Jonah Berger

Jonah Berger
  • Associate Professor of Marketing

Contact Information

Research Interests: Digital Marketing, Influence, Word of Mouth, Natural Language Processing, Viral Marketing

Links: CV, Personal Website

Overview

For most recent news and research, see  jonahberger.com

Professor Jonah Berger is an internationally bestselling author, and a world-renowned expert on change, influence, word of mouth, natural language processing, consumer behavior, and how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on.  He has published over 75 articles in top‐tier academic journals, teaches one of the world’s most popular online courses, and accounts of his work often appear in places like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Millions of copies of his books, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind, Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way are in print in over 35 countries around the world. Berger often keynotes major conferences and events like SXSW and Cannes Lions, advises various early stage companies, and consults for organizations like Apple, Google, Nike, Amazon, GE, Moderna, and The Gates Foundation.

His recent work uses 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 co-founded the Technology and Behavioral Science Initiative and helps host an interdisciplinary conference on Behavioral Insights from Text.

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Research

  • Jonah Berger (Forthcoming), What Gets Shared, and Why? Interpersonal Communication andWord of Mouth, Annual Review of Psychology.
  • Grant Packard, Yang Li, Jonah Berger (2024), When Language Matters, Journal of Consumer Research. Related
  • Matt Rocklage and Jonah Berger (Under Revision), The Trajectory of Confidence: Experience, Certainty, and Consumer Choice.
  • Grant Packard and Jonah Berger (2024), The Emergence and Evolution of Consumer Language Research, Journal of Consumer Research.
  • Demi Oba and Jonah Berger (2024), How Communication Mediums Shape the Message, Journal of Consumer Psychology.
  • Jonah Berger and Olivier Toubia (2024), The Topography of Thought, Proceedings of The National Academy of Science Nexus.
  • Giovanni Luca Cascio-Rizzo and Jonah Berger, How Speaking Rate Shapes Consumer Response.
  • Giovanni Luca Cascio-Rizzo and Jonah Berger, Melodic Repetition Shapes Success.
  • Grant Packard and Jonah Berger (2023), How Verb Tense Shapes Persuasion, Journal of Consumer Research.
  • Reihane Boghrati and Jonah Berger (2023), Quantifying Cultural Change: Gender Bias in Music, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
  • All Research from Jonah Berger »

Teaching

Past Courses

  • MKTG0001 - Viral Marketing

    Why do some products catch on and become popular while others fail? Why do apps and services take off while others languish? And why do certain ads, messages, or ideas stick in memory while others disappear the minute you hear them? Diffusion, social media, word of mouth, and viral marketing have become important topics for companies, brands, and organizations. 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 investigates these and other topics as it explains how things catch on and become popular.

  • MKTG2680 - Contagious

    Why do some things catch on? Products become popular, apps take off, and videos go viral. Why? What makes some things succeed while others fail, and how, by understanding the behavioral science behind social epidemics, can we make our own stuff more successful? This course looks at these and related questions as it examines why things become popular. Building on research from psychology, sociology, marketing, and economics, the course explores characteristics of products, services, and ideas that lead them to catch on, what makes ideas stick, and how social dynamics shape success. We’ll talk about viral marketing, growth strategies, the role of social media, and influencers. Whether you have a product, service, or idea you want to catch on, or just want to better understand social epidemics, this course will shed light on what drives success.

  • MKTG6110 - 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.

  • MKTG7680 - Contagious

    Why do some products catch on and achieve huge popularity while others fail? Why do some services and apps spread like wildfire while others languish? And what makes certain ideas stick while others fail? This course looks at these and other topics as it examines why things catch on. Marketers want their product to be popular, organizations want their initiatives to catch on, and entrepreneurs want their ideas to stick. Building on research from psychology, sociology, marketing, and economics, the course explores characteristics of products, services, and ideas that lead them to catch on, what makes ideas stick, and how social dynamics shape success. We’ll talk about viral marketing, growth strategies, the role of social media, and influencers. Whether you have a product, service, or idea you want to catch on, or just want to better understand social epidemics, this course will shed light on what drives success.

  • MKTG8990 - Independent Study

    A student contemplating an independent study project must first find a faculty member who agrees to supervise and approve the student's written proposal as an independent study (MKTG 899). If a student wishes the proposed work to be used to meet the ASP requirement, he/she should then submit the approved proposal to the MBA adviser who will determine if it is an appropriate substitute. Such substitutions will only be approved prior to the beginning of the semester.

  • MKTG9520 - Consumer Research Topics - A

    The purpose of this seminar is to provide graduate students with an overview of contemporary topics in consumer research. Depending on faculty, areas addressed may include basic research on consumer knowledge (learning and memory), goals, persuasion, and emotions, with applications to branding. consumer finance, human-technology interaction, and social influence. The course draws from the literature in marketing, psychology and economics. The course will enable students to conceptualize, operationalize, and develop research ideas. Therefore, the focus is on understanding theoretical and methodological approaches to various aspects of consumer behavior, as well as advancing this knowledge by developing testable hypotheses and theoretical perspectives that build on the current knowledge base.

  • MKTG9730 - Research Sem Mktg 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

  • William F. O’Dell Award, Journal of Marketing Research,, 2019
  • 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

Knowledge @ Wharton

Activity

Latest Research

Jonah Berger (Forthcoming), What Gets Shared, and Why? Interpersonal Communication andWord of Mouth, Annual Review of Psychology.
All Research

In the News

Overwhelmed by Too Many Choices When Shopping? Wharton Retail Expert Weighs In

Wharton retail expert discusses why shoppers may feel overwhelmed when faced with many options.Read More

Knowledge @ Wharton - 2024/12/19
All News

Awards and Honors

William F. O’Dell Award, Journal of Marketing Research, 2019
All Awards