Join Marc Pritchard, the Chief Brand Officer of Procter & Gamble, and AMA’s CEO, Bennie F. Johnson, for a conversation to explore marketing strategies, practices, and learning that will shape the future of the profession. 

The AMA is bringing together industry leaders and academics to advance marketing education. Join us for a thoughtful dialogue that will:

• Advance marketing education by allowing academics to engage with executives who are shaping the profession.
• Nurture marketing theory and research by giving scholars access to first hand accounts of the challenges facing leading executives.
• Support industry thought leadership and community interplay by bringing together industry leaders and academics to build the future of the profession.

This webinar airs at 12 PM and will be available on-demand for six months after airing.

The post AMA Executive in Residence Program appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Marketing academia stands at a pivotal moment. The work we do extends far beyond publishing research—it shapes how we mentor students, influence organizations, and lead within our institutions. Whether you’re preparing for your first faculty position, navigating the tenure process, refining your teaching methods, or stepping into administrative roles, your career path deserves dedicated attention and support. The 2026 Summer Academic Conference recognizes that professional growth happens across multiple dimensions, and every stage of your academic journey matters.

Join us in Denver, CO, to connect with colleagues who share your commitment to excellence in all aspects of academic life. Through curated workshops, panels, and collaborative sessions, you’ll gain practical strategies for advancing your scholarship, teaching effectiveness, and leadership capabilities. This conference creates space for doctoral students seeking job market guidance, clinical faculty exploring new pedagogical approaches, and experienced professors transitioning into administrative positions. Together, we’ll build the knowledge, relationships, and momentum that fuel meaningful careers in marketing academia.

In-Person and Virtual Options

During the 2026 AMA Summer Academic Conference in Denver, CO, July 24-26, we will explore how marketing academics can strengthen their impact across scholarship, teaching, and organizational leadership at every career stage.

If you cannot join us in Denver, select virtual programming will be available on Monday, July 20.

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Why Attend?

Receive valuable feedback on your research from leading scholars and get guidance to help prepare your work for publication.

Engage in dynamic conversations on the latest marketing innovations and build meaningful connections with researchers, reviewers, and editors—advancing your career and gaining fresh perspectives on the field.

Dive deeper into current events and innovative topics in marketing through insightful Expert and Intensive Workshops facilitated by prominent academics in the industry.

Celebrate the achievements of our community at the largest AMA Academic Awards Luncheon, where we’ll honor the AMA-EBSCO-RRBM Annual Award for Responsible Research in Marketing winners, the Robert J. Lavidge Global Marketing Research Award recipient, and more.

Conference Co-Chairs

Kay Peters

UC Davis & University of Hamburg

Kelly Hewett

Colorado State University

Kim Whitler

University of Virginia

Meet the 2026 Conference Track Chairs

AMA Event Policies

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Around the world, marketing scholars, policymakers, and societal decision-makers are grappling with complex, interdependent challenges—from climate change and health inequities to data privacy and financial inclusion. These issues cross national, disciplinary, and institutional borders, and addressing them requires a collective, boundary-spanning approach. Recognizing and challenging these boundaries is essential to fostering more inclusive, innovative, and impactful research. By deliberately looking beyond these boundaries—both literal and figurative—we can discover alternative approaches and draw on examples of research, collaborations, and policies that meaningfully improve the well-being of individuals, businesses, societies, and the planet.

The 2026 Marketing & Public Policy Conference convenes in Ottawa, Ontario, marking the first time this conference has been held outside the United States. As the national capital of a country known for its pluralism and progressive social policies, Ottawa offers a compelling context for engaging in global dialogue. Explore research that examines the scope of marketing & public policy scholarship and reflects a diverse range of voices, disciplines, contexts and methodologies to address shared challenges and drive impactful marketing and public policy solutions.

Join us in Ottawa, Ontario, on May 16-18, 2026, to amplify global voices, address shared challenges, and increase the impact of marketing and policy research.

Why Attend?

Be part of an intimate community focused on advancing marketing’s role in addressing critical policy issues.

Co-create research-driven solutions that promote resilience and social impact through collaboration with academic and industry leaders.

