new marketing research topics 2020

Research Topics & Ideas: Marketing

50+ Marketing Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

Marketing and advertising-based research topics

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. If you’ve landed on this post, chances are you’re looking for a marketing-related research topic , but aren’t sure where to start. If so, you’ve come to the right place.

Here, we’ll explore a variety of marketing-related research ideas and topic thought-starters, covering both traditional marketing (offline media) and digital marketing (including social media marketing, content marketing and the like). We’ll also look at actual dissertations and theses from marketing students to give you a view of what a well-defined research topic looks like.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the marketing domain. This is the starting point, but to develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. In it, we cover the process of writing a dissertation or thesis from start to end. Be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic.

Overview: Marketing-Related Topics

How to find a research topic (video)
Traditional (offline) marketing topics/ideas
Digital (online) marketing topics/ideas
Examples of actual dissertation topics
Free Webinar : Topic Ideation 101
Where to get extra help

How To Find A Research Topic

Before we look at specific research ideas and topics, it’s useful to first understand what the topic ideation process entails and how to go about finding and refining viable topic ideas. In the video below, we cover exactly that. So, if you’re a first-time researcher, be sure to watch this tutorial before jumping into the collection of marketing research topics we present below.

Now that you’ve got a big-picture view of the topic ideation process, we can dive into a few research ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Please note that these research topic ideas are intentionally broad and generic, so you will need to refine them a fair deal using the techniques we discussed in the video above.

To make life a little easier for you, we’ve grouped the topic ideas based on two main categories – traditional marketing and digital / online marketing . For the latter, we’ve divided it up into a few subcategories, including social media marketing, content marketing and search marketing. That said, there is naturally some overlap between topics, so keep this in mind.

Research Ideas: Traditional Marketing

The perceived effectiveness of different types of direct mail campaigns (e.g., postcards, catalogues, brochures) among small business owners in New York
The perception and use of traditional marketing in creating and nurturing customer loyalty and retention among UK Financial Firms.
The impact of demographic targeting on traditional marketing performance among green businesses
The perception of different types of sales promotion (e.g., discounts, coupons, contests) among GenZ consumers
The continued use of celebrity endorsements in traditional marketing campaigns, post-2020.
Exploring factors related to outdoor advertising recall in India
Measuring the ROI of traditional marketing efforts: a review of current methods
Comparing the effectiveness of different traditional media channels (e.g., television, radio, print) in driving engagement and conversions among established brands
The use of public relations in traditional marketing campaigns among large insurance companies
The role of event marketing in building brand awareness and engagement: perceptions among marketing professionals in the UK

Free Webinar: How To Find A Dissertation Research Topic

Research Ideas: Digital/Online Marketing

Social media marketing

The use of artificial intelligence in social media marketing among online fashion companies in Sweden
The impact of social media on public relations and media relations: a Case Study of Nandos
The role of Twitter in crisis communication and reputation management: a discourse analysis
The impact of social media influencer presence on brand loyalty and customer retention among Gen X.
The use of social media for market research and consumer insights among SMEs in Kenya
The impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour of fast food in Italy
The challenges and opportunities of social media in global and multicultural marketing: perceptions of marketing departments in large corporations
The relationship between social media engagement and website traffic: an analysis of fitness brands
The effectiveness of influencer marketing on social media platforms for household cleaning products in the UK
The perceptions and understanding of paid vs organic social media advertising among Gen Z consumers in San Francisco

Content marketing

The use and understanding of micro-moments in creating personalized content experiences among content creators in the USA
Comparing the effectiveness of methods of personalization of content marketing: an evaluation of best practice
The experiences and use of SEO in content marketing strategy among small online businesses
The use of social media influencers in content marketing campaigns: a Case Study of Hello Fresh
Comparing different content distribution channels for different types of content: perceptions of best practices among content marketing experts
The use of user-generated content in building brand trust and engagement among green companies in the UK
Measuring the ROI of content marketing efforts among luxury brands
The perception and use of Chat GPT in content creation among small online businesses
The perceptions of interactive and immersive content formats (e.g., virtual reality, augmented reality) in marketing among consumers: an experimental study
Comparing image and text-based content formats in driving engagement and conversions on social media: a multi-case study of NGOs

Search engine marketing

The effectiveness of different ad formats (e.g., text ads, shopping ads, video ads) in Search Engine Marketing for tourist destinations
The impact of search engine algorithm updates on Search Engine Marketing performance – who are the winners and losers?
The perception and use of AI and machine learning in Search Engine Marketing strategy and bidding optimization within a UK marketing agency
The use of voice search and its impact on Search Engine Marketing among food retailers in Switzerland
The role of local SEO in driving brick-and-mortar sales: a case study of a local fashion outlet in France
The impact of mobile optimization on Search Engine Marketing performance and conversion rates in Nigeria
Comparing analytical tools for measuring ROI of Search Engine Marketing campaigns
The effectiveness of different types of keywords and search queries in driving traffic towards restaurants in Italy
The use of remarketing and retargeting in search engine marketing campaigns among marketers
The understanding and use of schema markup and structured data in improving Search engine marketing performance among Start-Ups

Research Topic Kickstarter - Need Help Finding A Research Topic?

Email marketing

The perception and use of AI and machine learning in email marketing among NGOs: a focus on personalized content and dynamic segmentation
The effectiveness of email subject line strategies in driving open and click-through rates: an experimental study
Comparing A/B testing and multivariate testing in improving email marketing performance: a case study
The use of personalization on email marketing performance among craft bloggers
The impact of automated email marketing among local online retailers on customer loyalty and retention
The use of automation and triggered emails in increasing engagement and conversion rates for online courses
The perception and understanding of GDPR and other data privacy regulations on email marketing among SMEs
The role of mobile optimization in email marketing targeting Gen Z consumers
The challenges of measuring the ROI of email marketing campaigns: perceptions of SMEs
The effectiveness of different email formats (e.g., text-based, HTML, interactive) in driving engagement: A/B testing for a small online retailer

Marketing-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding marketing-related research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various marketing-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

The Influences of Brand Personality, Culture, and Social Media on Iconic Brand Preferences (Whelan, 2021)
Customer Success and the Transformation of Customer Relationships (Raines, 2022)
The Effects of Online Incentivized Reviews on Organic Review Ratings (Jeong, 2020)
Are You For Real? The Consumption-Driven Self-Authentication Process And Its Effects On Perceived Brand Authenticity (Kuchmaner, 2020)
You Are What You Eat: How Food Texture And Packaging Influence Consumer Well-Being (Ning, 2020)
Social Dialogic Listening: Connecting Marketing Activity To Strategy (Collins, 2020)
Millennials’ Attitudes Towards Influencer Marketing And Purchase Intentions (Yu, 2019)
Cannibalization between Two Mercedes-Benz Models and Consumer Behavior (Ma, 2020)
Selling and Buying Aspects of Used Products That Are Brand Anthropomorphized (Kim, 2019)
Global Identity: Conceptualization, Measurement, And Implications For Marketing Strategy (Yoruk, 2022)
The Intersection of Organizational Frontline Marketing and a High-Tech World (Krotz, 2021)
The Unexplored Impacts of Communication Elements in Marketing (Trinh, 2022)
Founder Social Identity As A Predictor Of Customer And Competitor Orientation In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises (Rutherford, 2021)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are far more specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. This is an important thing to keep in mind as you develop your own research topic. That is to say, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Fast-Track Your Research Topic

If you’re still feeling a bit unsure about how to find a research topic for your marketing dissertation or thesis, check out our 1-on-1 private coaching services below.

You Might Also Like:

Topic Kickstarter: Research topics in education

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Print Friendly

CASE STUDIES
CONVERSATIONAL RESEARCH
RESEARCH REIMAGINED
Press & Media
Get Started
There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Perspectives on Insights

Subscribe to our blog to get the latest updates from our team

Emerging trends in marketing research: What’s ahead for the insights industry

Kelvin Claveria

Marketing, Reach3 Insights

In the third wave of online marketing research, the biggest emerging trends are mobile-first, immersive and human.

At its core, marketing research is about understanding customer behaviors, habits and routines, and getting foresight on what’s next. 2020 reiterated the importance of agile, ongoing insights as businesses needed to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting changes in the consumer landscape. With 2020 finally behind us, what key emerging trends in marketing research can we expect to see in 2021?

1. Driving agility by merging quant and qual in one seamless experience

To help drive growth in 2021, marketing research teams need to understand not just what customers are doing—but also why. Keeping up with the overwhelming pace of change brought by the pandemic requires looking beyond market research trends and utilizing innovations in the insight-gathering process.

“In 2020, I witnessed first-hand a surge of eagerness and attention surrounding consumer and shopper feedback across many industries as everyone wanted to understand the impact of the pandemic on their categories,” said Jon Dore, SVP & Founding Partner at Reach3 Insights. “With this renewed reliance and focus on insights heading into 2021, I predict the insights industry will step up its game by having the inspiration and courage to move away from outdated methodologies and deliverables in favor of more modern solutions.”

There will rarely be business questions which can be completely answered by only quant or qual alone.

To be more agile, companies need to use inn ovative market research techniques that capture both quant and qual in one experience.

“There will rarely be business questions which can be completely answered by only one or the other mode of research,” Jon explains. “Luckily for marketing research, conversational-based technologies and approaches are perfectly suited for gathering robust quant and rich qual insights in a single research touchpoint. In 2021, conversational insights will become a mainstay terminology in the world of market research.”

2. Accelerated adoption of mobile-first approaches

In 2020, the business world had to respond to fundamental changes to how most people work and live. Research leaders may be pulling for a return to a new normal . Still, Matt Kleinschmit, our CEO & Founder at Reach3 Insights says, “I’m quite confident the trends of 2020 will not abate anytime soon.”

To keep up with changes, companies will accelerate their adoption of mobile-first technologies and research techniques in 2021, Matt predicts.

A driving factor to this acceleration is the need to engage people virtually. “Since COVID-19, mobile research techniques served as a lifeline for many companies to real-time quant, qual and video-based consumer insights at scale,” Matt explains. “As the world contemplates the post-pandemic world, it’ll be even more imperative for them to engage consumers in-the-moment using remote-yet-immersive approaches—something mobile techniques naturally excel at.”

Many clients are under pressure to show that the technologies and techniques they’re using are maximizing the representativeness, accuracy and richness of insights.

Another big driver pushing the industry towards mobile research is the polling industry’s big miss in predicting the 2020 US presidential elections. As a result, “many clients are under pressure to show the technologies and techniques they’re using are maximizing the representativeness, accuracy and richness of insights,” said Matt. This pressure will encourage more researchers to challenge the status quo and test mobile-first approaches.

Getting deeper, richer insights is particularly critical at this point. Marketing Week notes there's a growing disconnect between how customers behave and how some marketers believe they do. That gap only increased within the last year.

Art Schofield, CEO of Giffgaff said in an interview with Marketing Week:

"This year should be about discovery. Marketers have a great advantage. They can provide an insight-led vision of the future, but they can also describe how we’re going to get there. If you can do that, you’re valued because you’re solving problems for a business. But to deliver this Venn diagram of customer and company value, they need to invest in research tools, new and old. It’s the only way out of the bubble."

3. A focus on bringing new voices to the research process and getting to the "other 99%"

Representation is becoming more important to more consumers, with many people intentionally moving away from companies that don’t value diversity. A survey by Adobe found 40% of Hispanic respondents have walked away from a brand for not representing them in advertising.

Diversity and proper representation will be a key market research issue in 2021. The major business reason behind this: companies need insights that reflect the attitudes and behaviors of the increasingly diverse consumer groups they’re targeting. More than ever, companies need to reach under-represented groups and bring their voices into the boardroom. Instead of relying on access panels and email databases alone, our industry needs to explore the use of next-gen recruitment tactics to reach and continuously engage the 99% of consumers who don’t take part in traditional research.

Thankfully, mobile market research methods are well suited to reach and engage many of these groups.

“In 2021, the quest for capturing deeper, richer insights (at scale) that can drive better business outcomes will be through the most ubiquitous, personal technology on Earth: the mobile phone,” said Matt. “Leveraging conversational, mobile-first methods make it easier to bring unheard voices into the boardroom, providing fresh insight into the hearts and minds of audiences who are typically under-represented in the research process.”

One of those under-represented audiences is Generation Z—an outspoken group in 2020 . While this generation has been very active on networks such as Instagram and TikTok , many market research techniques still rely on email. Meaningfully engaging these young, mobile-first consumers requires re-imagining the research experience—not only where we engage with them, but also the tone and language we use.

At Reach3, we firmly believe we are now in the third wave of online marketing research. In this era, the biggest and most enduring trends are mobile-first, immersive, and most importantly human. The time to embrace conversational insights is now.

If you’d like to learn more, check out our ebook, The Future of Insights is Conversational .

The future of insights ebook header download button

Be a leader in conversational insights

Subscribe to our blog for the latest content on chat surveys, market research and more.

Let’s start with a conversation

Request a call from one of our experts

Chicago Los Angeles San Francisco Toronto Vancouver 1-833-4REACH3 [email protected]

Case Studies
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Security and Compliance

Mapping research in marketing: trends, influential papers and agenda for future research

Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC

ISSN : 2444-9695

Article publication date: 5 December 2023

Issue publication date: 7 March 2024

This study aims to map the conceptual structure and evolution of the recent scientific literature published in marketing journals to identify the areas of interest and potential future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach

The 100 most influential marketing academic papers published between 2018 and 2022 were identified and scrutinized through a bibliometric analysis.

The findings further upheld the critical role of emerging technologies such as Blockchain in marketing and identified artificial intelligence and live streaming as emerging trends, reinforcing the importance of data-driven marketing in the discipline.

Research limitations/implications

The data collection included only the 100 most cited documents between 2018 and 2022, and data were limited only to Scopus database and restrained to the Scopus-indexed marketing journals. Moreover, documents were selected based on the number of citations. Nevertheless, the data set may still provide significant insight into the marketing field.

Practical implications

Influential authors, papers and journals identified in this study will facilitate future literature searches and scientific dissemination in the field. This study makes an essential contribution to the marketing literature by identifying hot topics and suggesting future research themes. Also, the important role of emerging technologies and the shift of marketing toward a more data-driven approach will have significant practical implications for marketers.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study offering a general overview of the leading trends and researchers in marketing state-of-the-art research.

Bibliometric analysis
Citation analysis
Research publications
Science mapping
Análisis bibliométrico
Análisis de citas
Publicaciones de investigación
Mapeo científico
市场营销; 文献计量分析; 引文分析; 研究出版物; 科学绘图。

Ramos, R. , Rita, P. and Vong, C. (2024), "Mapping research in marketing: trends, influential papers and agenda for future research", Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC , Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 187-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJME-10-2022-0221

Emerald Publishing Limited

Published in Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Marketing is vital to all businesses’ survival, long-term growth, development and success ( Czinkota et al. , 2021 ). Generally, the domain of marketing encompasses (1) the identification of marketing opportunities, (2) the creation of competitive advantages, (3) the effective utilization of resources, (4) the communication and delivery of products or services to customers, (5) the creation of value to customers and (6) the satisfaction of customers’ needs profitably ( Simkin, 2000 ).

The evaluation of academic marketing literature has progressively become relevant in recent years ( Das et al. , 2022 ; Hair and Sarstedt, 2021 ). The increasing number of academic publications in marketing varies in different contributions, which made it difficult for scholars to track new trends and find influential manuscripts to advance the body of knowledge. The primary objective of a research publication is to be known and influence others’ work. Nevertheless, the created knowledge is fragmented, and the emergence of new marketing topics is continuously changing the research map of marketing. Moreover, marketing is an applied discipline in that marketing research not only aims to generate scientific knowledge but also to provide insights and knowledge that can be practically used to inform marketing decisions ( Jedidi et al. , 2021 ). In addition, technological advancement has rapidly affected marketing practices and management ( Amado et al. , 2018 ). To address this challenge, this paper aims to map the conceptual structure and the evolution of knowledge to uncover the existing topics, trending areas of interest and future directions.

Despite considerable research efforts in the marketing field, little has been done to review prior research works systematically. Moreover, recent review articles have mainly focused on specific marketing domains or are limited to particular contexts, such as customer experience ( Chauhan et al. , 2022 ), marketing communication ( Domenico et al. , 2021 ), customer engagement ( Chen et al. , 2021 ), consumer behavior ( Oliveira et al. , 2022 ), advertising ( Jebarajakirthy et al. , 2021 ) and product or brand positioning ( Saqib, 2021 ), while context-specific reviews include marketing in emerging markets ( Paul et al. , 2016 ), sustainable marketing ( Lunde, 2018 ), business-to-business marketing ( Pandey et al. , 2020 ), luxury brand marketing ( Arrigo, 2018 ) and tourism marketing ( Han and Bai, 2022 ). The lack of a holistic review of marketing research created a gap in the existing research. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a big picture of the most recent marketing literature. The most recent review work in the same vein was conducted by Morgan et al. (2019) , who evaluated 257 marketing strategy articles published in the six most influential marketing journals during 1999–2017. Nevertheless, given its focus on marketing strategy and limited research sources, it does not provide a comprehensive framework that covers all aspects of the marketing field. To complement the work by Morgan et al. (2019) , this paper conducts a review with a more recent timeframe that focuses on recent trends, patterns and development in the field. The inclusiveness of journals will also enable identifying areas of interest beyond marketing strategy.

What is the knowledge structure of the state-of-the-art most influential academic research in marketing?

What are the current research trends?

What are possible pathways for future research in marketing?

The present work will facilitate the understanding and advancement of theories and knowledge in the field. Also, this paper provides valuable insights into the field’s most relevant and pressing issues and informs where future research efforts should be focused. This will, in turn, improve the practical relevance and usefulness of future research and ensure that research efforts are targeted toward topics that will yield impactful results. Moreover, it offers up-to-date information for marketing researchers.

2. Methodology

This study focuses on characterizing the most influential academic marketing articles published between 2018 and 2022 and discussing the marketing state of the art.

2.1 Search strategy

A search string was applied in the Scopus database to find the most relevant articles for this research ( Ramos et al. , 2019 ). The Scopus database was chosen for the literature review as it is generally considered one of the largest repositories with the most relevant indexed publications and one of the most universally acknowledged bibliographic databases ( Kumar et al. , 2020 ). It is recognized as the most well-organized and of the highest credibility and quality standards, with the most significant global impact and more comprehensive cover ( Muñoz-Leiva et al. , 2015 ; Rojas-Lamorena et al. , 2022 ) and is consistent with previous bibliometric reviews applied in the marketing research setting ( Kumar et al. , 2021 ; Paul and Bhukya, 2021 ). In addition, it follows Donthu et al. (2021) ’s recommendation to select only one database to minimize human errors during analysis. All marketing journals (212) indexed in Scopus were included in the current study. The journal selection takes a rather inclusive approach instead of the sole inclusion of marketing-specific journals, as marketing is a diverse and evolving field not strictly tied to a single-subject field ( Baumgartner and Pieters, 2003 ) but often intersects with other disciplines. For instance, given the rapid advancement of technology and its influence on marketing practices, topics such as information systems or big data are growing in importance and relevance to the marketing literature ( Amado et al. , 2018 ). Accordingly, journals such as the International Journal of Information Management have also contributed significantly to marketing recently ( Veloutsou and Ruiz Mafe, 2020 ). The search was conducted on June 9, 2023.

2.2 Selection process and final data set

The search was conducted in the Scopus database and limited to 2018 to 2022 to obtain state-of-the-art articles. Five years is a reasonable timeframe to capture a discipline’s essence and to conduct a bibliometric analysis ( Borgohain et al. , 2022 ). The collection of articles over five years reflects varied, robust, broad, inclusive and unrelated marketing research interests in the marketing field ( Bettenhausen, 1991 ). The focus on the most recent works permits uncovering the most recent trends without the influence of older topics. Only articles were selected as they represent the most advanced and up-to-date knowledge and are recognized for their academic value ( Rojas-Lamorena et al. , 2022 ). In total, 44,767 articles were collected. To select the most recent influential marketing articles, the top 100 most cited articles were selected. The citation metric acknowledges the impact of the articles ( Donthu et al. , 2021 ) and reflects the impact of scholarly work in subsequent research ( Purkayastha et al. , 2019 ).

In addition, it is recognized as one of the most relevant metrics of academic research ( Dowling, 2014 ). Although assessing the influence of an article based on citation analysis represents a significant limitation because articles may be cited for multiple reasons, citation analysis is considered an objective approach that exhibits less systematic biases for research impact evaluation ( Baumgartner and Pieters, 2003 ). Previous works have used citation metrics for bibliometric analysis. For instance, Law et al. (2009) analyzed the most influential articles published in Tourism journals using citation counts, whereas Brito et al. (2018) identified the areas of interest in football research and listed the articles based on citation frequency. From each article, the following variables were retrieved: authors’ names and keywords, document title, year, source title and citation count. The information was extracted in CSV file format.

2.3 Final data set

The final data set includes 100 articles from 28 journals. The authors’ names were reviewed for normalization purposes as they have different nomenclatures in different articles (e.g. Dwivedi YK vs Dwivedi Y) so that the software understands them as the same.

2.4 Data analysis

The CSV file with the final data set was input for the bibliometric analysis. Data were analyzed using the mapping analysis R-tool bibliometrix ( Aria and Cuccurullo, 2017 ). This package allows different types of analysis, offering an overview of the research field. A bibliometric analysis permits to analyzing the bibliographic material quantitatively, providing an objective and reliable analysis ( Broadus, 1987 ; Sepulcri et al. , 2020 ) and summarizing the existing literature and identifying emerging topics of research ( Hota et al. , 2020 ). The authors’ names and keywords, year of publication, source title and the number of citations were collected from each article. A performance analysis was performed to acknowledge the field’s citation structure, most relevant sources, authors and articles. Then, science mapping analysis through a co-occurrence analysis was performed. The co-occurrence analysis aims to overcome the descriptive nature of the bibliometric analysis, uncovering gaps and research trends ( Palmatier et al. , 2018 ; Quezado et al. , 2022 ). The gaps and research trends led to a future research agenda.

3. Results and discussion

3.1 total citations by year.

As indicated in Table 1 , the 100 articles were cited 41,888 times, an average of 418.88 citations per article. The most contributing years were 2019 and 2020, with 33 published articles yearly. The year with the highest number of citations was 2019, with 14,621 citations, corresponding to 34.90% of the total citations. This record is strongly linked to the work of Snyder (2019) , with 1,872 citations that characterized different types of literature reviews and suggested guidelines on conducting and evaluating business research literature reviews. Due to the increasing number of publications, it is challenging to keep current with state-of-the-art research ( Briner and Denyer, 2012 ). Reviewing the existing research is fundamental for understanding marketing research inconsistencies, gathering and synthesizing previous research and serving as guidance for researchers and practitioners. In addition, literature reviews contribute to identifying potential gaps, suggesting novel research lines and allowing a balanced growth of a research field ( Hulland and Houston, 2020 ).

The year with the highest mean total citations per article and year was 2021 (527.5 and 175.83, respectively). This result is highly associated with Donthu et al. (2021) ’s work, with 1,221 citations, that explained how to develop a bibliometric analysis.

The main difference between a literature review and bibliometric analysis is the focus and the methodological approach. A literature review aims to critically analyze and synthesize existing knowledge under a research topic ( Snyder, 2019 ). In turn, a bibliometric analysis is a specific approach within the field of scientometrics that uses quantitative and statistical methods to analyze the scientific production and articles’ characteristics published in a specific research domain ( Aria and Cuccurullo, 2017 ).

3.2 Most influential articles

Seminal articles in marketing assume an essential role in its development ( Berry and Parasuraman, 1993 ). The number of citations was used to define and measure the impact of the most influential articles. The most cited document (total citation = 1,872) was Snyder’s (2019) work on conducting an overview and suggesting guidelines for conducting a literature review ( Table 2 ). The normalized citation compares an article’s performance to the data set’s average performance ( Bornmann and Marx, 2015 ; Rita and Ramos, 2022 ). Snyder (2019) ’s work has the highest normalized citation index (4.13), revealing its outstanding performance compared with the remaining articles from the data set.

Among the top 10 most cited articles, three are related to PLS-SEM. The partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is relevant for marketing as it allows to examine of complex relationships between latent variables and manifest variables, permitting a flexible and less restrictive analysis in terms of statistical assumptions than other modeling techniques, such as confirmatory factor analysis and principal component analysis ( Hair et al. , 2020 ). By using PLS-SEM, marketing researchers can explore complex relationships among variables, test research hypotheses, identify the relative importance of different influencers and assess the validity and reliability of the measured variables ( Sarstedt et al. , 2019 ). It is frequently used in research involving the modeling of theoretical constructs, such as customer satisfaction ( Ramos et al. , 2022 ), brand image ( Kunkel et al. , 2020 ) or perceived quality ( Ariffin et al. , 2021 ) research.

Surprisingly, there are no articles from 2018 in the top 10 most cited articles. However, there are two articles published in 2021. One of the papers published in 2021 is the work of Verhoef et al. (2021) , which explores digital transformation and innovation in business models and suggests a research agenda for future studies. Digital transformation and innovation are highly relevant for marketing as it provokes consumer behavior change ( Lemos et al. , 2022 ). In addition, it allows companies to adapt to consumer behavior changes, seize the opportunities for segmentation and personalization, improve communication and engagement and increase operational efficiency ( Muneeb et al. , 2023 ; Zhang et al. , 2022 ).

3.3 Source impact

Table 3 depicts the top 10 most impactful sources of the 100 most influential marketing articles. The intellectual convergence is exhibited based on common sources and referencing patterns ( Donthu et al. , 2021 ), and identifying journals may facilitate future literature search and scientific dissemination.

Among the 28 journals, the International Journal of Information Management (IJIM) contributed the most papers (26 papers), followed by the Journal of Business Research (JBR) (22 papers) and the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (JRCS) (6 papers). These journals are all First Quartile journals based on SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, with an impact factor of 4.906, 2.895 and 2.543, respectively. The IJIM focuses on contemporary issues in information management ( Elsevier, 2023a ). Information management field of research plays a fundamental role in marketing, providing data and insights that guide marketing strategies, improve segmentation and customization, leverage automation marketing, data-driven decision-making and the performance evaluation of marketing initiatives ( Dwivedi et al. , 2020 ). The JBR aims to publish recent business research dealing with the spectrum of actual business practical settings among different business activities ( Elsevier, 2023b ), while the JRCS focuses on consumer behavior and policy and managerial decisions ( Elsevier, 2023c ). The findings indicate the contribution and importance of IJIM to the marketing field, recognizing the relevance of information management. Surprisingly, leading marketing journals listed in the Financial Times 50 ( Ormans, 2016 ), such as the Journal of Consumer Research , Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing , only produced a small number of relevant articles in our data set. This result suggests that their papers may not be as impactful or influential as those published in other outlets. Nevertheless, the quality of the articles published in these outlets reflects the most original and well-executed research, as they have high submission rates. However, their rate of acceptance is very low.

Among the top 10 most productive journals, JBR is the one with the highest number of citations. This result confirms Table 2 ’s results as it lists six articles that were published in this journal ( Donthu et al. , 2021 ; Hair et al. , 2020 ; Sheth, 2020 ; Sigala, 2020 ; Snyder, 2019 ; Verhoef et al. , 2021 ).

3.4 Contributing authors

Key authors are essential to the field’s structure and growth ( Berry and Parasuraman, 1993 ) and positively influence the most impactful articles ( Rojas-Lamorena et al. , 2022 ). Thus, it is imperative to identify them and acknowledge their impact. Between 2018 and 2022, 100 documents were written by 312 different authors.

Table 4 characterizes the top 10 most productive authors among the most influential marketing research articles over the past five years. The authors’ indices were calculated, including h -index, g -index and m -index. The Hirsh index ( h -index) is the proposal to quantify productivity and the journal’s impact considering the number of papers and citations per publication ( Hirsch, 2005 ). The g -index aims to measure the performance of the journals ( Egghe, 2006 ), considering the citation evolution of the most cited papers over time. Furthermore, the m -index, also called the m -quotient, considers the h -index and the time since the first publication ( n ); hence, m -index = h -index/ n ( Halbach, 2011 ).

Professor Dwivedi YK is the most prolific, with seven published articles indicating more than one paper yearly. Although he is placed second as the most cited author (3,361), he has the highest h - (7), g - (7) and m -index (1.17). Professor Dwivedi’s research focuses on digital innovation and technology consumer adoption and the use of information systems and information technology for operation management and supply chain, focusing on emergent markets. Digital innovation and understanding technology consumer adoption allow companies to engage with consumers efficiently and personally ( Alalwan et al. , 2023 ). In addition, information systems and information technology applied in operation management and supply chain permit a higher efficiency and visibility in commercial activities, aiding companies to optimize processes, reduce costs and improve customer care ( Tasnim et al. , 2023 ). Professor Dwivedi is a Professor at the School of Management, Swansea University, UK ( Swansea, 2023 ). The second most productive author is Hair JF, and Hughes DL, with five articles each. Professor Hair JF is the most cited author in the list of the most productive authors. This record is highly associated with the work “Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis” ( Hair et al. , 2020 ), with 1,103 citations. Multiple papers gather authors from the list. For instance, the article “Artificial Intelligence (AI): Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy” ( Dwivedi et al. , 2021 ) was co-authored by Professors Dwivedi YK and Hughes DL. This paper has 637 citations and addresses the transformative power that artificial intelligence (AI) may have for the automation and replacement of human tasks, highlighting opportunities, challenges and impacts. AI plays a fundamental role in marketing, permitting advanced personalization, task automation, advanced data analysis, campaign optimization and improved customer experience, leading to personalized experiences and better marketing results ( Duan et al. , 2019 ; Dwivedi et al. , 2021 ).

Fractionalized frequency displays the multiauthored articles. This analysis is relevant to understand how researchers interact with each other ( Rojas-Lamorena et al. , 2022 ). A credit is attributed to each author, depending on the number of co-authors. If a paper has two authors, each receives a half-point. If a paper has three authors, each receives a third of a point, and so on ( Cuccurullo et al. , 2016 ). Professor Hughes DL has the lowest score (0.57) on the five most productive authors list, suggesting a strong relationship with colleagues through co-authorship based on shared interests.

3.5 Co-occurrence analysis

Figure 1 presents the authors’ keywords co-occurrence analysis and reflects the relationship between the keywords and the data set ( Wang et al. , 2012 ). Co-occurrence analysis aims to establish relationships and map the conceptual structure of the most influential marketing academic articles and reveal current research trends ( Eduardsen and Marinova, 2020 ). The thicker the lies among each cluster, the stronger the connection between the keywords. The size of each edge indicates the occurrence frequency. Thematic map displays the top 50 keywords and a minimum of 5 clusters. The thematic map shows six clusters, of which two are with the largest nodes, including AI (brown) and Covid-19 (blue). However, clusters with smaller nodes are bibliometric analysis (red), social media (purple), blockchain (green) and customer engagement (orange).

The brown cluster suggests a topic under AI technology. The cluster’s keywords highlight an interconnection and application of AI, machine learning and cognitive computing in the marketing research field. Deep learning, natural language processing and machine learning make part of a broader spectrum of AI ( Verma et al. , 2021 ). Cognitive computing refers to the capacity of computer systems to mimic human capacity to process information, learn and make decisions ( Duan et al. , 2019 ). These technologies handle big data efficiently, predict consumer behavior and support decision-making in actionable insights, transforming marketing strategies ( Blanco-Moreno et al. , 2023 ; Dwivedi et al. , 2021 ).

The blue cluster reflects the pandemic that affected the globe between 2020 and 2023 ( United Nations, 2023 ). This cluster reveals a close relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and consumer behavior ( Sheth, 2020 ). The interest in understanding the attitudes and consumers’ decision-making is highly relevant for future pandemics ( Pereira et al. , 2023 ). In addition, the pandemic brought social and industry challenges that deserve academic attention ( Dwivedi et al. , 2020 ; Muneeb et al. , 2023 ). This cluster also addresses overconsumption driven by impulsive behavior promoted by the pandemic ( Islam et al. , 2021 ; Marikyan et al. , 2023 ). This cluster suggests insights on how companies can adequately develop marketing strategies to face the pandemic challenges and effectively respond to health crises.

