Jonah Berger
- Associate Professor of Marketing
Contact Information
- Primary Email:
jberger@wharton.upenn.edu - Office Phone:
(215) 898-8249
Research Interests: Word of mouth, social influence, why things catch on, viral marketing, and natural language processing
Links: CV, Personal Website
Overview
For most recent news and research, see jonahberger.com
Jonah Berger is an expert on word of mouth, social influence, consumer behavior, and how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. He has published dozens of articles in top-tier academic journals, and popular accounts of his work often appear in places like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Berger’ is an internationally bestselling author of both Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior and Contagious: Why Things Catch On and hundreds of thousands of copies are in print in over 35 languages. Berger is a popular speaker at major conferences and events, serves of a variety of advisory boards for early stage companies, often consults for organizations like Google, Coca-Cola, GE, Vanguard, Unilever, General Motors, 3M, Kaiser Permanente, and The Gates Foundation.
His most recent work uses automated textual analysis and natural language processing to pull behavioral insights from text data (e.g., predicting song success from lyrics, movie success from scripts, and customer satisfaction from service calls). He is co-organizing a conference on behavioral insight from text.
Research
Jonah Berger and Grant Packard (2018), Are Atypical Songs More Popular?, Psychological Science.
Abstract: Why do some cultural items become popular? While some have argued that success is random, we suggest that how similar items are to their peers plays an important role. Natural language processing of thousands of songs examines the relationship between lyrical differentiation (i.e., atypicality) and song popularity. Results indicate that the more different a song’s lyrics are from its genre, the more popular it becomes. This relationship is weaker in genres where lyrics matter less (i.e., dance) or where differentiation matters less (i.e., pop) and occurs for lyrical topics but not style. The results shed light on cultural dynamics, why things become popular, and the psychological foundations of culture more broadly.
Grant Packard and Jonah Berger (2017), How Language Shapes Word of Mouth’s Impact, Journal of Marketing Research.
Ezgi Akpinar and Jonah Berger (2017), Valuable Virality, Journal of Marketing Research.
Aner Sela, Jonah Berger, Joshua Kim (2017), How Self-Control Shapes the Meaning of Choice, Journal of Consumer Research.
Evan Weingarten and Jonah Berger (2017), Fired Up for the Future: How Time Shapes Sharing, Journal of Consumer Research.
Jonah Berger and Alixandra Barasch (2017), A Candid Advantage? The Social Benefits of Candid Photos, Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Evan Weingarten and Jonah Berger (Working), Discussing Proximal Pasts and Far Futures: When Do People Talk About and Why?.
Gregory Park, Andrew Schwartz, Maarten Sap, Margaret L Kern, Evan Weingarten, Johannes C Echstaedt, Jonah Berger, David J Stillwell, Michael Kosinski, Lyle Ungar, Martin E Seligman (2016), Living in the Past, Present, and Future: Measuring Temporal Orientation with Language, Journal of Personality.
Minsu Park, Mor Naaman, Jonah Berger (2016), A Data-driven Study of View Duration on YouTube, 10th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media.
Jonah Berger (2016), Does Presentation Order Impact Choice After Delay?, Topics in Cognitive Science.
Teaching
Current Courses
MKTG611 - Marketing Management
This course addresses how to design and implement the best combination of marketing efforts to carry out a firm's strategy in its target markets. Specifically, this course seeks to develop the student's (1) understanding of how the firm can benefit by creating and delivering value to its customers, and stakeholders, and (2) skills in applying the analytical concepts and tools of marketing to such decisions as segmentation and targeting, branding, pricing, distribution, and promotion. The course uses lectures and case discussions, case write-ups, student presentations, and a comprehensive final examination to achieve these objectives.
MKTG611009 ( Syllabus )
MKTG611011 ( Syllabus )
MKTG611013 ( Syllabus )
MKTG611015 ( Syllabus )
Past Courses
MKTG211 - Consumer Behavior
This course is concerned with how and why people behave as consumers. Its goals are to: (1) provide conceptual understanding of consumer behavior, (2) provide experience in the application of buyer behavior concepts to marketing management decisions and social policy decision-making; and (3) to develop analytical capability in using behavioral research.
MKTG611 - Marketing Management
This course addresses how to design and implement the best combination of marketing efforts to carry out a firm's strategy in its target markets. Specifically, this course seeks to develop the student's (1) understanding of how the firm can benefit by creating and delivering value to its customers, and stakeholders, and (2) skills in applying the analytical concepts and tools of marketing to such decisions as segmentation and targeting, branding, pricing, distribution, and promotion. The course uses lectures and case discussions, case write-ups, student presentations, and a comprehensive final examination to achieve these objectives.
