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The Marketing Architects
Nerd Alert: How Your Brand Can Win the Holidays
00:10:45
Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We’re breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena...
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- [00:00]
A
Nerd alert.
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B
Learning is important, right?
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A
Yes, exactly. What a bunch of nerds.
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B
Nerd alert.
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A
Marketing Architects. Hello and welcome to the Marketing Architects, a research first podcast dedicated to answering your toughest marketing questions. I'm Elena Jasper. I'm on the marketing team here at Marketing Architects, and I'm joined by my co host. Rob Demar is the chief product architect of misfits and machines.
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B
Hello.
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A
Hello. We're back with your weekly Nerd Alert. Every week, I'll take a deep dive into academic marketing research and translate its complex ideas into simple, understandable language for Rob and of course, for all of you. Are you ready to nerd out, Rob?
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B
Oh, I just cracked open a fresh pack of graph paper and the smell is intoxicating. Hit me.
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A
All right, let's get into it. As always, I will link the research we cover in the episode notes. This week I read a recently published paper titled Gift Experience in Marketing A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda. This is by Harsha Tyagi and Ziller Raman from the Indian Institute of Technology. Published this year in 2025. It's a systematic review of 62 studies about how people experience gift giving and receiving and how those experiences shape emotions, relationships, and brand loyalty. But before I get into this research, Rob, how good are you when it comes to choosing gifts?
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B
I am amazing. It really depends upon how you define great. Because I can walk into a menards and in five minutes I will have purchased a gift for any human on the planet. It doesn't matter. Like, I can pull the trigger like no one else. Now, whether or not that person would like the present is a completely different question. But I'm so good at just going in, buying quick, and getting out.
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A
Okay, so you're saying, you're saying that you're good at the act of buying the gifts.
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B
So good. I think I'm way above average.
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A
But you're not saying you're above average in, like, giving the gifts, just in.
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B
In purchasing, in terms of thoughtfulness.
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A
Yeah, stuff like that. Do you think you're good at.
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B
No, I'm not thoughtful at all at the present. I just can buy it. I can buy it and I can deliver it really well.
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A
Okay.
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Whether or not the person's gonna like it. I'm below average there probably. But I'm really good at pulling the trigger. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I just go in there, get her done, check that box, and I'm ready.
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A
Okay. I think I know the answer to this, but when you're going and you're picking out these gifts, you're not really thinking about the reaction of the other person, like the different journey you're going to go on to give it to them when they unwrap it, when they use it. That's not really. Not top of mind. Okay.
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B
No, just transaction.
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A
Okay.
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B
There you go. Bow on it. There you go.
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A
All right, so that's Rob. Now I want you to put yourself. You, thankfully, you've never given me again. Now put yourself in the minds of a brand side marketer. All right?
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B
Yeah.
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A
What do you think that brands most often get wrong about holiday gifting? If you had to guess, maybe it's the emotional piece we talked about. What do marketers tend to overlook?
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B
I think there's a couple things. One is, I think they. They probably think of it in some ways, like me, very transactional, and go, forget brand. How are we just going to drive some sales during the holidays? And let's discount. Let's do some Black Friday deals. And they do it at the expense of the brand. Or they completely destroy all of the distinctiveness that they've built with their brands by throwing on, like an ugly holiday sweater on their brand, like every other brand does. And all of a sudden they are no longer distinctive because, oh, my gosh, they've got some holly in their ad, they've got a little jingle in their soundtrack, they've got some happy kids unwrapping presents, and all that sweet, distinctive asset development they did throughout the year just goes out the window.
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A
Yeah, that's a good point. You're right. Those holiday ads all tend to look the same, and it's nice to have like a holiday theme, but you still want it to be easily linked to your brand. Yeah, for sure.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Well, this study, the researchers, they wanted to understand this sort of full emotional journey of gift giving. So from the moment you decide to give something to someone to how that exchange reshapes your relationship with both the person and the brand involved. So they built this framework around four key elements that are present in every gift exchange. You've got, obviously the gift itself, then you have the giver, then you have the receiver, and finally you have the situation. So, Rob, if you had to guess which of these four elements marketers probably spend the least time thinking about, which one do you think it would be and why?
- [04:47]
B
Well, I definitely think that they obsess over the gift. Right, right. Because that's the product. They probably obsess over the demographics of the giver and they probably consider the receiver. So I'M actually going to go with the last one. The situation, like the emotive part of it. The hook.
