Kelly Goldsmith
E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Marketing | Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES
Expert in marketing, market research, and consumer behavior focusing on the impact of scarcity and sales on shoppers' mindsets.
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Biography
Professor Goldsmith is a behavioral scientist and a marketing professor. Her research is highly interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon theories and methods from a variety of areas, including anthropology, cognitive and social psychology, economics, evolutionary biology, and marketing. Because her research bridges theory and practice, it contributes not only to more nuanced theories of consumer decision making, but also to new techniques for marketers, firms, and policy makers. Professor Goldsmith’s work has appeared in several top marketing and psychology journals and has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including the BBC, Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many more. She has been recognized as one of the "Top 40 Most Outstanding Business School Professors in the World Under 40" (Poets& Quants) and one of "Eight Young Business School Professors on the Rise" (Fortune Magazine).
At Vanderbilt, she is the E. Bronson Ingram Chair, a full professor, the Marketing Area Coordinator, and award-winning teacher and researcher. She recently received both the Research Productivity Award (2021) and the Dean’s Award for Teaching (2020), in addition to being recognized as a Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow.
Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, she obtained her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. in Behavioral Marketing from Yale University. She then worked at the Kellogg School of Management as a marketing professor for eight years, where she was a highly decorated researcher and teacher, receiving several awards including the Richard M. Clewett Research Chair, the McManus Research Chair, the Sidney J. Levy Award for Excellence in Teaching (2012, 2014), and two Faculty Impact awards.
Fun fact: Goldsmith was once a contestant on "Survivor" and says the lessons she learned about scarcity during that experience have impacted her scholarship today.
Areas of Expertise (6)
Sales
Consumer Behavior
Market Research
Marketing
Scarcity
Shopping
Accomplishments (5)
Faculty Impact Award Winner (professional)
Faculty Impact Award Winner
Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar (professional)
Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar
Sidney J. Levy Award for Excellence in Teaching (professional)
Sidney J. Levy Award for Excellence in Teaching
Grant Winner (professional)
Provost Research Studio
JCR Outstanding Reviewer Award (professional)
JCR Outstanding Reviewer Award
Education (4)
Yale University: M.Phil.
Yale University: Ph.D.
Yale University: M.S.
Duke University: B.S.
Affiliations (3)
- Co-Editor, Journal of Consumer Psychology
- Co-editor, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
- Editorial Review Board, Journal of Consumer Psychology
Links (4)
Selected Media Appearances (10)
How Elections Affect Our Shopping
The New York Times online
2024-10-20
Cash is a resource — and for most of us, it’s the most fungible one we have. If we’re feeling as if we’re on unsolid ground, it’s no surprise that we would be reluctant to part with it. Kelly Goldsmith, a behavioral scientist and marketing professor at Vanderbilt University, studies the psychology of uncertainty and scarcity. She put it this way: “If the world starts to fall apart, you benefit from having a bunch of money in your mattress, right?”
From ‘romantasy’ to reality TV, why we love guilty pleasures so much
NPR radio
2024-06-15
Kelly Goldsmith, a professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University, did a series of studies in 2012 testing people’s associations between guilt and pleasure. And she found experiencing guilt about something might make people enjoy that thing even more.
Why stores and brands are shrinking product options
Axios online
2024-03-03
"I think in the average American grocery store, we've probably been suffering a bit under the weight of these large assortments," Kelly Goldsmith, a marketing professor at Vanderbilt University, told Axios.
You don’t need everything you want
Vox online
2024-01-04
“There is always a trade-off, because money is a zero-sum game. If you’re spending it on X, you’re not spending it on Y,” said Kelly Goldsmith, a marketing professor at Vanderbilt University who studies consumer psychology and behavioral science. “Unless you’re increasing the pie,” she added, which isn’t guaranteed.
Returning to the Office Is Killing My Budget
The Wall Street Journal
2023-05-20
In some sense, having to quickly put my spending under a microscope has been a good thing, causing me to reassess what is important and what is frivolous. The pandemic pause in spending “is psychologically beneficial,” says Kelly Goldsmith, a behavioral scientist and professor at Vanderbilt University. “Rather than jumping back in with both feet and being delighted that we can go into our old lives, what about our old lives wasn’t bringing us much joy but did, in fact, have a high price tag?”
