Marketing Area

Environmental sustainability pays off—but mostly for media-savvy firms

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 14:42:57 +0000

Environmental sustainability pays off—but mostly for media-savvy firms Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 11/18/2025 - 09:42

To please both the planet and shareholders at the same time, firms must travel a triangular path.

Whatever else they may be, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives are very often an image-building exercise. Business leaders hope that by being seen to put ethical responsibilities over profits, they will reap profits anyway as a byproduct of reputational gains. It stands to reason, then, that no conversation about the “business case” for ESG would be complete without involving society’s chief reputational brokers—i.e. the media.

Saurabh Mishra. Photo by �鶹��Ƶ.

New published research from Saurabh Mishra, area chair and professor of marketing at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, confirms the media’s pivotal role in influencing ESG profitability.

Forthcoming in the Journal of Business Research, the paper was co-authored by Shekhar Misra at University of Galway, Ireland.

The researchers analyzed ESG performance from the Sustainalytics database, media sentiment from the RavenPack news analytics database, and financial data (including advertising budgets) for 452 firms over the period 2009-2018.

This data-set allowed them to chart the triangular path by which “doing good” (for society and the planet) resulted in “doing well” for the firms in question.

To start with, only the “E” in ESG had any direct positive impact on financial performance—and a muted one at that. Of the three metrics examined—idiosyncratic risk, abnormal returns and Tobin’s Q—only idiosyncratic risk responded favorably to raw, unmediated environmental performance.

The “S” and “G” had either no direct positive effect, or a negative effect upon financial performance.

“You can imagine the E, S, and G would not have the same effect on all stakeholders,” Mishra observes. “Governance, being a little more internal, might have more positive impact on employees, but not necessarily on the outside world. Social kind of falls in the middle—it could be either internal or external.”

With media sentiment, there was a similar disparity. “Greening” efforts tended to drive more positive media coverage for the firm, which translated into higher financial performance. Social and governance initiatives made no significant difference to the media conversation.

But not all eco-conscious firms benefited equally from this media-made halo effect. Those that spent more money on advertising—not necessarily promoting their ESG activity, but advertising in general—saw a greater improvement in media sentiment.

Crucially, Mishra’s data-set included neither specific examples of media coverage nor information about the recipients of advertising spend. The research, therefore, does not suggest the presence of an ethically problematic quid pro quo.

“It’s possible that media simply follow firms [with high advertising budgets] more closely,” Mishra says. “They recognize their efforts more. Everything they do becomes more visible, which kind of magnifies the effect that we’re seeing.”

For Mishra, the findings help clarify contradictions about ESG and its potential payoffs. “If you look at some of the meta-analyses that have been done, the consensus is that ESG’s effect on shareholder wealth is not there, or it’s weakly positive. At the same time, there is a lot of variation. Some firms see a lot of upside and some don’t.”

It’s not, then, that there isn’t a good “business case” for ESG activity. But that case may be more contingent on external factors (such as media sentiment) than many previous researchers believed.

If so, ESG may be most financially successful as part of a diverse strategic portfolio that could encompass advertising spend and possibly other areas ostensibly unrelated to environmental sustainability.

“Advertising researchers talk about a stock effect,” Mishra explains. “Advertising stock builds over time. You have to continually advertise, otherwise that stock starts going down. So if you’re advertising substantially, you get more bang for the buck from investing in the environment.”

But because so much remains unknown about the various factors that help determine ESG’s profitability potential, Mishra cautions against dismissing the “S” and “G” too quickly, despite their apparent irrelevance in this particular study.

“I would hate to say that firms should not invest in social and governance,” Mishra says. “Maybe if you look at some other stakeholder measures—employee productivity measures, for instance—they move the needle there. Because, after all, there is variation in the data, and no one paper can look at every relevant factor. But if your objective is to move media to be more positive towards you, environmental focus is your best bet.”

“I would hate to say that firms should not invest in social and governance. Maybe if you look at some other stakeholder measures—employee productivity measures, for instance—they move the needle there. Because, after all, there is variation in the data, and no one paper can look at every relevant factor. But if your objective is to move media to be more positive towards you, environmental focus is your best bet.”