Explore emerging insights at the intersection of marketing, public policy, and innovation.

Build meaningful relationships with experts and peers who share your commitment to impactful, interdisciplinary work.

Junior Scholars Workshops

Jump-start your conference experience by arriving early to connect with fellow scholars and receive mentorship on your work.

LEARN MORE

Conference Co-Chairs

Monica LaBarge

Queen’s University

Jacob Brower

Queen’s University

Michael Mulvey

University of Ottawa

AMA Event Policies

The post 2026 AMA Marketing and Public Policy Conference appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Conference Proceedings

Explore the latest research from the 2026 event.

Bridging at the Frontiers: Marketing for a World in Transition

As the AMA’s first conference outside the U.S., Bridging at the Frontiers highlights marketing’s unique role in connecting diverse ideas, geographies and priorities while exploring the boundaries of innovation and practice. In today’s world of transition—marked by geopolitical tensions, within-country polarization and ideological contests, environmental challenges and the transformative impact of AI—marketers must navigate complex trade-offs and seize opportunities to create meaningful value.

The 2026 theme emphasizes the dual challenge of bridging divides—local and global, technological and human, ideological and practical—while advancing the frontiers of what marketing can achieve. How can marketing leaders respond to shifting societal norms and skepticism toward policies of sustainability and inclusion while fostering trust across diverse audiences? What role can AI play in transforming customer journeys while driving ethical innovation and equitable growth, such as balancing personalization with privacy and fairness? How can firms manage the dynamic tension between global ambitions and local relevance, ensuring their strategies resonate across distinct cultural and economic contexts?

Join us to explore these pressing questions and opportunities, from rethinking how marketing helps to balance resilience and efficiency in rapidly evolving markets to leveraging emerging technologies to address societal challenges. Together, we’ll bridge the gap between academia and practice, connect global trends with local realities, and chart new frontiers for marketing in a dynamic and interconnected world in transition.

Why Attend?

Hear new perspectives from colleagues across the discipline at this premier marketing research event, where top-tier scholars will present their compelling research. 

Engage in conversations about the latest research topics with researchers, reviewers and editors using our inclusive community and contribute to a more comprehensive approach to marketing.

Connect with like-minded scholars through various learning and networking opportunities.

Celebrate milestones within the community as AMA honors the 2026 AMA Fellows cohort, the 2026 AMA-Irwin-McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award recipient, and other distinguished winners.

Maximize Your Time Onsite

Conference Co-Chairs

Michael Haenlein

ESCP Business School

K. Sudhir

Yale University

Ela Veresiu

York University

Meet the 2026 Conference Track Chairs

AMA Event Policies

The post 2026 AMA Winter Academic Conference appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Beyond Acquisition: The Hidden Downstream Value of Referrals

Referral programs are ubiquitous, from ride-sharing and food delivery apps to fintech platforms and online retailers. Typically, marketers have evaluated these referral programs by counting how many new customers they bring in and how much revenue those customers generate. Gershon and Jiang argue that this approach severely underestimates the true value of referral programs.

Across multiple field data sets, they show that referred customers make between 31% and 57% more referrals than those acquired through other channels. When these secondary referrals are ignored, firms end up undervaluing the total worth of a referral by 20% to 36%. The authors demonstrate this referral contagion across a wide range of industries, including finance, software, and retail.

Why Referrals Spread: The Role of Social Appropriateness

Gershon and Jiang show that referred customers are more likely to refer others because the act of referring feels more socially appropriate to them. Drawing on insights from social psychology, they find that when people see someone else refer, they interpret the behavior as socially acceptable, reducing the fear of seeming too pushy or self-interested.

In several controlled experiments, participants who imagined joining an app through a friend’s referral rated the act of referring as more appropriate, felt lower psychological discomfort, and were significantly more likely to make referrals themselves compared to those who imagined joining through an ad. This effect was stronger when the referrer was a friend rather than an influencer, emphasizing that personal recommendations drive the norm of appropriateness more than celebrity endorsements.

The Power of a Simple Nudge: “You Were Referred In – Now Refer Your Friends!”