The red cluster reveals a direct connection between bibliometric analysis and scientific assessment. The bibliometric analysis is applied to reveal research patterns and knowledge structure and access the scientific production impact ( Ramos and Rita, 2023 ). The use of bibliographic coupling, co-occurrence analysis and the Scopus database supplies the data set for the identification of relationships and patterns within the literature ( Donthu et al. , 2021 ), summarizing the existing literature and identifying emerging topics of research ( Hota et al. , 2020 ).

The purple cluster highlights the terms social media and marketing. The keyword social media highlights the role of platforms, such as Instagram or TikTok, for advertising ( Alalwan, 2018 ), understanding the role of influencers ( Lou and Yuan, 2019 ), and for co-creation in brand communities ( Kamboj et al. , 2018 ), influencer marketing. Social media platforms are fundamental for any communication strategy as they connect with the audience, create engagement and awareness and promote products and services ( Lou and Yuan, 2019 ). The strategic use of social media in marketing is fundamental for companies to establish an effective presence and build long-lasting relationships.

The orange cluster suggests a relationship between live streaming and customer engagement ( Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut, 2020 ). This interconnection suggests that live streaming can be an effective channel for developing social commerce, influencing purchase intentions ( Sun et al. , 2019 ). Real-time and direct interaction with customers promote greater involvement and improve customer experience.

The green cluster suggests a focus on applying blockchain technology in information systems. Blockchain is a decentralized and immutable technology for transaction registers studied in the supply chain context ( Min, 2019 ). It has a significant potential to transform data management ( Lemos et al. , 2022 ).

4. Conclusions and future research agenda

This study represents a map of the conceptual structure and evolution of the state-of-the-art scientific literature published in marketing journals to identify the areas of interest and potential future research directions. This review aimed to (1) acknowledge the structure of the state-of-the-art most influential academic marketing research, (2) identify current research trends and (3) suggest future research prospects.

4.1 RQ1: knowledge structure

Regarding RQ1, the most cited article among the top 100 between 2018 and 2022 was the work of Snyder (2019) , with 1,872 citations, followed by the work of Donthu et al. (2021) , with 1,221. The years 2019 and 2020 were those that most contributed to the top 100 most cited, with 33 articles each. Accordingly, these years had the most citations, 14,621 and 13,692, respectively. The IJIM was the source with the highest number of articles published from our data set ( n = 26). However, the JBR, with 22 published articles, was the journal with the highest citations ( n = 12,265). Every journal from the top 10 prolific sources is ranked in Scopus (SJR) as Q1. Professor Dwivedi YK was the most prolific author, with seven articles published, followed by Professors Hair JF and Hughes DL, with five articles each. Although placed second on the most productive authors list, the most cited author was Professor Hair JF, with 3,615 articles.

4.2 RQ2: current research trends

As for RQ2, this bibliometric analysis allowed us to identify current research trends through the co-occurrence analysis. Since a comprehensive future research agenda stimulates researchers to continue their research efforts ( Hulland and Houston, 2020 ), we suggest marketing future research questions to gain a deeper knowledge of current research trends ( Table 5 ).

Although AI has existed for over six decades ( Duan et al. , 2019 ), the development of supercomputers that analyze big data led to the exponential use of this technology. Its application in marketing varies and includes trend and prediction analysis, chatbots and marketing automation. However, particularly for data analysis, multiple research questions are yet to be answered ( Dwivedi et al. , 2021 ). Grounded on the AI (brown) cluster, it would be interesting to uncover different uses of AI to improve big data analysis.

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global habits ( Sheth, 2020 ). New habits emerged, changing the industry landscape in multiple dimensions, such as consumer, leisure and work behavior. Although multiple studies were published regarding the topic, much is yet to be uncovered. The effects of this pandemic are yet to be fully acknowledged, demanding future studies to comprehend the permanent changes in society ( Islam et al. , 2021 ). In addition, uncovering the best-implemented industry marketing strategies can be helpful, as it is inevitable that new pandemics occur in the future ( Pereira et al. , 2023 ).

Bibliometric analyses map and summarize existent research, extending the global understanding of a research topic and increasing the quality and success of scholarly work ( Donthu et al. , 2021 ). However, the analysis is mainly descriptive ( Ramos and Rita, 2023 ). Combining bibliometric analysis with other methods may enhance the results, leading to an advancement in using such an approach.

Social media is broadly used for marketing-related activities. Through social media platforms, it is possible to build brand image, generate leads for the company’s website, analyze and monitor data, or be an influencer marketer ( Alalwan, 2018 ; Lou and Yuan, 2019 ). Nevertheless, the implementation of gamification techniques ( Bhutani and Behl, 2023 ; Wanick and Stallwood, 2023 ), privacy concerns ( Saura et al. , 2023 ) and collective decision-making ( Dambanemuya et al. , 2023 ) are issues that deserve the attention of researchers.

Livestreaming captured the attention of digital retailing marketers in recent years and significantly changed social interaction. However, different types of live streaming exist, such as webinars, game streaming, corporate streaming, vlogs or personalized content, and can be used in different industries ( Zhang et al. , 2023 ). Investigating the influence of live streaming on consumer engagement may enhance understanding of its relevance for the industry and improve marketing effectiveness ( Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut, 2020 ).

Blockchain technology allows tracing and enhances transaction transparency, creating authenticity certificates to prevent fraud or loyalty programs to build customers’ loyalty and trust ( Lemos et al. , 2022 ). Despite several studies being conducted to understand the impact of this technology on marketing ( Marthews and Tucker, 2023 ; Tan and Salo, 2023 ), there is much to be learned and questions unanswered.

4.3 RQ3: future research agenda

Based on the comprehensive bibliometric analysis findings, potential directions for future research are presented ( Table 6 ). Topics surrounding data-driven marketing are particularly relevant ( Zhang et al. , 2022 ) due to the data abundance and technological advances, and they have the potential to be further developed. For instance, issues arising from adopting AI to uncover hidden patterns in big data or integrating data from different sectors or industries to understand consumer behavior are yet to be understood. In addition, environmental sustainability is highly relevant due to the increasing customers’ awareness of the topic and its influence on developing marketing strategies ( Jung et al. , 2020 ). However, multiple questions are yet to be answered. In particular, the influence of gamification techniques to promote positive, environmentally sustainable consumer behavior and how emerging technologies influence the customers’ perception of sustainable products. Mass personalization allows consumers to customize product features ( Qin and Lu, 2021 ). This topic is highly relevant to the industry and underexplored in marketing. For instance, how can mass personalization be efficiently implemented in highly productive industries? Or how can emerging technologies improve mass personalization programs? Finally, the wearable technologies market is exponentially growing and is increasingly essential to consumer behavior ( Ferreira et al. , 2021 ).

5. Conclusions and limitations

Through the bibliometric analysis of the 100 most influential marketing papers published between 2018 and 2022, this review presents potential directions for knowledge advancement and comprehensive information to facilitate future literature search ( Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2014 ) by identifying the current research focus, conceptual structure and trends in the marketing field. In addition, this review contributes to practice by identifying the most influential articles for the marketing scientific community interested in gaining scientific insights. Meanwhile, the important role of emerging technologies and the shift of marketing toward a more data-driven approach will have significant practical implications for marketers.

This work has limitations that need to be stated. First, data were limited to Scopus database and restrained to indexed marketing journals. However, it is essential to note that all scientific databases have limitations. Second, to select the most influential marketing documents, the only criterion was on a commonly used metric – the number of citations. Although citation metrics are commonly used, they may incorrectly demonstrate the quality of the work. There are multiple reasons for a work to be cited ( Vogel and Güttel, 2012 ), such as a journal’s prestige or factors related to the methods ( Hota et al. , 2020 ). The Mathew effect phenomenon also exists in science ( García-Lillo et al. , 2017 ). Third, articles take time to be cited. This means that the most recent articles from our data set may have fewer citations, but it does not mean that their quality is poorer. Fourth, to select the most influential marketing articles, every journal under the subject area “Business, Management and Accounting” and category “Marketing” were selected. However, there are journals listed in other subject areas and categories. Nevertheless, the data set may still provide significant insight into the marketing field.

Thematic map based on the authors’ keywords co-occurrence

Acknowledgements

Paulo Rita’s work was supported by national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), under the project – UIDB/04152/2020 – Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC)/NOVA IMS.

Since submission of this article, the following authors have updated their affiliations: Ricardo Ramos is at Technology and Management School of Oliveira do Hospital, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal; ISTAR, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal; Centre Bio R&D Unit, Association BLC3 – Tecnology and Innovation Campus, Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal; Paulo Rita is at NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal; and Celeste Vong is at NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS), Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

Corresponding author

Related articles, we’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

Onsite training

3,000,000+ delegates

15,000+ clients

1,000+ locations

KnowledgePass
Log a ticket

01344203999 Available 24/7

Training Outcomes Within Your Budget!

We ensure quality, budget-alignment, and timely delivery by our expert instructors.

Share this Resource

BCS Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management
Introduction to Marketing Training
Marketing Budget Course
BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis
BCS Advanced International Diploma in Business Analysis

Marketing Research is essential for any business that wants to understand its customers, competitors, and market trends. Marketing Research Topics are the specific questions that guide the collection and analysis of data to provide insights and recommendations for various marketing decisions.

These topics cover a wide range of areas, such as product development, pricing, promotion, distribution, customer satisfaction, loyalty, segmentation, branding, and more. In this blog, we will discuss some of the top Marketing Research Topics that can help marketers achieve their goals and gain an edge over their competitors.

Table of Contents

1) Best Marketing Research Topics list

a) Digital Marketing Topics

b) Content Marketing Topics

c) Strategic Marketing Problems

d) Social Media Marketing Research Topics

e) Exceptional Marketing Research Topics

f) Unique Marketing Research Topics

g) Premium Marketing Research Topics

h) Interesting Marketing Research Ideas.

i) Current Marketing Research Topics

j) Impressive Marketing Research Topics

2) Conclusion

Best Marketing Research Topics list

Here, we explore various Marketing Research Topics to uncover insights and strategies for informed decision-making and business success.

1) Digital Marketing Research Topics

Listed below are some of the best Digital Marketing Research topics:

a) Digital Marketing's influence on brand recognition

b) Social Media's function in Digital Marketing

c) Efficiency of digital advertising

d) Mobile technology's influence on Digital Marketing

e) Search engine optimisation's role in Digital Marketing

f) Utilisation of Big Data in Digital Marketing

g) Digital Marketing's impact on customer engagement

h) Content Marketing's position in Digital Marketing

i) Effectiveness of strategies in Digital Marketing

j) Digital Marketing's impact on shopping behaviour

k) Artificial intelligence's role in Digital Marketing

l) Video usage in Digital Marketing

m) Digital Marketing's impact on Sales

n) Influencer Marketing's role in Digital Marketing

o) Email Marketing's effectiveness

p) Digital Marketing's impact on customer loyalty

q) Social Media analytics in Digital Marketing

r) Integration of Voice Search in Digital Marketing

s) Digital Marketing's Effect on Return on Investment (ROI)

t) Automation's Role in Digital Marketing

2) Content Marketing Research Topics

Listed below are the top Content Marketing topics:

a) Building brand identity through Content Marketing

b) The social media landscape in Content Marketing strategies

c) Evaluating the impact of content advertising effectiveness

d) Mobile technology's influence on Content Marketing strategies

e) Search engine optimisation's significance in Content Marketing

f) Harnessing Big Data for informed Content Marketing decisions

g) Customer engagement strategies in Content Marketing

h) The crucial role of Content Marketing in digital strategies

i) Assessing the effectiveness of Content Marketing strategies

j) Content Marketing's influence on consumer shopping patterns

k) Artificial intelligence: A catalyst in Content Marketing innovation

l) Video content strategies for effective Content Marketing

m) Driving sales through strategic Content Marketing

n) Influencer collaboration's impact on Content Marketing success

o) Email marketing: A pillar of effective content distribution

p) Fostering customer loyalty through tailored content experiences

q) Social media analytics for informed Content Marketing insights

r) Integrating voice search into Content Marketing strategies

s) Measuring Content Marketing ROI: A comprehensive analysis

t) The role of automation in optimising Content Marketing effort

Elevate your marketing prowess with our Marketing Research Masterclass for comprehensive training and strategic insights. Join now!

3) Strategic Marketing Research Topics

Here’s a list of Strategic Marketing Research Topics:

a) Strategic Marketing Research's influence on brand positioning

b) The role of market segmentation in Strategic Marketing Research

c) Evaluating the effectiveness of competitive analysis in Strategic Marketing

d) Technological innovations and their impact on strategic Marketing Research

e) Consumer behaviour studies: Informing strategic marketing decision-making

f) Strategic Marketing Research in the era of Big Data analytics

g) Customer journey mapping: A strategic approach in Marketing Research

h) The positioning of brand equity in Strategic Marketing Research

i) Assessing the effectiveness of pricing strategies in Strategic Marketing

j) The impact of environmental scanning on strategic Marketing Research

k) Artificial Intelligence's integration in strategic Marketing Research

l) Utilising surveys and feedback loops in strategic Marketing Research

m) Strategic Marketing Research's influence on market penetration

n) Stakeholder analysis: A key component of strategic Marketing Research

o) Email surveys and their role in strategic Marketing Research

p) Building customer retention strategies through strategic Marketing

q) Social Media monitoring in strategic Marketing Research

r) The integration of Voice of the Customer (VOC) in Strategic Marketing

s) Assessing ROI in strategic Marketing Research initiatives

t) The role of automation in enhancing Strategic Marketing Research.

4) Social Media Marketing Research Topics

Here’s a list of Social Media Marketing Research Topics:

a) Exploring Social Media's impact on brand recognition

b) The role and function of Social Media in Digital Marketing

c) Measuring the effectiveness of Social Media advertising

d) Influence of mobile technology on Social Media Marketing

e) Optimising Social Media presence through SEO strategies

f) Leveraging Big Data for insights into Social Media Marketing

g) Enhancing customer engagement through Social Media Marketing

h) Positioning Content Marketing within Social Media strategies

i) Evaluating the effectiveness of Social Media Marketing strategies

j) Understanding Social Media's influence on consumer shopping behaviour

k) The integration of Artificial Intelligence in Social Media Marketing

l) Utilising video content for effective Social Media Marketing

m) Analysing the impact of Social Media Marketing on sales

n) Role and impact of Influencer Marketing in Social Media

o) Effectiveness of Email Marketing in Social Media context

p) Fostering customer loyalty through Social Media Marketing

q) Utilising Social Media analytics for strategic insights

r) Integrating voice search in Social Media Marketing strategies

s) Measuring Social Media Marketing's Return on Investment (ROI)

t) The role of automation in Social Media Marketing

Optimise your marketing impact with the Marketing Budget Masterclass – Unlock strategic budgeting skills for business success!

5) Exceptional Marketing Research Topics

Given below are Research Topics for Exceptional Marketing:

a) Offshore marketing and evaluating optimal distribution strategies for new companies

b) Marketing distribution channels and potential mistakes to avoid

c) Examination of online shopping in China, discussing its influence and opportunities

d) Explanation of the concept of Artificial Intelligence in marketing

e) Discussion of the components of a competitive marketing strategy

f) Impact assessment of augmented reality on the marketing experience

g) Pricing and positioning strategies for marketing effectiveness

h) Description of the role of Social Media in lead generation

i) Development and execution of investment banking in developing markets

j) Impact analysis of European financial supervision on cross-border financial investment

k) Consumer purchase decision and the influence of e-marketing

l) Customer buying behaviour and the role of sensory marketing

m) Gender influence on business startups

n) Analysis of the significance of leadership and culture in organisational change

o) Case study of Nike, evaluating the role of CSR

p) Analysis of the use of Omni-channel tracking in marketing

q) Comparison of Augmented Reality (AR) and Immerse Technologies in Marketing

r) Comparison of the use of User-Generated Content and Content Mapping in Marketing

s) Application of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) in marketing

t) Pros and cons of using Predictive Analytics and Browser Push Notifications in marketing

6) Unique Marketing Research Topics

Here’s a list of unique Marketing Research Topics:

a) Analysing the impact of cultural shifts on consumer behaviour

b) Unveiling the power of neuro-marketing in understanding consumer choices

c) The role of augmented reality in enhancing market research

d) Green marketing: sustainability as a critical factor in consumer preferences

e) Cross-cultural marketing: navigating diverse global markets

f) The influence of gamification on market research strategies

g) Ethical considerations in contemporary market research practices

h) Examining the role of blockchain in revolutionising marketing data security

i) VOC analysis: Strategies for effective implementation

j) The impact of virtual events on market research dynamics

k) Harnessing the potential of chatbots in gathering customer insights

l) Understanding the psychology of brand loyalty in changing market landscapes

m) Market research in the age of privacy concerns: navigating regulatory challenges

n) Evaluating the effectiveness of experiential Marketing Research

o) Innovations in mobile market research: adapting to the smartphone era

p) The intersection of market research and artificial intelligence

q) Measuring emotional engagement in Marketing Research

r) The role of predictive analytics in anticipating market trends

7) Premium Marketing Research Topics

Here, we discuss the premium Marketing Research Topics in the contemporary world:

a) Crafting an exclusive brand experience: Beyond digital channels

b) Strategic utilisation of luxury influencers in marketing

c) Innovative approaches to premium Content Marketing

d) Augmented reality in premium branding strategies

e) Customised user journeys: Personalisation in Premium Marketing

f) Blockchain technology in ensuring brand authenticity for premium products

g) Neuro-Marketing: Understanding the premium consumer's mind

h) Exclusive partnerships and collaborations in premium branding

i) Data privacy and security concerns in premium customer relationships

j) Sustainability as a premium brand value: Strategies and challenges

k) The role of experiential marketing in premium product launches

l) Psychological pricing strategies for premium goods

m) Virtual reality experiences for premium brand engagement

n) Ultra-personalisation: Tailoring premium services to individual needs

o) Emerging trends in premium customer retention strategies

p) Cultivating a sense of exclusivity: Membership programs in premium marketing

q) The impact of limited-edition releases on premium brand image

r) Luxury branding in the digital age: balancing tradition and innovation

s) Premium market positioning: Differentiating in a crowded landscape

t) Strategies for niche market penetration in premium sectors

Unlock the full potential of Business Analysis with our BCS International Diploma In Business Analysis . Sign up now!

8) Interesting Marketing Research Ideas

Discussed below are a few interesting Marketing Research ideas:

a) Utilising pillar content for sales growth: An exploration of effective strategies

b) Examining the roles of Mobile Marketing in driving business success

c) The intersection of internet security and its implications for online marketing

d) Determining the optimal social media platform for marketing baby products

e) The role of social media in business survival and growth

f) The importance of competitor analysis in shaping brand marketing strategies

g) Political campaigns as a factor in brand marketing dynamics

h) Assessing the viability of centralised marketing for international brands

i) Exploring brand salience and its impact on in-store branding

j) Social class distinctions and their influence on company service perception

k) Exploring commonly used methods for predicting consumer behaviour

l) Investigating the influence of advertising during economic recession periods

m) Strategies employed in the marketing landscape of the fashion industry

n) In-depth exploration of targeted marketing using paid search engine ads

o) Assessing the impact of television advertisements on consumer moods

9) Relevant Marketing Research Topics

Here’s a list of relevant Marketing Research Topics:

a) Impact of Covid-19 on the marketing initiatives of the organisation

b) Effect of the Covid-19 emergence on business communities

c) Influence of the Covid-19 emergence on marketing operations

d) Examination of the impact of brand promotion and celebrity usage on ROI

e) Analysis of how lockdown situations impact an organisation's PR activities

f) Significance of the marketing mix on organisational performance

g) Discussion on the importance of STP analysis for any business entity

h) Analysis of the impact of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown on the hospitality sector

i) Effects of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown on the aviation industry

j) Importance of an environmental audit for formulating effective marketing strategies

k) Impact of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown on the service sector

l) Exploration of the impact of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown on the sports industry

m) "Just Do It" - one of the most successful environmentally conscious advertising taglines

n) Examination of the successful marketing strategies of Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Budweiser

o) Importance of personalisation in marketing

10) Impressive Marketing Research Topics

Listed below are some of the impressive Marketing Research Topics:

a) Impact of consumers' implicit and explicit knowledge on their purchasing behaviour

b) Implementation of centralised global marketing

c) Integration of IoT, wearables, or smart devices for automated customer service

d) Definition and application of e-CRM in marketing

e) Interconnection between brand awareness and repeat purchases

f) Establishing a company's brand image through Guest Blogging

g) Strategies for managing marketing and company reputation effectively

h) Examination of Corporate Social Responsibility as a marketing tactic

i) Optimal social media approaches to enhance customer engagement

j) Analysis of social media marketing's influence on customer behaviour

k) Relationship dynamics between influencer marketing and lifestyle branding

l) Technologies pivotal in improving customers' online decision-making processes

m) Exploring efficient marketing strategies to mend a damaged reputation

n) Human Resource Management and the motivational factors crucial for future leaders

o) Influence and importance of performance management in large and diverse organisations

Conclusion

Marketing Research Topics vary from how Digital Marketing influences what we buy to whether traditional methods still work. You can also explore Social Media's role, how online ads perform, and the impact of loyalty programs. Other areas include product placement, celebrity endorsements, and how pricing affects what consumers choose. Regardless of the topic, thorough and organised research is crucial for accurate and reliable findings.

Elevate your marketing expertise with our Marketing Courses . Empower your career today!

Frequently Asked Questions

Upcoming digital marketing resources batches & dates.

Fri 24th May 2024

Fri 28th Jun 2024

Fri 12th Jul 2024

Fri 2nd Aug 2024

Fri 6th Sep 2024

Fri 11th Oct 2024

Fri 22nd Nov 2024

Fri 13th Dec 2024

Get A Quote

WHO WILL BE FUNDING THE COURSE?

My employer

By submitting your details you agree to be contacted in order to respond to your enquiry

Business Analysis
Lean Six Sigma Certification

Share this course

Our biggest spring sale.

We cannot process your enquiry without contacting you, please tick to confirm your consent to us for contacting you about your enquiry.

By submitting your details you agree to be contacted in order to respond to your enquiry.

We may not have the course you’re looking for. If you enquire or give us a call on 01344203999 and speak to our training experts, we may still be able to help with your training requirements.

Or select from our popular topics

ITIL® Certification
Scrum Certification
Change Management Certification
Business Analysis Courses
Microsoft Azure Certification
Microsoft Excel & Certification Course
Microsoft Project
Explore more courses

Press esc to close

Fill out your contact details below and our training experts will be in touch.

Fill out your contact details below

Thank you for your enquiry!

One of our training experts will be in touch shortly to go over your training requirements.

Back to Course Information

Fill out your contact details below so we can get in touch with you regarding your training requirements.

* WHO WILL BE FUNDING THE COURSE?

Preferred Contact Method

No preference

Back to course information

Fill out your training details below

Fill out your training details below so we have a better idea of what your training requirements are.

HOW MANY DELEGATES NEED TRAINING?

HOW DO YOU WANT THE COURSE DELIVERED?

Online Instructor-led

Online Self-paced

WHEN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE THIS COURSE?

Next 2 - 4 months

WHAT IS YOUR REASON FOR ENQUIRING?

Looking for some information

Looking for a discount

I want to book but have questions

One of our training experts will be in touch shortly to go overy your training requirements.

Your privacy & cookies!

Like many websites we use cookies. We care about your data and experience, so to give you the best possible experience using our site, we store a very limited amount of your data. Continuing to use this site or clicking “Accept & close” means that you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more about our privacy policy and cookie policy cookie policy .

We use cookies that are essential for our site to work. Please visit our cookie policy for more information. To accept all cookies click 'Accept & close'.

The future of social media in marketing

Conceptual/Theoretical Paper
Open access
Published: 12 October 2019
Volume 48 , pages 79–95, ( 2020 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

Gil Appel 1 ,
Lauren Grewal 2 ,
Rhonda Hadi 3 &
Andrew T. Stephen 3 , 4

877k Accesses

655 Citations

81 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Social media allows people to freely interact with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with consumers. Considering the numerous ways social media affects individuals and businesses alike, in this article, the authors focus on where they believe the future of social media lies when considering marketing-related topics and issues. Drawing on academic research, discussions with industry leaders, and popular discourse, the authors identify nine themes, organized by predicted imminence (i.e., the immediate, near, and far futures), that they believe will meaningfully shape the future of social media through three lenses: consumer, industry, and public policy. Within each theme, the authors describe the digital landscape, present and discuss their predictions, and identify relevant future research directions for academics and practitioners.

Social media marketing strategy: definition, conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda

Fangfang Li, Jorma Larimo & Leonidas C. Leonidou

Online influencer marketing

Fine F. Leung, Flora F. Gu & Robert W. Palmatier

Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends, and ways forward

Yatish Joshi, Weng Marc Lim, … Satish Kumar

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

Social media is used by billions of people around the world and has fast become one of the defining technologies of our time. Facebook, for example, reported having 2.38 billion monthly active users and 1.56 billion daily active users as of March 31, 2019 (Facebook 2019 ). Globally, the total number of social media users is estimated to grow to 3.29 billion users in 2022, which will be 42.3% of the world’s population (eMarketer 2018 ). Given the massive potential audience available who are spending many hours a day using social media across the various platforms, it is not surprising that marketers have embraced social media as a marketing channel. Academically, social media has also been embraced, and an extensive body of research on social media marketing and related topics, such as online word of mouth (WOM) and online networks, has been developed. Despite what academics and practitioners have studied and learned over the last 15–20 years on this topic, due to the fast-paced and ever-changing nature of social media—and how consumers use it—the future of social media in marketing might not be merely a continuation of what we have already seen. Therefore, we ask a pertinent question, what is the future of social media in marketing?

Addressing this question is the goal of this article. It is important to consider the future of social media in the context of consumer behavior and marketing, since social media has become a vital marketing and communications channel for businesses, organizations and institutions alike, including those in the political sphere. Moreover, social media is culturally significant since it has become, for many, the primary domain in which they receive vast amounts of information, share content and aspects of their lives with others, and receive information about the world around them (even though that information might be of questionable accuracy). Vitally, social media is always changing. Social media as we know it today is different than even a year ago (let alone a decade ago), and social media a year from now will likely be different than now. This is due to constant innovation taking place on both the technology side (e.g., by the major platforms constantly adding new features and services) and the user/consumer side (e.g., people finding new uses for social media) of social media.

What is social media?

Definitionally, social media can be thought of in a few different ways. In a practical sense, it is a collection of software-based digital technologies—usually presented as apps and websites—that provide users with digital environments in which they can send and receive digital content or information over some type of online social network. In this sense, we can think of social media as the major platforms and their features, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We can also in practical terms of social media as another type of digital marketing channel that marketers can use to communicate with consumers through advertising. But we can also think of social media more broadly, seeing it less as digital media and specific technology services, and more as digital places where people conduct significant parts of their lives. From this perspective, it means that social media becomes less about the specific technologies or platforms, and more about what people do in these environments. To date, this has tended to be largely about information sharing, and, in marketing, often thought of as a form of (online) word of mouth (WOM).

Building on these definitional perspectives, and thinking about the future, we consider social media to be a technology-centric—but not entirely technological—ecosystem in which a diverse and complex set of behaviors, interactions, and exchanges involving various kinds of interconnected actors (individuals and firms, organizations, and institutions) can occur. Social media is pervasive, widely used, and culturally relevant. This definitional perspective is deliberately broad because we believe that social media has essentially become almost anything—content, information, behaviors, people, organizations, institutions—that can exist in an interconnected, networked digital environment where interactivity is possible. It has evolved from being simply an online instantiation of WOM behaviors and content/information creation and sharing. It is pervasive across societies (and geographic borders) and culturally prominent at both local and global levels.

Throughout the paper we consider many of the definitional and phenomenological aspects described above and explore their implications for consumers and marketing in order to address our question about the future of marketing-related social media. By drawing on academic research, discussions with industry leaders, popular discourse, and our own expertise, we present and discuss a framework featuring nine themes that we believe will meaningfully shape the future of social media in marketing. These themes by no means represent a comprehensive list of all emerging trends in the social media domain and include aspects that are both familiar in extant social media marketing literature (e.g., online WOM, engagement, and user-generated content) and emergent (e.g., sensory considerations in human-computer interaction and new types of unstructured data, including text, audio, images, and video). The themes we present were chosen because they capture important changes in the social media space through the lenses of important stakeholders, including consumers, industry/practice, and public policy.

In addition to describing the nature and consequences of each theme, we identify research directions that academics and practitioners may wish to explore. While it is infeasible to forecast precisely what the future has in store or to project these on a specific timeline, we have organized the emergent themes into three time-progressive waves, according to imminence of impact (i.e., the immediate, near, and far future). Before presenting our framework for the future of social media in marketing and its implications for research (and practice and policy), we provide a brief overview of where social media currently stands as a major media and marketing channel.

Social media at present

The current social media landscape has two key aspects to it. First are the platforms—major and minor, established and emerging—that provide the underlying technologies and business models making up the industry and ecosystem. Second are the use cases; i.e., how various kinds of people and organizations are using these technologies and for what purposes.

The rise of social media, and the manner in which it has impacted both consumer behavior and marketing practice, has largely been driven by the platforms themselves. Some readers might recall the “early days” of social media where social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster were popular. These sites were precursors to Facebook and everything else that has developed over the last decade. Alongside these platforms, we continue to have other forms of social media such as messaging (which started with basic Internet Relay Chat services in the 1990s and the SMS text messaging built into early digital mobile telephone standards in the 2000s), and asynchronous online conversations arranged around specific topics of interest (e.g., threaded discussion forums, subreddits on Reddit). More recently, we have seen the rise of social media platforms where images and videos replace text, such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Across platforms, historically and to the present day, the dominant business model has involved monetization of users (audiences) by offering advertising services to anyone wishing to reach those audiences with digital content and marketing communications. Prior research has examined the usefulness of social media (in its various forms) for marketing purposes. For example, work by Trusov et al. ( 2009 ) and Stephen and Galak ( 2012 ) demonstrated that certain kinds of social interactions that now happen on social media (e.g., “refer a friend” features and discussions in online communities) can positively affect important marketing outcomes such as new customer acquisition and sales. More recently, the value of advertising on social media continues to be explored (e.g., Gordon et al. 2019 ), as well as how it interacts with other forms of media such as television (e.g., Fossen and Schweidel 2016 , 2019 ) and affects new product adoption through diffusion of information mechanisms (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al. 2015 ).

Although the rise (and fall) of various kinds of social media platforms has been important for understanding the social media landscape, our contention is that understanding the current situation of social media, at least from a marketing perspective, lies more in what the users do on these platforms than the technologies or services offered by these platforms. Presently, people around the world use social media in its various forms (e.g., news feeds on Facebook and Twitter, private messaging on WhatsApp and WeChat, and discussion forums on Reddit) for a number of purposes. These can generally be categorized as (1) digitally communicating and socializing with known others, such as family and friends, (2) doing the same but with unknown others but who share common interests, and (3) accessing and contributing to digital content such as news, gossip, and user-generated product reviews.

All of these use cases are essentially WOM in one form or another. This, at least, is how marketing scholars have mainly characterized social media, as discussed by Lamberton and Stephen ( 2016 ). Indeed, online WOM has been—and, we contend, will continue to be—important in marketing (e.g., in the meta-analysis by Babić Rosario et al. 2016 the authors found, on average, a positive correlation between online WOM and sales). The present perspective on social media is that people use it for creating, accessing, and spreading information via WOM to various types of others, be it known “strong ties” or “weak ties” in their networks or unknown “strangers.” Some extant research has looked at social media from the WOM perspective of the consequences of the transmission of WOM (e.g., creating a Facebook post or tweeting) on others (e.g., Herhausen et al. 2019 ; Stephen and Lehmann 2016 ), the impact of the type of WOM content shared on others’ behavior (e.g., Villarroel Ordenes et al. 2017 ; Villarroel Ordenes et al. 2018 ), and on the motivations that drive consumer posting on social media, including considerations of status and self-presentation (e.g., Grewal et al. 2019 ; Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004 ; Hollenbeck and Kaikati 2012 ; Toubia and Stephen 2013 ; Wallace et al. 2014 ).

