, so learning how to contribute to the grant-writing process is vital. Regarding publications, in medical journals, authorship and authorship order follow a pre-defined structure. Lastly, data privacy and data integrity issues are paramount and often university-level permissions are needed, which can be time-consuming.

Despite the unique characteristics of the field, there are many marketing research opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of medical and healthcare problems and teaching opportunities for training health professionals for rewarding careers.

Maura Scott | Madeline Duncan Rolland Professor of Marketing, Florida State University

Stigma and Vulnerability in Healthcare: Solutions through Technology?!

Stigmatized consumers experience a distinct healthcare journey relative to other consumers. Stigmatization can aversely influence the quality of care that patients receive from healthcare providers. Stigmatization in healthcare can limit patients’ willingness to engage in their treatment, thereby potentially further harming their health outcomes. Sources of stigma include certain patients’ characteristics such as race, ethnicity, and body type. Some diseases may be stigmatized based on the perceptions of visibility, controllability, permanence, or contagion associated with the disease. Vulnerable populations (e.g., underrepresented minority groups) may face these two sources of stigmatization at the same time, further affecting their well-being. Identifying interventions that help encourage stigmatized patients overcome the reluctance to engage in their healthcare (e.g., via online healthcare communities) is crucial. More research should identify policies that create an inclusive, equitable, and accessible healthcare system.

Technology in Healthcare: Tensions and Solutions

One potential way to tackle low engagement from stigmatized patients is to leverage relevant technology in healthcare. There are concerns and tensions to consider when developing such solutions. First, technology can reduce stigmatization because it can reduce human interaction; however, technology programmed with inherent bias could increase stigmatization. Second, technology could lower costs and increase accessibility for vulnerable patients. Yet, income level can make a difference in healthcare service quality, for example by separating ‘premium’ in-person service for the wealthy, which might lead back to the current status quo. Third, technology can influence patients’ anxiety levels, which suggests the need for healthcare interventions to help reduce anxiety triggered by technology. More research is needed to identify how to leverage technology in healthcare to increase accessibility and inclusivity of high quality, low-cost healthcare for all patients. 

Steven Shugan | McKethan-Matherly Eminent Scholar Chair and Professor, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida

Changes in Healthcare Markets

Marketing can address several interesting issues in changing healthcare markets. Service mix has been addressed in recent work, highlighting the fact that services offered by non-profit hospitals differ from those offered by for-profit hospitals. More research on service mix is needed. Websites hosted by hospitals and other healthcare providers can serve multiple roles—information provision (education) and selling (referrals). Research on multiple role healthcare websites would be valuable. New product launches are also an interesting problem in healthcare, with many new devices facing complications when being brought to market because of licensing issues and multiple players (including regulators, competitors with patents and courts).

Block-chain is a new encryption technology that may enable the storage of sensitive healthcare data. Marketing research can address the interaction of these databases with multiple parties also with privacy concerns. The interaction of these databases with consumers is a typical marketing communications issue. Artificial intelligence also has made its way into healthcare integration, from reading x-rays to making diagnoses, yet the AI-consumer interface is a marketing issue with many unanswered questions.

Other changes in healthcare markets that merit further research include the effect of changes in government regulation of the healthcare industry, the impact of for-profit entry in the existing market, and the implications of declining patient co-pays. Marketing communication in a heavily regulated environment with both business-to-business and business-to-consumer issues provides many research topics.

Healthcare Data Sources

There are many publicly available data sources in healthcare. Links for these data sources appear in the attached slide. Many of these datasets can be integrated based on geography (e.g., zip codes, FIPS, states, counties, etc.). My slides indicate many sources of free healthcare data. I and coauthors have also purchased data from American Hospital Directory and combined that data with data from free sources.

Jagdip Singh | AT&T Professor, Case Western Reserve University

Frontlines in Hyper-Markets

The pandemic has underscored the importance of getting ahead of the healthcare curve in uncertain and fast-changing healthcare markets. Research opportunities lie in the study of “outside-in” and “inside-out” frontline capabilities in healthcare organizations for demand anticipation and response agility that yield effective outcomes.  These capabilities require an integration of ground-level experience with data-based analytics at speed.  Several research contributions in Marketing can be useful to facilitate understanding of these capabilities including adaptive foresight, strategic flexibility, velocity and marketing excellence.  Some potential ways to seed research is to leverage public data such as ‘Red Dawn’ emails or data from wearable-sensor technology. 