To translate their insights into practice, the authors conducted a large-scale field experiment with over 10 million referred customers. A simple tweak made all the difference: instead of a generic “Refer your friends!” message, half the customers received a reminder tied to their own experience: “You were referred in – now refer your friends!” The message activated the existing social norm, made referring feel more appropriate, and ultimately boosted referrals by more than 20%.

A simple tweak made all the difference: instead of a generic “Refer your friends!” message, half the customers received a reminder tied to their own experience: “You were referred in – now refer your friends!” The message activated the existing social norm, made referring feel more appropriate, and ultimately boosted referrals by more than 20%.

The study illustrates the value of industry–research collaborations. Companies gain evidence-based insights that go beyond intuition, while researchers gain access to real-world data and the opportunity to test ideas at scale. We reached out to the authors to learn more about the inspiration behind their work and what their results mean for managers. In the conversation below, Gershon and Jiang share their perspective on how referral contagion works, how firms can capture its full value, and where future opportunities lie for practitioners.

Q: What first sparked your interest in exploring the “referral contagion”?

A: The idea emerged from our observation of a robust pattern in our dataset: referred customers were substantially more likely to refer others. We found this pattern both intriguing and theoretically meaningful. When reviewing the literature, we saw that prior research had largely overlooked this downstream consequence of referral behavior, which inspired us to systematically investigate what we later termed “referral contagion.”

Q: Your research shows that referred customers don’t just buy more, they also refer more. Based on this, how should managers rethink how they measure the total value of their referral programs? 

A: While prior studies have examined the direct benefits of referred customers (such as higher loyalty and spending), they have largely overlooked their indirect impact through subsequent referrals. Managers should incorporate these downstream effects into how they assess the value of referral programs, including it in metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV) and the effective ROI of referral incentives.

Q: A simple reminder to referred customers can boost referrals by about 21%. Where might this nudge stop working, and how could marketers adapt it in practice?

A: Reminding customers that they were once referred signals that referring is appropriate. Making this social norm salient increases referral behavior. We expect this nudge to be effective in scenarios where psychological barriers prevent customers from making referrals, likely extending across different product categories, tie strengths, and incentive types. Exploring how these factors shape the effectiveness of the reminder presents an interesting direction for future research.

Q: Referral contagion seems relevant beyond business, such as in public health. How might your findings inform policymakers?

A: The idea of referral contagion naturally extends beyond business contexts. For policymakers in public health systems, this means that investments in referral-based outreach could have a multiplier effect, as those who are referred become more likely to refer others. Programs could be strengthened by highlighting that referring others is common and appropriate.

Q: Your research relies on large-scale field data and company collaboration. What challenges did you face in building these partnerships and collecting real-world data at this scale?

A: We began by reaching out to a wide range of potential field partners. It’s a numbers game: we cast a wide net and had many conversations until we found organizations whose interests and data aligned with our research goals. We were fortunate to identify three enthusiastic and collaborative partners.

Q: What do marketing managers gain from working with academic researchers, and vice versa?

A: Collaborations are most valuable when both sides view them as a valuable exchange. For managers, they offer a chance to go beyond intuition and understand what drives customer behavior, grounded in careful experimentation and analysis. For researchers, they provide access to rich data and the opportunity to test ideas in real-world settings. Collaborations reveal the challenges of translating theoretical insights into practice and how organizational constraints, competing priorities, and practical considerations shape what’s possible. Working with firms often challenges our assumptions and helps us refine our theories to be more relevant and impactful.

Source: Rachel Gershon and Zhenling Jiang (2024), “Referral Contagion: Downstream Benefits of Customer Referrals.” Journal of Marketing Research, 62 (1), 97–116. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437241257886.

Go to the Journal of Marketing Research

The post Referral Contagion: Capturing the Full ROI of Referral Programs appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Our research team defines “immersive services” as those in which consumers are deeply embedded for a period of time, with their experiences largely constructed by the service. This includes industries like healthcare, education, hospitality, and eldercare. We identify four key characteristics of these services that can challenge consumer agency:

1. Encapsulation: Consumers are deeply immersed in the service, often separated from other parts of their lives.
2. Positionality: Hierarchies and power dynamics create stark differences between consumers and service providers.
3. Protocolization: Rigid routines and protocols dictate consumer behavior.
4. Multivocality: Multiple voices and perspectives within the service influence how consumers are expected to act.