MKTG768 - Contagious: How Products, Ideas and Behaviors Catch On
Why do some products catch on and achieve huge popularity while others fail? Why do some behaviors spread like wildfire while others languish? How do certain ideas seem to stick in memory while others disappear the minute you hear them? More broadly, what factors lead to trends, social contagion, and social epidemics? ,Interactive media, word of mouth, and viral marketing are important issues for companies, brands, and organizations. This course looks at these and other topics as it examines how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on and become popular. Marketers want their product to be popular, organizations want their social change initiative to catch on and entrepreneurs want their ideas to stick. This course will touch on four main aspects: (1) Characteristics of products, ideas, and behaviors that lead them to be successful. (2) Aspects of individual psychology that influence what things are successful. (3) Interpersonal processes, or how interactions between individuals drive success. (4) Social networks, or how patterns of social ties influence success.
MKTG973 - Research Seminar in Marketing - Part A
This course is taught collectively by the faculty members from the Marketing Department. It is designed to expose Doctoral students to the cutting-edge research in marketing models in order to help them to define and advance their research interests. This course will offer: in-depth discussions on some important topics in marketing by experts in respective areas; tools, and methodologies required for conducting research in those areas; broad exposure to our faculty members and their proven research styles.
Awards and Honors
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Research, 2016
- Best 2012 Article Finalist, Journal of Consumer Research, 2015
- Top 30 Leaders in Business, American Management Association, 2015
- Berry-AMA Book Prize for Best Book in Marketing, 2014
- Top 5 Most Productive Researchers in Marketing 2009-13, AMA DocSig, 2013
- Paul Green Award, Journal of Marketing Research, Finalist, 2013
- Most Creative People in Business, Fast Company, 2013
- Early Career Award, Association for Consumer Research, 2012
- Early Career Award, Society for Consumer Psychology, 2012
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Research, 2011
- Winner, Iron Professor Competition, The Wharton School, 2011
- MBA Teaching Commitment and Curricular Innovation Award, 2011
- MSI – Young Scholars Program, 2011
- Top 10 Reviewer Award, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011
- JCR Best Paper in 2007 Award, Finalist, 2010
In the News
- Parents looking for ‘cool factor’ in baby names, USA Today - 11/29/2012
- 4 Decision Making Mistakes to Avoid, INC Magazine - 11/26/2012
- How to Cope With a Terrible Review, Businessweek - 11/16/2012
- Hurricanes and Hot Baby Names, New York Times Op-Ed - 11/09/2012
- Did your team win? That might affect how you vote., Washington Post - 11/01/2012
- Mobile Telephone Start-Up Solavei Avoids Ads, Relies on Customers for Sales Leads, Dail Beast - 10/24/2012
- Chanel No. 5’s heavy notes of Brad Pitt tickling the wrong senses at the moment, Chicago Tribune - 10/24/2012
- ‘Old-fashioned’ has lost its chic for Wendy’s, NPR - Marketplace - 10/11/2012
- Good bye ivory tower, hello social media: academics struggle to make ideas accessible, WHYY - 09/28/2012
- Crafting Contagious, Google Think Quarterly - 07/19/2012
- Penn Researchers Detail Polling-place Effect, Penn News - 05/22/2012
- Sophia and Jacob are most popular U.S. baby names, USA Today - 05/15/2012
- When to Ignore Web Memes, Wired - 04/01/2012
- Should you read this story? Why you’re having trouble deciding, MSNBC - 03/14/2012
- Bad Reviews Can Boost Sales. Here’s Why, Harvard Business Review - 03/01/2012
- Hidden triggers prompt voters’ choices, USA Today - 01/20/2012
- Polling Location May Influence Vote, Study Finds, ABC News - 01/19/2012
- Decision Quicksand, Wall Street Journal - 11/30/2011
- Five Tips for Driving Word-of-Mouth — No Matter What Your Product Is, Ad Age - 11/28/2011
- The Drive to Be Different, Wired - 10/14/2011
- If You Want to Win, Tell Your Team It’s Losing (A Little), Harvard Business Review - 10/01/2011
- No Room for Promises in Advertising, Business Week - 08/27/2011
- The Physiology of (Over-)Sharing, The Atlantic - 08/05/2011
- Why You Just Shared That Baby Video, Wall Street Journal - 07/23/2011
- New Study Shows How To Rack Up Retweets:, Fast Company - 06/29/2011
- Bet on the Losing Team, Scientific American - 06/28/2011
- Decision Quicksand, The Guardian - 05/21/2011
- Under the Influence: How the Group Changes What We Think, Wall Street Journal - 05/03/2011
- Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard?, Wired Magazine - 03/02/2011
- The Formula for a Most-Emailed Story, NPR - 02/25/2011
- Better to be reviled than ignored, The Economist - 02/24/2011
- The End Of Trends: If It’s Hot, It’s Over, NPR - 02/09/2011
