Nostalgia is not enough: Why consumers abandon legacy brands
Among legacy brands, Sears is in troubled company. Payless ShoeSource is liquidating its 2,100 U.S. stores. Toys “R” Us closed its 730 locations last year and is struggling to come back in some form post-bankruptcy.
One might have expected that the pull of nostalgia would have protected these brands from the retail re-sorting underway. Customers have emotional connections to certain stores—places where their parents brought them as children and where they did their first Christmas shopping, and developed certain buying habits and loyalties.
So what was the breaking point for customers? Price? Experience? Convenience? Why, in the end, are customers abandoning their shopping heritage and breaking up with brands?
“It is more like these brands are breaking up with the customers. I think that at some point the customer decides to pack up and leave,” says Santiago Gallino, a Wharton professor of operations, information, and decisions whose research focuses on retail. “To me, it looks like the brands are consistently giving the customer the signal that they are done with them, that they are not going ... to give them what they expect from the brand and what they used to offer.”
On the move: Water quality and antimicrobial resistance testing goes mobile
Penn researchers have developed a mobile field laboratory allowing them to test water quality and track antimicrobial resistance in and around San Cristóbal in the Galápagos.
Penn researchers Vanessa and Alexis North are studying one of the largest collections of Egyptian blue objects ever found in the ancient Near East, shedding new light on how the world’s first synthetic pigment may have traveled far beyond Egypt.
A new role for dental providers? Rethinking where vaccines are given
Vaccinations have traditionally been administered in primary care settings or pharmacies. However, for about a decade, some states have authorized dentists to administer vaccines, and many others did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of this approach has led some countries and states to expand or consider expanding the role of dental providers in delivering routine vaccines, including those against COVID-19 and the human papillomavirus (HPV), and in providing vaccine education.
Penn student develops a way for computer chips to run more efficiently
Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in mission-critical applications.