These characteristics can make it difficult for consumers to act freely, thus affecting their well-being. For instance, consider healthcare settings where patients are required to follow strict protocols, or eldercare facilities where residents may feel constrained by rigid schedules. As polarization and AI-driven decision making become more common, these challenges are becoming even more pressing.

We discover, however, that consumers are not passive participants in immersive services. Instead, they actively work to regain their sense of agency through “improvisations”—creative strategies that allow them to navigate the constraints of the service. Specifically, consumers use five pathways to reclaim agency:

1. Expanding the figured world: Shaping their experience on their own terms by exerting control over time and space.
2. Voicing: Speaking out to challenge rules or advocate for changes in how they are treated.
3. Seeking task responsibility: Taking on meaningful tasks to assert independence and purpose.
4. Challenging protocols: Pushing back against rigid processes to co-create a service experience that better fits their needs.
5. Playing and imagining: Using creativity and imagination to reframe their experience and celebrate life.

For service managers, these findings offer clear strategies to empower consumers while maintaining necessary structure. Two key managerial approaches stand out:

1. Leverage technology to expand consumer freedom: Virtual tools and personalized digital platforms can help consumers navigate encapsulation and protocolization by providing more choices and flexibility.
2. Develop empathy-driven relationships: By fostering stronger interpersonal connections, service providers can address positionality and multivocality, helping consumers feel valued and heard.

We recommend a two-pronged approach to assess and address gaps in consumer agency. First, managers should analyze how the four structural characteristics—encapsulation, positionality, multivocality, and protocolization—impact consumers. Second, they should evaluate how effectively their services support the five pathways consumers use to regain agency.

Immersive services are critical to modern life, but they must evolve to meet the needs of consumers. By empowering consumers to reclaim their agency, service providers can enhance customer satisfaction, foster loyalty, and improve overall wellbeing.

Source: Laurel Anderson, Catharina Von Koshull, Martin Mende, and Johanna Gummerus, “Immersive Service: Characteristics, Challenges, and Pathways to Consumer Agency,” Journal of Marketing.

Go to the Journal of Marketing

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Now here’s the twist: major genetic testing companies have collected DNA from 30+ million people, including data that reveals the ancestors’ taste legacy in unprecedented detail. Companies can potentially benefit from this genetic treasure. But should they? When does betting on ancient taste make business sense? How can marketers decipher these ancient ties and utilize them in their decision making?

In a recent Journal of Marketing Research study, authors Remi Daviet and Gideon Nave analyzed genetic and survey data from 182,212 UK adults, examining 1.5 million genetic variations across seven taste dimensions (bitter, fatty, salty, savory, sour, spicy, and sweet). Their study provides the first large-scale empirical assessment of how genetic information performs against traditional demographic, behavioral, and consumption data in real-world marketing applications.

The results from Daviet and Nave’s study are remarkably promising: genetic data can predict 10.9% to 12.5% of taste preferences, which is meaningful for business decisions. Genetic data shines brightest for uncommon tastes that don’t appear in consumption data, delivering 97% to 233% improvements over traditional methods for flavors like spicy, sour, and bitter. Even familiar tastes saw gains ranging from 28% to 68%.

Genetic data boosts the prediction accuracy of what customers will crave before they know it themselves, giving companies a first-mover advantage in untapped preferences.

Implications in Different Contexts

• Food/Beverage Companies: Target customers before they discover niche tastes, especially for products with uncommon flavor profiles.
  
  
• Healthcare/Pharma: Develop better-tasting formulations for genetically bitter-averse patients to improve medication adherence.
  
  
• Meal Kit Services: Use genetic screening to curate boxes that match individual taste predispositions, reducing returns and waste.
  
  
• Government Agencies: Design nutrition programs that align with genetic predispositions rather than fighting against them.