Temporary Organizing for Public Health

The uncertain nature of healthcare markets can sometimes stem from public health and humanitarian crises such as climate change, war, disease, migration, and other conflicts. Many different organizations, such as the Red Cross, NGOs, and Doctors Without Borders, come together to address these crises. The challenges involved collaboration, coalition, and conflict in temporary meta-organizations to yield effective outcomes. Several research contributions in Marketing can be useful to facilitate understanding of these challenges including cause-driven marketing, mega-marketing and temporary marketing organizations.  Potential for funding projects and data comes from Gates Foundation grants, Business Roundtable priorities, and community data.

Hari Sridhar | Joe B. Foster’56 Chair in Business Leadership Professor of Marketing, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University

Marketing in the Healthcare Sector: Improving Cancer Outreach Effectiveness

Marketing research in the healthcare sector can complement and embellish medical research. It is important to recognize that not all patients are created equal. We can leverage more than 60 years of marketing research on customer needs and the latest developments in machine learning. Using predictive models, we can also demonstrate the social and financial impact of healthcare interventions. Doing so can help the field of marketing become a value-added support arm to healthcare.

In our study¹ of cancer outreach effectiveness, we use patient data and predictive models to improve returns on cancer outreach efforts. Only 4-8% of the general population undergoes regular cancer screening, despite massive spending on preventive outreach campaigns. In an National Institute of Health (NIH) supported study in partnership with UT-Southwestern, we conduct a large scale randomized field experiment to study how cancer screening visits are impacted by different types of cancer outreach efforts. Using a smorgasbord of variables concatenated from medical histories, geographical information, and the outreach program CRM data, we apply causal forests to estimate the causal effect of outreach efforts for every individual patient. We find that patient response to cancer screening varies dramatically across the population, enabling the dream of personalized outreach programs. By targeting the right people with the right intervention, we show that cancer outreach programs can save money and improve yield (over 74% in returns) in preventive cancer screening. Can marketing save lives and money? Our answer is a resounding yes.

It is also critical to understand the innards of the healthcare value chain and move beyond just the study of patient-physician and patient-facility interfaces. Other marketing scholars are now addressing issues surrounding multiple players in designing care facilities and improving quality of care, the complexities of hospital purchasing contracts, and the impact of regulatory interventions on payment disclosures. The field is ripe with other relevant questions and we are merely scratching the surface.

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S Sriram | Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Technology has the potential to have a significant impact on the healthcare ecosystem. More importantly, the impact is likely to be felt by all stakeholders in the ecosystem. I consider two examples here.

The Internet of Health Things

In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the use of wearable devices and apps by consumers, who use these devices for monitoring various markers of physiological and psychological well being. Broadly, these hardware devices and software applications come under the realm of Internet of Things (IoT). Do these devices, which are supposed to monitor health actually lead to better health outcomes and well being? Extant literature has documented mixed results because of several reasons. First, purchasing a device or downloading an app does not necessarily translate into repeat usage. Researchers have documented that consumers routinely lose interest after a few months. Second, even in instances where interest does not wane over time, routinely monitoring markers of health can lead to excessive obsession, which can be detrimental to overall well being. Third, even if we can establish a positive effect of these devices on health outcomes and overall well-being using observational data, one needs to be careful to control for patient self-selection – purchasers of these devices are likely to be different from those who chose not to purchase them.

The effect of these devices and apps can extend beyond patients. In this regard, how an individual’s health monitoring efforts can benefit other stakeholders in the whole ecosystem can be studied. For example, providers might see the reduced hospital readmission rate as shown in some literature and can potentially ensure adherence to medication taken outside hospitals. Drug manufacturers can increase the speed of drug development faster with regularly monitored data, as opposed to relying on self-reported measures. Of course, the downside is that such regular monitoring can be intrusive and raise concerns about loss of privacy. A careful quantification of the benefits of monitoring patient health information can help in assessing whether the benefits of sharing consumer data outweigh the risks associated with the violation of privacy.

Telemedicine

Although the idea of telemedicine has been around for a few years, COVID-19 has made it a reality for many consumers of healthcare. The promise of telemedicine lies in its potential to relax wealth, accessibility, time, and skills constraints. This, in turn, can democratize healthcare. However, there are several important questions that need to be answered in order to assess whether and how this promise is realized. First, is the actual and perceived quality of a telemedicine service as good as in-person visits? Are there any particular risks of misdiagnosis from telemedicine? Second, the benefits delivered by telemedicine might not be evenly distributed across different stakeholders. For example, what benefits do patients and other stakeholders such as providers, payers, and telemedicine platforms derive from the new mode of healthcare delivery? How are these benefits distributed among the various stakeholders? How does the relaxation of the aforementioned constraints benefit patients? Does the benefit vary across patients’ socioeconomic status? Lastly, one can study the challenges that telemedicine might face in building a stable platform.