— Saurabh Mishra, area chair and professor of marketing at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ

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How consumers react when they feel ‘betrayed’ by a brand

Katelynn C Hipolito — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 14:52:41 +0000

How consumers react when they feel ‘betrayed’ by a brand Katelynn C Hipolito Mon, 11/03/2025 - 09:52

A pair of �鶹��Ƶ marketing professors have unpacked the surprisingly intense and complicated emotional consequences of brand inauthenticity.

We all know what it’s like to discover—either gradually or all at once—someone else’s insincerity. Jessica Hoppner and Russell Abratt, marketing professors at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, have found that an encounter with an inauthentic brand produces much the same effect.

Jessica Hoppner. Photo by �鶹��Ƶ.

“Authenticity is defined within the context of the brand-consumer relationship,” Hoppner says. In other words, it’s in the eye of the beholder—or in this case, the consumer. Inauthenticity occurs when a brand behaves in a way that appears to go against its perceived core values, or the consumer’s baseline expectations for that particular brand.

“This kind of inauthenticity causes problems for brand managers because for each person it’s a little bit different, and that makes it really hard to navigate,” Hoppner says.

In their recently published paper in the Journal of Product & Brand Management, Hoppner and Abratt trace the emotional cause-and-effect of brand inauthenticity, offering rare insight into this slippery phenomenon.

The paper was co-authored by Ryan White of Winona State University.

The researchers recruited 218 survey participants using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. Respondents were asked to write about an experience of brand inauthenticity and answer a series of questions about that experience and steps they took afterward. The results were analyzed in light of concepts drawn from psychological research, such as appraisal theory and balance theory.

Surprisingly, participants named a wide range of brands (156 in all), only 25.2 percent of which appeared on Interbrand’s Top 100 Best Global Brands List. “It covered large brands, small brands, all different sectors,” says Hoppner. “It’s not constrained to consumer products or the brands that we would normally think about.”

The survey responses showed that customers experienced brand inauthenticity as a betrayal of sorts, with emotional implications comparable to those of human-to-human betrayal.

Brand inauthenticity triggered a complex mix of emotional responses in consumers. Anger, anxiety, and disappointment were the principal motifs across the sample, but individual reactions could include one, two, or even all three. The strength of reactive emotions varied according to the perceived severity of the betrayal.

Further, the researchers found that the three main emotional responses led to different behaviors in consumers.

Abratt and Hoppner describe anger as a “hot emotion,” causing consumers to lash out at brands deemed inauthentic, through retaliation, complaints, and withdrawal of loyalty.

Anxiety inspired a less accusatory and more questioning response, as consumers groped for the deeper truth about this apparently two-faced brand. “Anxiety is very ambiguous,” Hoppner says. “When we’re anxious, it’s often because we don’t really know what happened, why it happened, who’s to blame, etc.” Consumers made anxious by brand inauthenticity actually increased their loyalty to the brand, and sought out more information to resolve the ambiguity.

Finally, disappointment led consumers to lapse into a self-protective passivity. Their central concern became not closure or redress, but rather avoiding further disappointment by turning their back on the offending brand.

Russell Abratt. Photo by �鶹��Ƶ.

Abratt and Hoppner advise brand managers to think twice before launching a rote response in hopes of winning back consumers alienated by perceived inauthenticity. Anger and anxiety show up very differently, and disappointment may not show up at all in any conventionally measurable way. When addressing inauthenticity after the fact, a brand’s best bet may be to ask questions and listen closely before attempting to fix the problem.

Of course, the ideal approach would be to avoid being seen as inauthentic in the first place. That would mean understanding the actual relationships consumers have with the brand, which may differ from how managers view the brand’s value proposition. It may also entail intentional, proactive reshaping of those relationships.

“I think the real issue for firms is to understand who they are,” Abratt says. “In other words, brands have to talk about their identity. And once they have figured that one out, they have to have training amongst their employees and say, ‘this is what we stand for. This is what we do.’ Communicate that to your markets and your community, and make sure that you allow the community and customers to talk back with you.”

“I think the real issue for firms is to understand who they are,” Abratt says. “In other words, brands have to talk about their identity. And once they have figured that one out, they have to have training amongst their employees and say, ‘this is what we stand for. This is what we do.’ Communicate that to your markets and your community, and make sure that you allow the community and customers to talk back with you.”