To explore the real-world implications of this research, we interviewed both authors about the practical questions their findings raise. Our conversation moved from research motivations and surprising discoveries to business cases and implementation strategies, before examining broader industry opportunities and future evolution.

Q: Was there any specific moment, observation, or personal experience that made you think, “we need to research this?” Was doing a genetic test the inspiration?

Dr. Nave: It was just the right time for this. There is a lot of genetic data that was never available before, and research from twin studies shows many behaviors are heritable and genetics should be informative of them. Although there were a few commercial applications, it’s unclear when managers should use this data. We wanted to look for the most basic input to this process, which is how predictive genetic data is relative to other variables. Lastly, as academic researchers, we chose nutrition and diet as our focus because this research can potentially improve people’s lives and contribute to social benefit.

Dr. Daviet: I did genetic testing because I was curious. I actually did it in Europe because they have better consumer protection for genetic data. We examined food taste because it’s one of the characteristics that is heavily heritable and relevant. We know that taste preferences are a very strong predictor of consumption. That was a good case study, demonstrating that genetics has an effect and is relevant to predicting consumption.

Q: Were there any surprising or unexpected findings in your study that challenged your initial assumptions? How did the research evolve from the surprising findings?

Dr. Daviet: We know from past research that genetics is predictive of most behavior to some extent. We were unsure whether genetics would offer predictive value beyond other factors, such as sociodemographic background or consumption patterns. My prediction was that it would add some predictive power to a bit of everything, but that was not the case. There are others where it adds a lot of predictive power, such as tastes like bitter, spicy, or sour, which are not often consumed in the local British diet.

Dr. Nave: For many tastes, we know that there are genetically programmed sensitivities because of known genes. For example, there is a receptor in the tongue that senses spiciness. To our surprise, genes that are known to be related to sensitivity to these tastes do not have a strong effect on preferences. Most of the genetic variants that are predictive cannot be directly linked to a known biological mechanism.

Dr. Daviet: There is a specific gene that can predict how people are sensitive to sourness, whether they can detect sourness in a sample. We were expecting that this would predict well if people like sour or not, but actually not. Instead, the liking is a lot of tiny effects across the genome that accumulate to create the overall taste preference, which is very complex.

Q: Suppose you were advising a Fortune 500 CEO who’s skeptical about investing in genetic marketing. What would be your elevator pitch to convince them this isn’t just academic curiosity but a real business opportunity?

Dr. Daviet: They don’t have to invest in marketing, and they can just let the competitor do it and gain a competitive advantage if they prefer. One of the strong advantages of genetics is its ability to identify patterns not revealed in past purchase data. This can help you identify new markets where there is no data, as they are unexplored and lack existing products. It can help you personalize based on different segments, something that traditional data might miss because either there is no data about it or it’s at an aggregate level.

Dr. Nave: Imagine you know what a consumer will need or will love before they even buy it—before they realize it themselves. One example is male balding patterns. This tendency is genetic so that you can predict it from birth. Knowing this allows you to build your brand image among potential customers before they become actual customers. Often, we only reveal certain traits after a while, and having first access is a significant competitive advantage.

Q: What are the most realistic applications of your findings? For example, if I’m launching a new energy drink, can you walk us through a simple, nontechnical roadmap? What’s the step-by-step genetic marketing playbook?

Dr. Nave: Imagine your energy drink has several flavors: bitter coffee, sweet strawberry, and sour lemon. These tastes are determined by people’s genetic profile, not just demographics. You could partner with a company like Ancestry.com to market to people with a certain flavor preference, without needing to collect the genetic data yourself. The key factor is that the data is very sensitive, and people may react very negatively to its use without their consent. The playbook will be used as carefully as possible, serving as a tool for segmentation and targeting.

Dr. Daviet: Let’s say you want to do a personalized drink, and you can identify key genetic traits such as caffeine metabolism, taste preference, health consciousness, and lifestyle without even having access to the data. You can see how these traits correlate in the genetic data and then tailor your product offering to different profiles and ask genetic companies to do personalized recommendations.

