The Marketing Lab (at Deakin): Recent Episodes
Hosted by Dr Paul Harrison from Deakin Business School
Dr Paul Harrison from the Deakin Business School and his guests give you the low-down (and the high-up) of research and the latest knowledge in marketing, business and culture from the Department of Marketing at Deakin University.
In this special edition of The Marketing Lab, I have a quick chat with Associate Professor Josh Newton about his research into how the mere presence of Christmas decorations lead people to soften their evaluations of a personally experienced service failure encounter.
Josh and his colleagues' research was published in the Journal of Service Research in 2018. The abstract is noted below.
Thanks for listening to The Marketing Lab (at Deakin) in 2021, and we look forward to talking to you again in 2022.
The Marketing Lab (at Deakin) is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and traditional custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
Newton, J., Wong, J. and Casidy, R., 2018. Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly to Soften Evaluations of Service Failure. Journal of Service Research, 21(4), pp.389-404.
AbstractSymbols associated with seasonal religious festivals are periodically displayed by service providers, but do these symbols serve more than just a decorative function? Findings from seven experiments suggest they do. In the presence of such symbols, individuals soften their evaluations of a personally experienced service failure encounter. This effect emerges through the activation of forgiveness but only among those with a religious upbringing and only when the encounter involves service failure (rather than neutral service). The softening of service evaluations in the presence of such symbols is reversed, however, when service failure is observed (rather than directed at the self) and when the recipient of that failure is perceived to be vulnerable. Contextual exposure to symbols associated with seasonal religious festivals therefore presents a double-edged sword for managers; depending upon the service failure recipient, these symbols can harden or soften evaluations of the service failure encounter.
In our final episode for 2021, our guest is Uppma Virdi, Deakin Alumni, Head Spice Dealer, Founder and CEO of Chai Walli, a female-centric, female owned small Australian business who are passionate about cultural preservation through the art of chai.
We discussed authenticity, why being successful is about more than size, money and growth, and how to final convince your parents that you are successful.
In 2022, we will be releasing each episode of The Marketing Lab on the first Friday of the month, from February. We all hope you have an opportunity to take a break over the summer/winter, and look forward to bringing you more marketing, culture and business insights in the new year.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
Whether you use it to stay connected or as part of your marketing strategy, social media is integral for communication. But what happens when everything goes horribly wrong, like it did for Justine Sacco when sent her one-hundred-and-seventy twitter followers the following tweet: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” By the time she landed in Africa, Twitter users around the world had blasted Justine’s tweet as racist, callous and uncaring. Critics demanded that she be fired from her job and some even called for her death.
In this episode of The Marketing Lab at Deakin, I talk to Jeff Rottman and Gini Weber, two of my colleagues in the marketing department at Deakin University about their research into public condemnation, or what they have neatly called, "moral peacocking". On the way, we explore virtue signalling, morals violations and subjective sensitivities.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
In this episode of The Marketing Lab at Deakin, we talk to Gordon Renouf, Co-Founder & CEO of Good On You, the world-leading source of trusted brand ratings, articles and expertise on ethical and sustainable fashion.
Since 2015, they have built a database of thousands of fashion brands, all assessed against their robust rating system for their impact on people, the planet and animals. They are supported by some of the biggest names in the industry, including Emma Watson, the world-renowned British actor and ethical fashion pioneer.
Gordon talks to The Marketing Lab about investors, jobs to be done, and how you develop personas for your market.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
In this episode of The Marketing Lab at Deakin we talk to Dr Ali Tamaddoni from Deakin's Marketing Department about how we can use models and machine learning to understand why people change brands and also how religiosity influences online reviews.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
We often think that marketers simply have to sell stuff to consumers, but marketing also requires an awareness of the context in which the business operates.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission promotes competition and fair trade in markets to benefit consumers, businesses, and the community and also regulates national infrastructure services. Their primary responsibility is to ensure that individuals and businesses comply with Australian competition, fair trading, and consumer protection laws - in particular the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
In this episode of The Marketing Lab, we take a deep dive into how the ACCC works, how they make decisions, and their role in the marketing and consumer landscape in Australia, with the General Manager of their Economic Group, Baethan Mullen.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
This week (4 - 11 July) is NAIDOC week in Australia. NAIDOC is a celebration of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It’s an opportunity for all Australians, not just the Indigenous community, to come together and celebrate and participate in a range of activities that support your local community.
So, for this episode of The Marketing Lab, we celebrate NAIDOC by having a yarn with guests, Professor Mark Rose (Gunditjmara), Tom Molyneux (Gunditjmara) and Cassandra Seery (raised and living on Wurundjeri Country), about how we can think more about First Nations people when we undertake business, marketing and research.