While this current characterization of WOM appears reasonable, it considers social media only from a communications perspective (and as a type of media channel). However, as social media matures, broader social implications emerge. To appropriately consider the future, we must expand our perspective beyond the narrow communicative aspects of social media and consider instead how consumers might use it. Hence, in our vision for the future of social media in marketing in the following sections, we attempt to present a more expansive perspective of what social media is (and will become) and explain why this perspective is relevant to marketing research and practice.

Overview of framework for the future of social media in marketing

In the following sections we present a framework for the immediate, near, and far future of social media in marketing when considering various relevant stakeholders. Themes in the immediate future represent those which already exist in the current marketplace, and that we believe will continue shaping the social media landscape. The near future section examines trends that have shown early signs of manifesting, and that we believe will meaningfully alter the social media landscape in the imminent future. Finally, themes designated as being in the far future represent more speculative projections that we deem capable of long-term influence on the future of social media. The next sections delve into each of the themes in Table 1 , organized around the predicted imminence of these theme’s importance to marketing (i.e., the immediate, near, and far futures).

The immediate future

To begin our discussion on the direction of social media, in this section, we highlight three themes that have surfaced in the current environment that we believe will continue to shape the social media landscape in the immediate future. These themes—omni-social presence, the rise of influencers, and trust and privacy concerns—reflect the ever-changing digital and social media landscape that we presently face. We believe that these different areas will influence a number of stakeholders such as individual social media users, firms and brands that utilize social media, and public policymakers (e.g., governments, regulators).

Omni-social presence

In its early days, social media activity was mostly confined to designated social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (or their now-defunct precursors). However, a proliferation of websites and applications that primarily serve separate purposes have capitalized on the opportunity to embed social media functionality into their interfaces. Similarly, all major mobile and desktop operating systems have in-built social media integration (e.g., sharing functions built into Apple’s iOS). This has made social media pervasive and ubiquitous—and perhaps even omnipotent—and has extended the ecosystem beyond dedicated platforms.

Accordingly, consumers live in a world in which social media intersects with most aspects of their lives through digitally enabled social interactivity in such domains as travel (e.g., TripAdvisor), work (e.g., LinkedIn), food (e.g., Yelp), music (e.g., Spotify), and more. At the same time, traditional social media companies have augmented their platforms to provide a broader array of functionalities and services (e.g., Facebook’s marketplace, Chowdry 2018 ; WeChat’s payment system, Cheng 2017 ). These bidirectional trends suggest that the modern-day consumer is living in an increasingly “omni-social” world.

From a marketing perspective, the “omni-social” nature of the present environment suggests that virtually every part of a consumer’s decision-making process is prone to social media influence. Need recognition might be activated when a consumer watches their favorite beauty influencer trying a new product on YouTube. A consumer shopping for a car might search for information by asking their Facebook friends what models they recommend. A hungry employee might sift through Yelp reviews to evaluate different lunch options. A traveler might use Airbnb to book future accommodation. Finally, a highly dissatisfied (or delighted) airline passenger might rant (rave) about their experience on Twitter. While the decision-making funnel is arguably growing flatter than the aforementioned examples would imply (Cortizo-Burgess 2014 ), these independent scenarios illustrate that social media has the propensity to influence the entire consumer-decision making process, from beginning to end.

Finally, perhaps the greatest indication of an “omni-social” phenomenon is the manner in which social media appears to be shaping culture itself. YouTube influencers are now cultural icons, with their own TV shows (Comm 2016 ) and product lines (McClure 2015 ). Creative content in television and movies is often deliberately designed to be “gifable” and meme-friendly (Bereznak 2018 ). “Made-for-Instagram museums” are encouraging artistic content and experiences that are optimized for selfie-taking and posting (Pardes 2017 ). These examples suggest that social media’s influence is hardly restricted to the “online” world (we discuss the potential obsolescence of this term later in this paper), but is rather consistently shaping cultural artifacts (television, film, the arts) that transcend its traditional boundaries. We believe this trend will continue to manifest, perhaps making the term “social media” itself out-of-date, as it’s omni-presence will be the default assumption for consumers, businesses, and artists in various domains.

This omni-social trend generates many questions to probe in future research. For example, how will social interactivity influence consumer behavior in areas that had traditionally been non-social? From a practitioner lens, it might also be interesting to explore how marketers can strategically address the flatter decision-making funnel that social media has enabled, and to examine how service providers can best alter experiential consumption when anticipating social media sharing behavior.

The rise of new forms of social influence (and influencers)

The idea of using celebrities (in consumer markets) or well-known opinion leaders (in business markets), who have a high social value, to influence others is a well-known marketing strategy (Knoll and Matthes 2017 ). However, the omnipresence of social media has tremendously increased the accessibility and appeal of this approach. For example, Selena Gomez has over 144 million followers on Instagram that she engages with each of her posts. In 2018, the exposure of a single photo shared by her was valued at $3.4 million (Maxim 2018 ). However, she comes at a high price: one post that Selena sponsors for a brand can cost upwards of $800,000 (Mejia 2018 ). However, putting high valuations on mere online exposures or collecting “likes” for specific posts can be somewhat speculative, as academic research shows that acquiring “likes” on social media might have no effect on consumers’ attitudes or behaviors (John et al. 2017 ; Mochon et al. 2017 ). Moreover, Hennig-Thurau et al. ( 2015 ), show that while garnering positive WOM has little to no effect on consumer preferences, negative WOM can have a negative effect on consumer preferences.

While celebrities like Selena Gomez are possible influencers for major brands, these traditional celebrities are so expensive that smaller brands have begun, and will continue to, capitalize on the popularity and success of what are referred to as “micro-influencers,” representing a new form of influencers. Micro-influencers are influencers who are not as well-known as celebrities, but who have strong and enthusiastic followings that are usually more targeted, amounting anywhere between a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of followers (Main 2017 ). In general, these types of influencers are considered to be more trustworthy and authentic than traditional celebrities, which is a major reason influencer marketing has grown increasingly appealing to brands (Enberg 2018 ). These individuals are often seen as credible “experts” in what they post about, encouraging others to want to view the content they create and engage with them. Furthermore, using these influencers allows the brand via first person narration (compared to ads), which is considered warmer and more personal, and was shown to be more effective in engaging consumers (Chang et al. 2019 ).

Considering the possible reach and engagement influencers command on social media, companies have either begun embracing influencers on social media, or plan to expand their efforts in this domain even more. For example, in recent conversations we had with social media executives, several of them stated the growing importance of influencers and mentioned how brands generally are looking to incorporate influencer marketing into their marketing strategies. Further, recent conversations with executives at some globally leading brands suggest that influencer marketing spending by big brands continues to rise.

While influencer marketing on social media is not new, we believe it has a lot of potential to develop further as an industry. In a recent working paper, Duani et al. ( 2018 ) show that consumers enjoy watching a live experience much more and for longer time periods than watching a prerecorded one. Hence, we think live streaming by influencers will continue to grow, in broad domains as well as niche ones. For example, streaming of video game playing on Twitch, a platform owned by Amazon, may still be niche but shows no signs of slowing down. However, live platforms are limited by the fact that the influencers, being human, need to sleep and do other activities offline. Virtual influencers (i.e., “CGI” influencers that look human but are not), on the other hand, have no such limitations. They never get tired or sick, they do not even eat (unless it is needed for a campaign). Some brands have started exploring the use of virtual influencers (Nolan 2018 ), and we believe that in coming years, along with stronger computing power and artificial intelligence algorithms, virtual influencers will become much more prominent on social media, being able to invariably represent and act on brand values and engage with followers anytime.

There are many interesting future research avenues to consider when thinking about the role of influencers on social media. First, determining what traits and qualities (e.g., authenticity, trust, credibility, and likability) make sponsored posts by a traditional celebrity influencer, versus a micro-influencer, or even compared to a CGI influencer, more or less successful is important to determine for marketers. Understanding whether success has to do with the actual influencer’s characteristics, the type of content being posted, whether content is sponsored or not, and so on, are all relevant concerns for companies and social media platforms when determining partnerships and where to invest effort in influencers. In addition, research can focus on understanding the appeal of live influencer content, and how to successfully blend influencer content with more traditional marketing mix approaches.

Privacy concerns on social media

Consumer concerns regarding data privacy, and their ability to trust brands and platforms are not new (for a review on data privacy see Martin and Murphy 2017 ). Research in marketing and related disciplines has examined privacy and trust concerns from multiple angles and using different definitions of privacy. For example, research has focused on the connections between personalization and privacy (e.g., Aguirre et al. 2015 ; White et al. 2008 ), the relationship of privacy as it relates to consumer trust and firm performance (e.g., Martin 2018 ; Martin et al. 2017 ), and the legal and ethical aspects of data and digital privacy (e.g., Culnan and Williams 2009 ; Nill and Aalberts 2014 ). Despite this topic not seeming novel, the way consumers, brands, policy makers, and social media platforms are all adjusting and adapting to these concerns are still in flux and without clear resolution.

Making our understanding of privacy concerns even less straightforward is the fact that, across extant literature, a clear definition of privacy is hard to come by. In one commentary on privacy, Stewart ( 2017 ), defined privacy as “being left alone,” as this allows an individual to determine invasions of privacy. We build from this definition of privacy to speculate on a major issue in privacy and trust moving forward. Specifically, how consumers are adapting and responding to the digital world, where “being left alone” isn’t possible. For example, while research has shown benefits to personalization tactics (e.g., Chung et al. 2016 ), with eroding trust in social platforms and brands that advertise through them, many consumers would rather not share data and privacy for a more personalized experiences, are uncomfortable with their purchases being tracked and think it should be illegal for brands to be able to buy their data (Edelman 2018 ). These recent findings seem to be in conflict with previously established work on consumer privacy expectations. Therefore, understanding if previously studied factors that mitigated the negative effects of personalization (e.g., perceived utility; White et al. 2008 ) are still valued by consumers in an ever-changing digital landscape is essential for future work.

In line with rising privacy concerns, the way consumers view brands and social media is becoming increasingly negative. Consumers are deleting their social media presence, where research has shown that nearly 40% of digitally connected individuals admitted to deleting at least one social media account due to fears of their personal data being mishandled (Edelman 2018 ). This is a negative trend not only for social media platforms, but for the brands and advertisers who have grown dependent on these avenues for reaching consumers. Edelman found that nearly half of the surveyed consumers believed brands to be complicit in negative aspects of content on social media such as hate speech, inappropriate content, or fake news (Edelman 2018 ). Considering that social media has become one of the best places for brands to engage with consumers, build relationships, and provide customer service, it’s not only in the best interest of social media platforms to “do better” in terms of policing content, but the onus of responsibility has been placed on brands to advocate for privacy, trust, and the removal of fake or hateful content.

Therefore, to combat these negative consumer beliefs, changes will need to be made by everyone who benefits from consumer engagement on social media. Social media platforms and brands need to consider three major concerns that are eroding consumer trust: personal information, intellectual property and information security (Information Technology Faculty 2018 ). Considering each of these concerns, specific actions and initiatives need to be taken for greater transparency and subsequent trust. We believe that brands and agencies need to hold social media accountable for their actions regarding consumer data (e.g., GDPR in the European Union) for consumers to feel “safe” and “in control,” two factors shown necessary in cases of privacy concerns (e.g., Tucker 2014 ; Xu et al. 2012 ). As well, brands need to establish transparent policies regarding consumer data in a way that recognizes the laws, advertising restrictions, and a consumer’s right to privacy (a view shared by others; e.g., Martin et al. 2017 ). All of this is managerially essential for brands to engender feelings of trust in the increasingly murky domain of social media.

Future research can be conducted to determine consumer reactions to different types of changes and policies regarding data and privacy. As well, another related and important direction for future research, will be to ascertain the spillover effects of distrust on social media. Specifically, is all content shared on social media seen as less trustworthy if the platform itself is distrusted? Does this extend to brand messages displayed online? Is there a negative spillover effect to other user-generated content shared through these platforms?

The near future

In the previous section, we discussed three areas where we believe social media is immediately in flux. In this section, we identify three trends that have shown early signs of manifesting, and which we believe will meaningfully alter the social media landscape in the near, or not-too-distant, future. Each of these topics impact the stakeholders we mentioned when discussing the immediate social media landscape.

Combatting loneliness and isolation

Social media has made it easier to reach people. When Facebook was founded in 2004, their mission was “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together... use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them” (Facebook 2019 ). Despite this mission, and the reality that users are more “connected” to other people than ever before, loneliness and isolation are on the rise. Over the last fifty years in the U.S., loneliness and isolation rates have doubled, with Generation Z considered to be the loneliest generation (Cigna 2018 ). Considering these findings with the rise of social media, is the fear that Facebook is interfering with real friendships and ironically spreading the isolation it was designed to conquer something to be considered about (Marche 2012 )?

The role of social media in this “loneliness epidemic” is being hotly debated. Some research has shown that social media negatively impacts consumer well-being. Specifically, heavy social media use has been associated with higher perceived social isolation, loneliness, and depression (Kross et al. 2013 ; Primack et al. 2017 ; Steers et al. 2014 ). Additionally, Facebook use has been shown to be negatively correlated with consumer well-being (Shakya and Christakis 2017 ) and correlational research has shown that limiting social media use to 10 min can decrease feelings of loneliness and depression due to less FOMO (e.g., “fear of missing out;” Hunt et al. 2018 ).

On the other hand, research has shown that social media use alone is not a predictor of loneliness as other factors have to be considered (Cigna 2018 ; Kim et al. 2009 ). In fact, while some research has shown no effect of social media on well-being (Orben et al. 2019 ), other research has shown that social media can benefit individuals through a number of different avenues such as teaching and developing socialization skills, allowing greater communication and access to a greater wealth of resources, and helping with connection and belonging (American Psychological Association 2011 ; Baker and Algorta 2016 ; Marker et al. 2018 ). As well, a working paper by Crolic et al. ( 2019 ) argues that much of the evidence of social media use on consumer well-being is of questionable quality (e.g., small and non-representative samples, reliance on self-reported social media use), and show that some types of social media use are positively associated with psychological well-being over time.

Managerially speaking, companies are beginning to respond as a repercussion of studies highlighting a negative relationship between social media and negative wellbeing. For example, Facebook has created “time limit” tools (mobile operating systems, such as iOS, now also have these time-limiting features). Specifically, users can now check their daily times, set up reminder alerts that pop up when a self-imposed amount of time on the apps is hit, and there is the option to mute notifications for a set period of time (Priday 2018 ). These different features seem well-intentioned and are designed to try and give people a more positive social media experience. Whether these features will be used is unknown.

Future research can address whether or not consumers will use available “timing” tools on one of many devices in which their social media exists (i.e., fake self-policing) or on all of their devices to actually curb behavior. It could also be the case that users will actually spend less time on Facebook and Instagram, but possibly spend that extra time on other competing social media platforms, or attached to devices, which theoretically will not help combat loneliness. Understanding how (and which) consumers use these self-control tools and how impactful they are is a potentially valuable avenue for future research.

One aspect of social media that has yet to be considered in the loneliness discussion through empirical measures, is the quality of use (versus quantity). Facebook ads have begun saying, “The best part of Facebook isn’t on Facebook. It’s when it helps us get together” (Facebook 2019 ). There have been discussions around the authenticity of this type of message, but at its core, in addition to promoting quantity differences, it’s speaking to how consumers use the platform. Possibly, to facilitate this message, social media platforms will find new ways to create friend suggestions between individuals who not only share similar interests and mutual friends to facilitate in-person friendships (e.g., locational data from the mobile app service). Currently there are apps that allow people to search for friends that are physically close (e.g., Bumble Friends), and perhaps social media will go in this same direction to address the loneliness epidemic and stay current.

Future research can examine whether the quantity of use, types of social media platforms, or the way social media is used causally impacts perceived loneliness. Specifically, understanding if the negative correlations found between social media use and well-being are due to the demographics of individuals who use a lot of social media, the way social media works, or the way users choose to engage with the platform will be important for understanding social media’s role (or lack of role) in the loneliness epidemic.

Integrated customer care

Customer care via digital channels as we know it is going to change substantially in the near future. To date, many brands have used social media platforms as a place for providing customer care, addressing customers’ specific questions, and fixing problems. In the future, social media-based customer care is expected to become even more customized, personalized, and ubiquitous. Customers will be able to engage with firms anywhere and anytime, and solutions to customers’ problems will be more accessible and immediate, perhaps even pre-emptive using predictive approaches (i.e., before a customer even notices an issue or has a question pop into their mind).

Even today, we observe the benefits that companies gain from connecting with customers on social media for service- or care-related purposes. Customer care is implemented in dedicated smartphone apps and via direct messaging on social media platforms. However, it appears that firms want to make it even easier for customers to connect with them whenever and wherever they might need. Requiring a customer to download a brand specific app or to search through various social media platforms to connect with firms through the right branded account on a platform can be a cumbersome process. In those cases, customers might instead churn or engage in negative WOM, instead of connecting with the firm to bring up any troubles they might have.

The near future of customer care on social media appears to be more efficient and far-reaching. In a recent review on the future of customer relationship management, Haenlein ( 2017 ) describes “invisible CRM” as future systems that will make customer engagement simple and accessible for customers. New platforms have emerged to make the connection between customer and firm effortless. Much of this is via instant messaging applications for businesses, which several leading technology companies have recently launched as business-related features in existing platforms (e.g., contact business features in Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp or Apple’s Business Chat).

These technologies allow businesses to directly communicate via social media messaging services with their customers. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are in the process, or have already released early versions of such platforms (Dequier 2018 ). Customers can message a company, ask them questions, or even order products and services through the messaging system, which is often built around chatbots and virtual assistants. This practice is expected to become more widespread, especially because it puts brands and companies into the social media messaging platforms their customers already use to communicate with others, it provides quicker—even instantaneous—responses, is economically scalable through the use of AI-driven chatbots, and, despite the use of chatbots, can provide a more personalized level of customer service.

Another area that companies will greatly improve upon is data collection and analysis. While it is true that data collection on social media is already pervasive today, it is also heavily scrutinized. However, we believe that companies will adapt to the latest regulation changes (e.g., GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California) and improve on collecting and analyzing anonymized data (Kakatkar and Spann 2018 ). Furthermore, even under these new regulations, personalized data collection is still allowed, but severely limits firm’s abilities to exploit consumers’ data, and requires their consent for data collection.

We believe that in the future, companies will be able recognize early indications of problems within customer chatter, behavior, or even physiological data (e.g., monitoring the sensors in our smart watches) before customers themselves even realize they are experiencing a problem. For example, WeWork, the shared workspace company, collects data on how workers move and act in a workspace, building highly personalized workspaces based on trends in the data. Taking this type of approach to customer care will enable “seamless service,” where companies would be able to identify and address consumer problems when they are still small and scattered, and while only a small number of customers are experiencing problems. Customer healthcare is a pioneer in this area, where using twitter and review sites were shown to predict poor healthcare quality (Greaves et al. 2013 ), listen to patients to analyze trending terms (Baktha et al. 2017 ; Padrez et al. 2016 ), or even predict disease outbreaks (Schmidt 2012 ).

Companies, wanting to better understand and mimic human interactions, will invest a lot of R&D efforts into developing better Natural Language Processing, voice and image recognition, emotional analysis, and speech synthesis tools (Sheth 2017 ). For example, Duplex, Google’s latest AI assistant, can already call services on its own and seamlessly book reservations for their users (Welch 2018 ). In the future, AI systems will act as human ability augmenters, allowing us to accomplish more, in less time, and better results (Guszcza 2018 ).

For marketers, this will reduce the need for call centers and agents, reducing points of friction in service and increasing the convenience for customers (Kaplan and Haenlein 2019 ). However, some raise the question that the increased dependence on automation may result in a loss of compassion and empathy. In a recent study, Force (2018) shows that interacting with brands on social media lowered people’s empathy. In response to such concerns, and to educate and incentivize people to interact with machines in a similar way they do with people, Google programmed their AI assistant to respond in a nicer way if you use a polite, rather than a commanding approach (Kumparak 2018 ). While this might help, more research is needed to understand the effect of an AI rich world on human behavior. As well, future research can examine how consumer generated data can help companies preemptively predict consumer distress. Another interesting path for research would be to better understand the difference in consumer engagement between the various platforms, and the long-term effects of service communications with non-human AI and IoT.

Social media as a political tool

Social media is a platform to share thoughts and opinions. This is especially true in the case of disseminating political sentiments. Famously, President Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 election was partially attributed to his ability to drive and engage voters on social media (Carr 2008 ). Indeed, Bond et al. ( 2012 ) have shown that with simple interventions, social media platforms can increase targeted audiences’ likelihood of voting. Social media is considered one of the major drivers of the 2010 wave of revolutions in Arab countries, also known as the Arab Spring (Brown et al. 2012 ).

While social media is not new to politics, we believe that social media is transitioning to take a much larger role as a political tool in the intermediate future. First evidence for this could be seen in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as social media took on a different shape, with many purported attempts to influence voter’s opinions, thoughts, and actions. This is especially true for then-candidate and now-President Donald Trump. His use of Twitter attracted a lot of attention during the campaign and has continued to do so during his term in office. Yet, he is not alone, and many politicians changed the way they work and interact with constituents, with a recent example of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that even ran a workshop for fellow congress members on social media (Dwyer 2019 ).

While such platforms allow for a rapid dissemination of ideas and concepts (Bonilla and Rosa 2015 ; Bode 2016 ), there are some, both in academia and industry that have raised ethical concerns about using social media for political purposes. Given that people choose who to follow, this selective behavior is said to potentially create echo chambers, wherein, users are exposed only to ideas by like-minded people, exhibiting increased political homophily (Bakshy et al. 2015 ). People’s preference to group with like-minded people is not new. Social in-groups have been shown to promote social identification and promote in-group members to conform to similar ideas (Castano et al. 2002 ; Harton and Bourgeois 2004 ). Furthermore, it was also shown that group members strongly disassociate and distance themselves from outgroup members (Berger and Heath 2008 ; White and Dahl 2007 ). Thus, it is not surprising to find that customized newsfeeds within social media exacerbate this problem by generating news coverage that is unique to specific users, locking them in their purported echo chambers (Oremus 2016 ).

While social media platforms admit that echo chambers could pose a problem, a solution is not clear (Fiegerman 2018 ). One reason that echo chambers present such a problem, is their proneness to fake news. Fake news are fabricated stories that try to disguise themselves as authentic content, in order to affect other social media users. Fake news was widely used in the 2016 U.S. elections, with accusations that foreign governments, such as Iran and Russia, were using bots (i.e., online automatic algorithms), to spread falsified content attacking Hillary Clinton and supporting President Trump (Kelly et al. 2018 ). Recent research has furthermore shown how the Chinese government strategically uses millions of online comments to distract the Chinese public from discussing sensitive issues and promote nationalism (King et al. 2017 ). In their latest incarnation, fake news uses an advanced AI technique called “Deep Fake” to generate ultra-realistic forged images and videos of political leaders while manipulating what those leaders say (Schwartz 2018 ). Such methods can easily fool even the sharpest viewer. In response, research has begun to explore ways that social media platforms can combat fake news through algorithms that determine the quality of shared content (e.g., Pennycook and Rand 2019 ).

One factor that has helped the rise of fake news is echo chambers. This occurs as the repeated sharing of fake news by group members enhance familiarity and support (Schwarz and Newman 2017 ). Repetition of such articles by bots can only increase that effect. Recent research has shown that in a perceived social setting, such as social media, participants were less likely to fact-check information (Jun et al. 2017 ), and avoided information that didn’t fit well with their intuition (Woolley and Risen 2018 ). Schwarz and Newman ( 2017 ) state that misinformation might be difficult to correct, especially if the correction is not issued immediately and the fake news has already settled into the minds of users. It was also shown that even a single exposure to fake news can create long term effect on users, making their effect larger than previously thought (Pennycook et al. 2019 ).

Notably, some research has found that exposure to opposing views (i.e., removing online echo chambers) may in fact increase (versus decrease) polarization (Bail et al. 2018 ). Accordingly, more work from policy makers, businesses, and academics is needed to understand and potentially combat political extremism. For example, policy makers and social media platforms will continually be challenged to fight “fake news” without censoring free speech. Accordingly, research that weighs the risk of limited freedom of expression versus the harms of spreading fake news would yield both theoretical and practically meaningful insights.

The far future

In this section, we highlight three emerging trends we believe will have a have long-term influence on the future of social media. Note that although we label these trends as being in the “far” future, many of the issues described here are already present or emerging. However, they represent more complex issues that we believe will take longer to address and be of mainstream importance for marketing than the six issues discussed previously under the immediate and near futures.

Increased sensory richness

In its early days, the majority of social media posts (e.g., on Facebook, Twitter) were text. Soon, these platforms allowed for the posting of pictures and then videos, and separate platforms dedicated themselves to focus on these specific forms of media (e.g., Instagram and Pinterest for pictures, Instagram and SnapChat for short videos). These shifts have had demonstrable consequences on social media usage and its consequences as some scholars suggest that image-based posts convey greater social presence than text alone (e.g., Pittman and Reich 2016 ). Importantly however, a plethora of new technologies in the market suggest that the future of social media will be more sensory-rich.

One notable technology that has already started infiltrating social media is augmented reality (AR). Perhaps the most recognizable examples of this are Snapchat’s filters, which use a device’s camera to superimpose real-time visual and/or video overlays on people’s faces (including features such as makeup, dog ears, etc.). The company has even launched filters to specifically be used on users’ cats (Ritschel 2018 ). Other social media players quickly joined the AR bandwagon, including Instagram’s recent adoption of AR filters (Rao 2017 ) and Apple’s Memoji messaging (Tillman 2018 ). This likely represents only the tip of the iceberg, particularly given that Facebook, one of the industry’s largest investors in AR technology, has confirmed it is working on AR glasses (Constine 2018 ). Notably, the company plans to launch a developer platform, so that people can build augmented-reality features that live inside Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp (Wagner 2017 ). These developments are supported by academic research suggesting that AR often provides more authentic (and hence positive) situated experiences (Hilken et al. 2017 ). Accordingly, whether viewed through glasses or through traditional mobile and tablet devices, the future of social media is likely to look much more visually augmented.

While AR allows users to interact within their current environments, virtual reality (VR) immerses the user in other places, and this technology is also likely to increasingly permeate social media interactions. While the Facebook-owned company Oculus VR has mostly been focusing on the areas of immersive gaming and film, the company recently announced the launch of Oculus Rooms where users can spend time with other users in a virtual world (playing games together, watching media together, or just chatting; Wagner 2018 ). Concurrently, Facebook Spaces allows friends to meet online in virtual reality and similarly engage with one another, with the added ability to share content (e.g., photos) from their Facebook profiles (Whigham 2018 ). In both cases, avatars are customized to represent users within the VR-created space. As VR technology is becoming more affordable and mainstream (Colville 2018 ) we believe social media will inevitably play a role in the technology’s increasing usage.

While AR and VR technologies bring visual richness, other developments suggest that the future of social media might also be more audible. A new player to the social media space, HearMeOut, recently introduced a platform that enables users to share and listen to 42-s audio posts (Perry 2018 ). Allowing users to use social media in a hands-free and eyes-free manner not only allows them to safely interact with social media when multitasking (particularly when driving), but voice is also said to add a certain richness and authenticity that is often missing from mere text-based posts (Katai 2018 ). Given that podcasts are more popular than ever before (Bhaskar 2018 ) and voice-based search queries are the fastest-growing mobile search type (Robbio 2018 ), it seems likely that this communication modality will accordingly show up more on social media use going forward.

Finally, there are early indications that social media might literally feel different in the future. As mobile phones are held in one’s hands and wearable technology is strapped onto one’s skin, companies and brands are exploring opportunities to communicate to users through touch. Indeed, haptic feedback (technology that recreates the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user; Brave et al. 2001 ) is increasingly being integrated into interfaces and applications, with purposes that go beyond mere call or message notifications. For example, some companies are experimenting with integrating haptics into media content (e.g., in mobile ads for Stoli vodka, users feel their phone shake as a woman shakes a cocktail; Johnson 2015 ), mobile games, and interpersonal chat (e.g., an app called Mumble! translates text messages into haptic outputs; Ozcivelek 2015 ). Given the high levels of investment into haptic technology (it is predicted to be a $20 billion industry by 2022; Magnarelli 2018 ) and the communicative benefits that stem from haptic engagement (Haans and IJsselsteijn 2006 ), we believe it is only a matter of time before this modality is integrated into social media platforms.

Future research might explore how any of the new sensory formats mentioned above might alter the nature of content creation and consumption. Substantively-focused researchers might also investigate how practitioners can use these tools to enhance their offerings and augment their interactions with customers. It is also interesting to consider how such sensory-rich formats can be used to bridge the gap between the online and offline spaces, which is the next theme we explore.

Online/offline integration and complete convergence

A discussion occurring across industry and academia is on how marketers can appropriately integrate online and offline efforts (i.e., an omnichannel approach). Reports from industry sources have shown that consumers respond better to integrated marketing campaigns (e.g., a 73% boost over standard email campaigns; Safko 2010 ). In academia meanwhile, the majority of research considering online promotions and advertisements has typically focused on how consumers respond to these strategies through online only measures (e.g., Manchanda et al. 2006 ), though this has begun to change in recent years with more research examining offline consequences to omnichannel strategies (Lobschat et al. 2017 ; Kumar et al. 2017 ).

Considering the interest in integrated marketing strategies over the last few years, numerous strategies have been utilized to follow online and offline promotions and their impacts on behavior such as the usage of hashtags to bring conversations online, call-to-actions, utilizing matching strategies on “traditional” avenues like television with social media. While there is currently online/offline integration strategies in marketing, we believe the future will go even further in blurring the lines between what is offline and online to not just increase the effectiveness of marketing promotions, but to completely change the way customers and companies interact with one another, and the way social media influences consumer behavior not only online, but offline.

For brands, there are a number of possible trends in omnichannel marketing that are pertinent. As mentioned earlier, a notable technology that has begun infiltrating social media is augmented reality (AR). In addition to what already exists (e.g., Snapchat’s filters, Pokémon Go), the future holds even more possibilities. For example, Ikea has been working to create an AR app that allows users to take photos of a space at home to exactly , down to the millimeter size and lighting in the room, showcase what a piece of furniture would look like in a consumer’s home (Lovejoy 2017 ). Another set of examples of AR comes from beauty company L’Oréal. In 2014 for the flagship L’Oréal Paris brand they released a mobile app called Makeup Genius that allowed consumers to virtually try on makeup on their phones (Stephen and Brooks 2018 ). Since then, they have developed AR apps for hair color and nail polish, as well as integrating AR into mobile ecommerce webpages for their luxury beauty brand Lancôme. AR-based digital services such as these are likely to be at the heart of the next stage of offline/online integration.

AR, and similar technology, will likely move above and beyond being a tool to help consumers make better decisions about their purchases. Conceivably, similar to promotions that currently exist to excitse consumers and create communities, AR will be incorporated into promotions that integrate offline and online actions. For example, contests on social media will advance to the stage where users get to vote on the best use of AR technology in conjunction with a brand’s products (e.g., instead of users submitting pictures of their apartments to show why they should win free furniture, they could use AR to show how they would lay out the furniture if they were to win it from IKEA).

Another way that the future of online/offline integration on social media needs to be discussed is in the sense of a digital self. Drawing on the extended self in the digital age (Belk 2013 ), the way consumers consider online actions as relevant to their offline selves may be changing. For example, Belk ( 2013 ) spoke of how consumers may be re-embodied through avatars they create to represent themselves online, influencing their offline selves and creating a multiplicity of selves (i.e., consumers have more choice when it comes to their self-representation). As research has shown how digital and social media can be used for self-presentation, affiliation, and expression (Back et al. 2010 ; Gosling et al. 2007 ; Toubia and Stephen 2013 ; Wilcox and Stephen 2012 ), what does it mean for the future if consumers can create who they want to be?