Dr. Nave: Some conditions, like having allergies to certain things or not being able to metabolize certain things, do have a strong genetic signal. Specific products, like lactose-free or alcohol-free versions, sometimes address these needs. There could be small segments that reveal these needs through genetic data.

Q: Beyond taste preferences, what other consumer behaviors have strong genetic components that non-food/health industries should pay attention to? Which industry do you think is missing the biggest genetic marketing opportunity right now?

Dr. Daviet: Behavioral genetics predicts everything to some extent. We can consider experiential services, as well as cultural services such as travel and entertainment. If you know someone’s ancestry background, you can tailor your marketing efforts to explore their cultural heritage. Based on genetics, someone might discover they have Latin American ancestry they didn’t know of and start exploring that. You can extend to pretty much anything—lifestyle, work.

Dr. Nave: Basically, everything is heritable except for the language you speak and the religion you practice. Even aspects such as your likelihood of divorce can be genetically influenced to some extent, as they correlate with specific genetic traits. There could be helpful signals everywhere. The question is when it’s stronger, when it’s not predictable from other data. That’s where genetics comes into play. Beauty and educational attainment have potential, but they’re not limited to these.

Q: Please paint us a picture: How do you see genetic marketing evolving over the next 10 years?

Dr. Daviet: Epigenetics might be easier. Epigenetics looks at how molecules attach to DNA and change gene expression, which evolves throughout life and provides a lot of additional information. Without the need for sampling one million people, and because it evolves over life, it’s more accurate. Currently, some companies are working in that field, and what’s trendy is biological age. Maybe you’re 25, but biologically, are you closer to 30 or 20? I could see an opportunity there because it’s more accessible, informative, and growing. Since it’s less complicated to gain insight from, it might be more sustainable on the business side, too.

Our conversation revealed that genetics work best for “hidden” preferences not shown in purchase data, and surprisingly, the authors noted that “basically everything is heritable except language and religion,” which opens up endless possibilities.

However, this raises critical questions: If genetic data can have such promising predictive power, where do we draw the ethical lines? For a comprehensive framework on the promise and perils of genetic marketing, read Dr. Daviet, Dr. Nave, and Dr. Wind’s essential guide, “Genetic Data: Potential Uses and Misuses in Marketing.”

References

Remi Daviet, Gideon Nave, and Jerry Wind (2021), “Genetic Data: Potential Uses and Misuses in Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 86 (1), 7–26.

Remi Daviet and Gideon Nave (2024), “The Value of Genetic Data in Predicting Preferences: A Study of Food Taste,” Journal of Marketing Research, 61 (6), 1116–31.

Go to the Journal of Marketing Research

The post Should Your Business Bet on Great¹⁰⁰⁰ Grandma’s Taste Using Genetic Data? appeared first on American Marketing Association.

Article

Creating Equity by Design: A Conceptual Framework for Marketplace Inclusion, by Lama Lteif, Helen van der Sluis, Lauren G. Block, Luca Cian, Vanessa M. Patrick, and Maura L. Scott

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the need to reduce inequalities based on disability to ensure a life of dignity for all. However, the marketplace has yet to fully address the needs of consumers who experience systemic choice restrictions and daily barriers due to disabilities. This article offers a conceptual framework that identifies sources of sensory, cognitive, behavioral, and social (mis)matches in a consumer’s journey, leading to perceptions of marketplace inclusion or exclusion. The authors examine the role of inclusive design in facilitating the alignment of abilities and its impact on consumer well-being and firm profitability. The article concludes with a stakeholder-focused inclusive design research agenda at the intersection of public policy, firm strategy, and consumer well-being. Read more

Commentaries

Disability as Identity: Advancing Innovation Through Hearing Ability Diversity, by Oden H. Groth, Michael Janger, and Diogo Hildebrand

The authors address the issue of disability identity through the lens of their research on Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Read more

A Neurodiversity Perspective on Fostering Marketplace Inclusion by Bridging Ability Mismatches, by Josephine Go Jefferies, Meredith Rhoads, Timothy J. Vogus, Cinthia B. Satornino, and Alicia A. Broderick

The authors build Lteif et al.’s framework by offering a neurodiversity-informed perspective. Read more