Richard Staelin | Gregory Mario and Jeremy Mario Professor of Business Administration, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Patient Experience Questions

Patient experience data has been collected for decades. However, until recently, most of these data came from standard surveys given to patients after they received treatment. Over the last few years free-form texts, such as reviews, have become increasing available. This new source of input from the patients may provide additional information to more traditional “rating-only” surveys. Do patient reviews of doctors differ substantially from customer reviews in other sectors? Do these reviews provide new information over the standard surveys?

There may be distinct segments of patients that vary in terms of their ability to judge the quality of service received. What is the size of the sophisticated market segment and can it influence the behavior of medical professionals? It would also be interesting to understand whether patients’ view of the quality of care differs across venues of service (e.g., emergency room, hospital, clinic). How is the perceived quality different from the objective quality measures currently used by medical practitioners?

Organizational Reaction to Patient Experience Data

Patient experience data are relevant to hospital management and insurance companies. Do they pay more attention to some databases over others depending on the source? How much should they weigh patient experience data compared to objective or clinical measures of quality? What are the profit implications for the hospital/company? The reaction of the medical staff is also a critical factor in understanding the impact of patient feedback data. Are providers receptive to such feedback by the patients and, if so, do their ability to adapt to feedback depend on the type of information? For example, patient feedback may be regarding bedside manners, receiving faulty advice, or being overcharged. Medical professionals may try to improve bedside manners and avoid billing mistakes, but it may be very difficult (or costly) to alter diagnostic practices.

Learn more about the Journal of Marketing Special Issue on “Marketing in the Healthcare Sector” and note that for those interested,  must be made between July 1, 2021 and November 1, 2021.

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Teaching Insights

Marketers should consider appreciating (e.g., saying “thank you for the wait”) rather than apologizing to (e.g., saying “sorry for the wait”) their customers in redressing most service failures, as doing so increases the customers’ self-esteem, which in turn leads to favorable consumer responses such as higher customer satisfaction, positive word of mouth, and repatronage intentions.

Related Marketing Courses: ​
Consumer Behavior; Marketing Communications; Marketing Strategy; Services Marketing​​​​ ​​​​

Full Citation: ​
You, Yanfen, Xiaojing Yang, Lili Wang, and Xiaoyan Deng (2020), “,” Journal of Marketing, 84 (2), 133–50.

Article Abstract: 
In their initial recovery efforts after a service failure, service providers need to decide what to communicate to consumers to restore their satisfaction. Prior work has primarily examined apology (saying “sorry”) as a symbolic recovery strategy; the current research suggests appreciation (saying “thank you”) as an alternative, often more effective strategy. Drawing from research on linguistic framing and self-view, the authors reason that the shift of focus in the service provider–consumer interaction, from emphasizing service providers’ fault and accountability (apology) to spotlighting consumers’ merits and contributions (appreciation), can increase consumers’ self-esteem and, in turn, postrecovery satisfaction. Across multiple service failure contexts, Studies 1a–1e establish the superiority of appreciation in redressing service failures. By measuring and manipulating self-esteem and examining the moderating role of narcissism and recovery timing, Studies 2–5 provide converging evidence for consumers’ state self-esteem as the underlying mechanism. Studies 6 and 7 go beyond examining appreciation in isolation and show that it is as effective as recovery messages that combine appreciation and apology (Study 6) and that its superiority over apology holds when service providers combine symbolic and utilitarian recovery (Study 7).

Special thanks to  and , Ph.D. candidates at Duke University, for their support in working with authors on submissions to this program.

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Teaching Insights

Video advertising often involves dynamic presentations of products that are displayed to move in a similar way to animals. When products are animated to move faster in video ads, they look smaller in consumers’ eyes. Practitioners should be aware of the general negative relationship between animated movement speed and product size assessment. Guided by this principle, they could further determine the ideal animated movement speeds for their products through speed calibration tests tailored to their products’ natures and marketing communication objectives.

Related Marketing Courses: ​
Consumer Behavior; Digital Marketing; Marketing Communications

Full Citation: ​
Jia, H. (Michael), B. Kyu Kim, and Lin Ge (2020), “,” Journal of Marketing.

Article Abstract: 
Digital ads often display video content in which immobile products are presented as if they are moving spontaneously. Six studies demonstrate a speed-based scaling effect, such that consumers estimate the size of an immobile product to be smaller when it is animated to move faster in videos, due to the inverse size–speed association they have learned from the domain of animate agents (e.g., animals, humans). Supporting a cross-domain knowledge transfer model of learned size–speed association, this speed-based scaling effect is (1) reduced when consumers perceive a product’s movement pattern as less similar to animate agents’ movement patterns, (2) reversed when a positive size–speed association in the base domain of animate agents is made accessible, (3) attenuated for consumers who have more knowledge about the target product domain, and (4) mitigated when explicit product size information is highlighted. Furthermore, by decreasing assessed product size, fast animated movement speed can either positively or negatively influence willingness to pay, depending on consumers’ size preferences.