In addition, when considering digital selves, what does this mean for how consumers engage with brands and products? Currently, social media practice is one where brands encourage consumer engagement online (Chae et al. 2017 ; Godes and Mayzlin 2009 ), yet the implications for how these types of actions on the part of the brand to integrate online social media actions and real-life behavior play out are unclear. Research has begun to delve into the individual-level consequences of a consumer’s social media actions on marketing relevant outcomes (Grewal et al. 2019 ; John et al. 2017 ; Mochon et al. 2017 ; Zhang et al. 2017 ), however much is still unknown. As well, while there is recent work examining how the device used to create and view content online impacts consumer perceptions and behaviors (e.g., Grewal and Stephen 2019 ), to date research has not examined these questions in the context of social media. Therefore, future research could address how digital selves (both those held offline and those that only exist online), social media actions, and if the way consumers reach and use various platforms (i.e., device type, app vs. webpage, etc.) impact consumer behavior, interpersonal relationships, and brand-related measures (e.g., well-being, loyalty, purchase behaviors).

Social media by non-humans

The buzz surrounding AI has not escaped social media. Indeed, social bots (computer algorithms that automatically produce content and interact with social media users; Ferrara et al. 2016 ) have inhabited social media platforms for the last decade (Lee et al. 2011 ), and have become increasingly pervasive. For example, experts estimate that up to 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots (Varol et al. 2017 ), and that percentage appears to be on the rise (Romano 2018 ). While academics and practitioners are highly concerned with bot detection (Knight 2018 ), in the vast majority of current cases, users do not appear to recognize when they are interacting with bots (as opposed to other human users) on social media (Stocking and Sumida 2018 ). While some of these bots are said to be benign, and even useful (e.g., acting as information aggregators), they have also been shown to disrupt political discourse (as mentioned earlier), steal personal information, and spread misinformation (Ferrara et al. 2016 ).

Of course, social bots are not only a problem for social media users but are also a nagging concern plaguing marketers. Given that companies often assess marketing success on social media through metrics like Likes, Shares, and Clicks, the existence of bots poses a growing threat to accurate marketing metrics and methods for ROI estimation, such as attribution modelling (Bilton 2014 ). Similarly, when these bots act as “fake followers,” it can inflate the worth of influencers’ audiences (Bogost 2018 ). This can also be used nefariously by individuals and firms, as shown in a New York Times Magazine expose that documented the market used by some influencers to purchase such “fake” followers to inflate their social media reach (Confessore et al. 2018 ). As discussed above in relation to influencer marketing, where it has been commonplace for influencers to be paid for posts at rates proportionate to their follower counts, there have been perverse incentives to game the system by having non-human “fake” bot followers. This, however, erodes consumer trust in the social media ecosystem, which is a growing issue and a near-term problem for many firms using social media channels for marketing purposes.

However, there are instances when consumers do know they are interacting with bots, and do not seem to mind. For example, a number of virtual influencers (created with CGI, as mentioned earlier) seem to be garnering sizeable audiences, despite the fact they are clearly non-human (Walker 2018 ). One of the most popular of these virtual influencers, Lil Miquela, has over 1.5 million followers on Instagram despite openly confessing, “I am not a human being... I’m a robot” (Yurieff 2018 ). Future research might try to understand the underlying appeal of these virtual influencers, and the potential boundary conditions of their success.

Another category of social bots gaining increasing attention are therapy bots. These applications (e.g., “Woebot;” Molteni 2017 ) aim to support the mental health of users by proactively checking in on them, “listening” and chatting to users at any time and recommending activities to improve users’ wellbeing (de Jesus 2018 ). Similar bots are being used to “coach” users, and help them quit maladaptive behaviors, like smoking (e.g., QuitGenius; Crook 2018 ). Interestingly, by being explicitly non-human, these agents are perceived to be less judgmental, and might accordingly be easier for users to confide in.

Finally, the Internet of Things revolution has ushered in with it the opportunity for a number of tangible products and interfaces to “communicate” via social media. For example, in what started as a design experiment, “Brad,” a connected toaster, was given the ability to “communicate” with other connected toasters, and to tweet his “feelings” when neglected or under-used (Vanhemert 2014 ). While this experiment was deliberately designed to raise questions about the future of consumer-product relationships (and product-product “relationships”), the proliferation of autonomous tangible devices does suggest a future in which they have a “voice,” even in the absence of humans (Hoffman and Novak 2018 ).

Going forward, we believe the presence of bots on social media will be more normalized, but also more regulated (e.g., a recent law passed in California prevents bots from masquerading as humans; Smith 2018 ). Further, consumers and companies alike will be become increasingly interested in how bots communicate and interact with each other outside of human involvement. This brings up interesting potential research questions for academics and practitioners alike. How will the presence of non-humans change the nature of content creation and conversation in social media? And how should companies best account for the presence of non-humans in their attribution models?

Future research directions and conclusion

This article has presented nine themes pertinent to the future of social media as it relates to (and is perhaps influenced by) marketing. The themes have implications for individuals/consumers, businesses and organizations, and also public policymakers and governments. These themes, which represent our own thinking and a synthesis of views from extant research, industry experts, and popular public discourse, are of course not the full story of what the future of social media will entail. They are, however, a set of important issues that we believe will be worth considering in both academic research and marketing practice.

To stimulate future research on these themes and related topics, we present a summary of suggested research directions in Table 2 . These are organized around our nine themes and capture many of the suggested research directions mentioned earlier. As a sub-field within the field of marketing, social media is already substantial and the potential for future research—based on identified needs for new knowledge and answers to perplexing questions—suggests that this sub-field will become even more important over time. We encourage researchers to consider the kinds of research directions in Table 2 as examples of issues they could explore further. We also encourage researchers in marketing to treat social media as a place where interesting (and often very new) consumer behaviors exist and can be studied. As we discussed earlier in the paper, social media as a set of platform businesses and technologies is interesting, but it is how people use social media and the associated technologies that is ultimately of interest to marketing academics and practitioners. Thus, we urge scholars to not be overly enticed by the technological “shiny new toys” at the expense of considering the behaviors associated with those technologies and platforms.

Finally, while we relied heavily (though not exclusively) on North American examples to illustrate the emergent themes, there are likely interesting insights to be drawn by explicitly exploring cross-cultural differences in social media usage. For example, variations in regulatory policies (e.g., GDPR in the European Union) may lead to meaningful differences in how trust and privacy concerns manifest. Further, social media as a political tool might be more influential in regions where the mainstream media is notoriously government controlled and censored (e.g., as was the case in many of the Arab Spring countries). While such cross-cultural variation is outside the scope of this particular paper, we believe it represents an area of future research with great theoretical and practical value.

In reviewing the social media ecosystem and considering where it is heading in the context of consumers and marketing practice, we have concluded that this is an area that is very much still in a state of flux. The future of social media in marketing is exciting, but also uncertain. If nothing else, it is vitally important that we better understand social media since it has become highly culturally relevant, a dominant form of communication and expression, a major media type used by companies for advertising and other forms of communication, and even has geopolitical ramifications. We hope that the ideas discussed here stimulate many new ideas and research, which we ultimately hope to see being mentioned and shared across every type of social media platform.

Aguirre, E., Mahr, D., Grewal, D., Ruyter, K. D., & Wetzels, M. (2015). Unraveling the personalization paradox: The effect of information collection and trust-building strategies on online advertisement effectiveness. Journal of Retailing, 91 (1), 34–59.

Google Scholar

American Psychological Association. (2011). Social networking's good and bad impacts on kids . American Psychological Association.

Babić Rosario, A., Sotgiu, F., De Valck, K., & Bijmolt, T. H. A. (2016). The effect of electronic word of mouth on sales: A meta-analytic review of platform, product, and metric factors. Journal of Marketing Research, 53 (3), 297–318.

Back, M., Stopfer, J., Vazire, S., Gaddis, S., Schmukle, S., Egloff, B., & Gosling, S. (2010). Facebook profiles reflect actual personality, not self-idealization. Psychological Science, 21 (3), 372–374.

Bail, C. A., Argyle, L. P., Brown, T. W., Bumpus, J. P., Chen, H., Hunzaker, M. F., Lee, J., Mann, M., Merhout, F., & Volfovsky, A. (2018). Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115 (37), 9216–9221.

Baker, D. A., & Algorta, G. P. (2016). The relationship between online social networking and depression: A systematic review of quantitative studies. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 19 (11), 638–648.

Bakshy, E., Messing, S., & Adamic, L. A. (2015). Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook. Science, 348 (6239), 1130–1132.

Baktha, K., Dev, M., Gupta, H., Agarwal, A., & Balamurugan, B. (2017). Social network analysis in healthcare. In Internet of Things and Big Data Technologies for Next Generation Healthcare (pp. 309–334). Springer, Cham.

Belk, R. W. (2013). Extended self in a digital world. Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (October), 477–500.

Bereznak, A. (2018). A Meme Is Born: How Internet Jokes Turned ‘A Star Is Born’ Into a Hit. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7b9xfym .

Berger, J., & Heath, C. (2008). Who drives divergence? Identity signaling, outgroup dissimilarity, and the abandonment of cultural tastes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95 (3), 593–607.

Bhaskar, S. (2018). How Podcasts Became So Popular (And Why That’s a Good Thing). Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yczfmzue .

Bilton, N. (2014). Social media bots offer phony friends and real profit. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y93z3wdj .

Bode, L. (2016). Political news in the news feed: Learning politics from social media. Mass Communication and Society, 19 (1), 24–48.

Bogost, I. (2018). All followers are fake followers. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybxblkek .

Bond, R. M., Fariss, C. J., Jones, J. J., DI Kramer, A., Marlow, C., Settle, J. E., & Fowler, J. H. (2012). A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature, 489 (7415), 295–298.

Bonilla, Y., & Rosa, J. (2015). # Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States. American Ethnologist, 42 (1), 4–17.

Brave, S., Nass C., & Sirinian E. (2001). Force-feedback in computer-mediated communication. Proceedings of HCI International 2001 (9 th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction , Constantine Stephanidis, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum), 145–149.

Brown, H., Guskin, E., & Mitchell A. (2012). The role of social Media in the Arab Uprising. Retreived from https://tinyurl.com/y7d8t7je .

Carr, D. (2008) How Obama Tapped into Social Networks’ Power. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ydyvtocj .

Castano, E., Yzerbyt, V., Paladino, M. P., & Sacchi, S. (2002). I belong, therefore, I exist: Ingroup identification, ingroup entitativity, and ingroup bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28 (2), 135–143.

Chae, I., Stephen, A. T., Bart, Y., & Yao, D. (2017). Spillover effects in seeded word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. Marketing Science, 36 (1), 89–104.

Chang, Y., Li, Y., Yan, J., & Kumar, V. (2019). Getting more likes: The impact of narrative person and brand image on customer–brand interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science , 1–19.

Cheng, E. (2017). China is living the future of mobile pay right now. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8hm6vlo .

Chowdry, A., (2018). Facebook launches ads in marketplace. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8kf5g4t .

Chung, T. S., Wedel, M., & Rust, R. T. (2016). Adaptive personalization using social networks. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44 , 66–87.

Cigna (2018). New Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in American. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y9e7gl2u .

Colville W. (2018). Facebook VR leader talk about the future of virtual marketing. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8kdd4cr .

Comm J. (2016). 9 Social media influencers who are killing it on TV. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y76wyo8j .

Confessore, N., Dance, G. J. X., Harris, R., & Hansen, M. (2018). The Follower Factory. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yaym3e69 .

Constine, J. (2018). Facebook confirms its building augmented reality glasses. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y82et9tw .

Cortizo-Burgess, P. (2014). The traditional purchase funnel is kaput. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7azj7oc .

Crolic, C., Stephen, A. T., Zubcsek, P. P., & Brooks, G. (2019). Staying connected: The positive effect of social media consumption on psychological well-being. Working Paper.

Crook, J. (2018). Quit Genius, backed by Y combinator, wants to help you quit smoking. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7hhfzf8 .

Culnan, M. J., & Williams, C. C. (2009). How ethics can enhance organization privacy: Lessons from the choice point and TJX data breaches. MIS Quarterly, 33 , 673–687.

de Jesus, A. (2018). Chatbots for mental health and therapy – Comparing 5 current apps and use cases. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yc5c6qco .

Dequier, S. (2018). Everything You Need to Know about Apple Business Chat (and what to expect from it). Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yd4dmtgw .

Duani, N., Barasch, A., & Ward A. (2018). “Brought to you live”: On the consumption experience of live social media streams. Working paper.

Dwyer, D., (2019). Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter lesson for House Democrats. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ydgy9suw .

Edelman, K. (2018). Trust Barometer Brands Social Media. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycrm23gf .

eMarketer (2018). Social Network Users and Penetration in Worldwide. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycr2d3v9 .

Enberg, J. (2018). Global Influencer Marketing. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7srumpm .

Facebook (2019). Company Info. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/n544jrt .

Ferrara, E., Varol, O., Davis, C., Menczer, F., & Flammini, A. (2016). The rise of social bots. Communications of the ACM, 59 (7), 96–104.

Fiegerman, S. (2018). Facebook admits social media can 'corrode democracy'. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y9f7hxju .

Fossen, B. L., & Schweidel, D. A. (2016). Television advertising and online word-of-mouth: An empirical investigation of social TV activity. Marketing Science, 36 (1), 105–123.

Fossen, B. L., & Schweidel, D. A. (2019). Social TV, advertising, and sales: Are social shows good for advertisers? Marketing Science, 38 (2), 274–295.

Godes, D., & Mayzlin, D. (2009). Firm-created word-of-mouth communication: Evidence from a field test. Marketing Science, 28 (4), 721–739.

Gordon, B. R., Zettelmeyer, F., Bhargava, N., & Chapsky, D. (2019). A comparison of approaches to advertising measurement: Evidence from big field experiments at Facebook. Marketing Science, 38 (2), 193–225.

Gosling, S., Gaddis, S., & Vazire, S. (2007). Personality Impressions Based on Facebook Profiles. ICWSM , 1–4.

Greaves, F., Ramirez-Cano, D., Millett, C., Darzi, A., & Donaldson, L. (2013). Harnessing the cloud of patient experience: Using social media to detect poor quality healthcare. BMJ Quality and Safety, 22 (3), 251–255.

Grewal, L., & Stephen, A. T. (2019). In mobile we trust: The effects of mobile versus nonmobile reviews on consumer purchase intentions. Journal of Marketing Research, 56 (5), 791–808.

Grewal, L., Stephen, A. T., & Coleman, N. V. (2019). When posting about products in social media backfires: The negative effects of consumer identity-signaling on product interest. Journal of Marketing Research, 56 (2), 197–210.

Guszcza, J. (2018). Smarter together. Deloitte Review, 22 , 36–45.

Haans, A., & IJsselsteijn, W. (2006). Mediated social touch: A review of current research and future directions. Virtual Reality, 9 (2), 149–159.

Haenlein, M. (2017). How to date your clients in the 21st century: Challenges in managing customer relationships in today's world. Business Horizons, 60 , 577–586.

Harton, H. C., & Bourgeois, M. J. (2004). Cultural elements emerge from dynamic social impact. The Psychological Foundations of Culture , 41–75.

Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the internet? Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18 (1), 38–52.

Hennig-Thurau, T., Wiertz, C., & Feldhaus, F. (2015). Does twitter matter? The impact of microblogging word of mouth on consumers’ adoption of new movies. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43 (3), 375–394.

Herhausen, D., Ludwig, S., Grewal, D., Wulf, J., & Schoegel, M. (2019). Detecting, preventing, and mitigating online firestorms in brand communities. Journal of Marketing, 83 (3), 1–21.

Hilken, T., de Ruyter, K., Chylinski, M., Mahr, D., & Keeling, D. I. (2017). Augmenting the eye of the beholder: Exploring the strategic potential of augmented reality to enhance online service experiences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (6), 884–905.

Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (2018). Consumer and object experience in the internet of things: An assemblage theory approach. Journal of Consumer Research, 44 (6), 1178–1204.

Hollenbeck, C. R., & Kaikati, A. M. (2012). Consumers’ use of brands to reflect their actual and ideal selves on Facebook. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29 (4), 395–405.

Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, R., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37 (10), 751–768.

Information Technology Faculty (2018). Building Trust in the Digital Age Report. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y9rkxbxu .

John, L. K., Emrich, O., Gupta, S., & Norton, M. I. (2017). Does “liking” lead to loving? The impact of joining a brand’s social network on marketing outcomes. Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (1), 144–155.

Johnson, L. (2015). Stoli's Mobile Ads Let You Actually Feel a Cocktail Being Made in Your Hand. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y72uud3c .

Jun, Y., Meng, R., & Johar, G. V. (2017). Perceived social presence reduces fact-checking. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114 (23), 5976–5981.

Kakatkar, C., & Spann, M. (2018). Marketing analytics using anonymized and fragmented tracking data. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36 (1), 117–136.

Kaplan, A., & Haenlein, M. (2019). Siri, Siri, in my hand: Who’s the fairest in the land? On the interpretations, illustrations, and implications of artificial intelligence. Business Horizons, 62 (1), 15–25.

Katai L. (2018). 3 Reasons why audio will conquer all social media. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y9q6bvjr .

Kelly, H., Horowitz, J., O'Sullivan, D. (2018). Facebook takes down 652 pages after finding disinformation campaigns run from Iran and Russia. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybte3bp4 .

Kim, J., LaRose, R., & Peng, W. (2009). Loneliness as the cause and the effect of problematic internet use: The relationship between internet use and psychological well-being. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 12 (4), 451–455.

King, G., Pan, J., & Roberts, M. E. (2017). How the Chinese government fabricates social media posts for strategic distraction, not engaged argument. American Political Science Review, 111 (3), 484–501.

Knight, T. (2018). How to tell if you are talking to a bot. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycamg4p8 .

Knoll, J., & Matthes, J. (2017). The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements: A meta-analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (1), 55–75.

Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Demiralp, E., Park, J., Lee, D. S., Lin, N., Shablack, H., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2013). Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults. PLoS One, 8 (8), e69841.

Kumar, V., Choi, J. B., & Greene, M. (2017). Synergistic effects of social media and traditional marketing on brand sales: Capturing the time-varying effects. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (2), 268–288.

Kumparak, G. (2018). Google Assistant will now be nicer if you say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybcfdztv .

Lamberton, C., & Stephen, A. T. (2016). A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and mobile marketing research's evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future research. Journal of Marketing, 80 (6), 146–172.

Lee, K., Eoff, B.D., & Caverlee, J. (2011), Seven months with the devils: A long-term study of content polluters on twitter. In Proceedings of the 5th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, 185–192.

Lobschat, L., Osinga, E. C., & Reinartz, W. J. (2017). What happens online stays online? Segment-specific online and offline effects of banner advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (6), 901–913.

Lovejoy, B. (2017). Ikea to be Apple launch partner for AR, showing virtual furniture in your own home. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yarzpz8n .

Magnarelli, M. (2018). The Next Marketing Skill You Need to Master: Touch. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7tybx4d .

Main, S. (2017). Micro-Influencers Are More Effective with Marketing Campaigns Than Highly Popular Accounts. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/moww4p4 .

Manchanda, P., Dubé, J. P., Goh, K. Y., & Chintagunta, P. K. (2006). The effect of banner advertising on internet purchasing. Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (1), 98–108.

Marche. T. (2012). Is Facebook making us lonely? Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybyje7ol .

Marker, C., Gnambs, T., & Appel, M. (2018). Active on Facebook and failing at school? Meta-analytic findings on the relationship between online social networking activities and academic achievement. Educational Psychology Review , 651–677.

Martin, K. (2018). The penalty for privacy violations: How privacy violations impact trust online. Journal of Business Research, 82 , 103–116.

Martin, K. D., & Murphy, P. E. (2017). The role of data privacy in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (2), 135–155.

Martin, K. D., Borah, A., & Palmatier, R. W. (2017). Data privacy: Effects on customer and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 81 (1), 36–58.

Maxim (2018). Every Selena Gomez Instagram post for puma is worth $3.4 million. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybr6nzok .

McClure, E. (2015). 11 Youtube Stars with Makeup Collections We Can’t Get Enough Of. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybwzz6mm .

Mejia, Z., (2018). Kylie Jenner reportedly makes $1 million per paid Instagram post—here's how much other top influencers get. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7khetcu .

Mochon, D., Johnson, K., Schwartz, J., & Ariely, D. (2017). What are likes worth? A Facebook page field experiment. Journal of Marketing Research, 54 (2), 306–317.

Molteni, S., (2017). The Chatbot Therapist Will See You Now. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8g9b3oq .

Nill, A., & Aalberts, R. J. (2014). Legal and ethical challenges of online behavioral targeting in advertising. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 35 , 126–146.

Nolan, H. (2018), Brands are creating virtual influencers, Which could make the Kardashians a thing of the past. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7gu7t26 .

Orben, A., Dienlin, T., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). Social media’s enduring effect on adolescent life satisfaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (21), 10226–10228.

Oremus, W. (2016). Who Controls Your Facebook Feed. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y745c2ap .

Ozcivelek, A. (2015). The future of wearable tech. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y88kf554 .

Padrez, K. A., Ungar, L., Schwartz, H. A., Smith, R. J., Hill, S., Antanavicius, T., Brown, D. M., Crutchley, P., Asch, D. A., & Merchant, R. M. (2016). Linking social media and medical record data: A study of adults presenting to an academic, urban emergency department. BMJ Quality and Safety, 25 (6), 414–423.

Pardes, A. (2017). Selfie Factories: The rise of the Made-for-Instagram Museum. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycqswbz2 .

Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2019). Fighting misinformation on social media using crowdsourced judgments of news source quality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (7), 2521–2526.

Pennycook, G., Cannon, T. D., & Rand, D. G. (2019). Prior exposure increases perceived accuracy of fake news . Journal of Experimental Psychology: General In press.

Perry, E. (2018). Meet HearMeOut: the social media platform looking to bring audio back into the mainstream. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8yxbzah .

Pittman, M., & Reich, B. (2016). Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be worth more than a thousand twitter words. Computers in Human Behavior, 62 , 155–167.

Priday, R. (2018). How to use Instagram and Facebooks new time limit tools. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8allnxe .

Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Whaite, E. O., Lin, L. Y., Rosen, D., Colditz, J. B., Radovic, A., & Miller, E. (2017). Social media use and perceived social isolation among young adults in the US. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 53 (1), 1–8.

Rao, L., (2017). Instagram Copies Snapchat Once Again with Face Filters. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybcuxxdv .

Ritschel, C. (2018). Snapchat Introduces New Filters for Cats. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8shdhpl .

Robbio, A. (2018). The hyper-adoption of voice technology. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y9zzqpan .

Romano, A. (2018). Two-thirds of links on twitter come from bots. The good news? They’re Mostly Bland. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y8hpyldc .

Safko, L. (2010). The social media bible: Tactics, tools, and strategies for business success. John Wiley & Sons.

Schmidt, C. W. (2012). Trending now: Using social media to predict and track disease outbreaks.

Schwartz, O. (2018). You thought fake news was bad? Deep fakes are where truth goes to die. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y7mcrysq .

Schwarz, N., & Newman, E. J. (2017). How does the gut know truth? Psychological Science Agenda, 31 (8).

Shakya, H. B., & Christakis, N. A. (2017). Association of Facebook use with compromised well-being: A longitudinal study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 185 (3), 203–211.

Sheth, J. (2017). The future history of consumer research: Will the discipline rise to the opportunity? Advances in Consumer Research, 45 , 17–20.

Smith, A. (2018). California Law Bans Bots from Pretending to Be Human. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y78qdkpu .

Steers, M. L. N., Wickham, R. E., & Acitelli, L. K. (2014). Seeing everyone else's highlight reels: How Facebook usage is linked to depressive symptoms. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 33 (8), 701–731.

Stephen, A. T. & G. Brooks (2018). L’Oréal Paris Makeup Genius. Saïd Business School Case Study, University of Oxford.

Stephen, A. T., & Galak, J. (2012). The effects of traditional and social earned media on sales: A study of a microlending marketplace. Journal of Marketing Research, 49 (5), 624–639.

Stephen, A. T., & Lehmann, D. R. (2016). How word-of-mouth transmission encouragement affects consumers’ transmission decisions, receiver selection, and diffusion speed. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33 (4), 755–766.

Stewart, D. W. (2017). A comment on privacy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (2), 156–159.

Stocking, G. & Sumida, N. (2018). Social Media Bots Draw Public’s Attention and Concern. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ybabbeu4 .

Tillman, M. (2018). What are Memoji? How to create an Animoji that looks like you. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yakqjqdf .

Toubia, O., & Stephen, A. T. (2013). Intrinsic vs. image-related utility in social media: Why do people contribute content to twitter? Marketing Science, 32 (3), 368–392.

Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E., & Pauwels, T. (2009). Effects of word-of mouth versus traditional marketing: Findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of Marketing, 73 (5), 90–102.

Tucker, C. E. (2014). Social networks, personalized advertising and privacy controls. Journal of Marketing Research, 51 (5), 546–562.

Vanhemert, K. (2014). Needy robot toaster sells itself if neglected. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2ROGvt3 .

Varol. O., Ferrara, E., Davis, C. A., Menczer, F., & Flammini, A. (2017). Online Human-Bot Interactions: Detection, Estimation and Characterization. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03107 .

Villarroel Ordenes, F., Ludwig, S., De Ruyter, K., Grewal, D., & Wetzels, M. (2017). Unveiling what is written in the stars: Analyzing explicit, implicit, and discourse patterns of sentiment in social media. Journal of Consumer Research, 43 (6), 875–894.

Villarroel Ordenes, F., Grewal, D., Ludwig, S., Ruyter, K. D., Mahr, D., & Wetzels, M. (2018). Cutting through content clutter: How speech and image acts drive consumer sharing of social media brand messages. Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (5), 988–1012.

Wagner, K. (2017). Mark Zuckerberg, In His Own Words, On why AR is Facebook’s next big platform bet. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yagf24e4 .

Wagner, K. (2018). Oculus Go, the virtual reality headset Facebook hopes will bring VR to the mainstream, is finally here. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycnz468q .

Walker, H. (2018). Meet Lil Miquela, the Instagram star created by CGI. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yc32k25l .

Wallace, E., Buil, I., de Chernatony, L., & Hogan, M. (2014). Who “Likes” You … and Why? A Typology of Facebook Fans. Journal of Advertising Research, 54 (1), 92–109.

Welch, C., (2018). How to use Google Duplex to make a restaurant reservation. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/yaup796a .

Whigham, N. (2018). The way we hang out on social media could look (and feel) very different soon. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycs3efqv .

White, K., & Dahl, D. W. (2007). Are all out-groups created equal? Consumer identity and dissociative influence. Journal of Consumer Research, 34 (4), 525–536.

White, T. B., Zahay, D. L., Thorbjørnsen, H., & Shavitt, S. (2008). Getting too personal: Reactance to highly personalized email solicitations. Marketing Letters, 19 (1), 39–50.

Wilcox, K., & Stephen, A. T. (2012). Are close friends the enemy? Online social networks, self-esteem, and self-control. Journal of Consumer Research, 40 (1), 90–103.

Woolley, K., & Risen, J. L. (2018). Closing your eyes to follow your heart: Avoiding information to protect a strong intuitive preference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114 (2), 230–245.

Xu, H., Teo, H. H., Tan, B. C. Y., & Agarwal, R. (2012). Effects of individual self-protection industry self-regulation, and government regulation on privacy concerns: A study of location based services. Information Systems Research, 23 , 1342–1363.

Yurieff, K. (2018). Instagram star isn’t what she seems. But brands are buying in. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/ycqnf72c .

Zhang, Y., Trusov, M., Stephen, A. T., & Jamal, Z. (2017). Online shopping and social media: Friends or foes? Journal of Marketing, 81 (6), 24–41.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the special issue editors and reviewers for their comments, and the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative for supporting this research. The authors contributed equally and are listed in alphabetical order or, if preferred, order of Marvel superhero fandom from highest to lowest and order of Bon Jovi fandom from lowest to highest.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, 701 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, 100 Tuck Hall, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

Lauren Grewal

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HP, UK

Rhonda Hadi & Andrew T. Stephen

Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Andrew T. Stephen

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Rhonda Hadi or Andrew T. Stephen .

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Mark Houston served as accepting editor for this article.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R. et al. The future of social media in marketing. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 48 , 79–95 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1

Download citation

Published : 12 October 2019

Issue Date : January 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Social media
Digital marketing
Future of marketing
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

Root out friction in every digital experience, super-charge conversion rates, and optimize digital self-service

Uncover insights from any interaction, deliver AI-powered agent coaching, and reduce cost to serve

Increase revenue and loyalty with real-time insights and recommendations delivered to teams on the ground

Know how your people feel and empower managers to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention

Take action in the moments that matter most along the employee journey and drive bottom line growth

Whatever they’re are saying, wherever they’re saying it, know exactly what’s going on with your people

Get faster, richer insights with qual and quant tools that make powerful market research available to everyone

Run concept tests, pricing studies, prototyping + more with fast, powerful studies designed by UX research experts

Track your brand performance 24/7 and act quickly to respond to opportunities and challenges in your market

Explore the platform powering Experience Management

Free Account
For Digital
For Customer Care
For Human Resources
For Researchers
Financial Services
All Industries

Popular Use Cases

Customer Experience
Employee Experience
Employee Exit Interviews
Net Promoter Score
Voice of Customer
Customer Success Hub
Product Documentation
Training & Certification
XM Institute
Popular Resources
Customer Stories

Market Research

Artificial Intelligence
Partnerships
Marketplace

The annual gathering of the experience leaders at the world’s iconic brands building breakthrough business results, live in Salt Lake City.

English/AU & NZ
Español/Europa
Español/América Latina
Português Brasileiro
REQUEST DEMO

Where will 2021 take the market research industry?

For market researchers, 2020 was catastrophic yet transformative, demanding rapid change and adaptation in order to survive and thrive. As we move from crisis response to future planning, what does the market research landscape look like?

Get the complete picture: Download our Market Research Trends Report for 2021

2020 – the year that changed market research

2020’s crises profoundly changed the relationship between consumers and brands – altering expectations and redefining relationships. At the same time, it presented an opportunity for businesses to rethink and re-invent their approach to market research.

Economic growth was put into reverse, supply chains were tested to and beyond breaking point, consumers turned to stockpiling and their relationships to brands shifted from a position of choice to one of necessity.

While some brands pivoted smartly, others, especially in the hospitality and leisure sectors, were overwhelmed by the crushing pressure of COVID-19. Knowledge-based industries were perhaps the least hardest-hit, with a shift towards remote working keeping the lights on. Overall though, there were few winners. Our research showed that almost 2 in 3 companies canceled or postponed some of their planned research .

Those that weathered the storm were frequently those who turned to technology for a competitive advantage . Economizing and cutting costs were the goal for market researchers, who leaned on automation, AI and machine learning to take the pressure off resource-heavy human-led operations.

Though nothing new, market research technology came into its own during 2020 as a means to alleviate cost burdens and do more with less. Growth in MR tech accelerated rapidly, especially when it came to tools for automation.

The three-phase approach

We’ve seen market research companies go through three typical stages in response to the COVID-19 crisis

1. Sudden shock

Confronted with a totally unprecedented set of circumstances, businesses responded to uncertainty by cutting back on their research spending in an effort to conserve resources for an unknown future.

2. Tentative, mixed recovery

With the ‘new normal’ beginning to bed in, organizations returned to something more like the status quo, returning to their research programs, albeit on a smaller scale than before the pandemic. They looked to research to help them understand the new environment and to track and respond to changing customer needs.

3. Doing more with less

Months rather than weeks on from the initial crisis point, researchers were met with the challenge to do more with less, and to produce results faster than ever. For many, the answer lay in new technology that enabled more efficient ways of working.