— Russell Abratt, marketing professor at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ

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George �鶹��Ƶ marketing professor receives prestigious research funding

Katelynn C Hipolito — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:56:59 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ marketing professor receives prestigious research funding Katelynn C Hipolito Wed, 10/08/2025 - 10:56

Jessica Hoppner

Jessica Hoppner, associate professor of marketing at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ, has been named a recipient of Academy of Marketing Research Funding for 2025.

According to the submitted proposal, the awarded project—entitled “Bridging the Digital Divide: The Paradox of Sales and Marketing Collaboration on Social Media”—“will contribute to both academic research and industry best practices, guiding B2B firms toward more effective digital engagement strategies.”

The Academy of Marketing’s research sub-committee chooses a mere handful of recipients each year for grants of up to £5,000. Funding is offered in collaboration with Marketing Trust, an independent charity dedicated to supporting marketing projects serving the public good.

Hoppner’s co-PI on this project is Severina Cartwright, senior lecturer (associate professor) in marketing at University of Liverpool.

Hoppner and Cartwright plan to use the grant money to carry out an in-depth practitioner survey leading to the creation of a unique and granular data-set. Anticipated final output will include an academic article submitted to a top marketing journal, as well as a whitepaper and other translational content for a practitioner audience.

As per the proposal, the project will unfold in three phases: survey development and pre-testing, data collection and analysis, and dissemination and knowledge transfer. Hoppner and Cartwright aim to complete their project within a twelve-month timeframe.

Saurabh Mishra

“Congratulations to Prof. Hoppner on this well-deserved funding award—an achievement that underscores the excellence of her work and exemplifies the innovative and managerially meaningful research being conducted within the marketing area in Costello.”

— Saurabh Mishra, marketing area chair

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Photography entrepreneurs continue to grow businesses while studying marketing

Greg Johnson — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:18:18 +0000

Photography entrepreneurs continue to grow businesses while studying marketing Greg Johnson Wed, 06/26/2024 - 10:18

Many students graduate from the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ with bold plans to start their own companies. Bethany Rivera and Alex Tugbang, both undergraduate marketing students and classmates in Jiyeon Hong’s marketing course, had already launched their respective businesses, Rivera’s Photography and Photuggraphy, prior to enrolling.

“In my digital marketing course, I’m trying my best to keep my materials up to date and focus on skills and lessons of practical value, offering many opportunities for students to apply what they learn in class to real-world scenarios,” says Hong. “This is because the digital world is constantly changing, and I believe the best learning can come from hands-on experience.” Focused on their career ambitions and passions, Rivera and Tugbang knew what they wanted to learn more about to become even more successful entrepreneurs.

Bethany Rivera

Her family and friends knew it was only a matter of time until Bethany Rivera became an avid photographer. “Ever since I was born, I was surrounded with cameras and pictures,” she says. She fondly recalls her father giving her a Canon camera when she was 12 years old, but it wasn’t until high school that she realized she could make a living with it. She had taken a picture at a pep rally and sent it to her English teacher, who also taught the yearbook class. They selected the photo to use on the cover, and Rivera quickly became involved with working on the yearbook.

Since officially launching her business in 2021, she has steadily grown her clientele from people she knows in the local Hispanic community. In addition, many of her clients are of Indian background, connections stemming from befriending the owner of an Indian restaurant.

Alex Tugbang

Alex Tugbang’s passion for photography began more recently. Inspired by videos he watched on YouTube, he decided to bring a camera with him on a family vacation to Hawaii in 2016. At first, he wasn’t happy with how his pictures were turning out, but he continued to practice and teach himself until they got better and better.

“When I was in Hawaii, there was this crazy moment when the concierge sat me down and asked me if I made money off photography, and he walked me through how to open a business,” he says.

Shortly after the trip, he started doing photo shoots for friends performing activities like dance. As his content was put out there, dance studios began to contact him. As a graduate of Bishop Ireton High School, he became friends with the bishop who recommended him to several other churches in the area for projects. And so, his client network grew rapidly, all while being a self-taught photographer and videographer.

