Labor Day weekend shoppers might have a little extra money to spend, but they will have to work harder to find discounts this year. Supply chain disruptions caused by the continuing pandemic and a series of severe weather events have had retailers struggling to maintain inventories and subsequently less-incentivized to discount items in stock – even for the usual Labor Day sales bonanzas on appliances, mattresses and autos, said Maryland Smith marketing experts Amna Kirmani and Jie Zhang.

Ford set its sights on overtaking Tesla in the electric car market when it announced in May its competitive $40,000 price point for the new F-150 Lightning electric pickup. Scanning consumer sentiment and determining whether it succeeded in winning over popular opinion is typically a difficult process. But new research from Maryland Smith found a way.

Gird yourself—or, actually, don’t: The new office dress code is here, and it’s very stretchy.After nearly 18 months of widespread telework, many office workers gearing up to head back in are first revisiting their dresser drawers, where they may have to dig past piles of the comfortable yoga pants, cozy hoodies and ratty cargo shorts they’ve become accustomed to. But once back at their desks, they may stick with some of the sartorial choices they’ve been making at home.

If there’s one thing that can be said about Scarlett Johansson’s decision to sue Disney for releasing her latest film, “Black Widow,” simultaneously on streaming and in movie theaters, perhaps it’s this: Watch for sequels. And as the industry enters its new era, watch for spinoff effects, too, as movie marketing evolves, says P.K. Kannan, the Dean’s Chair in Marketing Science at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Watching a gathering of world-class athletes compete at the highest level has always been the main draw at the Olympic Games. But the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are vastly different from the Olympic Games of the past due to the everpresent gremlin of pressure. It has certainly reared its ugly head at these games and has forced marketers to be nimble and adjust their promotional campaigns accordingly, says Maryland Smith’s Henry C. Boyd III.