[{"id":106,"date":"2019-04-22T17:57:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T17:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/?p=106"},"modified":"2019-04-22T17:57:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T17:57:17","slug":"the-erwin-center-for-brand-communications-research-spotlight-l-dr-oriana-aragon-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/2019\/04\/22\/the-erwin-center-for-brand-communications-research-spotlight-l-dr-oriana-aragon-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Erwin Center for Brand Communications Research Spotlight l Dr. Oriana Arag\u00f3n, Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dr.The Erwin Center for Brand Communications is proud to support various research initiatives across Clemson\u2019s campus that impact the brand communications industry.<\/p>\n

One of the current projects of Dr. Oriana Arag\u00f3n, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University, focuses on the influence of \u201ccuteness,\u201d i.e. cute little beings in relation to product and brand message framing and impact on purchase intentions. Marketing and branding efforts have used cuteness in their communications to capture consumers\u2019 attentions and to bring about good feelings. Because cute, little beings bring about strong desires to care for, preferences to look at and a sense of liking, it is no wonder that cute babies and puppies are so commonly used in messaging. Until now, the effects of cuteness have been considered, generally, as a wholesale positive in messaging, but her research is finding evidence that this is not always the case.<\/p>\n

Specifically, her research has shown that people\u2019s own desire to become parents, and the way that infant care is described in brand communications, can affect consumers\u2019 engagement with babies and the products with which they are associated. These findings are important because modern-day populations are shifting, in that individuals are delaying having children, if at all. The desire to have children that was once more commonplace in consumers is not as apparent today, and this desire interacts in interesting ways with attentional engagement to cute babies. Therefore, when brand managers add cute babies to branding and marketing communications, their efforts could have unintended consequences on consumer engagement with those brands and products.<\/p>\n

Another one of Dr. Aragon\u2019s research interests focuses on emotional responses to cuteness. The human brain is wired to find certain traits \u201ccute,\u201d such as those in babies and puppies, and this emotion comes to life as a result of the neurons in the brain associated with the rewards system. In 2015, she first identified the phenomenon of \u201ccute aggression,\u201d which is an over-the-top response to cuteness which can involve urges to squeeze, clench one\u2019s teeth and bite. \u201cCute aggression\u201d is an example of what is called a dimorphous expression, in which the display on the outside does not normatively \u201cmatch\u201d what is going on, on the inside; people who show cute-aggression actually feel very strong warm, positive feelings toward cute little beings in contrast to these more aggressive, external actions.<\/p>\n

Her research into the effects of cuteness on people is of high public interest and is frequently requested by various media outlets. Internationally, the research into cuteness and expression has been covered in over 300 media outlets worldwide. In the US and UK, it has been featured in news outlets such as New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Business Insider; in television such as Discovery News, CNN, Good Morning America, QI, and Newsweek Magazine; and in specialized publications such as Buzzfeed News, National Geographic and Scientific American. Check out the link below to see more!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2018\/12\/31\/679832549\/when-too-cute-is-too-much-the-brain-can-get-aggressive<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n

Check back on our BRAND_ED blog for all things brand education, including research furthering innovation in this industry. #ErwinCenterCU<\/p>\n


\nMore about Dr. Oriana Arag\u00f3n: Dr. Oriana Arag\u00f3n is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University and was trained in Social Psychology at Yale University where she received her Ph.D. Her research interests consistently align with human emotions and their consequences for observable human behavior and studies how we perceive, engage and react emotionally to the people and things that we encounter. Dr. Arag\u00f3n is currently working on building a theoretical model of emotion expression in the realm of marketing and other projects such as why at times our emotional expressions are not congruent with how we might feel, as when people display “nervous laughter” and “tears of joy.” She is also studying the persuasive power of “cuteness,” or its ability to capture attention and how sustained attention might differ dependent upon a person’s parental motivations. Dr. Arag\u00f3n also investigates issues of inclusion and best education practices within academia and business, including developing the EPIC model that assesses the process by which employees and students adopt new organizational initiatives. Lastly, she works with Dr. Margaret Clark, her graduate school advisor, and Dr. Lindsey Beck in exploring how it is that people navigate the initiation of new relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Erwin Center for Brand Communications is proud to support various research initiatives across Clemson\u2019s campus that impact the brand communications industry. One of the current projects of Dr. Oriana Arag\u00f3n, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University, focuses on the influence of \u201ccuteness,\u201d i.e. cute little beings in relation to product and brand message […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3717,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3717"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":103,"date":"2019-04-04T13:04:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T13:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/?p=103"},"modified":"2019-04-04T13:04:10","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T13:04:10","slug":"the-erwin-center-for-brand-communications-research-spotlight-l-dr-erica-walker-graphic-communications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/2019\/04\/04\/the-erwin-center-for-brand-communications-research-spotlight-l-dr-erica-walker-graphic-communications\/","title":{"rendered":"The Erwin Center for Brand Communications Research Spotlight l Dr. Erica Walker, Graphic Communications"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Erwin Center for Brand Communications is proud to support various research initiatives across Clemson\u2019s campus that impact the brand communications industry.<\/p>\n

The current research of Dr. Erica Walker, Assistant Professor of Graphic Communications at Clemson University, focuses on the consistency of brand colors on jumbtrons at live sporting events and a multi-year project on classroom research where she works as an instructional designer in partnership with industry-expert, adjunct lecturers.<\/p>\n