This year's NAIDOC poster - Care for Country is by Maggie-Jean Douglas - a Gubbi Gubbi artist from South East Queensland.
The 21-year-old artist said her first thoughts on hearing the 2021 NAIDOC theme ‘Heal Country’ was about how country has cared for and healed First Nations people in all senses of the meaning for so long.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
Marketers are often portrayed in an unsophisticated way - that they are evil manipulators that are trying to get us to buy things we don’t want. But there are areas of marketing, like macro marketing and social marketing, where marketers are attempting to use marketing… for want of a better phrase… for good.
Social marketing uses the tools of marketing to lead to better societal outcomes, in things like health behaviour change programs. Their tools tend to be predominantly in the field of promotion - so this is why you often hear on the public health field people talking about health promotion, but more sophisticated social marketing considers all aspects of the marketing mix, including designing campaigns around segments, around the barriers to the good behaviour, and around how we move people through different stages to achieve the positive outcome.
That said, social marketing campaigns can also harm and become quite anti-social. In this episode of the marketing lab, we continued our exploration of food marketing and ethics with Alice Zaslavsky (Alice in Frames), and Deakin Alumnus, Moreen Kamau and Michaela Jackson and examined what happens when social marketing might miss the mark or a campaign goes wrong. We also explored how you can make the ordinary strange and the existential angst that comes with waiting for your Deliveroo or Uber order to arrive.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
In this episode of the marketing lab, we talk food marketing and wellbeing with Alice Zaslavsky (Alice in Frames), and Deakin Alumnus, Moreen Kamau (Deliveroo) and Dr Michaela Jackson (RMIT). Food is such a critical part of culture, wellbeing and a good life, yet in the field of marketing we expend a lot of research energy focusing on denial.
So, how do we reframe the discussion to make food and eating a more reflective, joyful and positive experience?
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
In this episode of The Marketing Lab, we explore the arcane world of universities, university departments, and research.
Paul and Gini talk with Professor Andre Bonfrer, Head of Department at Deakin Business School's Department of Marketing about all things marketing technology and wellbeing, while grappling with how specialisation offers an opportunity for research to see what's coming over the horizon.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
In this episode we explored the murky world of loyalty, stakeholder relation and engagement.
I was joined by Alexandra Crow, the Head of Corporate and Stakeholder Engagement at the Richmond Football Club, Tanya Gallina, the General Manager of Club Services and History at the Melbourne Cricket Club, and Jimmy Buck, the chief advancement officer at Deakin University, where he is responsible for alumni relations and development.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
In our reimagined podcast, The Lab at Deakin, Paul and Gini (Virginia) Weber interrogate the power of language, how butter is made, and whether you really are politically correct or just being some ill-defined misanthrope.
The Marketing Lab is recorded and produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.
Stuff we talked about...
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/sapir-whorf-hypothesis
Self-Face Activates the Dopamine Reward Pathway without Awareness: https://academic.oup.com/cercor/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cercor/bhab096/6227018
Witness by Louise Milligan: https://thestellaprize.com.au/prize/2021-prize/witness/
Saudade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUuJrpP0Mak
No Activity: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/sep/09/no-activity-review-nothing-happens-but-thats-the-point-of-this-hilarious-cop-comedy
Children of Time: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/adrian-tchaikovsky/children-of-time/9781447273301
Distant benefciaries: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/47/6/878/5936532
Research on absolute (north/east/south/west) versus relative (left/right) directions in language and how it influences time perception within Indigenous Australian communities: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41062425
Language and gender prejudice across languages: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspa0000188
Living is hard, but in the end are you totally responsible for your wellbeing, or should governments and businesses also care.
In this episode of Listen to this, Paul and Gini tackle the conundrums of accidental subjectification in social marketing campaigns, the muddling of the role between the citizen, business and government, and how to overcome the existential angst of an uncertain future.
Easy?
Not really, but it's a fun ride.
In this episode of The Lab at Deakin, we take a deep dive into the scientific method. What it is, why it's important, and how we need to embrace it if we are going to progress. On the journey we talk about Star Wars and the Sith, Brett Sutton, Covid-19, and the provisional nature of knowledge.
From the archives
What’s your favourite luxury item—Belgian chocolate, French champagne, one of those plain but very expensive English trench coats?
Paul Harrison and Kirsten Drysdale look at the psychology of expensive brands and why some of us are ‘peacocks’ displaying our pricey purchases and their brand names.
And if you can’t afford the real thing, does the imitation version provide the same satisfaction?