Special thanks to  and , Ph.D. candidates at Duke University, for their support in working with authors on submissions to this program.

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Teaching Insights

Amazon’s Prime days, but also Krogers’ Cart Buster (also known as Mega Sales), are just two examples of innovative promotional activities. This study looks at these innovative types of events and demonstrates the effects they have on consumers.

Retailer-Themed Super Saver Events (ReTSS) differ from normal day-to-day promotions on several dimensions (unusually deep immediate discounts, across a broad range of categories, using of a uniform deal format and a common savings theme, that is unique to the retailer, and communicated through mass media), and may produce different effects in terms of consumer visits and purchases. Anecdotal evidence suggests that traffic and basket-sizes do increase during the ReTSS period and that such events are “the engine behind revenue growth.”

This study demonstrates that, through increased awareness and interest (larger perceived monetary and non-monetary benefits), these ReTSS yield different outcomes than regular promotions. This study evaluates these effects by analyzing 44 Retailer-Themed Super Saver Events operated by the largest Dutch grocery retailers over four years. This study finds a substantial increase in visits and total purchases during the event, especially among nonprimary customers and hard-discount shoppers. The larger part of this lift stems from the use of an overarching event theme. Consumers buy less in anticipation of the event and visit the store more often afterward, but for smaller baskets – typically leading to a null effect in terms of profit. Thus, although not a panacea, ReTSS can be a valuable defense tool – strengthening the retailers’ share of wallet among light customers and preventing them from permanently defecting to discount stores (such as Aldi and Lidl).

Related Marketing Courses: ​
Marketing Analytics; Marketing Communications;​​​​

Full Citation: ​
Guyt, J. Y., & Gijsbrechts, E. (2020). “.” Journal of Marketing, 84(2), 92–113.

Article Abstract: 
In response to pressure to defend their stand sales against discounters, grocery retailers started engaging in retailer-themed super saver events: promotional events (1) specific to the retailer, in which they (2) mass advertise (3) unusually deep, immediate deals (4) across a broad range of categories (5) under a common savings theme and deal format. Given these characteristics, such events are expected to generate higher awareness and interest than typical day-to-day promotions, thereby enhancing visits and purchases during the event but also reducing them before and after. The authors evaluate these effects by analyzing 44 retailer-themed super saver events operated by the largest Dutch grocery retailers over four years. They find a substantial increase in visits and total purchases during the event, especially among nonprimary customers and hard-discount shoppers. The larger part of this lift stems from the use of an overarching event theme. Consumers buy less in anticipation of the event and visit the store more often afterward, but for smaller baskets—typically leading to a null effect in terms of profit. Finally, our results suggest that rather than the deal depth or advertising budget, the number of items and media resonance of the theme are key drivers of event success.

Special thanks to  and , Ph.D. candidates at Duke University, for their support in working with authors on submissions to this program.

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Teaching Insights

Data from 16 lab experiments and one field experiment provide evidence that the online customer experiences comprises four dimensions, informativeness, entertainment, social presence, and sensory appeal, that act as the underlying mechanisms by which the design elements of a product webpage influence customer purchase. Using the online customer experience “design guide” developed in this research, students can learn to strategically orchestrate design elements in ways that shape effective online experiences through three steps.

Related Marketing Courses: ​
Principles of Marketing, Core Marketing, Introduction to Marketing Management; Digital Marketing; Marketing Communications;

Full Citation: ​
Bleier, Alexander, Colleen M. Harmeling, and Robert W. Palmatier (2019), “,” Journal of Marketing, 83 (2), 98–119.

Article Abstract: 
Creating effective online customer experiences through well-designed product web pages is critical to success in online retailing. How such web pages should look specifically, however, remains unclear. Previous work has only addressed a few online design elements in isolation, without accounting for the potential need to adjust experiences to reflect the characteristics of the products or brands being sold. Across 16 experiments, this research investigates how 13 unique design elements shape four dimensions of the online customer experience (informativeness, entertainment, social presence, and sensory appeal) and thus influence purchase. Product (search vs. experience) and brand (trustworthiness) characteristics exacerbate or mitigate the uncertainty inherent in online shopping, such that they moderate the influence of each experience dimension on purchases. A field experiment that manipulates real product pages on Amazon.com affirms these findings. The results thus provide managers with clear strategic guidance on how to build effective web pages.

Special thanks to  and , Ph.D. candidates at Duke University, for their support in working with authors on submissions to this program. 

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