- The Tyranny of Choice, BBC - 01/11/2011
- The Key to Fulfillment, Oprah.com - 12/01/2010
- Can Negative Publicity Help?, New York Times - 10/30/2010
- Why Elite Shoppers Eschew Logos, New York Times - 07/26/2010
- Brands and Stores Want Haul Videos, Marketplace, National Public Radio - 07/13/2010
- Inconspicuous Consumption: Subtle Signals of Style, Psychology Today - 06/01/2010
- 5 Reasons Your Fast-Car Is More Social Than Your Fast-Food, Fast Company - 05/10/2010 Description
Hello
- Applause, Please, for Early Adopters, New York Times - 05/09/2010
- The market is bleeding, so I’m selling!, Marketplace, National Public Radio - 05/01/2010
- Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome, New York Times - 02/09/2010
- The Feel-Good Economy, The Globe and Mail - 01/28/2010
- Examining the shifting trends in baby names, Philadelphia Inquirer - 12/30/2009
- What Is It About “It” Gifts?, NPR - Talk of the Nation - 12/24/2009
- How Do Popular Holiday Gifts Become Popular?, Washington Post - 12/13/2009
- Paper checks… Remember those?, NPR - Marketplace - 12/02/2009
- Why We Love — and Love to Hate — Fads, Wall Street Journal - 08/10/2009
- Don’t Blog or Tweet Anything With More Than Half a Million Hits, Wired Magazine - 07/15/2009
- Berlin Bans Brakeless Bikes, Freakonomics Blog - 07/02/2009
- Cultural Latency, Fast Company - 07/01/2009
- American Apparel suit means cheap ads, NPR - Marketplace - 05/18/2009
- Quick Arriving Fads Quick to Flame Out, New York Times - 05/17/2009
- Heather Today, Gone Tomorrow, Scientific American - 05/04/2009
- How Twitter Might Be More Popular and Less Cool, San Jose Mercury News - 04/24/2009
- A Slight Deficit Can Actually Be an Edge, The New York Times - 03/16/2009
- When Being Down At Halftime Is A Good Thing, Wall Street Journal - 03/06/2009
- Las Vegas Touts Its Affordability, Wall Street Journal - 02/04/2009
- Frugalness Is The New Chic, National Public Radio - 01/21/2009
- Psychology: Bias at the Ballot Box, Nature - 11/28/2008
- How to Turn a Herd on Wall Street, New York Times - 11/09/2008
- Brain Research on Buying, Stanford Magazine - 11/04/2008
- Warm Your Hands, Warm Your Outlook, National Geographic News - 10/24/2008
- Modifying political behavior by manipulating group identification, Huffington Post - 09/10/2008
- Poll Position, Stanford Social Innovation Review - 09/01/2008
- Subconscious Decisions: Voting in Churches and Buying Designer Labels, Scientific American - 08/28/2008
- When Images Speak Louder Than Words, Huffington Post - 08/21/2008
- Surprising Insights from the Social Sciences, Boston Globe - 07/13/2008
- Polling Places’ Surprising Sway, Scientific American Mind - 07/01/2008
- Too Racy for JC Penney, NPR - Marketplace - 06/24/2008
- How Do You Vote? Depends on Where You Vote, ABC News - 06/24/2008
- Your Polling Place Affects How You Vote, NPR - All Things Considered - 06/23/2008
- Where You Vote Affects How You Vote, Nature - 06/23/2008
- Voter Decision Affected by Polling Place, Study Finds, National Geographic - 06/23/2008
- Contexts and Product Choice, National Public Radio (WNYC) - 05/30/2008
- Subtly but Visibly Swayed by Context, New York Times - 05/12/2008
- Herd on the Street, CNBC - 04/10/2008
- Philly’s best cooks, Blog - 02/06/2008
- If You Like It, It Must Be Uncool, US News & World Report - 01/09/2008
- Variety Can Change Your Mind, Boston Globe - 01/04/2008
- Chequebook Frugalista: Marketers are reframing ad messages, Financial Post - 12/12/2007
- Timeless Object, New York Times - Consumed - 10/28/2007
- Time to Get Trigger Happy, Fast Company - 10/01/2007
- Researchers on the hunt for cool, Vancouver Sun - 09/15/2007
- I Think, You Behave, Science - 06/01/2007
- What You See Affects What You Get, Sloan Management Review - 05/01/2007
- Dancing To The Beat of Their Own Drummer, Vancouver Sun - 04/26/2007
- Voting Booth Feng Shui, New York Times - 12/10/2006
Knowledge @ Wharton
- Why Time of Day Affects Shoppers’ Appetite for Variety, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/24/2018
- Words Matter: How Lyrics Help Songs Top the Charts, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/01/2018
- What Wharton Faculty Would Have Asked Mark Zuckerberg, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/12/2018
- How What You Say Reveals More Than You Think, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/16/2018
- So Long, Selfies: Why Candid Photos Make a Better Impression, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/28/2017
- Will Crowdfunding Become a Big Deal in India?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/15/2017
- Social Media Endorsements: Where Will Marketers Draw the Line?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 05/23/2017
- How Facebook’s Big Bet on Video Could Change TV, Knowledge @ Wharton - 03/21/2017
- Why Product Recommendations Can Lead to Bad Decisions, Knowledge @ Wharton - 01/26/2017
- Fake News, Hate Speech and Social Media Abuse: What’s the Solution?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/21/2016