How do you manage an airline engine failure, a potential prime minister with a penchant for visiting strip clubs by accident, or a Covid crisis?
In this episode of Listen to this, we talk to Deakin University's Adjunct Professor of Marketing, David Epstein, the man who got Kevin to agree to the 07, directed National Media Liaison Service for Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, managed the Qantas QF32 engine failure response, and was most recently Vice President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for Singtel Optus.
We get the inside story on how to get an invite to the Chairman’s Lounge - hint, don’t ask for it, the aspirational halo and how to increase your reputation during a crisis.
It’s a ride with little or no turbulence or leadership spills, but it’s still a fascinating one.
So, sit back, put on your best business attire, and join your guide to human behaviour, culture and the world of business…
We're being told that the new "normal" is coming, but I still haven't worked out the old normal. Who is in charge of all these normals... Could the world's populist leaders be suffering from actor-observer asymmetry and which conspiracy theory should we believe? Does 5G give you COVID-19? And why didn’t the evil geniuses use a more available mode of transport like 4G or Swiss Trains.
Along with the NRL’s new crowd track, abandoned international students and Post-Covid tourism, we have got it all covered in this episode of Listen to this.
So, sit back or upright, and enjoy the next forty minutes of your guide to human behaviour, culture and the world of marketing.
In this episode of The Lab at Deakin, Paul is joined by Gemma Anderson, Director of Performance and Growth, Deakin University and Dr Gini Weber, Chair of the Psychology and Marketing program in Deakin Business School. Paul and his guests discussed the benefits and limitations of data and analysis, how the online world has changed the way we interact with one another, and the importance of a sophisticated view of segmentation.
This episode is a recorded seminar that was originally presented as part of Deakin's MBA In Context component in the Marketing, Positioning and Consumer Unit and was recorded with guests (and Paul) keeping at least 1.5 km apart (that's the rule, isn't it?) by talking to each other via Zoom.
What is truth in the era of CoVid-19? How can businesses adapt? And what is an agentic male response to ScoMo? Those questions and more will be answered in this episode of Listen to this...
If we think about the product offering a range of benefits, we can see how this might also be communicated through packaging and the service environment.
Aesop, for example, has changed the way that companies package and sell beauty products.
In this interview with Dr Paul Harrison from Deakin Business School by David Astle at ABC Radio they discuss how brands influence consumer behaviour through packaging, store layout and selling the "idea" of the brand.
Although advertising is also discussed, what is important here is how the companies present the whole product to their target markets.
Beyond shampoo, moisturiser and post-poo drops, what is a company like Aesop selling you?
In this episode of Listen to This we look into how young people can change the course of history, how advertisers should probably choose where to put their money, and the ins and outs of ethical behaviour in marketing.
A special episode of Listen to this... Lehmo interviews Paul Harrison on ABC Radio Melbourne about all things consumer behaviour and marketing.
In mid-November, Disney Plus, the streaming service from the Mickey Mouse conglomerate will launch in Australia. The service will cost $8.99 a month or $89.00 for the full year. Not bad for access to the Disney back catalogue, the Star Wars franchise, the list goes on...
Will you sign up?
Have we reached peak streaming?
And, can you guess which car brand had the most product recall in 2018? You might be surprised.
We’ve got two of the smartest people I know in the studio this week to talk about this, along with clicktivism, product recalls, franchising and the Hong Kong protests.
Does your company use the net promoter score? Is it really the silver bullet that marketing research companies tell you it is?
And...
What happens when your company’s perfect hashtag gets co-opted by the bad guys?
In this episode, we explore the murky world of artificial intelligence, marketing research and selling your soul for research dollars.
Are we being over-researched? And when is too much surveillance enough? If you’re interested in marketing, culture and the world of business, you should Listen to this.
When is a bank not a bank? And how difficult is it to change your bank when you know you really want to break up with it?
This week we explore why the Banking Royal Commission has changed the way that banks brand themselves.
And…
Guns and Collingwood Football Club. Is there a link? We reckon there is, but the link is not what you think and can be explained by a psychological theory that we all can relate to.
That, women and STEM, the Middle East, vegan burgers and the AFLW are all up for consideration, so if you’re interested in Marketing, Culture and the World of Business, you should LISTEN TO THIS.
Captain Marvel, Huawei, the Catholic Church, and Boeing are all in the news for basically the same thing, but a little bit different. What am I talking about?
In this week’s episode we delve a bit deeper into reputation management, online trolls and identity dissociation to work out how these brands are going to dig their way out of their current troubles.
Plus, what is a nerd space and how is privilege like bad breath?
For everything you need to know about marketing, culture and the world of business, The Lab at Deakin is your go-to podcast.