2021 – the emerging market research trends

So what does the future hold?

Our research points to a number of emerging trends in market research following the 2020 crisis point:

1. Technology is here to stay

Its value proven, market research technology is set to keep on growing in 2021 and beyond. With budgets still critically tight, market researchers will be looking to technology to help them keep pace with demand. After all, the budgets may be scaling back but the volume and variety of market research data will only keep growing.

Now and in the future, technology plays an important role in bringing data from disparate sources together, and helping market researchers to collate, analyze and communicate their findings. It’s also a part of the everyday fabric of collaborative research, with online panels supplying data and remote working critically dependent on functions like IM and video calls.

See 17 market research tools we recommend exploring in 2021

2. A need for speed

The market researchers we surveyed told us that speed was near the top of their priority lists. They require insights faster, because with the rule book torn up, business leaders need that data-backed knowledge to help them build new strategies and make decisions.

This requires the growing strategic importance of market research, which in a post-2020 world now sits at the heart of business.

3. A blended approach to research

While there’s a widespread appreciation for market research technology, it won’t be replacing human abilities any time soon. We’re going to be seeing a blended approach where technology, and in particular automation, takes on some of the heavy lifting and allows data to be processed and analyzed at scale.

Human intelligence and perception will work hand in hand with the latest tools. We’ll see human creativity in the form of lateral thinking – the ability to pivot and reframe ideas and to challenge assumptions – and storytelling to communicate ideas in a compelling way.

4. Uncertainty remains

Though 2020 is now behind us, much of its impact continues. As we go into 2021, researchers are working hard to form a better understanding of post-2020 markets and how consumers now think and feel. Our 2020 research showed Market Trends topping the list of areas most in focus among researchers. This is critical if brands are to understand and act on new expectations for how they serve and support their customers.

5. Agile market research

An agile – read iterative, responsive and never-finished – approach to market research will see methodologies changing. Rather than carrying out large, structured projects, we can expect to see researchers running smaller surveys in an iterative way, each one building off the findings of the one before. This model is a powerful tool for fast-changing circumstances and unfamiliar research territory, since it allows researchers the freedom to respond to events and adapt their research to whatever life throws at us.

Download our free guide to modern agile research

6. Integration and a single, central platform

Another clear theme in our research was the requirement for a market research capability that is centralized on a single platform . Rather than working in silos, research is becoming more deeply connected to other areas of the business, reflecting a more holistic approach. We’re also seeing strong demand for integrated market research, with tools and systems that plug directly into various sources of data rather than requiring information to be imported or exported.

Elizabeth Dean // Senior XM Scientist

Elizabeth Dean is a senior experience management (XM) scientist with 20+ years of designing and leading research for commercial, academic, and government customers. Her expertise is in survey and market research design, UX research, brand health, technology adoption and cross-cultural research. She is passionate about designing questionnaires, contact strategies, and experience management tools that reduce respondent burden and simplify the data capture process. Liz has published research in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Military Psychology, and Social Science Computer Review, and co-edited the book Social Media, Sociality and Survey research, published in 2013 by Wiley Press.

December 20, 2023

Top market research analyst skills for 2024

November 7, 2023

Brand Experience

The 4 market research trends redefining insights in 2024

September 14, 2023

How BMG and Loop use data to make critical decisions

August 21, 2023

Designing for safety: Making user consent and trust an organizational asset

June 27, 2023

The fresh insights people: Scaling research at Woolworths Group

June 20, 2023

Bank less, delight more: How Bankwest built an engine room for customer obsession

June 16, 2023

How Qualtrics Helps Three Local Governments Drive Better Outcomes Through Data Insights

April 1, 2023

Academic Experience

How to write great survey questions (with examples)

Stay up to date with the latest xm thought leadership, tips and news., request demo.

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

Join the AMA
Find learning by topic
Free learning resources for members
Certification
Training for teams
Why learn with the AMA?
Marketing News
Academic Journals
Guides & eBooks
Marketing Job Board
Academic Job Board
AMA Foundation
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Collegiate Resources
Awards and Scholarships
Sponsorship Opportunities
Strategic Partnerships

We noticed that you are using Internet Explorer 11 or older that is not support any longer. Please consider using an alternative such as Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.

Identifying Trends From the 2020 U.S. Top 50 Report

Diane Bowers

2020 u.s. top 50 report on the research and data analytics industry

Insights from the 2020 U.S. Top 50 Report, documenting the progress and transformation of the top American market research and data analytics companies, and contextualizing their global growth rate

The “2020 U.S. Top 50 Report”—formerly known as “The Gold Report”—is developed by Diane Bowers and produced in partnership with the Insights Association and Michigan State University . The report is also sponsored by the AMA, ESOMAR and the Global Research Business Network . The report includes a ranking of the top 50 companies, a breakdown of trends by Bowers , and an analysis of the market research and analytics industry by Michael Brereton, Melanie Courtright and Reg Baker.

An Opening Note

The year 2020 has been a huge shock to our personal, public and professional life in the U.S. and around the world. Our industry (like every industry) has sustained business by adopting new and different ways of working, communicating, marketing and providing services. As we navigate this difficult time— and control and even vanquish this pandemic—I am confident we will work together to reestablish a stable and predictable environment and economy for our lives, communities and businesses.

With the publication of the “2020 U.S. Top 50 Report,” we continue to document the progress and transformation of our industry. In the past 47 years, this report has focused on survey and marketing research. Now, with the expansion and transformation of our products and services, we showcase the U.S. research and data analytics industry. This year, we take a broader view of the 2019 U.S. industry to include the full scope of current services among the top 50 companies and industry as a whole.

Login to view this page. You may create a free account from the login page after clicking "login".

This exclusive content is only available for AMA members.

Diane Bowers is a consultant to research and data analytics businesses and industry associations in the U.S. and internationally. She previously served as the president of CASRO, board chair of the Global Research Business Network, a board member of the Americas Research Industry Alliance and a board member of The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. She is also a past president of the Market Research Council and the Research Industry Coalition, and a long-time member of American Association for Public Opinion Research, AMA and ESOMAR.

By continuing to use this site, you accept the use of cookies, pixels and other technology that allows us to understand our users better and offer you tailored content. You can learn more about our privacy policy here

Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer
QuestionPro

Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case NPS+ Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

Home Market Research

The future of market research: 2020 and beyond

With no ability to foresee the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on all of us in both our personal and work life before the new year, organizations have had to be agile to navigate, 2020. Despite the halt, perhaps even a ‘reshuffling of the deck’ of what we call our day-to-day life, businesses’ rules have not changed: stay up to speed on major trends and avoid the risk of being left behind. That rule still strongly applies to market research, as we need to meet other organizations’ needs to understand and understand how to maximize growth for our customers and partners.

LEARN ABOUT: Agile Market Research

Now that we’re halfway through a year let’s look back on some of the new market research trends that have emerged. *Note that while many of these trends have come as a direct response to COVID-19, many trends, before the new year, were predicted to thrive, both in 2020 and beyond. These trends are despite COVID-19’s direct impact on the marketplace and based on certain market research patterns from the 2010s.

LEARN ABOUT: Market research industry

Where has the focus of market research shifted?

Longitudinal data collection.

The phrase “a sign of the times” refers to something that shows the kinds of things happening in culture during a specific period.

Researchers and insights teams now need to realize that there is now a lot of data collected on things that have now gone ‘tone-deaf’ as a result of economic certainty and conservative consumerism. One example of this could be airline companies collecting data on travel rewards. Right now, that focus in travel may not maximize the insights you need during this time. At the same time, there’s been a rise in demand for specific products, from sleep aids and immunity-boosting supplements to pampering products and cleaning products to pet food and at-home entertainment. While longitudinal studies have already played such a significant role in capturing insights on awareness and purchase consideration, many factors in 2020 could affect the overall demand for particular products.

LEARN ABOUT: Test Market Demand

Regardless of how well and business or industry is thriving during these times, researchers will need to continue monitoring and tracking data to see and understand what is changing over time (and what is NOT) for businesses to better prepare for the future.

Brand perception & consumer sentiment

In addition to the change in demand for brand products, many businesses have needed to focus more on their brand perception and consumer sentiment. A study showed that even just during April, the first full month of self-quarantine going into effect, well over 90% of marketers mentioned that their brand marketing strategies were affected and adjusted due to COVID-19.

As mentioned before, certain brands and products will thrive due to these times, while others won’t. This is a result of the sweeping changes in attitudes and behaviors among marketplace consumers. Something vital to consider is that many of these changes won’t be temporary; purchase behaviors in the masses could change for good. Since customers will be exposed to new ways of purchasing products, many of these consumers have the potential to find out that these new ways may be better suited for their day-to-day lives.

It will be essentials for researchers to consider all of the factors that affect purchasing processes and brand perception and awareness to infer the next steps and directions for clients to thrive during these times.

How have research methods changed?

Shorter surveys.

Time is still highly valuable in a busy culture, and the rise of alternative ways to gauge for consumer data is ever-expanding. As a result, researchers realize that they have other ways to get the answers they need that would have been asked in traditional 15-20 minute surveys.

Short surveys and quick polls, more than ever, are popping up on websites, phones, social media, and chatbots. One reason for this is the growing fatigue for respondents to answer longer surveys and a continued increase in utilization in social media or communication apps on electronic devices, particularly mobile phones. Apps for social media and communication account for at least 50% of all apps used worldwide. With that, researchers can intercept and collect more data in real-time at a higher rate.

A surge in online qualitative research

Over the last decade, online qualitative research has gone from a novelty or a ‘nice-to-have’ into an essential research methodology across the market research industry. In general, traditional qualitative research is declining because it is so time-consuming and expensive to designate physical spaces to host these qualitative research activities. With COVID-19, it is now especially impractical to be running these research methodologies in-person or in-lab. Instead, there are an array of different online methods that can be used and are plenty resourceful to fulfilling your research objectives:

Online focus groups

With added features such as being able to share video responses and recording participants’ interactions on the platform, market researchers can now reach out to their audiences in a shorter period and probe the ‘why’ about a brand or a product now faster than ever. Plus, live explanations of thoughts and feelings are more natural, leading to even more feeling, sharing, and connecting with your audience.

Online communities

Through an array of different qualitative activities (and quantitative), consumers can now share open dialogue and submit video diaries more easily through online communities . This gives researchers more flexibility to adjust and ask follow-up questions to fulfill their business objectives. Not only does this increase opportunities for data collection but more opportunities to interact with customers.

Pre & post-IDI online studies

When it comes to purchasing decisions, people may rely more on each other than traditional marketing and advertising could. There’s a need to find new ways to track whether the promotion of a brand is happening. By setting up in-depth interviews with your audience, researchers can increase respondent engagement, develop deeper relationships with these respondents, stimulate interest in a study topic, and finally help bring the story home that transcends into a business plan.

Market research trends – the facilitation methods

The continued shift to mobile compatibility.

The 2010s shaped an immense development in market research as a result of mobile devices and the social media platforms that are used so frequently on mobile devices. With self-quarantine and the constant need for a distraction affecting our day-to-day lives, mobile devices now make up for about half of all online surveys taken.

Adapting with social media has proved essential as well, as studies from this year have found a strong correlation between social followers and product sales or ROI. After consumers follow a brand on social media, they are 75% more likely to spend money on that brand’s products and services – a 63% (nearly two-thirds) increase from 2019.

Incorporation of Artificial Intelligence in data collection

If two key themes revolve around purchase trends in 2020 – it’s convenience and personal control. With this acknowledged, many researchers are pushing for new data collection methods to be more seamless and automated processes. As mentioned, shorter surveys are a direct result of this. But more than that, the demand for data delivery to go straight from laptops to high-level decision-makers is rising.

LEARN ABOUT: market research trends

Areas for data collection to become more seamless include analysis at open-ended text responses. These capabilities will enhance time-efficiency for researchers and create more value for clients and break down the ‘why’ when purchasing behaviors. Another example of this is in Sentiment Analysis – where marketers and researchers will be able to decipher positive or negative responses better.

Personalized experiences

In addition to artificial intelligence, market researchers will continue to be challenged with sharpening points in ways so that resulting insights can carry over into clear and confident decision-making. Fortunately, big data and personalized information are available more than ever. Research has shown that customers value and appreciate it more when brand experiences are more curated or customized, which means that trend will only increase.

For example, brands that use social media analytics and listening tools to gain insights from online conversations and consumer behavior wind up having more success at providing specialized experiences for their target consumers’ needs.

LEARN ABOUT: Market research vs marketing research

As companies build on their platforms with new forms of data analytics and software, not only will they improve their overall processes of probing for deeper understanding and clarification in their insights. This will further support the storytelling of your research initiative and enhance the connection between the brand and its audience.

MORE LIKE THIS

Top 13 A/B Testing Software for Optimizing Your Website

Apr 12, 2024

21 Best Contact Center Experience Software in 2024

Government Customer Experience: Impact on Government Service

Apr 11, 2024

Employee Engagement App: Top 11 For Workforce Improvement

Apr 10, 2024

Success Stories

They Ask, You Answer Mastery

A coaching & training program that drives unmatched sales & marketing results.

Sales Performance Mastery

Improve the competencies and close rates of your sales organization.

Website Mastery

Web design, development & training for your team.

HubSpot Mastery

Everything you need to get the most from HubSpot.

AI Enablement Mastery

Unlock the power of AI in all aspects of your revenue operations.

More Services

Paid Search & Social
Request a Speaker
Join the Community

Learning Center

Free resources to help you improve the way you market, sell and grow your business.

Podcast Episodes
Tools & Assessments

Quick Links

What is They Ask, You Answer
Free Sales & Marketing Assessment
Certifications
The Endless Customers Podcast
Meet the Team
Certified Coaches

Free Assessment: How does your sales & marketing measure up?

Free Assessment:

By Ramona Sukhraj

Dec 31, 2020

Join 40,000+ sales and marketing pros who receive our weekly newsletter.

Get the most relevant, actionable digital sales and marketing insights you need to make smarter decisions faster... all in under five minutes.

Content in 20/20: Our top 20 articles and trends from a year in pandemic

In such a rollercoaster of a year, it's nice to find a moment of normalcy.

For the last five Decembers or so, I have done exactly what I did right now — sat down at my laptop armed with a HubSpot report to recap the top articles and trends from the months prior.

Also, like every December, I thought I knew exactly what would be on the list, but then I remembered it's 2020, and like so many other things this year, I didn't see these coming.

Even our content "caught" COVID-19

Every year, the majority of our traffic comes from the same long-haul MVPs. These are articles written more than a year ago, that have high domain authority, search rank, and volume, and always out-perform newer pieces.

In that respect, 2020 was no different. They were such givens, I didn't bother to include them below unless they were updated, but those staples aside, our list of top performers was very much a portrait of the current times.

As COVID-19 took hold of the world, it also took hold of our content.

The way people lived everywhere was entirely turned upside down and, of course, the way we did business and marketed had to follow suit. How to navigate these pivots became the #1 concern for our audience as you'll see in the list below, which, in turn, meant articles on:

Remote working
Creating video content and using video software
Social media marketing
Virtual events
Government aid for businesses

These were the topics businesses needed to master if they were not only going to survive, but thrive in a volatile business landscape.

While historic optimization continued to be a huge part of IMPACT's content strategy (12 historically optimized pieces made our list today) and we also leaned more heavily into covering The Big 5 for our own services, the remaining majority belonged to these areas.

Let's take a look.

20. HubSpot CRM review 2020: A super honest look at the pros, cons, and sales tools by Carina Duffy

When HubSpot released their free CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Sales Tools in 2014, they added a whole new dimension to the company's offerings and value.... Read More

19. The best website font size, and how it affects UX and conversions by Christine Austin

The secret behind how font sizes affect your website's user experience and conversions and which ones you should be using... Read More

18. 5 best virtual event software options for businesses and brands by Stephanie Baiocchi

virtual-event-software.jpg?length=980&name=virtual-event-software

When we wrote our first version of this article back at the end of March, we had no idea that nearly everyone would pivot their in-person events to virtual ones due to COVID-19.... Read More

17. 15 effective re-engagement email examples you’ll want to steal in 2021 by Ramona Sukhraj

re-engagement-emails.jpg?length=980&name=re-engagement-emails

In the last decade, MarketingSherpa research has found that B2B marketing lists tend to decay at a rate of 2.1% per month. This is an annualized rate of 22.5%. Holy depreciation, Batman... . Read More

16. 4 ways to improve your website load time and performance in 2020 by Christine Austin

AHOSNADWVQ-compressor.jpg?length=980&name=AHOSNADWVQ-compressor

The world moves fast. When the new iPhone comes out, many rush to be the first to see, play, and review it. When there’s breaking news, people are glued to their TV screens waiting for updates while reporters scramble to be the first to deliver.... Read More

15. How much does a website design or redesign cost in 2021? by Vin Gaeta

what-does-a-website-redesign-cost.jpg?length=980&name=what-does-a-website-redesign-cost

Your website is the most important sales and marketing tool you have. It's the hub of your inbound marketing strategy and it's the number one thing your prospects want to explore before making a purchase, or even talking to a human.... Read More

14. Payroll Protection Program: Why you need to talk to your bank immediately by Bob Ruffolo

video-camera-view-of-subject-117599-edited

With the federal coronavirus (COVID-19) stimulus bill's passage on Friday, March 27, 2020, many rumors and guesses have made the rounds on social media and elsewhere about what it includes, fueling speculation about free money and loan forgiveness.... Read More

13. 27 powerful LinkedIn business pages examples to inspire you by Connor DeLaney

Linked_business_pages.jpg?length=980&name=Linked_business_pages

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for businesses yet many fail to use the platform effectively. Here are 27 examples of powerful LinkedIn business pages. .. . Read More

12. New report: Best times to post on social media during coronavirus (COVID-19) by Liz Moorehead

product research hubspot social media.jpg?length=980&name=product research hubspot social media

A strange thing happened as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. And, quite frankly, I am floored that I didn't see it coming, as my own behavior should have been a leading indicator.... Read More

11. How to grow a social media following in 2020: 9 essential steps by Connor DeLaney

As someone who has grown up with social media for practically my entire life, I have found myself time and time again taking it for granted. I think back to making my Facebook account and how excited I was to become digital friends with my real-life friends.. .. Read More

10. 10 blog layout best practices to remember in 2020 by Christine Austin

9_Blog_Layout_Best_Practices_From_2017.jpg?length=980&name=9_Blog_Layout_Best_Practices_From_2017

Your business’ blog is a staple for driving new users to your website who seek knowledge and answers to the questions they have. It’s full of expert content marketing that’s valuable to your audience, which ultimately helps drive visitors to grow your business.. . . Read More

9. Not all is lost: Some businesses are thriving during coronavirus (COVID-19) by Kate Fodera

not-all-is-lost (1).jpg?length=980&name=not-all-is-lost (1)

We are living in unprecedented times. COVID-19 came in like a tidal wave and has forever changed my perspective on contagious diseases and the economy. . .. Read More

8. 8 best webinar software to go live on Facebook (free and paid) by Christine Austin

Best-Webinar-Software-to-Go-Live-on-Facebook---Featured-Image.jpg?length=980&name=Best-Webinar-Software-to-Go-Live-on-Facebook---Featured-Image

I love working out in a class setting. For me, venturing to a yoga studio every Sunday morning to join others in a 60-minute practice was just part of my routine. But since COVID-19 began to limit our in-person interactions, video became the go-to way to still connect. ... Read More

7. 4 unique remote team-building activities we’re using during coronavirus quarantine by Natalie Davis

Remote-team-building-activities.jpg?length=980&name=Remote-team-building-activities

During “normal” times (pre- coronavirus pandemic ), approximately 60% of our team members regularly work remotely. Because of this, we’ve always had a focus on strengthening our remote company culture and building relationships with people across the company. ... Read More

6. 11 best B2B website service page examples to inspire you by Christine Austin

b2b-service-pages.jpg?length=980&name=b2b-service-pages

Your services page is one of the most critical pages on your website whose purpose is to not only reveal what you offer but how your company stands out from the rest. It starts with the messaging. ... Read More

5. 59 best sales team names that are clever, funny, and only for closers by Liz Moorehead

shutterstock_1414443335 (1).jpg?length=980&name=shutterstock_1414443335 (1)

For those of you who need a sales team that says, "I mean business! No, literally, I mean business — please sign this contract," you've come to the right place. ... Read More

4. Paycheck Protection Program application and required documents (CARES Act) by Bob Ruffolo

paycheck-protection-program-application.png?length=980&name=paycheck-protection-program-application

It has now been nearly a week since the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act – or "CARES Act" — was signed, setting into motion the largest stimulus package in U.S. history. .. Read More

3. Research: The best times to post on social media in 2020 (by platform) by Iris Hearn

shutterstock_521165347.jpg?length=980&name=shutterstock_521165347

Ever since social media became a must-have asset in your marketing strategy, brands have been trying to identify the secret “sweet spot” for the best time to post content to social media platforms.... Read More

2. Instagram marketing in 2020: The do's and don'ts of posting and driving engagement by Natalie Davis

dos-donts-instagram-marketing.jpg?length=980&name=dos-donts-instagram-marketing

If you think Instagram is just for sunsets, selfies, and staged shots of food, you are sorely mistaken. With Facebook at its helm, the number of active users growing every month, and 85% of top brands adopting the social platform as an avenue for reaching their audience, there is no better time than now for your company to get on board with Instagram as a marketing platform for your business. ... Read More

And the #1 most viewed IMPACT article of 2020…

1. How to do a competitive analysis in 5 easy steps by John Becker

competitive analysis.jpg?length=980&name=competitive analysis

Whatever it is you do, it is almost certain that there are other companies out there offering a similar product or service to yours. In any crowded marketplace, you need as much information and insight as possible to gain an edge over your competitors. ... Read More

2020 Hindsight

Like many of you I'm sure, I can't say I am sad to see 2020 go, but I will say it taught us all one extremely valuable lesson: Content cannot exist in a vacuum.

You need to pay attention to the world around you, take note of how it affects your audience, and create content that addresses their concerns regarding it. Acknowledging current events and circumstances shows that you are human. You understand what is going on in the world and what consumers are dealing with.

Had we not pivoted our content to cover the COVID-19 pandemic and the consumer, business, sales, and marketing implications of it, not only would this list have been dramatically different, but so would our trust and relationship with our audience.

Let that relationship be your top priority and north star going into 2021.

Pandemic leadership lessons from 2020, and how we move forward.

3 essential lessons I learned in my first 90 days as a B2B content manager

How to have difficult conversations using video during coronavirus (+ examples)

The 4 most important best practices for handling client cancellations

How one of the hardest times of my life was made worse by poor UX/CX

The real reason I failed at my last job

Best of the best: our top 19 marketing articles and trends from 2019, #impactturns10: our most tenured employees reflect on 10 years, dynamic businesses need dynamic websites: why impact's is always evolving.

My Employee Onboarding Was a 600-Person Ice Breaker

Behind the Scenes: How IMPACT Produced Its "One-Take" Welcome Video

Inside the #IMLive19 Opening Video: How We Pulled Off a 2-Month Process in 2 Weeks

How Do You Overcome Imposter Syndrome as a Millennial Developing in Your Own Career?

3 Surprising Lessons from Sending 54 Issues of THE LATEST, Our 3X-Weekly Email Newsletter

How we found inspiration for impact’s welcome video [video], lessons from the ceo: content marketing success stories from across the country, i was the editor for marcus sheridan's they ask, you answer (2nd edition) & here's what i learned, the value of hiring an industry outsider as a content manager, what i learned from my dad about sales, marketing, and life.

Why We Created the Digital Sales And Marketing Scorecard

30 things i learned before turning 30 (about life and marketing), 5 lessons i’ve learned after filming 5 video case studies for impact in 4 weeks, i asked, they didn't answer: lessons from a terrible online research experience.

6 Email Marketing Newsletter Lessons Learned from Sending 129 Issues of THE LATEST

Join the 40,000+ sales and marketing pros who receive our weekly insights, tips, and best practices., thanks, stay tuned for our upcoming edition..

2020 Top picks: Our most popular articles

The new face of consumers.

Consumer sentiment and behavior continue to reflect the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis

These eight charts show how COVID-19 has changed B2B sales forever

How to win the recovery.

Rapid Revenue Recovery: A road map for post-COVID-19 growth

The domino effect: How sales leaders are reinventing go-to-market in the next normal

Adapting customer experience in the time of coronavirus

Think fast: How to accelerate e-commerce growth

Pricing through the pandemic: Getting ready for recovery

Reimagining the future.

Leading with purpose: How marketing and sales leaders can shape the next normal

Modern marketing: What it is, what it isn’t, and how to do it

Reimagining marketing in the next normal

Retail Reimagined

Marketing & sales leaders.

Bruno Furtado

Brian Gregg

Damian Hattingh

Jesko Perrey

Brian Ruwadi

Dennis Spillecke

SUGGESTED TOPICS
The Magazine
Newsletters
Managing Yourself
Managing Teams
Work-life Balance
The Big Idea
Data & Visuals
Reading Lists
Case Selections
HBR Learning
Topic Feeds
Account Settings
Email Preferences

How the Pandemic Changed Marketing Channels

Christine Moorman,
Michelle Seals

A new survey of more than 300 marketing leaders identified five key trends.

The pandemic undoubtedly changed how marketers approach channel strategy, and there is no single route to success. With more channels than ever, marketers need to map which channels add clear value and forget the rest. It can be tempting to enter a channel because your competitors are there. But with limited customer time and attention, marketers must strategically determine in which channels they can have the greatest impact. The authors look at five post-pandemic channel strategies gleaned from The CMO Survey and offer analysis on how marketers can operationalize these trends.

The Covid-19 pandemic pushed companies to quickly adapt and respond to new customer requirements. One of the ways this dynamic was most apparent was in the marketing channels companies adopted to engage with and sell to customers.

Christine Moorman is the T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. She is founder and director of The CMO Survey .
Jana Soli is an MBA candidate at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (Class of 2023). She is a Research Fellow for The CMO Survey .
Michelle Seals is an MBA candidate at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (Class of 2024). She is a Research Fellow for The CMO Survey .

Partner Center

18+ Risks and Disadvantages of Technology

How to Build Your Business Identity on a Tight Budget

Best Green Tea Brands in the world in 2020: What makes them the best?
Global Milk brands in 2020 – What makes them successful?
What is a Triple Net Lease? Its Advantages and Disadvantages
Adaptation Level Phenomenon – understanding its importance
Risk Matrix – Factors of a risk matrix and how to implement it
Prioritization Matrix – Different types and how to use a prioritization matrix

71+ Research Paper Topics & Ideas for Marketing Students

As a marketing student, you probably have access to a plethora of resources such as your college library and of course, the internet, to come up with great research paper topics.

However, the thought of writing your research paper can be daunting, especially if you’re still brainstorming and don’t know what to write about.

Just like any other piece of writing, start by keeping your audience in mind. Then, make a list of research paper topics that are more relevant to your interests, or a new under-developed field (for example; augmented reality, or people sentiments towards Artificial Intelligence), or a unique research topic that intrigues your audience.

But if you’re still struggling to pin down one out of the many research paper topics for your program, we’ll suggest a number of them for you to either choose from; or for you to take inspiration from and come up with your own.

Table of Contents

How to Choose the Best Research Paper Topics

Before we dive into the details, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with the basics. For starters, pick up a pen and paper and brainstorm different topics that you’d like to write about.

While personal interest is definitely important, we also suggest you opt for a topic that will intrigue your readers. Here are a couple of factors you ought to keep in mind while selecting a topic:

Keeping your personal interest in mind

You probably won’t be able to write a stellar research paper if you’re not interested in the topic. Sit down with your peers and advisors to discuss possible ideas. It will be easier for you to discuss different themes once you’ve written down all your ideas in one place. If you’ve decided on a specific keyword for instance “consumer behaviour”, you can look for similar research papers on the internet.

A research paper isn’t a descriptive essay which you can drag aimlessly. Your research paper needs to be based on factual data and that’s only possible if you’ve conducted thorough research. While jotting down points for your first draft, ensure your statements are supported with references or examples citing credible academicals and research work.

Don’t leave it till the last day

A lot of students tend to undermine the writing process and leave for the last few days. Bear in mind that you can’t possibly write your entire research paper overnight. In order to succeed, you’ll have to devote sufficient amount of time to research.

Also, be prepared to schedule meetings with your advisor on a regular basis as you’re bound to require help along the way. At this point, make sure you only rely on credible sources that will support your dissertation.

Examples & List of Research Paper Topics

If you’re still unable to decide a topic of your interest, here is a list of 70 unique marketing research topics that you can use as marketing project topics for your MBA, or any other marketing course:

How do organizations use CSR ( corporate social responsibility ) to reinforce brand equity?
What manipulation tactics do brands use to get more customers?
How can brand image be communicated via social media marketing?
How can social media impact the buying choices of shoppers?
Are consumers equipped to shield themselves from direct marketing strategies?
Determine and analyze consumer buying behavior for [product name]
How does advertising impact consumer behaviour?
How does family orientation impact marketing communications?
What characteristics do buyers look for when purchasing a product online?
How does global marketing incorporate standardization?
What attributes do consumers look for when comparing products online?
How do financial institutions differentiate their goods and services on the basis of social class?
Is direct marketing really the most effective form of marketing?
What internet marketing trends can be expected for the future?
How to marketing strategies differ across different cultures?
Can brand advertising impact political campaigns?
How do brands exploit impulsive buying?
How does loyalty cards encourage sales and boost customer loyalty?
Can well-marketed brands get away with selling substandard quality products?
How is globalization having on impact on consumer behaviour?
Impact of brand image on customer loyalty
Brand attributes that lead to an increase in customer loyalty
Successful marketing approaches that helped break through strong market monopoly
Impact of cause marketing on brand affinity with young mothers
Effect of consumer promotions and discount offerings on brand equity
The outcomes of advertising in a recession
Influence on Social Media advertising on consumer behaviour
Effect of TV advertising on top of mind awareness
Understanding customer perceptions around event sponsorships
Does corporate social responsibility translate into sales?
Canadians perspective on being targeted with mobile ads based on their browser history
Is direct marketing welcomed by people?
Are customers able to differentiate between various mortgage offering by competing banks?
Does social media influence buying behaviour
Do people like being click baited into sponsored posts?
Understanding the impact of celebrity endorsements on ROI for CPG brands
Women’s sentiments around comparison advertising
How effective is comparison advertising to build brand equity?
Do consumers prefer purchasing routine grocery products online?
Is earned media perceived to be as important as it appears to be?
What makes people want to share content to their friends?
Understanding why content goes viral
Marketing challenges around the evolving family structures
Are we losing the emotional value and significance of money being in a cashless society?
Is centralized global marketing a good idea for brand health in local markets?
How is augmented reality going to enhance marketing experiences?
How will artificial intelligence support in making better marketing decisions?
Is immersion marketing through virtual reality technology going to be accepted?
What does the luxury auto buyer look for in a car?
How to instill a desire to purchase for customers in the luxury category
Harmful effects of advertising to kids
Impact of in-store branding on brand salience
Effect marketing strategies for restaurant businesses
Habit formation and ways to integrate new products in consumer lifestyles
Is display advertising going to die?
Can Snapchat help small business grow?
How do customers perceive the brand who advertise on Instagram?
The impact of humour in advertising
Do customers pay attention to nutrition labels?
What triggers impulse buying behaviour
Essentials to sky rocket a new brand to heights of awareness
The factors that lead to customer satisfaction in young adults
Elements that help build an emotional connection with your audience
How do males and females differ in their buying behaviour of mobile phones
Does language targeting help in ethnic advertising?
Customer Perceptions: Are well known brands good in quality?
Is radio still an effective method of advertising?
Rural vs Urban marketing challenges to be mindful of
Impact of internal branding on employee retention and turnover
An in-depth analysis of political marketing in Canada

135+ Rumi Quotes on Love, Beauty & Happiness

Explanation of Group Polarization with Real Life Examples

Dell Marketing Strategy – Details of the multi-million-dollar monopoly

Difference between Marketing and Advertising: What’s confusing?