Fostering Marketplace Inclusion: Health Equity Implications, by Monica C. LaBarge and Kameron Block

In this commentary, the authors extend Lteif et al.’s model to focus on the health equity implications consumers, organizations, and policy makers. Read more

Comments on Creating Equity by Design, by Allyce C. Torres

The author discusses Lteif et al.’s piece from the perspective of her work with Disability:IN, a nonprofit resource for disability inclusion. Read more

Teaching Resource: Starter Kit and 25 Mini Case Studies for Classroom Use

Vanessa Patrick (vpatrick@uh.edu) has created a comprehensive, modular teaching resource designed to help instructors integrate inclusive design into marketing and business education. The flip book combines conceptual foundations, research-based frameworks, pedagogical guidance, and 25 concise, real-world mini case studies that can be flexibly deployed across undergraduate, graduate and executive classrooms. Access here

The post Inclusive Design appeared first on American Marketing Association.

The resource reframes inclusive design not as a niche or compliance-driven activity, but as a strategic marketing orientation that improves consumer well-being, expands markets, and enhances firm outcomes. The deck is deliberately structured to move instructors and students from why inclusive design matters, to how inclusive design works, to what it looks like in practice across industries.

This resource functions as (1) a starter kit for instructors new to inclusive design, (2) a modular teaching tool for experienced faculty, and (3) a bridge between research, practice, and pedagogy.

Brief Descriptions of the Contents of the Resource

I. Why Teach Inclusive Design in Marketing and Business?

The opening section establishes the pedagogical motivation for inclusive design. It critiques the traditional marketing focus on the “average” or “mainstream” consumer and demonstrates how this default approach systematically excludes marginalized and underrepresented groups

II. Core Principles of Inclusive Design

The next section introduces a clear, three-principle definition of inclusive design, making the concept accessible and teachable:

1. Design with the extreme user in mind
   Students learn that inclusive design begins by recognizing exclusion and starting from the margins rather than the mean.
2. Focus on facilitating a match
   Emphasis is placed on the fit between users, products, environments, and usage contexts—not just product features.
3. Benefit a more diverse consumer base
   The “curb-cut effect” illustrates how designing for those at the margins often improves experiences for everyone.

III. Marketplace Mismatches and Consumer Experience

A central conceptual contribution of the deck is the marketplace mismatch framework, which explains how exclusion arises when consumer abilities and marketplace design are misaligned.

Students are introduced to four types of mismatches:

• Sensory (seeing, hearing, touching)
• Cognitive (processing and understanding information)
• Behavioral (performing required actions)
• Social (feeling respected, seen, and included)

IV. Frameworks for Teaching and Application

Several teaching-friendly frameworks are introduced to help students diagnose and design for inclusion.

• ADDRESSING framework: Encourages students to ask, “Who are we unintentionally excluding?” across dimensions such as age, disability, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and national origin.
• DARE framework: Guides students through how consumers appraise inclusive (or exclusionary) design cues and how those appraisals shape emotions and behavior.
• Levels of inclusive design: Distinguishes between providing access, enabling engaged participation, and empowering success.
• MISMATCH framework: See above.

V. Pedagogical Guidance and Classroom Use

The deck provides instructors with teaching suggestions, including:

• How to sequence concepts across a class session or module
• Buzz-group discussions on barriers to inclusive design
• Experiential redesign exercises (e.g., redesigning everyday products for different user groups)
• Role-taking and perspective-taking exercises
• Integration of short videos and TED talks

VI. The 25 Mini Case Studies: Learning Through Practice

The heart of the flipping book is 25 concise mini case studies, designed to be discussed individually or comparatively. Each case highlights:

• A specific form of exclusion
• The resulting consumer–marketplace mismatch
• A concrete inclusive design solution
• Broader implications for firms and society

Case categories include:

• Consumer products (durables; e.g., footwear, appliances, furniture, backpacks)
• Inclusive services (e.g., financial services, hospitality, retail, theme parks)
• Consumer products (nondurables; e.g., beauty, personal care, grooming)
• Technology (e.g., gaming, navigation tools)
• Inclusive tourism (5 bonus cases; e.g., airlines, adventure parks, public spaces, social enterprises)