The research, Are you for the Red Team or the Orange Team?: Protecting brand color consistency on jumbotron displays at live sporting events<\/em>, studies the effects of branded color change on various screens and its impact on brand identity. Brands spend time and money developing standards to protect the integrity of brand assets, and this investment creates long-term value and demand for authentic products. However, various factors such as the screen\u2019s built-in technology and the ambient light at the facility, which can range broadly based on the time of day and weather (for outdoor fields) to mixed-artificial lighting (for indoor facilities), can impact color management on video displays. By examining how video is captured and displayed during sporting events, she hopes to implement a systematic approach that can ensure color consistency for brand managers, content creators and screen manufacturers, as well as improve the overall fan experience. Currently, she is working with Faculty member, Dr. Hudson Smith, and a team of Creative Inquiry students to build out an Artificial Intelligence-based solution that recognizes brand color discrepancies pixel-by-pixel and targets color correction specifically to out-of-range parts of the image in real time.<\/p>\n

As a result of a competitive and complex job market, students need to master both domain content and job-readiness skills such as perseverance, problem-solving, leadership and communication. Academics are trained to teach and evaluate student learning while industry experts can bring in current trends and tools needed for success in the industry. Both types of instructors bring value to preparing future industry leaders, but they rarely have the chance to partner together to provide this type of combined instruction for learners. In her research with industry-expert, adjunct lecturers, Bridging academia and industry through meaningful classroom experiences: Developing a framework for success in the classroom<\/em>, four courses developed through the combined effort of an academic and an adjunct instructor are examined to reveal what aspects of this partnership are effective. The resulting model will help provide the structure and tools necessary to prepare current and future industry expert adjuncts and their academic partners for greater success in the classroom.<\/div>\n

\nCheck back on our BRAND_ED blog for all things brand education, including research furthering innovation in this industry. #ErwinCenterCU<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

More about Dr. Erica Walker<\/em>: Dr. Erica Walker has a diverse background in visual communications which includes feature film production, web design & development, print buying, marketing and graphic design. As a faculty member in the Department of Graphic Communications at Clemson University, Dr. Walker teaches courses in Photography, Video, Web Development and Entrepreneurship. Prior to becoming a faculty member at Clemson University, Dr. Walker co-founded a film production company, Galatia Films. Two of her larger projects with Galatia Films, as a producer and cinematographer, include a feature length documentary film and an educational television series for children. Outside the classroom, Dr. Walker speaks at conferences across the country on topics including Adobe applications, curriculum development, mixed methods classroom research, the entrepreneurial mindset, game-based learning, color management, branding and social marketing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Erwin Center for Brand Communications is proud to support various research initiatives across Clemson\u2019s campus that impact the brand communications industry. The current research of Dr. Erica Walker, Assistant Professor of Graphic Communications at Clemson University, focuses on the consistency of brand colors on jumbtrons at live sporting events and a multi-year project on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3717,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3717"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":101,"date":"2019-03-28T15:01:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T15:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/?p=101"},"modified":"2019-03-28T15:01:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T15:01:17","slug":"the-erwin-center-for-brand-communications-research-spotlight-l-dr-jennifer-siemens-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/2019\/03\/28\/the-erwin-center-for-brand-communications-research-spotlight-l-dr-jennifer-siemens-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Erwin Center for Brand Communications Research Spotlight l Dr. Jennifer Siemens, Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dr.The Erwin Center for Brand Communications is proud to support various research initiatives across Clemson\u2019s campus that impact the brand communications industry. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jennifer Christie Siemens, Associate Professor of Marketing at Clemson University, is setting out to to understand the role that food and food brands play in consumer life transitions, helping inform food brand managers about how to connect with and provide increased value to transitioning consumers. While consumers\u2019 relationship with food is well-documented, no empirical studies have examined the role that food or food-related brands play during consumers\u2019 life transitions. Specifically, consumers may utilize their relationship with a food brand as a resource during a life transition, such as college students transitioning from home to college.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research, Understanding the Role of Food in Consumer Life Transitions<\/em>, proposes a multi-method approach to explore these research questions and predicts that this relationship is linked to the value that the brand community provides regarding social, financial and time resources. For example, especially during a life transition, a food establishment may provide a place of refuge or social gathering, the brand may provide valuable time and financial savings or may provide other important connections. These connections will be explored by analyzing social media usage by consumers of a popular food brand and conducting follow-up interviews and focus groups. <\/span><\/p>\n

Check back on our BRAND_ED blog for all things brand education, including research furthering innovation in this industry. #ErwinCenterCU<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More about Dr. Jennifer Siemens<\/em>: As an Associate Professor of Marketing, Dr. Siemens teaches consumer behavior and advertising at the undergraduate and masters levels. She received a B.A. in Psychology, M.B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas. Prior to joining Clemson University, she was Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Dayton, where she taught advertising and global branding. Dr. Siemens’s research focuses on consumer behavior, specifically how consumers cope with major life transitions, how consumers respond to advertising and brand strategy and how they react within interactive marketing spaces. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Business Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, AMS Review and Journal of Consumer Marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Erwin Center for Brand Communications is proud to support various research initiatives across Clemson\u2019s campus that impact the brand communications industry. Dr. Jennifer Christie Siemens, Associate Professor of Marketing at Clemson University, is setting out to to understand the role that food and food brands play in consumer life transitions, helping inform food brand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3717,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3717"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":99,"date":"2019-03-13T15:42:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T15:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/?p=99"},"modified":"2019-03-13T15:42:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T15:42:55","slug":"meet-the-brand-communications-experts-jennifer-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/erwin\/2019\/03\/13\/meet-the-brand-communications-experts-jennifer-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Brand Communications Experts | Jennifer Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

SERIES: Meet the Brand Communications Experts | Jennifer Smith<\/p>\n

A Closer Look at the Industry Leaders Behind the Erwin Center for Brand Communications<\/p>\n