Write a comment cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

ADVERTISING
SOCIAL MEDIA
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
WEB DEVELOPMENT
MAKE MONEY WITHOUT PAYING ANYTHING
HOW TO MAKE QUICK MONEY
WAYS TO MAKE MONEY BLOGGING
BIGGEST SLOGANS GUIDE
DIFFERENT TYPES OF MARKETING
MARKETING MIX EXPLANATION
TYPES OF DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES
AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR BEGINNERS
LEARN TO MAKE A BLOG
FREE PRINTABLE CALENDARS 2019
DMCA Notice
Privacy Policy

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Deutschland
Asia, Australia & New Zealand
Europe, Middle East & Africa
United States & Canada
Latinoamérica

What’s the next big thing in marketing?

Share this page.

With a new decade fast approaching, you’re probably looking ahead. You’re not alone. We asked a handful of industry leaders, including Tiffany Warren, senior VP and chief diversity officer of Omnicom; Brian Benstock, general manager and VP of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura; Christina Malcolm, senior director at iProspect; and Eric Rose, associate brand director of Olay Skin Care, E-Commerce at Procter & Gamble, what they predict for the future of marketing as we move into 2020. Among the topics that are top mind — mastering customization and cracking customer lifetime value.

Tiffany Warren: The next big thing in marketing is actually happening right now.

And what I think it is, is customization in retail.

I used to buy a whole bunch of mask and hair products, because that’s the thing that

I could buy.

And now, because of the revolution in makeup and the customization in makeup, I think I

have a lot more options.

So, I think, really speaking to the needs of the consumer, particularly consumers of

color, is the “now” thing and the next big thing.

Brian Benstock: We think that voice is the next big thing in marketing.

Instead of typing into a phone or into a computer, I think that if customers can do it easier

with voice that they will.

If I can get my dealership to come up, that is really incredibly strong and powerful.

Christina Malcolm: I think we’re going to see, over the next few years, the next big

thing is going to actually shift our way of working in marketing due to privacy, due to

putting that user first.

And I think we should embrace it.

We’ll see different products come out.

We’ll see a different mentality of actually marketing to users and targeting because of

that shift in privacy.

Eric Rose: Everybody talks about, “There’s no brand loyalty anymore.”

Yet, in performance marketing, everybody is trying to track lifetime value.

So, I’m really interested to see, 1.

How do we pair those two things?

How do we crack it?

And, as consumers, move through different life stages and life cycles.

How can we find ways through measurement, through attribution, through things we’re

not even aware of yet, to not only maximize the value to ourselves, but to the consumer,

and continue to evolve with them as they evolve.

Others are viewing

Marketers who view this are also viewing

The future of YouTube marketing is multicultural; here’s how brands should adapt

Think with google’s 10 most-read articles of 2019, why data-inspired creativity is the future of effective marketing, what will marketing look like in 2030, volvo s60 augmented reality app, consumers in the age of assistance, identifying the micro-moments within the customer journey, why your brand needs a voice strategy now — and how you can get it, others are viewing looking for something else, complete login.

To explore this content and receive communications from Google, please sign in with an existing Google account.

How It Works
PhD thesis writing
Master thesis writing
Bachelor thesis writing
Dissertation writing service
Dissertation abstract writing
Thesis proposal writing
Thesis editing service
Thesis proofreading service
Thesis formatting service
Coursework writing service
Research paper writing service
Architecture thesis writing
Computer science thesis writing
Engineering thesis writing
History thesis writing
MBA thesis writing
Nursing dissertation writing
Psychology dissertation writing
Sociology thesis writing
Statistics dissertation writing
Buy dissertation online
Write my dissertation
Cheap thesis
Cheap dissertation
Custom dissertation
Dissertation help
Pay for thesis
Pay for dissertation
Senior thesis
Write my thesis

233 Marketing Research Topics To Come Up With An Impressive Paper

Marketing is everywhere nowadays – from TV adverts to the pop-up ads that appear on our web browsers. No matter how much you may try to ignore it, marketing knocks still knocks at your door.

Despite all these, however, many students still struggle to develop top-notch marketing research paper topics. You might say, how is that even possible? Well, my friend, let me bring it to your attention that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of post-graduate students struggling to find such writing ideas.

But this where we draw the battle lines.

Marketing Topics For Research Paper: What You Need To Know

To be certain of a top grade in any field of study, you have to go the extra mile. Marketing is one of those flooded fields with stiff competition. Therefore, you have to come up with something fresh and original to convince your reader.

Create interest in the reader’s mind of a particular offering
Be precise and to the point
Not repeat what is already out there
Not offer the reader what is not there

Unlike any other topic, these are unique because they intend to sell a product or service to potential buyers. Thus, it would help if you handled it with a lot of care.

What To Avoid When Writing Marketing Paper Topics

Below are crucial points to consider for your marketing research topic:

Do not be too wordy
Avoid using words that are uncommon among the famous market
Beware of being sensational

When writing your research paper’s marketing topics, the end goal should be to sell the product and build a reputable brand for yourself.

Explore these writing ideas for your inspiration:

Marketing Research Topics For College Students

Marketing strategies for integrating new products into segmented markets
The impact of coronavirus on marketing communication strategies
How can companies best advertise their products overseas?
Pitfalls to avoid when crafting marketing messages for children and other minors in the society
Factors that determine client satisfaction in new markets
Discuss the effectiveness of using discounts and loyalty cards in the marketing of products
The impact of using black Friday offers in the wake of the Black lives matter movement
Is it practical to contact clients via email subscriptions and newsletters?
The role of conducting marketing research before attempting to bring a new product on board
Define market segmentation and the essential pointers that segment various markets
Compare and contrast marketing strategies in developing countries versus developed countries
How do multinational companies carry out marketing as compared to local enterprises?
The role of technology in marketing: A case study of simulations and virtual reality
Evaluate the effectiveness of consumer education and awareness in marketing
How does the marketing of food items vary from other products in the market?
Discuss the effectiveness of various marketing channels and strategies
Emerging opportunities and challenges in the field of marketing
Modern tactics and paradigms used in business and consumer marketing
Why it is essential to understand the culture of a market before venturing into it
The role of academic papers of marketing in the business world

Professional List of Marketing Research Topics

How CSRs help companies to make inroads into communities
The impact of brand manipulation on the company’s reputation
The role of social media in marketing: A case study of Twitter marketing
How the fashion industry markets its product to potential clients
The impact of gender and stereotypes in creating marketing and promotional messages
How global marketing varies from local and national marketing strategies
The role of political campaigns in impacting marketing and sale of products
Techniques used by the gaming industry to attract teenagers and youths
Analyzing successful business enterprises: A case study of Apple industry
Adverse impacts of advertising alcoholic related products to children
What makes a brand stay in the market for years without losing its meaning?
Has technology replaced traditional marketing tools and strategies?
The role of smartphone advertising in reaching the digital natives and tech-savvies
The impact of radio and TV marketing on getting middle and working-class
Compare and contrast new market entry strategies versus traditional ones
How companies take advantage of impulsive or exorbitant buyers
Evaluate the effectiveness of in-store branding
Discuss the advertising strategies used by hotels and restaurants in attracting potential clients
The impact of social class on preparing marketing and promotional messages
How centralized marketing affects global brands and products

Sport Marketing Research Topics

The role of sports hubs in the management of sports organizations
Facilities and services that help save costs on sports
Sourcing of funding for sporting activities in developing countries
The part of the World Cup and Olympic games on marketing strategies and promotional messages
Marketing strategies that work best for football fans
The effect of sports celebrities on marketing and promotions
How effective is branding on sportswear as a marketing strategy?
Evaluate the effectiveness of Adidas advertising in the Olympic Games 2008 in China
The role of marketing and modern challenges in advertising decisions in the sports industry nowadays
Consumer buying behavior with brand loyalty and types of sports buying behavior.
Factors that cause people to buy certain sports products: A case of Nike
Explore the historical overview of the exciting development of Nike in providing athletes with equipment for their sports.
Analyze the interior structure of a sports company and how this affects its marketing strategies
Specific characteristics of companies that have excelled through sports branding and marketing
The impact of the orientation of sports heritage, performance, and style in marketing
Critically analyze the impact of using Chelsea as a brand name in product advertising
The production and replacement of goods and services: A case of sportswear
How sports brands operate effectively and competitively in international markets
Creating the relevant skills for sports advertising and branding
The impact of practical knowledge about innovative techniques of production in sports marketing

Best-Rated Research Papers Topics in Marketing

Evaluate the effectiveness of online shops as compared to the physical ones
How multinational companies compete in the markets by creating an international marketing orientation
Discuss how certain companies gain a competitive advantage in comparison to other companies
Analyze the importance of concentrating on the needs of consumers when composing marketing messages
The essence of feedback from clients in a marketing strategy
How have giant companies remained and strengthened their leading position in the European sports industry?
Discuss the underlying aspects of modern advertising
The effectiveness of poster advertising on bus stations before the launch of a product
Slogans’ role in marketing: A case study of Adidas’ saying: ‘Impossible is nothing.’
Evaluate the effectiveness of commercials with sports personalities: A case of David Beckham
How companies adapt cultural incidents and attention to individualistic attractions in marketing messages
Ways of determining the budget for a marketing campaign
Assess the workability of creating an innovative and creative marketing message
Discuss how companies strike a balance between making profits and effective marketing strategies
Should modern marketing messages be informative or persuasive?
The impact of comparative marketing messages on the behavior of a product in the market
Why an evaluation of the company’s strength and weaknesses is essential in developing its marketing plan
The role of integrated marketing information of an organization on its marketing plans
How to discover management trends in market segments
Why companies need to build units for marketing information that are concerned with trends and developments within the marketplace

Research Topics in Real Estate Marketing

Why finance is a critical consideration in real estate marketing
Reasons for the fluctuating financial system in real estate
The impact of coronavirus and recession on the real estate industry
Is the curriculum on real estate marketing effective in producing talented minds?
The effects of property finance marketing on the modern society
The role of business investors in helping people own homes
Owning a Home and the Effect of Credit Unions
Challenges and benefits of mortgages and loans on the real estate industry
Explain how real estate companies can cope with business financial loans
Give a detailed analysis of potential customers in real estate marketing messages
Discuss the various property financing versions in the USA
Evaluate the importance of studying Geography and finance in real estate marketing
Discuss the slow rate of growth of real estate industries in developing countries
Why have real estate marketing messages been greeted with a cold shoulder?
Discuss the unexploited possibilities and opportunities in rural areas
How to maintain equity and still control debt funding in real estate industries
The role of investors together with institutional traders in managing the real-estate companies
Technologies advances in real estate that are transforming the industry
How the fiscal sector is affecting property market developments
Assess how real estate companies are coping with the changing market demands

Sample Marketing Research Project Ideas

Distinguish between brand loyalty as a behavior and as an attitude in marketing
The importance of rankings concerning the popularity of brands
Discuss marketing strategies that create a higher self-confidence in buying decisions
Analyze the higher level of risk in purchasing decisions
Why some customers are more store loyal than others
The role of global brands in creating a marketing ecosystem
Discuss the history of world commerce and how marketing strategies have evolved over time
How has the internationalization of finance and business affected marketing?
The importance of geographical extension among marketers
Why do customers pay keen attention to the price of products
The role of mass production in determining the marketing strategies
How to balance between demand and supply when creating marketing messages
How to create a suitable image for a brand, product, or service
The impact of global brands communicating in worldwide sports events
A primary investigation of what motivates people to buy certain products over others
How virtual communities help marketers communicate their messages
An exploration of using cinematic media to promote food products
The impact of personal styles and preferences on marketing messages
What effect do personal statements from celebrities have on marketing strategies?
An analysis of sponsorship based on marketing

High-Quality Marketing Thesis Topics

The implications of social media marketing on cost and speed of delivery
An investigation of the relationship between marketing messages and customer emotions
Examine the relationship sources of income and buying behaviors
Research into the causes of the decline of newspaper advertising
Are marketing messages overrated?
The impact of brand ambassadors on user-generated branding programs
Explore the effects of integrating relationship marketing strategies
Effects of increased commercialization
How often should a promotional notice be posted in a day?
Do global warming and its consequences have anything to do with marketing?
How to create an emotional appeal in marketing messages
Analysis of strategic success factors in the internalization of marketing messages
The impact of repetitive advertising upon consumers
International business management strategies that work well for start-ups
The effect of marketing messages on the physically disabled
Evaluate how marketing messages have been used to spread sexual messages
Discuss the legal and ethical implications of marketing
How to craft compelling marketing messages that do not discriminate against race
What causes the relevant authorities to ban particular marketing messages?
The impact of creating controversial sports messages

Motivating Marketing Research Questions

Opportunities and threats to marketing products and services overseas
How long have you been a customer, and what has kept you going back?
How can companies attract their target audience more often?
Factors that necessitate one company to stand out from another
How to improve your product and service delivery
Practical ways of better serving your clients
Discuss how big is your potential market
Will this market segment grow or shrink in the future?
What other products and services out there are similar to the ones we are offering?
Who are our top competitors, and what are they doing differently from us?
What portion of the market share do our competitors own?
What part is available for you to own or take?
What is the educational level of the people you are writing the promotional message to?
What is the household income of your potential market?
What is the impact of the household size on the kind of marketing strategy to compose?
What are the hobbies and interests of your potential clientele?
What are the most significant challenges you are likely to encounter when marketing?
What is your preference when it comes to making purchases?
What determines the shop or boutique where you buy your products?
How will the product fit the needs of the potential clients?

Must-Have Marketing Research Topics For College Students

Latest marketing strategies in the light of the changing mobile customer experience
How country relations impact the marketing communication messages used at the cross-border level
The new way to boost sales through conversational strategies
The impact of marketing conferences and conventions on the practice
Why most companies slash marketing budgets at the expense of profits
The role of marketing automation in reaching out to more clients
The importance of social networking in developing contacts for marketing
Discuss the effectiveness of content marketing for the entertainment industry
The essence of tag lines in creating memorable marketing messages
Why should a company have customer evangelists?
How to incorporate value prepositions in marketing messages
The impact of marketing messages on millennial and Generation X
How companies are using blogs and YouTube to market their products
Discuss the effectiveness of online marketing among the youth
Should nonprofit organizations prepare marketing messages?
The importance of web analytics in determining the performance of a marketing message
Do companies follow procedure when it comes to permission email marketing?
Explore the various challenges of email campaigns
Discuss the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing strategy
Why the voice of the consumer is necessary for a marketing campaign

Hot Topics in Marketing

Analyze the developments made in B2B marketing
Discuss the qualities of a top-notch advertisement copy
What is the importance of benchmarking in business marketing?
The role of brand management in keeping it afloat
Discuss the effectiveness of corporate blogging
Evaluate marketing strategies that consider customer engagement
How to retain customer through marketing campaigns
How to market products amid economic crisis
The impact of 5G on high-tech marketing
How does hiring outside resources affect marketing?
The essence of keywords in online marketing
The rise of personal branding on Instagram and YouTube
How to collaborate marketing operations in different localities
Analyzing the consumer buying behavior of apple laptops
The impact of family orientation on the consumer behavior
Features that clients look for when purchasing online products
Why companies should understand customer perceptions of their products
Discuss the relationship between corporate social responsibility and sales
Evaluate the acceptance of direct marketing from people
The impact of click baits on marketing strategies: Are they ethical?

Marketing Class Project Ideas

The impact of sentiments from brand ambassadors on the performance of products
Consider the behavior of consumer purchases online and offline
What makes a person refer his/her to a particular product?
Why products go viral
The emotional value of marketing messages
Significance of a cashless society
Augmented reality and marketing
Understanding car buyers
How humor affects advertising
Triggers to impulsive buying behavior
Customer satisfaction among young adults
Male and female marketing techniques
Impact of customer perceptions
Political marketing in the USA
Brand management
Market targeting
Market forecasting
Purchasing management
Product positioning
Nonprofit marketing

Digital Marketing Research Topics

Social media marketing
Telemarketing
Smartphones and relationship marketing
Pitfalls of e-marketing
Marketing timing across social media platforms
Digital market segments
Customer privacy
Confidentiality
Black Fridays
Snapchat marketing
Virtual reality technology

We hope that the over 200 marketing topics were able to meet your needs. If not, we offer affordable thesis help online for college students.

Try it today and get to enjoy cheap but quality thesis help!

Research trends of sustainability and marketing research, 2010–2020: Topic modeling analysis

Yeo jin jung.

a Center for Entrepreneurship Studies, Dong-A University, 225 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan, Republic of Korea

Youngmin Kim

b Da Vinci College of General Education, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Associated Data

Data included in article/supp. material/referenced in article.

In recent decades, rapid growth has been observed in the incorporation of sustainability into marketing. Accordingly, the contrasting relationships between them have been carefully studied to assess the relevance of one idea to the other and vice versa. In response to this change, scholars and practitioners have been tasked with exploring the trends in sustainability and marketing. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate existing literatures on both sustainability and all levels of marketing, determine the research trends and provide implications of applying the trends for future research and practices. This research has investigated only the title, abstract, and keywords of 2147 articles that were published between 2010 and 2020 in SSCI or SCIE indexed journals by applying the topic modeling based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model. The results show that the research trend has shifted from general sustainable concept to more environmental and industrial technology based on the empirical evidence of 14 latent topics of sustainability and marketing. This article aids in understanding the recent research trend in sustainability and marketing, and the findings will be a valuable resource for future scholars and practitioners. It contributes to both existing and future literatures by providing valuable insights from recent research trend in sustainability and marketing and by providing recommendations for future research avenue. Among other bibliometric review articles, this is the most up-to-date comprehensive and empirical article, providing overview of the research trend.

• 14 research topics of sustainability and marketing over 2010–2020 were obtained from the Latent Dirichlet Allocation.
• Two hot topics and one cold topic were identified.
• The research trend has shifted from general sustainability concept to environmental and industrial technology.

1. Introduction

Incorporation of sustainability in marketing research has rapidly grown over the last two decades. According to the McKinsey survey, companies have been actively integrating sustainability principles into their businesses to contribute to society and the environment [ [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] ]. This sustainability dominant perspective of businesses specifically emphasizes economic growth concerning market and consumption and technological solutions for environmental and social problems [ [4] , [5] , [6] ]. Moreover, following the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability has become a topic of discussion worldwide, and several companies and organizations have proposed sustainable frameworks for both businesses and societies as a response to serious environmental, societal, and financial issues [ [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] ]. In such periods of anxious turbulence, marketing scholars and practitioners recognize that sustainability is a well-known matter in every business sector [ 1 , 12 , 13 ]. Thus, modern companies are bound to make systemic changes and, subsequently, embrace sustainable approaches that are contingent on dynamic market conditions [ 14 , 15 ]. For marketing scholars and practitioners, this area of research provides opportunities to investigate sustainability issues related to climate change, energy consumption, advertising, consumer behaviors, communication, branding, business practices, environmental concerns, marketing ethics, innovation, and micromarketing [ 6 , 11 , 13 , 14 , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] ]. There has been a consequential growth in “green,” “social,” “environment,” “sustainable,” and “ESG (environment, society, and governance)” marketing, which has focused on promoting “environmentally friendly” products, understanding industries and market segments, and the role of the environment in the industries [ 4 , 6 , 15 , 20 , 21 ].

Sustainability has been on the list of global megatrends since the concept first appeared at the United Nations (UN) conference in 1972, where numerous disciplines raised ethical issues [ 9 , 16 , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] ], where numerous from various disciplines raised ethical issues [ 6 , 26 ]. It has become an imperative research topic with varying interpretations and contrasting viewpoints and is generally associated with a positive moral standing in social understanding and academic discourse [ 6 , 22 , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] ]. Although some scholars argue that the UN's concept of sustainability goals is not feasible, scholars and practitioners have recognized the significant role of sustainability as an integrated research field and as an integral component of business strategy [ 6 , 30 ]. Marketing growth has witnessed the concurrence [ 7 , 8 , [31] , [32] , [33] ] that the future of business depends on the fundamental and consequential compliance with sustainability. The term “sustainability” is employed extensively across diverse disciplines including engineering, social science, liberal arts, science, and various business sectors [ 11 , 15 , 29 , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] ]. It provides a long–term future perception focusing on ethical values and principles, which guides harmonious and responsible actions for incorporating environmental, societal, and economic goals [ 16 , 17 , 22 ]. Each discipline defines sustainability based on its contribution to the common goal of a sustainable future. Sustainability has merged with marketing and extends to executive and social issues [ 3 , 37 ]. It pursues a compound approach and adaption to the varying need for sustainability from both business and academic standpoints in the absence of an appropriate and objective analysis of the interface between sustainability and marketing.

Sustainability has become a significant component of business strategies; however, marketing and sustainability are opposing ideas. Specifically, marketing concerns selling more products and is generally associated with competitive business strategies, profit, and the promotion of consumers' choices that provide instant satisfaction and self–gratification [ 6 , 22 , 27 , 29 ]. However, sustainability requires lower product consumption [ 28 , 31 , 33 , 39 ]. Previous studies have focused on identifying market segments that have pro-sustainability values, beliefs, and behavioral intentions, including the paradox between consumers’ preferences, attitudes, and intentions and their actual behaviors, by applying innovative psychological and sociological techniques to improve research quality [ [38] , [39] , [40] ]. Conversely, marketers consider designing products that are more sustainable, which consumers are willing to purchase [ 14 , 22 ]. Previous studies have aimed to normalize the consumption of sustainable featured products through a better understanding of market needs and marketing skills [ 27 , 41 , 42 ]. This approach is driven by customer-related sustainable product design, in which sustainable marketing focuses on the producer rather than the market [ 43 ].

According to stakeholder theory [ 44 ], companies must regard all stakeholder demands to validate their business activities, such as the disclosure of any information related to the profit and value of companies [ 25 , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] ]. Stakeholder theory contends that companies must operate an interconnected network of stakeholders while achieving sustainable profit maximization [ 44 , 47 , 48 ]. Furthermore, satisfying stakeholders would have a positive effect on companies' future activities, and stakeholder interests encompass sustainability-related activities [ [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] , [51] ]. Accordingly, the levels of marketing perspective are categorized into three—micro-, meso-, and macro-marketing—to analyze the need for appropriate sustainability strategies and activities for each level, which are also related to stakeholders' interests [ 19 , 27 , 29 , 42 ]. Sustainability and marketing are considered significant factors for further investigation [ 25 , 42 , 44 , 47 , 48 , 51 ]. For example, micro-marketing encourages consumption behaviors through the creation, communication, delivery, and exchange of goods, while meso-marketing focuses on designing sustainable strategies regarding an organization's structure and culture, such as sustainable performance [ 14 , 15 , 42 , [52] , [53] , [54] ]. By contrast, macro-marketing embraces the complexity of both micro- and meso-marketing, as both drive sustainable systems and make sustainable contributions to enterprises and industrial companies [ 42 , 55 , 56 , 58 ]. Consequently, attempts have been made to develop sustainability views and frameworks from a marketing perspective [ 7 , 15 , 42 , 55 ]. However, limited literature is available highlighting the trends in sustainability and marketing based on objective and reliable data.

Sustainability is a natural process in business-related disciplines, especially in marketing, because both company executives and scholars are responsible for a profitable and sustainable future [ 4 , 7 , 31 ]. Subsequently, there have been numerous definitions of sustainability in the marketing field. Although the scope and definition of sustainability are unclear, studies on marketing generally focus on the environmental sector among the three pillars of sustainability (environment, economy, and society) [ 17 , 33 , 34 ]. For instance, Chabowski et al. [ 57 ] argued that sustainability activities in marketing, as a behavior of green consumers, provide important results based on an understanding of the reality of active green or ethical values regarding concrete purchases. Specifically, they argued that regardless of the broad and diffuse concept of sustainability, consumers are predisposed to purchase sustainable products because their purchasing behavior is constrained by conventional marketing factors such as price, brand, and availability, which enhance sustainable consumption patterns. Hence, the antithesis relationship between marketing and sustainability has been reviewed carefully to identify the significance of one idea compared with the other [ 6 , 7 , 15 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 30 , 32 ]. Sustainable marketing is a strategy that applies general marketing functions, processes, and techniques to services [ 7 , 8 , 32 ]. This increases the number of sustainable products and services and enhances sustainability-driven consumerism while continuously satisfying customers and other stakeholders [ 7 , 19 , 21 , 22 , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] ]. Sustainable development represents a path to resolving the apparent paradox between profitability, consumption, and the need to protect the environment [ 64 , 65 ]. However, although there are several sustainable applications in marketing, altering the research trends of sustainability and marketing is regarded as less concerning. This is a challenge in the development of new concepts of sustainability and marketing.

The research gaps in the literature on sustainability and marketing can be described in two ways. First, research on sustainability and marketing is limited in the business context [ 7 , 19 , 21 , 22 , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] ]. The literature on sustainability and marketing tends to focus more on micro- and meso-marketing perspectives than on macro-marketing, such as enterprise systems and industrial aspects that would eventually impact marketing activities [ 36 , [67] , [68] , [69] ]. Second, although sustainability and marketing are two significant research themes, meaningful results based on empirical evidence are lacking [ 4 , 7 , 17 , 70 , 71 ]. Owing to the absence of an empirical analysis reviewing and investigating existing literature on sustainability and marketing, the scope of research and strategy development is mainly limited to micro- and meso-marketing perspectives [ 12 , 15 , 19 , 42 ]. Moreover, sustainability and marketing are not limited to business-to-consumer relationships, such as the promotion of green marketing to enhance a company's image and profit [ 34 , 37 , 70 ]. Industrial businesses must consider the perspective of macro-marketing for sustainability. This study addresses these gaps by providing empirical evidence on research trends in sustainability and marketing.

The motivation for this study was to broaden and connect the two mature and significant themes of sustainability and marketing. We employ topic modeling, more specifically, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), the most widely used algorithm in topic modeling, for effective and systemic analysis of the existing literature on sustainability and marketing. Previous studies have used different methods to investigate the impact of sustainability marketing on consumer behaviors and intentions, such as communication methods (e.g., psycho–physiological and attitudinal measures), surveys, mixed methods (minor qualitative and major quantitative parts), action research experiments (i.e., developing a series of marketing initiatives and testing their impact on consumption behavior), and social invention measurements [ 1 , 15 , 21 , 26 , 27 , 29 , 35 , 55 , 64 , 72 , 73 ]. This study systematizes scientific knowledge and research trends in sustainability and marketing literature over the past 10 years, from 2010 to 2020. This is similar to a recent study by Pizzi et al. [ 74 ], which systematized interdisciplinary topics, management, and sustainable development goals (SDGs) to obtain new results. However, the present study is different in that it fills the research gaps in identifying the research topic and its trend over time obtained from a top-ranked sustainability- and marketing-related journal using LDA. To address these research gaps using the LDA method, two key objectives were targeted in this study:

● Investigate and classify existing literature on sustainability and marketing, including macro-marketing aspects, in addition to micro- and meso-marketing perspectives.
● Investigate and discuss the research trends of sustainability and marketing, and the implications of applying the trends for future research and practices.

The aim of this study is to provide scholars, managers, and executives with a clear focus on sustainability and marketing trends over the last decade, while complementing the topics that scholars and practitioners consider in the future. Additionally, this study also discusses topics investigated during certain year(s) in the last decade. Our results demonstrate that particular topics were researched only during certain year(s), with no further significance for continued research in the future.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section2 describes the methodological approach adopted by the authors. Section 3 consists of the results collected from the LDA topic modeling analysis and an interpretation of the output. Section 4 portrays implications and conclusions of this research.

2. Methodology and materials

2.1. research method.

Topic modeling is a popular statistic tool for latent variables in large unstructured textual data [ 75 , 76 ]. Each document has a probability that it belongs to a topic, and each topic is identified by a probability distribution of words. In this study, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), the most widely used algorithm in topic modeling, is used [ 76 ]. A document is generated based on the word distribution of a topic and how topics are mixed in the document. Fig. 1 shows the document generation process of LDA.

Graphical model of LDA.

Each node of Fig. 1 represents a random variable, and α and β are hyperparameters of the Dirichlet distribution φ k and θ d . φ k is distribution of words belonging to the kth topic, and θ d corresponds to distribution of words belonging to the dth document. The topic z to which each word belongs is determined by θ d . w is a word generated based on θ d and z (d,n) . This generation process is iteratively performed for N words included in M documents. For the LDA algorithm, α, β, and K must be determined by the user. φ k and θ d are learned by LDA.

Topic modeling is a proven analytical method of trend analysis in several research fields such as big data in marketing [ 77 ], transportation [ 78 ], personal information privacy [ 79 ], competency-based education [ 80 ], emergency medicine [ 81 ], social media and sustainability [ 23 ], and physics education [ 82 ]. The analysis method is standardized with literature collection, pre-processing, and topic modeling. Fig. 2 shows the data collection and pre-processing for topic modeling in our model. Sections 2.2 and 2.3 describe the data collection and preprocessing process in detail.

Topic model building process.

We collected sample data for systematizing the scientific knowledge and research trends of sustainability in the marketing field. Based on the Scimago journal rank indicator that measures scientific impact in the marketing, strategy, and management categories, ten journals among the top 100 journals related to sustainability indexed by SCIE or SSCI were selected. Since the subject of all papers in the selected journal is not sustainability, the title, abstract, and keywords were designated as ‘sustainability’ or ‘sustainability’. Additionally, since ‘market’ and ‘marketing’ are words that appear frequently in articles in the marketing field, they must appear in the title, abstract, or keywords. Although ‘market’ or ‘marketing’ does not appear directly, it does include the appearance of the words ‘customer’, ‘consumption’, ‘retail’ and ‘retail'.

In 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development agreed on the process of selecting the Sustainable Development Goals to be implemented from 2015 to 2030 [ 83 ]. Therefore, it is expected that interest in sustainability in the marketing field will increase continuously, and based on this, data has been collected since 2010. Moreover, Fig. 3 depicts the change in the number of articles collected yearly. The number of sustainability articles in marketing steadily increased from 2010 to 2020, indicating a progressive interest in the field. Data for 2021 were excluded as it may not be suitable for trend analysis due to COVID-19.

Number of sustainability and marketing articles.

Table 1 shows the number of sustainability and marketing articles selected in each journal containing the selected keywords. The journals in Table 1 are listed by the number of samples, and the numbers in Table 1 do not indicate the ranking. The Journal of Cleaner Production publishes more papers each year than any other journal, and we have been able to collect more data from this journal.

The number of sustainability and marketing articles from 10 journals.

To obtain meaningful results in LDA analysis, a sufficiently large size of text corpus is required. However, there is no exact guideline on the size of the corpus, and Schmiedel et al. [ 84 ] suggested that it is difficult to analyze the corpus with less than 100 documents. In addition, they suggested that analysis is difficult even when the number of documents is small, including long documents. In this study, only the title, abstract, and keywords of 2147 papers are used for LDA analysis.

2.3. Preprocessing

Before the LDA analysis, the text corpus is preprocessed. First, all text in the corpus is converted to lowercase. After removing the special characters, the text is tokenized by applying word tokenization.

By verifying the part–of–speech of each token, only nouns are extracted, and the number of tokens is reduced by extracting headwords. Finally, words such as study, paper, and research, that frequently and meaninglessly appear in the abstract of academic documents are defined as stop-words, and the corresponding tokens are removed.

For LDA analysis of the data obtained from the preprocessing, we determined the number of topics, alpha, and beta, which are hyperparameters of the Dirichlet distribution. After LDA analysis was performed by varying the number of topics to 5, 10, 15, and 20, the number of topics was 15, determined by examining the word distribution of each topic; alpha and beta were set to 0.1 and 0.01, respectively.

3. Results of topic modeling and discussion

3.1. topic identification.

The result of topic modeling highlighted the novelty of this study by analyzing the title, abstract, and keywords of 2147 articles from the journals that are indexed in either SSCI or SCIE. Moreover, the identified topics are not limited to micro- and meso-marketing, but expanded to macro-marketing perspectives including the importance of industrial aspects in sustainability and marketing disciplines. For instance, rather than focusing on business-to-consumer relationship and business-to-business keywords, we obtained keywords ranging from material processing to consumption, and discussed in detail in the following sections.

