P. K. Kannan is the Dean's Chair in Marketing Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His main research focus is on marketing modeling, applying statistical and econometric methods to marketing data. His current research stream focuses on attribution modeling, media mix modeling, new product/service development and customer relationship management (CRM).
Harvesting Brand Information from Social Tags
Among the many changes brought about by the evolution of social media is this one: Marketers now have a powerful new tool for assessing consumer perceptions of products and brands.
Brand Strategy Focuses on Price and Quality
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Ask anyone with kids who love those iconic building toys: Lego sets aren’t cheap. And those plastic, intricate brick sets very rarely go on sale. The Danish-based Lego is part of an elite club of brands that hold their ground on price and quality, even as factory outlet stores, insider promo codes and other discount schemes have transformed the way many consumers buy.
Research into data analytics by marketing professors P.K. Kannan and Michel Wedel at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has captured the MSI H. Paul Root Award from the Journal of Marketing editorial review board.
Amazon's Prime Day summer sale, now in its third year, is becoming something that even the e-commerce giant might not have intended. It's becoming a big day for its rivals. The midsummer hype about deals online is having an impact beyond Amazon's seemingly endless website, says the Smith School's P.K. Kannan. "If the other retailers have a significant presence online, then they can expect what we call 'spillover traffic,'" he says. Read more...
It looks like Facebook has been sending friend requests to Hollywood. The social media giant has reportedly been talking with Hollywood studios and agencies about creating original television content to launch on the social-media platform by late summer. And this could be a big deal. The news comes as Facebook has crossed another stunning milestone, notching 2 billion active monthly users. With that kind of reach, Facebook's original programming would seem destined to be an instant smash success. Consider this: Netflix only has about 100 million monthly users worldwide. The Smith School's P.K. Kannan explains the impact that Facebook could have on the already-crowded field of streaming entertainment. Read more...
For Blue Apron, Amazon's blockbuster deal to acquire Whole Foods couldn't have come at a worse time, says Smith School marketing professor Jie Zhang. The New York-based meal-kit delivery service was just beginning the marketing for its initial public offering, in which it hopes to raise more than $500 million, when Amazon.com Inc. announced the $13.7 billion deal that could upend the food-retail industry. Suddenly, all the talk among analysts and prospective investors has turned to Amazon, the 431 Whole Foods locations, the grocery chain's distribution network, and how CEO Jeff Bezos might reshape how Americans shop for food. Read more...
What could be better than free? For companies with a freemium business model – Spotify, Dropbox, Hulu and The New York Times are notable examples – it’s a key question. Can a company increase its number of paying customers while offering free version of its products? And if so, how? Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business say they have mapped a strategy. Working with the National Academies Press, an online bookseller, the researchers conducted a field experiment to determine how companies might improve their sales of premium products, even while offering free ones. "If the free version OK, how do you get the customer to justify paying for more?" asks Smith School marketing professor P.K. Kannan. That’s where the price strategy comes into play. Read more...
When Smith School lecturer Jonathan Aberman thinks about Snap Inc. going public, the image that springs to mind is a queue of airplanes, waiting for takeoff, with the parent of the popular Snapchat photo app first on the tarmac. It's because Snap is the first in a line of so-called unicorns – privately held tech companies with an estimated valuation of $1 billion or more – that are expected to launch an initial public offering. And this one, he says, has him feeling a bit wary about them all. Read more...
The fate of Verizon's $4.83-billion offer for long-struggling Yahoo Inc. has been pretty murky since a pair of massive breaches was revealed last year, and the recent regulatory filing establishing a new holding company doesn't clarify matters much. What we do know is that if the deal closes, Yahoo has a plan and a name for the $30 billion in assets that are left behind. Those assets, including Yahoo's 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, would be called Altaba. What's less clear is whether the deal with Verizon will go through at all, and what the future will be for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Read more...
AT&T's proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner could be the first of a string of similar mergers to come. So you have to wonder: Why is Wall Street giving the deal such a cold shoulder? It could be a sense that the deal won't go through, or it could be a sense of market deja vu. "My first reaction?" says Smith School finance professor Richmond Mathews, "Oh, no. Here we go again." Read more...