Q&A: How peanut butter can be an economic indicator
Nashville Business Journal online
2023-03-09
As an economic downturn is on everyone’s mind, we wondered how that affects how we spend. So, we talked with Kelly Goldsmith, a Vanderbilt University professor who studies consumer psychology, for her take on consumer spending in an unsure time.
The McRib ‘Farewell Tour’ is McDonald’s latest attempt to cash in on nostalgia
CNBC online
2022-10-26
It’s a strategy that’s designed to create a sense of urgency for customers, according to Vanderbilt University marketing professor Kelly Goldsmith. “McDonald’s is leaning hard on the scarcity marketing tactics right now,” Goldsmith says. “We see it with the McRib, we see it with their adult Happy Meals which had limited-edition toys. McDonald’s is putting scarcity marketing everywhere they possibly can.”
Pumpkin spice foods cost up to 160% more than regular version
CBS News online
2022-10-24
"If there is no shortage of pumpkin spice, you're better served upcharging products you know will be in high demand and hope customers will be insensitive to the price increases," said Kelly Goldsmith, a professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University and an expert on scarcity. "They're taking advantage of the fact that they have an active and excited base of people willing to pay."
Stores clearing out pandemic overstock with clearance sales, sometimes huge markdowns
Scripps tv
2022-06-29
Marketing professor Kelly Goldsmith of Vanderbilt University says it's easy for shoppers to get excited about deals, but make sure you're not buying things you already have. "Now the caveat here is, it's only a good deal if you need it," she explained. "The reason these things are on sale is often because so many people don't need them, and if you're one of those people that's doesn't need them, don't buy it."
Despite pipeline restart, thousands of gas stations remain dry
NBC News online
2021-05-12
“There is not data showing that the gasoline shortage will worsen due to supply-side issues,” said Kelly Goldsmith, associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University, in an email. “And demand-side issues are under our control – we do not have to hoard gasoline.”
Selected Articles (5)
Matters of Time (Scarcity): Do Offline Theories Predict Online Effects?
SSRNJillian Hmurovic, Cait Poynor Lamberton, Kelly Goldsmith
2019 Can past theory about offline marketing tactics be presumed to hold in the contemporary online world? In this paper, we present a systematic approach to answering this question, focusing on theory related to time-scarcity promotions. First, we identify theoretically-important differences between the contexts in which original time-scarcity theories were developed and the current marketplace where they are applied.
The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys
Journal of the Academy of Marketing ScienceRebecca Hamilton, Debora Thompson, Sterling Bone, Lan Nguyen Chaplin, Vladas Griskevicius, Kelly Goldsmith, Ronald Hill, Deborah Roedder John, Chiraag Mittal, Thomas O’Guinn, Paul Piff, Caroline Roux, Anuj Shah, Meng Zhu
2019 Research in marketing often begins with two assumptions: that consumers are able to choose among desirable products, and that they have sufficient resources to buy them. However, many consumer decision journeys are constrained by a scarcity of products and/or a scarcity of resources.
A Self-Regulatory Model of Resource Scarcity
Journal of Consumer PsychologyChristopher Cannon, Kelly Goldsmith, Caroline Roux
2019 Academics have shown a growing interest in the effects of resource scarcity—a discrepancy between one's current resource levels and a higher, more desirable reference point. However, the existing literature lacks an overarching theory to explain the breadth of findings across different types of resources.
You Don’t Blow Your Diet on Twinkies: Choice Processes When Choice Options Conflict with Incidental Goals
Journal of the Association for Consumer ResearchKelly Goldsmith, Elizabeth Friedman, Ravi Dhar
2019 Consumers often have multiple goals that are active simultaneously and make choices to satisfy those goals. However, no work to date has studied how people choose when all available options serve a goal (e.g., a choice-set goal) that conflicts with another goal they hold (e.g., an incidental goal).
When Does Altruism Trump Self-Interest? The Moderating Role of Affect in Extrinsic Incentives
Journal of the Association for Consumer ResearchUzma Khan, Kelly Goldsmith, Ravi Dhar
2018 Extrinsic incentives play a key role in motivating behavior. However, conflicting findings have been observed with respect to the effectiveness of various extrinsic incentives (eg, a cash reward vs. a donation to charity) in motivation.