Both Rivera and Tugbang find their current coursework, especially Jiyeon Hong’s course, immensely helpful in growing professionally. “She doesn’t know this, but every time she’s teaching something I always make the changes on my website,” says Rivera. “Like when she was talking about SEO and how to optimize your SEO and everything, I was on my website making those changes in real time.” One of the course’s projects that Tugbang finds particularly helpful is analyzing a company’s website and social media presence to make recommendations. In fact, it’s something he finds himself doing often for his business. “For example, this dental company reached out to me, and I could see they didn’t even have a website and needed this and that,” he says. With an analytical eye and a strong marketing skillset, he can help clients reach their goals. “I’m very proud of my students who are pursuing their entrepreneurial spirits while managing their academic responsibilities,” says Hong. “I wish them all the best for the continued growth of their businesses.”

Rivera is already doing professionally what she’s always wanted to do. Now her goals are just bigger and more ambitious. In addition to photography and marketing, she finds much to love about being an entrepreneur. “Before I started my business, I was a homebody who didn’t go too far unless it was with family or friends,” she says. “Now that I have clients in different locations, I get to see different locations I wasn’t aware about, and I get to connect with different people from different cultures.” The sky is the limit for Tugbang’s business as well. “I definitely want to keep focusing on my business,” he says. “It allows me to grow myself and grow the community as well because there’s other photographers I’m helping, and they help me with my own projects as well.” With ever-expanding client networks and skillsets, Bethany Rivera and Alex Tugbang are excited to continue growing their businesses to new heights.

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Healthy recipe content creator found niche while studying at �鶹��Ƶ

Greg Johnson — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 20:48:04 +0000

Healthy recipe content creator found niche while studying at �鶹��Ƶ Greg Johnson Wed, 04/24/2024 - 16:48

Brittany Mullins, BS Marketing ’07, found her professional niche while studying at the Costello College of Business at �鶹��Ƶ. Since graduating, she has founded and run her successful brand, Eating Bird Food, providing healthy recipes and more to her loyal followers.

Brittany Mullins, BS Marketing ’07

When Mullins began her freshman year at George �鶹��Ƶ, she was determined to not gain the “freshman 15.” Even though she had always consumed the average American diet, now, she decided, was the time for her to turn over a new page.

As she got into top physical shape, she learned everything she could about health and nutrition, some of it by enrolling in nutrition courses at George �鶹��Ƶ. Combining her newfound passion with her marketing background, she would soon establish Eating Bird Food, a platform providing healthy recipes.

With a combined social following of more than two million, Mullins has also published a cookbook and serves as a nutrition coach. Her brand continues to grow as followers recognize and trust her as an expert in her field. Eating Bird Food has been evolving ever since Mullins came up with the initial concept.

“After graduating, I got a job in marketing and also started a food blog to keep myself accountable to my healthy eating,” she says.

As Mullins states on her website, “Eating Bird Food simply means eating a wholesome diet focused on real foods—without labels.” Even though her personal preference is to eat plant-focused meals, she also eats fish and lean meat, enabling her to provide an array of healthy recipes to meet an individual’s own dietary preferences. On her website, she offers detailed recipes, complete with photos and videos, and organized by meal course, protein, diet, and cooking method. Furthermore, followers have the option to purchase a variety of meal plans.

Mullins has clearly found her own recipe for success when it comes to content creation. When asked for tips for someone who wants to break into the space, she says, “I say number one is just to start, and number two is to be really passionate about your topic and to niche down because the market with content creators is really saturated. Find something that is ‘your thing,’ and when people think of this, they’ll come to you for that specific content.” She continues to niche down even more, now focusing on more protein-focused recipes.

Though being her own boss gives her a lot of flexibility—something that the wife and mother of two greatly values—there are many challenges Mullins has to overcome. “I have to wear all the hats and do all the things, like the bookkeeping, taxes, and everything else,” she says. “Whereas if you’re an employee for a company, someone else manages those tasks and you don’t have to worry about all those extra things.” Additionally, she manages a team of four people and then contracts other professionals to accomplish tasks like videography and photography.

Having found her niche in content and amassing a large, loyal, and still growing audience, Mullins is excited to find more ways to expand her business. With a keen eye on updates happening with artificial intelligence and SEO, she’s considering new possibilities from affiliate earnings to expanding her products for purchase. Her expertise on both healthy eating and marketing have earned her a large following, which helps establish a built-in audience for whatever new venture she decides on next.

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