This study obtained 14 topics by running LDA based on two types of posterior probability distributions, which are the topic distribution of each article and the relevant word distribution of each topic. Table 2 shows the list of these 14 topics including the top 10 words shown for each topic and the shares of the topics in the entire corpus. Topics were arranged and numbered according to the order that the LDA derived. The LDA indicates topics by algorithm; however, it does not provide a specific name for each topic because authors are required to label the topics. The authors of this article labeled each topic through discussion and literature analysis of the entire content of the top 10 words and the highest loaded words for each topic.

Obtained topics from the LDA.

3.2. Topic analysis

14 classified topics elevated the view of the research in sustainability and marketing field. Topics were grouped based on the three pillars of sustainability (that is, social, environmental, and economic goals), which were closely enlaced with one another but not mutually exclusive. T13 and T14 were categorized as social pillar, and T1, T2, T3, T4, T9, T11, and T12 as environmental pillar. Because the rest of the topics were categorized as economic pillar, T5, T7, and T8 included the expansions of existing industrial business fields. Also, T6 included fashion marketing while T10 included management. We classified 14 topics on sustainability and marketing, and highlighted grounds distinguished from general sustainability and marketing research. Each topic was named based on the proportion of 10 keywords that are statistically significant and related literatures regarding both sustainability and marketing.

This study compared its findings to that of Al amosh and Khatib [ 49 ], Anwar and El–Bassiouny [ 85 ], Bhattacharyya [ 7 ], Effah et al. [ 86 ], Jones et al. [ 30 ], Lunde [ 17 ], Pizzi et al. [ 74 ], and Su et al. [ 29 ] which reviewed and reported the research trends of sustainability and marketing based on the relationship between sustainability and marketing. They debated the impact of sustainability and marketing on each other, and identified four factors related to sustainability regarding the goal of marketing: demography, technology, values, and government. The demography factor refers to human potential (example, migration phenomena); technology factor refers to the development of technology through company's system; value factor refers to a system of values shared in social and market activity by stakeholders, companies, employees, authorities, consumers, etc.; and government factor refers to the policies of federal and local authorities toward society and economy. The identified factors correspond to the 14 topics that the study outlined (particularly T5, T6, T12, and T13). Analysis of each topic is provided below, focusing on the relationship between sustainability and marketing, holistic perspective of business including marketing.

(T1) Sustainability performance

Sustainable performance assessment has attracted scholars in the last decade, because it fosters the connection between environmental, social, and economic performances of companies [ [87] , [88] , [89] , [90] ]. Sustainable performance is an approach that balances human to non–human associations through more responsible management models and sustainable marketing [ 57 , 91 , 92 ]. Scholars emphasized that sustainable and business performance have a significant relationship after reviewing each component of sustainability [ 12 , 89 , 91 ]. For environmental performance, companies must identify the sources of environmental problems regarding production, procurement, and transportation [ 12 , 16 ], and the ability to alleviate pollution, waste, environmental accidents, and the use of hazardous materials would indicate the business performance [ [93] , [94] ]. For economic performance, reducing cost of purchased materials, waste treatment, waste discharges, energy consumption, fines for environmental issues, and profitability and sales [ 95 ] would indicate the business performance related to sustainable performance. However, when sustainable performance becomes the aim of business, research indicates that companies may face high costs of environmental–related practices which result in profitable performance [ 96 , 97 ]. For social performance, companies are required to be socially responsible and stakeholder communities are required to approve the activities that companies perform to maintain their relationship [ 12 ]. Hence, increasing awareness of companies' social performance will develop its positive image and strengthen relationship with stakeholders [ 98 ]. Marketing involves fulfillment of companies’ needs with minimal negative impact on sustainable performance by supporting sustainable promotion, price, and distribution process [ 99 , 100 ].

(T2) Product sustainability

From the top 10 words of product sustainability, “recovery” is the most related word for this topic. Accordingly, research and product designers asked questions such as “how can products be designed and produced to be inherently good for the future of the planet and users?” [ 101 ]. In a business perspective, keys of product sustainability are three basic Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), and other three Rs (recover, redesign and remanufacture) [ 102 , 103 ]. It is not only about production but provision of sustainable benefits and maintenance of the environment after full life cycle of products from raw materials’ extraction, use, disposal and eventual reuse [ 103 ].

Generally, product sustainability considers how products can provide sustainably balancing contributions of products, thereby creating multiple shared values for stakeholders [ 104 ]. From a business perspective, product sustainability keeps companies competitive by providing differentiated products. This increases consumers’ satisfaction, which indicates economic success [ 104 ]. Therefore, marketing strategies which suggest the current level of product sustainability, market understanding, holistic improvement of the market, good products over better products, and societal value over product value from the idea of product design, should be developed [ 101 , 104 ].

(T3) Environmental sustainability

Environmental sustainability gained its importance in the last decade [ 105 ]; however, it has not been achieved owing to overconsumption of materials, emission of hazardous pollutants, and indiscriminate use of energy [ 106 , 107 ]. COVID–19 pandemic indirectly has a negative impact on maintaining momentum for environmental sustainability because it struck down numerous companies. Therefore, they are less likely to perform any environmental sustainability activities at both local and global levels [ 108 ]. Because the environment is not something that any type of company can control, companies are required to adopt green business practice (GBP) by engaging in environmentally friendly actions which may be exposed later by governments and stakeholders to reduce less eco–friendly sources from companies' activities [ [108] , [109] , [110] , [111] ]. Moreover, marketing enhances companies' values based on ecological modernization theory by providing appropriate marketing roadmap of environmental sustainability: 1) increasing renewable resource consumption, 2) decision making regarding long–term consequences, 3) avoiding damages on ecosystem, 4) focusing on people's welfare, and 5) avoiding excess pollution [ 105 ]. Stakeholders' engagement in the steps on the roadmap is the key to enhancing the marketing impact of environmental sustainability of companies [ 110 ].

(T4) Sustainable development

Sustainable development refers to the search for harmony among the environment, social, and economic activities [ 91 , 112 ]. In this study, some relative words for this topic are emotion and behavior based on the proposition. This is in line with studies which argue that sustainable development is related to humanity and overconsumption behaviors [ 113 , 114 ]. Studies have revealed that emotions play an important role on people who engage in sustainable behaviors [ 115 ], with the exception of recognition [ 114 ]. Regarding sustainable development, emotions are perceived with two kinds of behaviors such as self– and others’–behaviors. Pride and guilt are self–behaviors, while respect and anger are others' behaviors [ 116 , 117 ]. However, emotions related to sustainable development are not limited to these four kinds of emotions [ 116 ] because people tend to experience them when they are aware that they realized or failed to live up to an ideal or actual self–representation [ 118 ]. Sustainable development related emotions are more complex than basic emotions because those emotions are considered as self–conscious emotions that are elicited after flouting social norms or personal based standards [ 119 ]. Additionally, changing human behavior is raised as a strategy of priority for sustainable development [ 120 , 121 ]. Luetz et al. [ 121 ] argued that an important feature of changing human behavior for sustainable development would be the desire to become pacesetters in the world and leave a positive legacy. Therefore, to support and sustain human behavior change, development of positive emotions to cultivate happiness must be done first [ 122 , 123 ].

How can marketing impact sustainable development regarding emotions and behaviors of people? The role of marketing is to understand and change consumers' behavior by influencing their attitudes and beliefs [ 30 ]. Proper marketing strategies focusing on stimulating people's emotions regarding sustainable development should be suggested to increase people's sustainable behaviors including thorough understanding of their consumption processes [ 30 , 91 ]. Hence, effective and efficient marketing strategies which attains a balanced approach to socio–economic development based on a strong respect and understanding for ecological systems [ 30 , 124 , 125 ] are suggested.

(T5) Sustainable urban entrepreneurship

Sustainable urban entrepreneurship is considered opportunities to incorporate and develop efficient and innovative ideas connected to sustainability, thereby emerging in urban society system and forming urban networks [ 126 , 127 ]. Sustainable entrepreneurship depends on individuals’ capacities to transform ideas into actions such as create and innovate a process of identifying latent opportunities that create economic, environmental, and social values [ 128 ]. Hence, sustainable entrepreneurs are required to make impact on urban entrepreneurship, local economy, and social and environmental system by stimulating the formation of businesses and networks of towns and cities through acquiring tangible and intangible resources and impressing investors [ 127 ]. Korhonen et al. [ 129 ] highlighted that in favoring sustainable urban entrepreneurship, the circular economy for global sustainability is important because urban entrepreneurship is part of creative economy. Hence, sustainable urban entrepreneurs in towns and cities would utilize marketing to support themselves through creative and cultural activities which may generate new businesses and jobs, and create new partnership and networks, both profit and non–profit. The three goals of sustainable urban entrepreneurship are participation in circular economy, local economic growth, and well–being of the towns and cities [ 124 ], and sustainable urban entrepreneurs are required to understand.

(T6) Sustainability in luxury fashion consumption

In fashion industry, sustainability is a mandatory topic for researchers and practices [ [130] , [131] , [132] ]. Sustainable fashion consumption behavior is defined as a variety of behaviors that consumers are willing to minimize regarding their fashion consumption decisions [ 130 ]. It has been alarming especially in fast fashion industry because of the life cycle of fast fashion products, including products acquisition and disposal, are short with no sustainable plans to reduce any negative impacts [ 132 ]. Harris et al. [ 133 ] argued that consumers should be exposed to more sustainable and higher quality fashion products to achieve sustainable fashion consumption, in which fast fashion business pursues more trendy styles with affordable prices and low–quality materials that end up to short life–cycle of products [ 134 ]. In luxury fashion consumption, different perspectives on consumers' consumption behavior should be addressed because consumers look for self–congruency, timelessness [ 135 ], not trend–led but durability from luxury fashion brands [ 136 ], which indicates that luxury fashion consumption is a high–involvement consumption [ 137 ]. Moreover, luxury fashion consumption is heavily influenced by context and social conventions [ 138 , 139 ] because most of luxury fashion products are becoming less wasteful and exclusive; however, they contribute to humanity's expression of their own values [ 140 ]. Therefore, in luxury fashion consumption, sustainability is one of the main marketing strategies because sustainable brand image would differentiate one brand from the other to increase competitive advantage in the fashion market [ 131 ]. Additionally, educating consumers about sustainable motivations and consumption may be done through marketing strategies of luxury fashion brands which develops a personal connection with consumers; this influences consumers' purchase intentions positively [ 130 , 136 ].

(T7) Sustainability of industrial projects

Sustainability of industrial projects requires the following characteristics: 1) acceptable consumption level of energy, reduced waste product rate, restriction of urban expansion (environmental pillar); 2) low–cost demands and their influence on markets (economic pillar); and 3) impact on cultural and natural herniate including employment (social pillar) [ 141 ]. To guide decision–making in sustainable industrial projects, knowing what the expected impact of industrial projects is on the relevant sustainability concerns is essential [ 142 ]. The impact which industrial projects managers should consider are three folds: 1) changes that people can perceive immediately within current projects; 2) impacts that are from the use over time including the opportunity to consume less/more resources, and 3) persistent changes perceivable at macro–level such as structural economic and people's behavioral changes [ 142 , 143 ]. To pursue sustainability of industrial projects, economic performance, compliance with regulations, and utility of resources and materials are considered throughout the entire industrial projects [ 16 , 141 , 143 ]. Furthermore, in sustainability, industrial projects should cover all three dimensions in the context of industrial growth.

(T8) Sustainable scenario of industry

Recent studies about sustainable scenario of industry mentioned a common concept, Industry 4.0 [ [144] , [145] , [146] , [147] ]. Scholars expected that information technology and social media will show astounding growth that will influence people's perception on products and industries [ 144 , 148 ]. Key features of Industry 4.0 are interoperability, information transparency, technical assistance, and decentralized decision making [ 145 ]. For the interoperability feature, machines including devices and sensors, and humans are connected to and can communicate with one another, while the information transparency feature is a system that creates a virtual copy of offline world through data to contextualize information. The technical assistance feature shows the ability of the human supporting systems to assist humans with tasks that are too dangerous and/or difficult, and the decentralized decision–making feature the ability of physical and cyber systems to make decision easily on their own and become as autonomous as possible. These features are based on technologies of the industry that lead to collaborative communication systems either with machines or people and reduce labor turnover; this addresses social pillar of sustainability [ 147 , [149] , [150] , [151] ]. Social perspective in the scenario of Industry 4.0 creates safe work environment for employees to reduce accidents in the workplace and boost their morale [ 152 , 153 ]. Economic and environmental aspects of sustainability in the scenario of Industry 4.0 are integrated and interconnected value networks as cost reduction through efficient utilization of resources, and better performance in the market are connected to each other [ 147 , 151 ]. Specifically, environmental scenario of Industry 4.0 concerns efficient utilization of energy and reduction of CO 2 emanation when energy saving is directly proportional to productivity [ 149 ], and when economic scenario considers improving stock and distribution center administration [ 154 ]. Hence, scholars and practices are aware that sustainable scenario of Industry 4.0 should be implemented in the industries. However, implementing process would vary based on companies' and industries' project scenarios regarding different organization structures or sizes, which makes it challenging especially to those who are experiencing shortage of economic resources [ 146 ]. Considering sustainable effects and benefits of Industry 4.0, industry experts are required to consider implementing Industry 4.0 comprehensively in industry scenarios [ 146 ].

(T9) Sustainability drivers and barriers

There are drivers and barriers of sustainability that obviously have different impact on sustainable construction. Drivers of sustainability are defined as a response to balance the pillars of sustainability [ 155 , 156 ]. Drivers vary based on the country or region; this is because they have different priorities and beliefs in the implementation of sustainable practices [ 157 , 158 ]. For example, in Chile, drivers of sustainability are cost reduction, company awareness, market differentiation, and regulations [ 159 ], whereas the USA considers resource and energy conservation, waste reduction and improvement in indoor environmental quality as the most significant sustainability drivers [ 160 ]. Drivers are grouped into three factors similar to the three pillars of sustainability, and the most influential factor is the environmental factor, followed by social and economic factors [ 156 ]. Barriers makes industries need a considerable amount of time and effort to adopt sustainability; in developing countries, barriers make sustainability impossible or unprofitable to adopt [ 161 ]. Barriers are grouped into factors such as cost, knowledge and information, workforce, government, client and market [ 156 , 162 ]. Cost and government related issues contribute a significant proportion of sustainability barriers such as lack of government promotion and incentives [ 162 ]. Of course, it is not feasible to pay equal attention to both drivers and barriers simultaneously; however, developing suitable strategies focusing on critical drivers and barriers will enhance sustainability issues in the market and industries [ 163 ]. In the case of barriers, marketing does not play a substantial driver role because its influence and the level of market orientation act as conditions for sustainability [ 158 ]. For barriers, however, creating awareness of sustainability among the market and the industries would show significant results such as reduction of negative attitudes and increment in supportive attitudes toward the companies [ 163 ].

(T10) Enterprise sustainability.

Enterprise sustainability is about balancing the three pillars of sustainability in the performances of the enterprise as today's companies are looking forward to creating sustainable values, such as harmonizing profitability and natural resources with energy consumption [ 164 ]. However, current enterprise systems are complex, and this makes it more difficult for companies to address sustainability issues. Additionally, uncertainty of economic situations has an impact on investment and profitability [ 164 , 165 ]. As investment behavior directly influences economic growth and government policies, enterprises are required to make comprehensive assessment and actively adapt investment and management processes under the condition of uncertainty to maximize profit and reduce losses [ 165 ]. Moreover, enterprise sustainability should be evaluated according to the appropriate platforms such as different spatial (local, national, and international.) and temporal (short– and long–term) levels [ 166 ]. Hence, there are extrinsic and intrinsic reasons that enterprises opt for sustainability. The extrinsic reasons impact positively on the world by minimizing adverse effects on the environment while the intrinsic reasons increase turnover through higher stock prices and production innovation, and reduced costs through energy saving [ 166 , 167 ]. Therefore, enterprise sustainability is formed with focal firm, supply chain and context which produce win–win outcomes even though pursuing enterprise sustainability may require difficult trade–offs [ 167 ].

(T11) Eco–design paradox.

Eco–design is the dominant model of product sustainability [ 104 ] and is defined as the integration of environmental aspects into product design and development, to reduce adverse environmental impacts throughout a product's life cycle (ISO 14006). Scholars and practices agree on the idea of sustainable products to optimize products' environmental sustainability using eco–design [ 104 ]. The goals of eco–deign help to meet consumer's requirements by focusing on improving products' environmental performances and minimizing its negative impact on the environment [ 168 ]. Specifically, scholars argued the goals of eco–design are durability, material efficiency, the restriction of problematic materials, energy efficiency, and efficiency in use such as recyclability and reparability [ 168 , 169 ].

Design paradox addresses limitations in the specific stages of process development and some groups of people involved in the stages, owing to lack of knowledge [ 170 , 171 ]. Eco–design paradox is defined as a divergence between possible environmental improvement of development period and product knowledge [ 170 , 172 , 173 ]. It is mostly about the environmental pillar because eco–design features are environmental assessment of products, environmental improvement, and both features at the simultaneously [ 174 ], which requires stakeholder engagement across entire product life cycle and spans [ 175 ]. Although designers are aware of the need of a holistic approach for eco–design, integrating eco–design into existing systems is challenging because most companies lack the systems to achieve eco–design goals and maintain the continuous improvement in the development process, in which eco–design paradox is more realistic than the concept of eco–design for the companies [ 169 , 170 , 176 ]. Scholars asserted that achieving holistic approach of eco–design requires a large amount of knowledge both in product development and environmental improvement for companies especially within the design and supporting teams such as management and marketing [ 177 ]. Nevertheless, eco–design paradox is perceived as an overlooked research topic [ 103 ].

(T12) Transportation sustainability.

Transportation sustainability is the importance of access, efficiency, affordability and lowered negative environmental impacts [ 178 ]. Strategies of transportation sustainability supported by the government and public are shifting from the use of private cars to public transportation services, walking, and cycling [ 179 ]. However, research about transportation sustainability argued that universally accepted definition of transportation sustainability should be given to the public transportation authority personnel prior to execute appropriate transportation sustainability strategies [ 178 , 180 ]. Hence, a globally accepted definition of transportation sustainability is “the one that meets better accessibility to individuals and societies with consideration of the ecosystem and efficiency of a combination of transportation modes” [ 181 ].

The environmental pillar of transportation sustainability is mainly focused on eliminating negative outputs of transportations such as decreasing greenhouse gas emission, air pollution, waste and noise pollution followed by efficient use of resources and materials to improve its environmental performances [ 178 , 181 , 182 ]. The social pillar of transportation sustainability is the most complex and challenging dimension to identify because it deals with overlapped elements with the economic pillar such as safety, socio–economic and physical access, information availability, attractiveness, coordinated management, commitment to plans (example, public participation), health, and aspects of governance (example, regional cooperation) [ 178 , 181 , 183 ]. Essential elements of the economic pillar of transportation sustainability are ridership, costs to service provider, volume of transportation, financial stability, fare revenue, and operational efficiency [ 178 , 183 ]. For public transportation sustainability, developing strategies must consider two agents, urban form and governance, as they create the conditions for the public transportation [ 184 ]. Specifically, urban forms consider the physical form and land use, land area and density, and centralities and regionalism while governance deals with regional integration, funding and finances, and long–term goals of public transportation [ 178 , 181 , 182 ]. Besides public transportation, forms of transportations such as freight and rail have agents incorporating with transportation sustainability; however, they share common implications that are a better modal balancing, future economic development, quality transport, and environment and social well–being of the entire society [ 178 , 181 , [183] , [184] , [185] ].

(T13) Innovative sustainable network

Innovative network requires multiple participants who are willing to be part of a dynamic and complex unlimited system and is formed by industry research university cooperation and industrial association and enterprise alliance [ 186 ]. Innovative sustainable network is the environmental, social, and customer values in the concepts of the network [ 186 , 187 ]. The most familiar form of the innovative sustainable network is the circular economy, which promotes sustainable development by improving economic, social and environmental impacts [ 188 , 189 ]. Braz and de Mello [ 189 ] focused on the concept of the innovative sustainable network on supply chain network, in which the goal of innovative sustainable supply network is to contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goal of production and consumption [ 190 ]. Chen and Chiu [ 187 ] interpreted the innovative sustainable network with the value chain perspective focusing on service–dominant system, which is also called product–service system (PSS), that integrates products, services and networks as a whole to create a positive impact. According to the aspects of innovative network, PSS would be the most suitable form of innovative sustainable network because its platform also requires open systems and is formed with enterprise alliance, industrial association, and the industry research university cooperation, for proper operation [ 186 , 187 ]. Moreover, PSS supports continuous competitiveness among companies, customer satisfaction and alleviates negative environmental impact because sustainability is the main value of PSS [ 191 ]. Because the sustainable value should equally be considered in the innovative sustainability network, three pillars are needed to be incorporated in the innovative network as well.

(T14) Sustainability in fashion community.

A general concept of community is a group of people who voluntarily participate in forming social connections with community members for a certain object on online and/or offline platform [ 192 , 193 ]. In fashion community, people share information and knowledge about entire sectors of fashion such as brands, products, and promotion events [ [192] , [193] , [194] ], which shows strong connection between communities and product proliferation [ 195 ]. Sustainability in fashion community means that people in the fashion communities are actively interacting and creating contents regarding sustainable fashion products, branding, and consumption, including ethical fashion management, and CSR of fashion brands and companies [ 60 , 193 , 194 ]. The fashion community with strong sustainability focus emphasized socially shared meaning of pro–environmental behaviors and ethical fashion consumption behaviors [ 193 , 195 ]. On the social media community, sustainable fashion is promoted because numerous individuals including celebrities who support eco–friendly, ethical, and fair–traded fashion, use their cultural capital, for example, to question anti–fur fashion products [ 193 , 196 ]. Those who are in the fashion community but show less or no support to sustainability in fashion, argued that eco–friendly fashion is paradoxical in nature because fashion is one of the most unsustainable industries with inefficient product life–cycle when eco–friendly fashion promotes durability and recycling of products to be sustainable [ 197 ]. Scholars investigated fashion communities regarding this issue and reported that members of the communities are aware of sustainability; however, their focus is changing from environmental issues (example, energy waste, pollution) to eco–friendly fashion products (example, eco–friendly fabric and design, and consumption) [ 193 , 197 ] by sharing knowledge and perspectives regarding entire fashion product life cycle.

3.3. Topic trends analysis

3.3.1. topic trends over time.

Based on the LDA results, this study distinguished between the topics that were actively researched (that is, hot topic) and topics that did not attract interest (that is, cold topic) over time [ 32 , 198 , 199 ]. Finding the trends in research topics is one of the most attractive efforts of this study. We made this difference by observing the changes of each topic's weight over time. Fig. 4 shows the weights of changes of the 14 topics over time.

Research topic trends of 2010–2020 (OLS).

A linear regression model was employed for each topic with the topic weights in corresponding years as dependent variable, and time as an independent variable. In order to minimize cost function for defining α and β in the linear regression equation, we adopted Ordinary Least Square method (Eq. (1) ). Estimated linear regression equation (Eq. 2) where θ jt is average share of topic j in time (year) t . The key component of interest in this research is the coefficient β j . If this value is significantly positive (negative), the topic was indicated as a hot (cold) topic ( Table 3 ). Consequently, two hot topics and one cold topic were identified when p value is less than 0.050: T3 (hot topic), T8 (hot topic), and T11 (cold topic).

Topic types and regression results.

From the results, this study reveals that the research trends across the sustainability and marketing fields have become more diverse and detailed. Specifically, this study revealed detailed applications in different sectors of various business types rather than providing general topics regarding sustainability and marketing. For instance, T2 and T4 show statistically insignificant weight change, which corresponds to the general discussion topic of sustainability research that deals with harmony between social, economic, and environmental activities, such as reducing the ecological footprint from manufacturing process. However, T3 shows significantly positive weight change and has been represented as a hot topic, which corresponds to specific component of sustainability, environment, and continuous interest of scholars toward the environmental ecosystem. On the contrary, T11 shows significantly negative weight change, which corresponds to specific application of sustainability in product design and life–cycle assessment of product, and have emerged as cold topics.

Among the five topics closely related in the economy pillar of sustainability T5, T6, T7, T8 and T10, which correspond to the general discussion of sustainable business sector did not show significant proportion weight change over time. Conversely, T8 emerged as a hot topic, which could be interpreted as a reflection of interest growth of industries’ sustainable scenario, Industry 4.0, which considers collaborative systems between humans and machines to create a solid foundation of sustainable long–term success of industries.

The flow of research shows that the topic trend shifted to more specific topics of sustainability, such as sustainability to environment, product to product design process. Since 2010, research trends have shifted attention from general ideas of sustainability and sustainable development to more environment focused and collaboration of market actors including innovative strategies, such as interaction between humans and machines. Meanwhile, companies faced consumers who are familiar with the idea of sustainable consumption and willing to consume products (example, luxury fashion products) than in the past. Consumers are becoming smarter than before as much as tracking companies' sustainable footsteps, which reminds companies to develop critical marketing strategies regarding their consumers’ sustainable lifestyles.

This study has dealt with sustainability and marketing rather than sustainability in general as continuous debate of the impact of sustainability and marketing on one another. Hence, we expected significant results from either T6, T10, or T14 regarding both sustainability and marketing perspectives. Unfortunately, research trends between 2010 and 2020 showed insignificant weight changes of topics T6, T10, and T14. Therefore, creating and increasing companies’ values (T6), pursuing and promoting sustainable consumption (T10), and connecting sustainable images to fashion brands (T14) would be more than trends because these topics have been continuously investigated and are still on debates among scholars.

A topic's incline and decline could reflect the impact of marketing. For example, promoting Industry 4.0 features for the sustainable scenario of industries may require proper marketing strategies while emphasizing included sustainable concepts. Conversely, the role of marketing in sustainability scenario of industry may be indispensable. Also, environmental sustainability requires a strong role of marketing for reducing pollution through green business practices and stakeholders' engagement at both local and global levels.

In the case of T11, it has become a cold topic, that is, eco–design paradox lost significant popularity, and there is little or no chance that marketing would play a vital role in its success. Although both research and practice agree on the need for considering sustainable product life cycle, awareness of eco–design in the design industry is low because implementing sustainable product design in organizations is practically limited. Therefore, divergence between possible environmental improvement of product development time and lack of product knowledge (that is, eco–design paradox) could reduce the sustainable interest regarding the topic. Hence, this decline reflects the fact that the weight of “eco–design paradox” researches, that also deal with marketing issues, has fallen, rather than a decline of “eco–design paradox” research itself.

3.3.2. Topic proportion over time (year 2010–2020)

In this section, we identify topic proportion for certain years irrespective of hot and cold topics. We simply identified topics that show the highest proportion for certain years, and we intended to provide a hint for future research directions regarding why certain topics were considered only for certain years [ 1 , 26 , 64 ].

Appendix shows the proportion of the topic for each year from 2010 to 2020. The top topic with highest portion for each year is highlighted in bold and certain topics have been researched continuously for two years or more. Specifically, the analysis reveals sustainability and marketing research aims and scopes of each year focusing on some topics more than others since 2010.

During the early period of 2010–2020, sustainability and marketing research paid attention to different topics each year. In 2010, T7 received the most attention (23.1%), T6 (15%), and (T10) (15%), show equally high proportion among the 14 topics in 2011, suggesting that sustainability and marketing scholars focused on these two topics on this specific year. Moreover, T12 (22.6%) and T13 (22.2%) received the most attention in 2012 and 2013, suggesting that with increasing attention to sustainability, scholars started to pay attention to the combined idea of sustainability and transportation which provides efficient and sustainable transportation services to consumers. Since 2013, ideas of innovative networking and sustainability were considered because industries were promoting their transformation to digitalization and intelligence and networking. In 2014 and 2015, T8 showed the highest portion among the topics, 16.5% and 19.1%, in which the scholars began to be more innovative and the industries were progressing from traditional system to innovative and sustainable systems such as Industry 4.0 features. Although T3 (14.1%) was the most researched topic in 2016, T12 became the top topic from 2017 to 2020. The results from 2017 to 2020 show that both research and practice are ready to move to the next level of transportation including types of transportation such as private car and public bus, to be more sustainable.

4. Conclusion, implications, limitations and future research

Our current LDA topic-modeling study for the years 2010–2020 has a two-fold agenda. First, we aimed to investigate and classify the existing literature on sustainability and marketing, including macro-marketing aspects, in addition to micro- and meso-marketing perspectives. Second, we investigated the ideas that scholars and practitioners should consider in sustainability and marketing, based on topic trends over time. We show that understanding and adopting sustainability and marketing trends are critical according to stakeholder theory [ 25 , 44 , [47] , [48] , [49] ]. For instance, to satisfy stakeholders’ understanding and acceptance of what topics they are interested in, or to have the most impact on stakeholders. Hence, to provide empirical evidence, we developed a topographic map of sustainability and marketing research based on 14 latent topics by utilizing text-mining technology and LDA, which provided originality and differentiation from general sustainability and marketing research.

We identified research topic trends by reporting hot and cold topics based on the measurement of variations in topic distributions over time. From this study, the center of sustainability and marketing research has shifted from general sustainable behaviors or concepts to more environmental and innovative technology. This is illustrated by the rise of T3 (environmental sustainability) and T8 (sustainability scenario of industry), which were identified as hot topics, while T11 (eco-design paradox) was identified as a cold topic. The rise and fall of these topics may reflect the relative strength of the marketing impact on each area. Certain topics exhibited characteristic trends in certain years; in particular, T12 had continuous research interest in the last four years. The result of topic proportion yearly (2010–2020) is irrespective of the trends of topics (hot or cold) because it simply shows the proportion of topics yearly, rather than performing static analysis. However, it shows the importance of certain topics in certain years, demonstrating the unique aims and scope of sustainability and marketing studies for a particular time, and possibly playing a role as a platform for developing further research directions.

The analysis of LDA topic modeling for the last decade (2010–2020) will assist both scholars and practitioners in several ways. First, this study will inform scholars and practitioners regarding the trends and proportion of topics on sustainability and all three perspectives of marketing (micro-, meso-, and macro-marketing). This will inform researchers that the research range of sustainability and marketing is not limited to business-to-consumer relationship marketing [ 9 , 17 , 19 , 42 , 55 ], and highlighting how companies are environmentally friendly in the market [ 7 , 26 , 29 , 34 , 35 , 37 , 70 ]. Sustainability requires interdisciplinary study, and some argue that it is more interdisciplinary than other general scientific research. Previous studies have focused on sustainability as a part of marketing strategies, that is, aiming to positively influence consumers to have more sustainable consumption behavior or to make the market more sustainable. However, studies that consider sustainability as a marketing strategy must no longer consider sustainability as a marketing tool. It is evident in such studies that sustainability and marketing are investigated separately. Moreover, this study implies the impact of marketing on the inherent social desirability bias in the field of sustainability, which generally focuses on eco-friendly activities [ 26 ]. According to stakeholder theory, satisfying all stakeholders is important as it encompasses sustainability-related activities [ 44 , 47 , 49 ]. Hence, all the levels of marketing activities are required to be more than having the idea of being eco-friendly, and this study suggests specific directions of marketing in the sustainability field for both companies and scholars by showing the rise of topics for the past decade (i.e., environmental sustainability and the sustainability scenario of industry). Therefore, our results are valuable, as they show the relationship between a broad range of marketing perspectives and sustainability. However, as the perspective of marketing includes material processing for product consumption and developing relationships with companies [ 35 , 66 , 68 , 69 ], future research may broaden the research limitation based on the results of this study.

Second, this study distinguishes itself from other research by employing an unstructured machine-learning algorithm to reduce selection bias in identifying research topics. Moreover, to identify hot and cold topics, it is important that future research is conducted to establish a clearer understanding of research topic popularity rates. However, topic-modeling methods do not automatically provide valid outcomes. Text mining must be based on previous research because the algorithms only have a supporting role. Authors must strive to make valid and logical decisions, which range from selecting appropriate words for algorithms to interpreting and labeling topics. Our results present the frameworks analyzed to summarize the literature on sustainability and marketing. Therefore, analyzing the research trends of sustainability and marketing, in addition to grasping the topography, has important implications, which would support future research.