VII. Inclusive Tourism as a Special Topic

This section introduces:

• Inclusive tourism principles
• Marginalized groups as consumers and producers
• Examples of firms and destinations redesigning experiences, not just infrastructure

VIII. Additional Resources for Deepening Learning

The closing section curates:

• Academic and practitioner articles
• Managerial readings
• Talks and videos
• A carefully selected list of novels, memoirs, and nonfiction books to build empathy and perspective-taking

The post Teaching Inclusive Design: Starter Kit and 25 Mini Case Studies for Classroom Use appeared first on American Marketing Association.

A new Journal of Marketing study introduces NADE (Natural Affect DEtection), a novel approach that bridges this gap. NADE goes beyond sentiment analysis by leveraging the power of emojis. It first “emojifies” text and then translates those emojis into eight well-established emotions like joy, sadness, and anger. This innovative approach allows a more nuanced and accurate understanding of consumer emotions, providing deeper insights into their thoughts and feelings.

NADE’s key innovation lies in using emojis as an intermediate emotional signal. Social media users naturally self-label their posts with emojis, offering implicit emotional cues. As a “text-to-emoji-to-emotion” converter, NADE utilizes these cues in a two-stage process: The model first learns to predict which emojis best match a given text, then, using established emotion models like Plutchik’s wheel of emotions, NADE converts these emojis into emotional intensities. This method outperforms traditional sentiment analysis by capturing more nuanced consumer emotions.

Using NADE for Better Consumer Sentiment Analysis

NADE has wide-ranging applications across industries, helping companies gain deeper insights and make data-driven decisions:

• In social media management, it empowers companies to go beyond simple sentiment analysis. NADE enables real-time monitoring of online conversations, allowing for rapid identification and effective mitigation of potential crises. Moreover, it can serve as a valuable proxy for traditional metrics like TV ratings, providing insights into audience engagement and sentiment surrounding specific events or campaigns.
  
  
• In product development, NADE can be a powerful tool for understanding customer emotions. By analyzing customer feedback, companies can pinpoint product features that evoke specific emotions such as frustration or excitement. This granular understanding can guide product improvements and ensure that products resonate with customer desires.
  
  
• Within customer service, NADE enhances both human agent and chatbot interactions. By providing real-time insights into customer emotions, NADE equips service agents with the information they need to respond empathetically and effectively. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction, reduced resolution times, and increased customer loyalty.
  
  
• Beyond these specific applications, NADE supports innovative advertising tactics. Mood-based targeting allows advertisers to reach specific audience segments based on their current emotional state, maximizing the impact of their campaigns.
  
  
• Additionally, NADE can be leveraged for market research, enabling more accurate emotion-driven demand prediction and providing valuable insights into brand loyalty and market trends.
  
  
• Finally, NADE empowers content creators by providing valuable insights into the emotional impact of their content. By understanding how their content resonates with audiences on an emotional level, creators can design and curate more engaging and effective user experiences.

Advantages of NADE for Researchers

For researchers, NADE offers several key advantages. First, it democratizes research by making sophisticated emotion analysis accessible to researchers with limited budgets. While commercial tools like LIWC offer similar capabilities, NADE provides more nuanced emotion analysis and is entirely free, opening doors for researchers who may have been previously deterred by technical or financial constraints. This removes a significant financial barrier, enabling broader participation in high-level research.

Second, NADE’s user-friendly interface allows researchers to conduct in-depth analyses without requiring extensive programming expertise. Finally, the availability of R and Python packages provides researchers with the flexibility to adapt and extend NADE to other languages, emojis, and emotion theories, enabling further advancements in the field.

Visit the NADE App to explore how it can enhance your research or business insights:
https://nade-explorer.inkrement.ai

Source: Christian Hotz-Behofsits, Nils Wlömert, and Nadia Abou Nabout, “Natural Affect DEtection (NADE): Using Emojis to Infer Emotions from Text,” Journal of Marketing.

Go to the Journal of Marketing

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