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Marketing

Your Friends Have More Friends Than You—and That’s a Good Thing for Marketers and Public Health Officials

In a new study, Professor Vineet Kumar and his co-authors offer two ways to seed interventions in social networks based on the “friendship paradox.”

An illustration of people connected in a network
  • What is ecological economics?

    Robert Costanza is one of the founders of a trans-disciplinary effort to understand how economics is embedded in the broader ecosystem that supports all human activity. From this perspective, he sees both limits for economic growth and opportunities to improve long-term human well- being.

  • What are the economics of happiness?

    Economists have begun to use research into happiness to explore questions in economics, policy, and management. Betsey Stevenson of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania surveys the work in this emerging field.

  • How do you market a global brand?

    John Hayes, chief marketing officer at American Express, discusses creating relationships with a global customer base that ranges from individuals to multinational corporations.

  • What does a choice look like?

    A number of economists, psychologists, and neuroscientists are using imaging studies to peek at the brain in action — trying to better understand why we make some of the choices we do.

  • What are your customers thinking?

    The question has always been critical to marketers. However, with rapid innovations in technology—social networks, mobile technology, new ways of delivering content—and the following shifts in behavior, it might be harder to answer than ever. Rishad Tobaccowala, the CEO of Denuo, a company that helps clients grapple with these trends, gives his take on the pulse of marketing today.

  • How do foreign companies market to India?

    Even in a globalized world, culture can create real differences in how products are received from country to country. This can lead to both challenges and opportunities for businesses, according to Julien Cayla of the Australian School of Business.

  • Can you say 'Cosmo' in Russian?

    You can find Cosmopolitan on news­stands in Korea, India, Russia, Greece, Brazil, China, and 50 other countries. How did the idea of the “fun, fearless female” go global — and pull in profits for Hearst?

  • How do you take a brand global?

    In 2005, Lenovo, China’s largest PC maker, acquired IBM’s worldwide PC business. The company inherited nearly $10 billion in annual sales, but faced the challenge of introducing itself to millions of consumers.

  • How do you face the unknown?

    Nature abhors a vacuum. Air invades emptiness. Water floods open space. What happens when a wall is breached and markets are allowed to enter countries where they’d previously been banned? In the 1990s, Rosemary Ripley participated in the infusion of private enterprise into former command economies.

  • Can we fix discrimination in markets?

    Studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that 40 years after the civil rights era, African Americans still find themselves under scrutiny in retail stores and women pay higher prices at car dealerships. How can we ensure fair treatment in markets?