This study does not include the major analysis of certain topics that were considered in certain years, because the purpose of research trend investigation is to identify the hot and cold topics, irrespective of the detailed analysis on other topics that are statistically insignificant. However, certain topics that have been researched more than others in certain years must be justified. Hence, further research can be conducted to obtain a more detailed or holistic view of these topics by considering other strong marketing-related keywords, such as “supply chain,” “distribution,” and “product.” Studies that link marketing and sustainability fields during the last decade have been considered; however, they still represent only a small proportion of the literature. In the future, the countries, and disciplines that conduct the most or least research on sustainability and marketing should be investigated. How marketing scholars have settled into the sustainability category could also be an interesting direction for future research. Given the importance of these two trends and the need for more efficient strategies to implement sustainability, more robust and detailed research on sustainability and marketing must be performed in the future.

Author contribution statement

Yeo Jin Jung: Conceived and designed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials tools or data; Wrote the paper.

Youngmin Kim: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Analyzed and interpreted the data; Contributed reagents, materials tools or data.

Funding statement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF–2019S1A5B5A07107323].

Data availability statement

Declaration of interest’s statement.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

We extend our thanks to the editors and the kind reviewers for their constructive feedback which helped in significantly improving the quality of this article.

Appendix A Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14208 .

Appendix A. Supplementary data

The following is the Supplementary data to this article:

Custom Essay, Term Paper & Research paper writing services

testimonials

Toll Free: +1 (888) 354-4744

Email: [email protected]

Writing custom essays & research papers since 2008

100 best marketing research topics for all.

Because of the many aspects of marketing, choosing marketing topics to write about may put one in a dicey situation. This article provides some hot topics in marketing that will help you select an area of focus and select relevant topics from that niche. From marketing research topics for college students to social issues in marketing, we have got you covered! So sit down and relax as we take you through the list of marketing research topics our professional writers prepared just for you!

Marketing Thesis Topics

Are you in need of well-thought-out marketing thesis topics and marketing dissertation topics? Then you’re in the right place! This list of marketing paper topics presented will give you a distinct thesis/dissertation.

Analysis and determination of consumer buying behavior for Coca-Cola
A study on famous well-marketed brands that got away with selling substandard quality products
A study showing the impact of advertising on consumer behavior
Brand advertising and political campaigns: a possible interwoven impact?
A review of the outcomes of advertising in a recession
Exhaustive research on how brands exploit impulsive buying
A study of how celebrity endorsements on ROI affect CPG brands
A survey of the impact of augmented reality on marketing experiences
Critical research on how AI will help make better marketing decisions
A study of the perspective and reception of Americans to targeted ads based on their browser history

Current Marketing Issues

There are numerous marketing issues around the world today. These global marketing issues threaten the survival of many businesses and the economy at large. Here is a list of current marketing issues!

A decline in organic reach on social media platforms
Difficulty in building a well-recognized brand name
Getting readers to see content
Understanding marketing results
Marketing budgets included by BREXIT
Optimizing business for voice search
Bridging the technology gap
Ensuring compliance with GDPR
Overdependence of potential customers on amazon
The effect of COVID-19 on the global economy

Marketing Research Topics

Getting marketing topics for research has been made considerably more comfortable with this list of marketing research paper topics. Ready to explore the marketing research topics we have, let’s delve right in!

Exploring how organizations use corporate social responsibility (CSR) to reinforce brand equity
The effect of social media on buying choices
Online purchasing: a study of the product characteristics buyers look for
An exploration of the differences in marketing strategies across cultures
Manipulation tactics: how brands can get more customers
A study of how customer loyalty is affected by brand image
Analyzing how TV advertising affects the top of mind awareness
Do people appreciate being click baited into sponsored posts?
A study on how to make customers purchase goods and services in the luxury category

Digital Marketing Blog Topics

Digital marketing remains a very important aspect of marketing in the world today. Here are some very juicy digital marketing topics you can write a great blog on!

10 insightful differences between paid search and organic search
Tips for promoting content on Pinterest
SEO tactics to avoid like the plague
How to increase your followers on social media
Best tips to help you grow your paid social ROAS
Why should you follow your competitors on social media?
Dos and don’ts of social media marketing
How to create content your audience will be eager to share

Marketing Essay Topics

What is the most effective form of marketing?
Internet marketing trends to expect in the future
What important brand attributes lead to an increase in customer loyalty?
A look into marketing approaches that broke through strong market monopoly
The impact of social media on consumer buying behavior
Comparison of advertising versus building brand equity
Rebuilding trust in influencer marketing
How to generate leads effectively

Content Marketing Topics

10 biggest graphic design mistakes companies make in their marketing pieces
How to create captivating e-newsletters that people will pay attention to
Repurposing marketing content for small businesses
Working more micro-content into marketing efforts
Multi-step versus one-step content marketing campaigns
The five Cs when creating content marketing copy
Creating compelling content marketing campaigns in 10 steps
Content marketing: how to generate more leads and close sales

Strategic Marketing Problems

There are many marketing problems in companies and businesses that threaten to cripple the advancement of the industry. Here is a list of some marketing problems you may be willing to proffer solutions to.

Inability to explain products or services delivered
Not clearly defining a company’s market segment
Lack of innovating commercial department
Lack of business visibility
Missing links between sales and marketing departments
Lack of marketing plan
Lack of personal branding, brand image, and professional reputation
Thinking the company or business can survive without marketing

Marketing Blog Topics

Facebook advertising: pros and cons
10 benefits of inbound marketing
The most frustrating problems faced in inbound marketing
How to generate subscribers for your blog faster than ever!
10 benefits of content marketing lead magnets
Five video content marketing myths you must discard
30 social media campaign ideas from big brands

Controversial Marketing Topics

Does google give preferential treatment to big brands?
Does social media affect SEO ranking?
Are grey SEO techniques safe?
Are YouTube videos more engaging than TV ads?
Are building e-mail lists still one of the best ways to sell?
Will immersion marketing through VR technology to be accepted?

Sport Marketing Research Topics

Sports marketing continues to remain a significant source of revenue. Hence, research in this area will continue to stay relevant. Here are some sport marketing topics you could consider working on.

How the extraordinary content offered by intelligent chatbots can help sports teams strengthen fan loyalty
Emerging opportunities in sports marketing and how to capitalize on them
How to effectively capitalize on the wearables market
Should more women and children get into sports?
Should seniors be allowed to participate in some games?

Marketing Presentation Topics

Mastering in-house SEO
The path to gaining and building customers trust
Brand awareness versus ROI
Effectively personalizing customer communications
The best SEO strategies that increase site traffic

International Marketing Topics

Marketing connects the global world, and this is why it is essential to marketing development. Here are some international marketing topics to consider!

The effect of globalization on consumer behavior
How do international brands compare to local brands?
Do international brands always have advantages over a local brand?
Creating brand awareness by utilizing global event marketing
How to market products on an international level

Marketing Plan Topics

The importance of a marketing plan to the success of a business or product launch
Building a tactical marketing plan
How is a marketing strategy different from a marketing plan?
Indispensable parts in writing a marketing plan

Ethical Issues In Marketing

Targeted Ads based on browser history
Immersion marketing through virtual reality
The exploitation of impulsive buying
Click baiting into sponsored posts

Affiliate Marketing Topics

How to find profitable niches in affiliate marketing
How to get readers interested in what you market
How to build a personal website: the ultimate guide

Congratulations! We hope you have been able to guide you in choosing your desired topic in marketing successfully. Alo, you can check out our business topics. We wish you the best in your research!

The Top Marketing Trends of 2024 & How They've Changed Since 2023 [Data from 1400+ Global Marketers]

Stay ahead of the curve with the most important marketing trends of 2024, according to experts and data from the HubSpot Blog's Marketing Strategy Survey.

FREE 2023 STATE OF MARKETING REPORT

Dive into more data from our study of 1000+ global B2B and B2C marketers, as well as expert insights from the pros on how to get ahead in our constantly changing landscape.

A man maps out a marketing strategy; marketing trends

Updated: 01/15/24

Published: 01/15/24

Every time I think I have this whole marketing thing down to a science, something changes in the blink of an eye. And if you're a marketer like myself, you've probably experienced the same feeling of whiplash as marketing trends continue to shift.

Keeping up with the latest marketing trends isn’t always easy. But, to succeed in the fast-paced marketing world — and maintain a sense of relevance with your audience — it's vital to stay ahead of them.

Download Now: Free State of Marketing Report [Updated for 2024]

Fortunately, I gathered all the information you need on the latest marketing trends — straight from industry experts and HubSpot's survey of 1,400+ global marketing professionals — and crafted this guide just for you.

Let's take a deep dive into marketing trends for 2024, shall we?

Marketing Trends to Watch in 2024 (Highlights)

Content Marketing Trends

Social media marketing trends.

SEO Marketing Trends

AI and Automation Trends

Privacy Marketing Trends

The Marketing Trends of 2024 [Highlights]

Short-form Video Content (TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.) will continue to rule.
Creating content reflecting the brand's values will be key to retaining your customers.
Native advertising/sponsored content is still valuable.
Influencer marketing is still crucial.
Leveraging AI will only increase into the new year.
VR and AR could be making a comeback.

1. Short-form Video Content (TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.) will continue to rule.

Who hasn‘t spent way too much time scrolling through TikTok? I’m not afraid to admit I‘ve bought clothes, pet supplies, and other products after watching a few too many reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts. And I’m not alone.

According to a recent survey, 56% of U.S. consumers said they bought something based on an ad they saw on TikTok, and 36% said they were willing to.

“Video creates a deeper connection with your potential customer base, and it is easy for brands to repurpose video content into podcasts and text-based content,” Neil Patel, CMO and Co-Founder of NP Digital says.

So, it‘s no surprise our survey found that 53% of marketers are leveraging short-form videos like TikToks, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts in 2024, and 38% are continuing to invest the same as in previous years.

Only 8% say they’ll decrease their investment.

The State of Marketing in 2024

HubSpot's Annual Inbound Marketing Trends Report

Top Marketing Channels
AI in Marketing
Managing Privacy
The Future of Marketing

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

2. Creating content reflecting the brand's values will be key to retaining your customers.

According to Consumer Goods Technology, 82% of shoppers want a consumer brand's values to align with their own. Furthermore, 75% of shoppers say they've cut ties with a brand over a conflict in values.

To keep on the good side of their target audience, brands will make a point of showcasing their values and stances on topics that are relevant to their audience.

Our survey shows 45% of marketers will increase their investment in creating content that shows their brand's values, and 43% will invest as much as they did in 2023. Only 9% will decrease their investment.

5. Leveraging AI will only increase into the new year.

Of course, I'd be a fool to exclude the giant waves artificial intelligence made in 2023 and the changes it will bring in 2024.

In 2023, 48% of marketers we surveyed reported using AI for content creation, such as writing blog articles, website, and social media copy, as well as landing page CTAs and product descriptions.

Amazon even started using AI to summarize key points from consumer reviews, definitely saving me from a few questionable purchases.

The State of Social Media in 2024

Explore the top trends in social media for brands to know and optimize your social strategy.

AI Content Creation
Community Building
Social Media Shopping
Social Vs. Search Engine

12. TikTok will continue to gain brand interest.

TikTok will experience even more growth in 2024, as 56% of marketers who currently leverage the platform plan to increase their investment this year, the highest of any social media app.

Moreover, almost a quarter of marketers in our survey (24%) say TikTok yields the highest ROI compared to other social media channels.

Brands have been trying to tap into the true power of TikTok since it first began to go viral four years ago. With well over 1 billion global users, TikTok has positioned itself as an app for various audiences and marketers.

Of course, if you think TikTok is just for younger demographics, think again. 50% of Millennials report visiting TikTok in the last three months, along with 38% of Gen X-ers, according to HubSpot's 2022 Consumers Trends Report .

We predict these numbers will continue to rise as TikTok becomes more mainstream.

13. Most marketers will focus on three to five social media platforms.

On average, marketers leverage four social media platforms in their roles. Facebook is the most used social media platform , operated by 57% of marketers, followed by Instagram (55%), YouTube (52%), X (39%), and TikTok (42%).

Managing three to five platforms is realistic.

This range allows brands of all sizes to expand their reach to different audiences while also giving social media marketers a realistic list of platforms to master without stretching their bandwidth during the workweek.

Here are a few questions that can help you determine how many platforms you should be on:

How many social media marketers are on your team?
Which social media platforms have audiences that best align with your targets?
How long will it take to master a strategy on each platform you're targeting?
Are there platforms that won't benefit your overall marketing strategy right now?
Are there any platforms you can easily repurpose engaging content between? (such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts)

By asking yourself some of the questions above, you can determine how much time your social team and brand will need to build an effective and engaging strategy on each platform and prioritize which platforms you should focus on.

How to Use Twitter for Business (+ Follower Growth Tracking Template)
30 Days of Instagram: A Guide for Businesses
How to Attract Customers With Facebook

Search Engine Optimization Marketing Trends

92% of marketers plan on maintaining or increasing their investment in search engine optimization in 2024, according to our survey.

Are you one of these marketers? Have you figured out how exactly you plan to improve your SEO and organic presence? When you optimize for specific types of consumer behavior and leverage SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush , you'll help your business become more discoverable online.

14. Web teams won't forget about video and image SEO.

SEO doesn't just involve changing the text on a page. It can also include choosing and optimizing suitable videos or images for a page to help it rank in Google images or search engine video carousels.

While optimizing images involves compressing files to increase page speed and adding keyword-optimized alt text to an image, video optimization strategies involve embedding a video with a similar topic or keyword into a blog post.

Currently, 53% of marketers who leverage SEO have a strategy for optimizing videos and images. Of those marketers, 49% say image and video optimization is their most effective SEO tactic.

15. Link-building will help brands grow authority — and search rankings.

When sites with solid rankings begin to link to yours, Google's crawlers note that your site might be credible and also have solid authority in your space. This can then trick your Google ranking to go up.

This, ultimately, is the goal of link-building — or getting other sites to link to yours.

Although writing highly shareable content, reaching out to share it with other websites, or ensuring that your post gets links can be time-consuming and challenging, research shows that this time and effort pays off.

Of the 48% of SEO marketers that use backlinking and link building, 63% say it‘s their brand’s most effective SEO tactic.

16. Historical optimization will help old web pages get new traffic.

Instead of developing new ideas, marketers will take what’s worked in the past and optimize it for the present.

In SEO, keeping your content up to date and full of rich, engaging content will outweigh older work that needs keyword relevancy with old statistics and links.

Not only that, but taking existing content and repurposing it for a new podcast, webinar, or blog post can be an efficient way to keep it relevant in search engines.

While one in four SEO marketers leverage historical optimization in their strategy, 29% say that those marketers use it as an effective SEO strategy.

17. Voice search optimization could become more of a priority.

41% of marketers plan to increase their investments in voice search optimization in 2024, and I predict it could become more of a priority in 2024.

Over a quarter (28%) of marketers say they will stop leveraging voice search optimization in 2023. However, that number has dropped to 14% regarding their 2024 plans.

You may be wondering, “How can I leverage voice search optimization?” The answer is simple: by framing your content around questions.

Think about it: these digital assistants answer short, informational queries such as “ Who is the actor in Mission: Impossible? ” or “ What’s the weather in Boston today? ” they’ve also started to process more local, conversational, and customized searches.

These may sound like, “ Where’s a nearby coffee shop I can work from today? ” “ How late is it open? ” and “ Do they serve iced coffee? ”

Aja Frost , Director of Global Growth at HubSpot, says:

“Businesses should look at a topic and say, ‘ What questions could users ask about this? ’ Then, they should plan sub-topics accordingly and look for opportunities to insert questions as headers.

This will allow voice assistants to easily grab questions and recognize content as solutions.”

Featured Resource

Complete SEO Starter Pack
How to Conduct a Technical SEO Audit

18. Chatbots will continue to streamline conversational marketing.

As much as I am a marketer, I'm also a consumer. And, like most consumers, I hate waiting. In a report from Tidio, 53% of respondents said waiting too long for replies is the most frustrating part of interacting with a business.

That same report shows 62% would rather speak to chatbot than wait 15 minutes for a response.

So, I think it's safe to say chatbots will be leveraged more in 2024 to keep up with consumer demands. The majority of marketers in our survey (58%) say they will increase their investment in chatbots in 2024.

Bots are powered by a computer program that automates specific tasks, typically by chatting with a user through a conversational interface.

Artificial intelligence makes bots possible, which helps them understand complex requests, personalize responses, and improve interactions over time.

Bots provide the perception and dedication of a 1:1 service experience while working with hundreds of customers — something that no customer service representative or team would ever be able to do.

To the consumers who hate repeating themselves to multiple sales or service representatives, listen up — chatbots are and will continue making your lives easier.

If used correctly, they manage conversations at scale and aggregate data from multiple data sources, from calendars to knowledge bases to blog posts and videos.

Jon Dick , SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, says: “It’s on you to make things as easy as possible."

"Do your buyers want to use live chat? You should give it to them. They’ve had the same problem three times in the last month? You should already know and have a plan to fix it,” Dick concludes.

How to Stay Current on Emerging Technology Trends
10 Affordable AI Tools for Businesses (+ How to Implement Affordable AI)
Supercharge Your Clients' Growth With Chatbots

19. Brands will need to give customers more control over their data.

In the marketing world, data is highly valuable — and not just valuable to you as a marketer or business owner.

Whether it's an email address, credit card information, or smartphone location, consumers also view their data as precious and privileged — and it’s your responsibility to take care of it.

Every business operates using data, whether a software company, bank, government agency, or lemonade stand. It’s the lifeblood of marketing, sales, service, and more.

But, when precious information is misused or siphoned into the wrong hands, it leads to a strong distrust in businesses and potentially exploited consumers.

That’s why the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted.

GDPR is an effort by the EU to give greater control to consumers over their data.

Under the GDPR, organizations must ensure that their data is collected legally and safely and that those who collect and manage said data will protect it and respect consumers’ rights.

Following the GDPR guidelines might seem like a burden, but being fined for non-compliance will feel much heavier; fines range from 10 million euros to 4% of a company's annual global revenue.

And — GDPR isn't the only entity enforcing privacy mandates in 2022. In fact, companies like Google and Apple are now taking stands for user data as well.

In 2021, an Apple IOS launch enabled iPhone and iPad users to determine which apps could track their third-party data, which is often used for hyper-targeted ads.

In 2022, Apple finished rolling out another IOS update with additional email privacy protection features for Apple Mail users.

Meanwhile, Google will discontinue using third-party cookies on Chrome while encouraging advertisers to leverage its Privacy Sandbox instead.

Ultimately, brands and governing bodies are increasingly aiming to give users more choices when it comes to releasing their data.

And, while it is great for the consumer, businesses who leverage personal data to run campaigns will need to create alternative strategies and pivot plans in case they lose access to crucial data points.

With all that said, is it really surprise that 87% of marketers in our survey plan to maintain or increase their investment in giving consumers greater control over their data?

Use Marketing Trends to Grow Better

You’re up to speed… for now. And, as long as you’re keeping a thumb on the pulse of marketing trends — and always remain open to change — your business won't fall behind.

But, if you‘re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of keeping up with all these insights, don’t worry.

The HubSpot Blog will be publishing regular Marketing Strategy research pieces with data from hundreds of marketing professionals in the coming months and will continue to update this post as new trends emerge.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and was updated in November 2024 with updated HubSpot Blog trends data.

Don't forget to share this post!

How to Plan a Seasonal Marketing Campaign: A 5-Step Guide

The Top Channels Consumers Use to Learn About Products [New Data]

The State of Consumer Trends in 2023 [New Data]

Millennials vs. Gen Z: Why Marketers Need to Know the Difference [New Data]

1 In 3 Marketers Say the Recession Will Surpass COVID's Marketing Impacts: 3 Data Points to Know

Top Shopping Trends of 2023 & How They've Changed [New Data]

3 Consumer Behavior Predictions for 2023 [State of Consumer Trends Data]

The 4 Biggest Consumer Behavior Shifts of 2023 [According to New Data]

2022 Marketing Benchmarks: Web Traffic and Conversion Trends for 150,000 Businesses

How to Answer "Are We in a Recession?" to Your Marketing Team [2022 Expert Insights]

HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. HubSpot will share the information you provide to us with the following partners, who will use your information for similar purposes: Litmus, Rock Content, Search Engine Journal. You can unsubscribe from communications from HubSpot at any time. For more information, check out HubSpot's Privacy Policy . To unsubscribe from Litmus's communications, see Litmus's Privacy Policy . To unsubscribe from Rock Content's communications, see Rock Content's Privacy Policy . To unsubscribe from Search Engine Journal's communications, see Search Engine Journal's Privacy Policy .

Data from over 1,400 marketers across the globe.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

IMAGES

150 Excellent Marketing Research Topics to Achieve Top Grades
100+ Excellent Marketing Research Paper Topics
150+ Innovative Marketing Research Topics and Ideas
150+ Unique Marketing Research Topics for Your Upcoming Projects
Top 50 Best Ever Research Topics for Marketing By Experts
Best Ever 111+ Research Topics for Marketing By Experts

VIDEO

Marketing Trends 2021
5 Steps Marketing Research Process
Top Marketing Technology Trends You Need to Know in 2022
Top 10 marketing research ideas topics
Journal of Marketing Research Weitz-Winer-O'Dell Award
Controversial Marketing

COMMENTS

Research Topics In Marketing (+ Free Webinar)
Here, we'll explore a variety of marketing-related research ideas and topic thought-starters, covering both traditional marketing (offline media) and digital marketing (including social media marketing, content marketing and the like). We'll also look at actual dissertations and theses from marketing students to give you a view of what a ...
10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic
Here are 10 new marketing truths that reveal the confluence of strategies, operations, and technologies required to drive growth in a post-Covid-19 world. ... It's safe to say that 2020 was a ...
Emerging trends in marketing research: What's ahead for the insights
In 2021, conversational insights will become a mainstay terminology in the world of market research." 2. Accelerated adoption of mobile-first approaches. In 2020, the business world had to respond to fundamental changes to how most people work and live. Research leaders may be pulling for a return to a new normal. Still, Matt Kleinschmit, our ...
Mapping research in marketing: trends, influential papers and agenda
Nevertheless, the created knowledge is fragmented, and the emergence of new marketing topics is continuously changing the research map of marketing. Moreover, marketing is an applied discipline in that marketing research not only aims to generate scientific knowledge but also to provide insights and knowledge that can be practically used to ...
New areas of research in marketing strategy, consumer behavior, and
The second half of the paper articulates new areas of research in marketing strategy, consumer behavior, and marketing analytics. In the past, techniques were in search of data; in the future data will be in search of techniques including video analytics.
Top Marketing Research Topics: A Guide for Marketers
9) Relevant Marketing Research Topics. Here's a list of relevant Marketing Research Topics: a) Impact of Covid-19 on the marketing initiatives of the organisation. b) Effect of the Covid-19 emergence on business communities. c) Influence of the Covid-19 emergence on marketing operations.
The future of social media in marketing
Social media allows people to freely interact with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with consumers. Considering the numerous ways social media affects individuals and businesses alike, in this article, the authors focus on where they believe the future of social media lies when considering marketing-related topics and issues. Drawing on academic research ...
Market Research Trends: 6 to Watch Out For
Our research points to a number of emerging trends in market research following the 2020 crisis point: 1. Technology is here to stay. Its value proven, market research technology is set to keep on growing in 2021 and beyond. With budgets still critically tight, market researchers will be looking to technology to help them keep pace with demand.
Identifying Trends From the 2020 U.S. Top 50 Report
Insights from the 2020 U.S. Top 50 Report, documenting the progress and transformation of the top American market research and data analytics companies, and contextualizing their global growth rate. The "2020 U.S. Top 50 Report"—formerly known as "The Gold Report"—is developed by Diane Bowers and produced in partnership with the ...
Journal of Marketing Research: Sage Journals
Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed journal that strives to publish the best manuscripts available that address research in marketing and marketing research practice.JMR is a scholarly and professional journal. It does not attempt to serve the generalist in marketing management, but it does strive to appeal to the professional in marketing research.
The Top 19 Emerging Methods In Market Research
The Top 19 Emerging Methods In Market Research. The shift to "everything digital" in 2020 is apparent in the top emerging methods. Each year, the GRIT Report tracks the interest of insights and analytics professionals in a variety of emerging methodologies. It is critically important to understand which of these less established ...
The future of market research: 2020 and beyond
Home Market Research. The future of market research: 2020 and beyond. With no ability to foresee the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on all of us in both our personal and work life before the new year, organizations have had to be agile to navigate, 2020. Despite the halt, perhaps even a 'reshuffling of the deck' of what we call our day ...
Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research
This section synthesizes the existing literature focusing on digital and social media marketing and discusses each theme listed in Table 1 from a review of the extant literature. Studies included in this section were identified using the Scopus database by using the following combination of keywords "Social media", "digital marketing" and "social media marketing".
Best marketing articles of 2020: Our top 20 articles and ...
Remote working. Creating video content and using video software. Social media marketing. Virtual events. Government aid for businesses. These were the topics businesses needed to master if they were not only going to survive, but thrive in a volatile business landscape.
Full article: Fresh perspectives on brand management
Fresh topics. In our understanding, brand science is always applied- and practice-oriented. Hence, 'good' brand research should analyse the new topics of the 'real' business and non-profit world and should try to find answers to the challenges. In recent years, the world of brand practice has changed dramatically.
Journal of Marketing: Sage Journals
The Journal of Marketing (JM) develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions relevant to scholars, educators, managers, consumers, policy makers and other societal stakeholders. It is the premier outlet for substantive research in marketing. Since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline.
2020 Top picks: Our most popular articles
2020 Top picks: Our most popular articles. With vaccines being distributed, we can start to imagine a world after the pandemic. While many behaviors will return, new ones will continue to emerge—consumers' expectations will continue to increase, customer experiences will become even more of a business imperative, and how companies sell will ...
How the Pandemic Changed Marketing Channels
A new survey of more than 300 marketing leaders identified five key trends. by . ... Read more on Marketing or related topics Sales and marketing ... , Market research and Marketing industry.
15 Top Marketing Trends That May Impact 2020
This is commonly seen in phone and live chat support, but I'm anticipating conversational marketing will move in the direction of more AI in 2020. - Adam Binder, Creative Click Media. 2. Voice ...
Marketing Insights from New Research on Emerging Markets
The second paper by Sara Hamed and Sara El-Deeb investigates effects of cash on delivery system on the growth of e-commerce in an emerging market. The authors propose a conceptual model and then empirically test it. The authors collected data via survey research from a sample of 365 consumers in Egypt. A key result of the research study is that ...
71+ Research Paper Topics & Ideas for Marketing Students
Product Design & Positioning. Direct Marketing. Advertising. Purchasing & Materials Management. Hopefully, these marketing thesis topics will help you come up with a few topics of your own. If you're still confused about which area, you'd like to work with, we suggest you consult your advisor for some additional help.
Research trends of sustainability and marketing research, 2010-2020
During the early period of 2010-2020, sustainability and marketing research paid attention to different topics each year. In 2010, T7 received the most attention (23.1%), T6 (15%), and (T10) (15%), show equally high proportion among the 14 topics in 2011, suggesting that sustainability and marketing scholars focused on these two topics on ...
(PDF) Marketing innovation: a systematic review
According to Purchase & Volery (2020), marketing innovation is widely seen in literature as a novelty at the level of the 4 marketing Ps (product, price, placement and promotion). Gupta et al ...
New Perspectives in International Marketing Research
First paper. The lead paper by Fethi Klabi is an interesting empirical research study on local and international brands in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The author collected data from 149 respondents on 21 brands. A key research finding was that when respondents feel high congruity between self (both actual & ideal) and social (both actual & ideal) brand image, then the brand perceived quality is ...
2020 future of marketing predictions
1:19. not even aware of yet, to not only maximize the value to ourselves, but to the consumer, 1:21. and continue to evolve with them as they evolve. With a new decade fast approaching, you're probably wondering what's ahead for marketing in 2020 and onward. You're not alone.
Research trends of sustainability and marketing research, 2010-2020
14 research topics of sustainability and marketing over 2010-2020 were obtained from the Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Two hot topics and one cold topic were identified. The research trend has shifted from general sustainability concept to environmental and industrial technology.
233 Marketing Research Topics You Never Knew Existed
Sport Marketing Research Topics. The role of sports hubs in the management of sports organizations. Facilities and services that help save costs on sports. Sourcing of funding for sporting activities in developing countries. The part of the World Cup and Olympic games on marketing strategies and promotional messages.
Research trends of sustainability and marketing research, 2010-2020
Although T3 (14.1%) was the most researched topic in 2016, T12 became the top topic from 2017 to 2020. The results from 2017 to 2020 show that both research and practice are ready to move to the next level of transportation including types of transportation such as private car and public bus, to be more sustainable.
Top 100 Marketing Research Topics For Your Paper
The effect of social media on buying choices. Online purchasing: a study of the product characteristics buyers look for. An exploration of the differences in marketing strategies across cultures. Manipulation tactics: how brands can get more customers. A study of how customer loyalty is affected by brand image.
The Top Marketing Trends of 2024 & How They've Changed Since 2023 [Data
The Marketing Trends of 2024 [Highlights] Short-form Video Content (TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.) will continue to rule. Creating content reflecting the brand's values will be key to retaining your customers. Native advertising/sponsored content is still valuable. Influencer marketing is still crucial.

Research Topics & Ideas: Marketing

Overview: Marketing-Related Topics

How To Find A Research Topic

Research Ideas: Traditional Marketing

Research Ideas: Digital/Online Marketing

Marketing-Related Dissertations & Theses

Fast-Track Your Research Topic

You Might Also Like:

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Perspectives on Insights

Emerging trends in marketing research: What’s ahead for the insights industry

Kelvin Claveria

1. Driving agility by merging quant and qual in one seamless experience

2. Accelerated adoption of mobile-first approaches

3. A focus on bringing new voices to the research process and getting to the "other 99%"

Be a leader in conversational insights

You may also like

Let’s start with a conversation

Mapping research in marketing: trends, influential papers and agenda for future research

Design/methodology/approach

Research limitations/implications

Practical implications

Originality/value

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

2.1 Search strategy

2.2 Selection process and final data set

2.3 Final data set

2.4 Data analysis

3. Results and discussion

3.2 Most influential articles

3.3 Source impact

3.4 Contributing authors

3.5 Co-occurrence analysis

4. Conclusions and future research agenda

4.1 RQ1: knowledge structure

4.2 RQ2: current research trends

4.3 RQ3: future research agenda

5. Conclusions and limitations

Acknowledgements

Corresponding author

All feedback is valuable

Join us on our journey

Questions & More Information

Top Marketing Research Topics: Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Training Outcomes Within Your Budget!

Share this Resource

Best Marketing Research Topics list

1) Digital Marketing Research Topics

2) Content Marketing Research Topics

3) Strategic Marketing Research Topics

4) Social Media Marketing Research Topics

5) Exceptional Marketing Research Topics

6) Unique Marketing Research Topics

7) Premium Marketing Research Topics

8) Interesting Marketing Research Ideas

9) Relevant Marketing Research Topics

10) Impressive Marketing Research Topics

Conclusion

Frequently Asked Questions

Get A Quote

Share this course

Your privacy & cookies!

The future of social media in marketing

Cite this article

Similar content being viewed by others

Social media marketing strategy: definition, conceptualization, taxonomy, validation, and future agenda

Online influencer marketing

Social media influencer marketing: foundations, trends, and ways forward

Introduction

What is social media?

Social media at present

Overview of framework for the future of social media in marketing

The immediate future

Omni-social presence

The rise of new forms of social influence (and influencers)

Privacy concerns on social media

The near future

Combatting loneliness and isolation

Integrated customer care