- Can Snapchat Avoid Twitter’s Slowing Growth Trap?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/21/2016
- Customer Engagement: Does Talking to a Human Still Matter?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/14/2016
- How “Pokemon Go” Took Augmented Reality Mainstream, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/21/2016
- ‘Invisible Influence’: What Really Shapes Our Decisions, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/14/2016
- The Rise of the Chatbots: Is It Time to Embrace Them?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/09/2016
- What Can U.S. Retailers Learn from Alibaba’s Singles’ Day Success?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/30/2015
- Will Twitter Remain in Facebook’s Shadow?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/09/2015
- Six Lessons Your Brand Can Learn from Google’s Logo Reboot, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/01/2015
- Crafting a Questionable Future: Will a Successful IPO Ruin Etsy?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 03/11/2015
- Can Ello — or Any Social Network — Take on Facebook?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/08/2014
- Why the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Went Viral, Knowledge @ Wharton - 08/22/2014
- Shhh! Marketing Embarrassing Products in the Age of Social Media, Knowledge @ Wharton - 08/12/2014
- Body Slams, Vicious Dogs, Tidal Waves: How Effective Are Violent Ads?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/25/2014
- Finding Your Company’s ‘Controversy Sweet Spot’, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/05/2013
- Will Microsoft’s Reorganization Pay Off?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/17/2013
- Can Best Buy Boost Sales for Windows 8?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/19/2013
- Today’s Forecast for the Weather Business: Increased Revenues and a Focus on Innovation, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/10/2013
- ‘Contagious’: Jonah Berger on Why Things Catch On, Knowledge @ Wharton - 03/13/2013
- The Hazards of Celebrity Endorsements in the Age of Twitter, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/27/2013
- Trading Compliments, not Insults, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/11/2012
- Marketing to Kids: Toy Sellers’ Bonanza or Parental Danger Zone?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/05/2012
- The Pope on Twitter: 140-character Sermons?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/04/2012
- Research Roundup: ‘One-size-fits-all’ Regulation, Avoiding Decision Traps and How Sex Cues Affect Sales, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/07/2012
- Click to Checkout: Namshi.com Sets the Trend for Online Fashion Retail in the Middle East, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/31/2012
- Chick-fil-A and the Boy Scouts: Branding at Risk?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/27/2012
- Burger King: Seducing Customers with Bacon, Knowledge @ Wharton - 07/05/2012
- Haute Is Hot in the Middle East, Despite Eurozone Fears and Arab Unrest, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/26/2012
- How Baby Names Can Help Marketers Predict the Next Big Thing, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/27/2012
- Matching the Medium with the Message in Word-of-mouth Marketing, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/11/2012
- A Secondary Market for the iPad 2?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/27/2012
- Absolutely Scrumptious: The Scottish Sweet Factory Loved by the Middle East, Knowledge @ Wharton - 02/07/2012
- ‘Drinking from a Fire Hose’: Has Consumer Data Mining Gone Too Far?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/22/2011
- Research Roundup: Online Product Reviews, Happiness and Choice, CEO Stock Options and the Hunger for Distinctiveness, Knowledge @ Wharton - 10/26/2011
- Gibson Strums a Twitter Chord to Empower Small Business, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/14/2011
- Target’s Missoni Line Is a ‘Crashing’ Success, Knowledge @ Wharton - 09/13/2011
- Different Worlds: Do Recommender Systems Fragment Consumers’ Interests?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 08/31/2011
- Google Doodles: A Lesson in the Power of Branding, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/16/2011
- More Than Virtual: Marketing the Total Brand ‘Experience’, Knowledge @ Wharton - 06/07/2011
- Research Roundup: Fiscal Fatal Attraction, the Idiosyncrasies of Entrepreneurs and the Value of Luxury Hiding in Plain Sight, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/27/2011
- A Teakettle with Star Power? The Upsides and Pitfalls of Celebrity Brands, Knowledge @ Wharton - 04/27/2011
Activity
Latest Research
In the News
Why Time of Day Affects Shoppers’ Appetite for VarietyNew Wharton research finds that shoppers are more likely to seek variety in their buying decisions later in the day.
Knowledge @ Wharton - 2018/09/24