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A
Yeah, you're like really close. You're right that most marketers focus on the gift itself or the giver, like the giver's intent and the gift. But the study found that the situation and the receiver experience are often overlooked, even though these parts of the gift giving experience can completely change how a brand is perceived. So when these four elements come together, they create three types of outcomes. Cognitive outcomes, what people think about the product and the brand, effective outcomes, what they feel, and behavioral outcomes, what they do next, like maybe making another purchase or sharing the brand experience. But these outcomes obviously don't happen all at once. They unfold over time. And each stage is influenced by moderating factors like how close the giver and receiver are, what social norms exist, and even what medium the exchange happens through. Like, think in person versus sending someone a gift online or through the mail. So to map out this timeline, the authors borrowed from foundational work from 1983, which breaks the gift exchange into three stages. So stage one is gestation. I don't like that word for some reason. Oh, gestation. This is the decision making stage. When we think about what to give. For Rob, this stage is very small, but that would be like the advertising, the brand cues and social context. They heavily influence the stage. Actually, Rob, these probably influence you more than anybody else because you go into the store like you're just kind of. You're buying quick.
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B
Oh, there, Trigger.
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Yep, exactly.
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You hit me. I'm there.
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So that's where storytelling, like distinctive assets are going to matter the most. Then we have the presentation. This is the act of giving, the packaging, the ritual, the ah, look, thank you moment. This is where unboxing, design, branding, and even copywriting can heighten emotion. If you think about that, have you ever opened a branded box and they just have a really creative note or something? Great packaging. They call it the Apple packaging. How that used to feel, opening it.
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Absolutely.
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And then we have the final stage, which is reformulation. This is everything that happens after the thank you, the emotional afterglow, and the way that moment changes the relationship between giver, receiver and brand. So another insight from this research is how experiential gifts consistently outperform material ones. They evoke stronger emotional responses, create shared memories, and foster connection. So giving someone a luxury watch, it might impress them, but giving them concert tickets means you're in this memory with them. The researchers connect this to the experience economy theory from Pine And Gilmour. This theory argues that the most successful brands move beyond selling products or services to staging experiences. So Starbucks doesn't just sell coffee, but sells these cozy moments. Lego doesn't just sell toys, it sells co creation and imagination. So when brands create these gift experiences instead of gift objects, they move up this value ladder because they're no longer competing on just price or features, they're competing on meaning. So the study found that the emotional ripple of a great gift often extends beyond the giver and receiver. Say you post about it on social media, you share the story with friends, your brand will gain the secondary emotional equity. One memorable gifting moment can inspire hundreds of potential buyers. Even digital gifting can work when it's emotionally designed. So E card gifts, surprise app rewards, or personalized digital messages can be just as powerful if they feel human. So the issue isn't the technology, it's what the interaction communicates. So what can marketers do? Think of what can marketers do at this study. First, try to design an experience, not just your product. Consumers remember how something made them feel more than what it did. So if your holiday campaign can focus on emotion, the anticipation, the surprise satisfaction of giving, make the packaging beautiful, make the messaging generous. Second, make the giver the hero. The study did find that gift givers care deeply about what their choices say about them, which I have heard that before. The great brands help them feel proud. So position your product as a way to express love, thoughtfulness or personality. Third, elevate the moment of exchange. Presentation matters. Think Apple's boxes, Tiffany's blue Ribbon. That reveal is a ritual. And ritual amplifies meaning. So for marketers, that could mean designing limited time holiday packaging or ads that dramaticize that time off, that handoff moment and finally personalize the story. Make people feel seen. You could tailor your creative or recommendations to the giver's intent. Like for the traveler, for the music lovers, blah blah, blah. Okay, robgpt A great gift isn't about price or packaging. It's about the story it tells between people. And the same is true for brands. The best ones don't show up in shopping carts. They show up in memories. When a break is something meaningful, joy, connection or belonging, it earns a place in the ritual of our lives. That's the real goal. To move from being a product people buy to an experience people share. Because the greatest brands, like the greatest gifts, don't get purchased, they get remembered. I grab a little holiday holiday theme.
- [09:42]
B
Wow, this one really helped me. Not just from a marketing perspective, but from a personal one, because I'm realizing that those leather mittens that I'm getting at Menards for my wife, it's probably not a good idea. I should be thinking deeper about it and thinking about the emotive.
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Yeah.
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So that's good. That's very good.
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You, like, these, like, brands could think more about, okay, who's receiving the gift, not just who's buying it. What does the gift look like, and then what's it going to be like when they get it?
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When they kind of becomes a category entry point in some ways, too? Doesn't it just, like, if you're thinking about it from that way. Yeah. Cool.
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A
Definitely. Like, gift giving is such a big opportunity. Some brands, they depend on it. That's where most of their revenue comes from, is from holiday gifting. That's it for this episode of the Marketing Architects. We'd like to thank Taylor de Los Reyes for producing the show. You can connect with us on LinkedIn. And if you like the podcast, please leave us a review. Now go forth and build great marketing Marketing Architects.