Barbara Kahn

Audiences leave with the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix: a framework for seeing why some retailers keep winning through disruption, and where their own brand, stores and digital experience should move next.

Sales & Marketing Brand Strategy Consumer Behavior Customer Experience

Philadelphia, United States

Videos

Watch Barbara in Action

BizTalks 2013: Barbara Kahn on "Assortment Variety: Too Much of a Good Thing?"

Bio

About Barbara Kahn

As digital giants like Amazon, Walmart and Alibaba have redrawn the rules of retail, smaller and less digitally powerful retailers have found it harder to compete. To help level the playing field, Barbara Kahn, the Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, published her bestselling book The Shopping Revolution in 2018. Kirkus Reviews called it "a brisk and thought-provoking anatomy of shopping in the 21st century," and it was featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg and Vox. In 2021, in response to the disruption brought on by the pandemic, she released an updated and expanded edition examining how the most successful companies survived and even thrived during the crisis.

"What I think is super interesting is how well Lululemon has done," Kahn says. "Lulu had built such strong customer loyalty and such deep belief in their brand that when the pandemic came, people just stayed with Lulu, and they very, very quickly pivoted." Her practical Kahn Retailing Success Matrix distills what can be learned from companies that continued to ascend through unprecedented challenges, and her analysis reaches well beyond U.S. borders: she tracks China's "shoppertainment" model, in which key opinion leaders sell through video blogs and livestreaming, and the industry's larger movement toward what she calls a customer-centric, omnichannel experience.

Topics

Barbara's Keynote Topics

Packaging research has found that changes in the package can influence consumers’ perceptions more than changes in the actual product itself. Sometimes, marketers want consumers to notice new packaging to create “news” and suggest innovation, and sometimes, marketers want the changes in packaging to be subtle so that consumers stay loyal to the brand while it undergoes a slow and continual modernization. Similarly, sometimes packaging is designed to assimilate within the product category; other times it is intended to contrast and stand out. Brands are probably the most important asset marketers own, and building a visual branding system is more than just design, says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn, Ph.D. In this engaging talk based on her 2025 book Visual Marketing: A Practical Guide to the Science of Branding & Retailing, audiences walk away with a thorough understanding of how to use visual strategies when developing retail customer experiences and along the customer journey, design meaningful packaging to deliver marketing goals, understand the role of emotions and the important visual principles when designing brands.

When Amazon took over the world it disrupted every corner of the retail industry. In the past year, that trend only accelerated due to the pandemic. How, then, can retailers compete and survive in such a David and Goliath marketplace? “The shift in the retail sector is permanent and companies must think strategically and long-term to remain relevant,” says Barbara Kahn, Ph.D., Wharton School marketing professor and a leading authority on retailing and branding. In this presentation, based on her updated bestselling book, The Shopping Revolution: How Retailers Succeed in an Era of Endless Disruption Accelerated by Covid-19, Kahn shares her proprietary Kahn Retailing Success Matrix and reveals what we can learn from companies like Lululemon and Walmart, who transformed in the face of unprecedented challenges and firmly repositioned themselves for long-term growth.

In this noisy, fickle consumer world, compelling branding is more important than ever. Products and services based not just on quality but also on recognition, adaptability and trust will be the winners. People look to brands to tell a story bigger than just the product or service they offer. In this presentation, based on her book, Global Brand Power: Leveraging Branding for Long-Term Growth, Barbara Kahn, Ph.D., shows marketing managers how to build a powerful brand that is globally recognizable and serves as a strategic asset in and of itself. In a world where the radical transparency of social media and a 24-hour news cycle can sink a corporate reputation in minutes, building durable brands is crucial. Let Kahn’s extensive research and expertise illuminate the steps you must take to make that happen.

The pandemic drastically and suddenly changed the shopping experience, forcing retailers and customers to engage online. This became a problem for a percentage of shoppers who only knew how to (or preferred to) shop in stores. “Consumers expect seamless integration wherever they shop across online, offline and mobile touchpoints,” says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn, Ph.D., “For consumers, shopping is not really one channel or another. It is an omnichannel experience.” In this presentation, Kahn explains why companies must personalize the shopping experience and rethink the look and purpose of brick-and-mortar locations. She also highlights current and future retail trends, outlines key metrics, and discusses alternative approaches such as China’s “shoppertainment” retailing model.

Is your buying behavior influenced by the perceived variety of products within a box? Or by where the picture of food is positioned on packaging? You may not think so, but Barbara Kahn, Ph.D.’s research indicates that people do make purchase decisions based on these subtle, psychological nudges – whether they are there intentionally or not. In this presentation, Kahn draws on her research to illustrate multiple ways that marketers influence and shape consumer behavior beyond advertising overt product benefits. She offers a new point of view when considering such seemingly mundane factors as store displays and the number of offerings on a menu. In learning these crucial lessons, marketers can capitalize on the workings of the human mind to gain a competitive advantage.

As the world accelerates further into the digital realm, we find humans cling to physical and social experiences. In this era, visual marketing has never been more important, says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn, Ph.D. From omni-channel shopping to new immersive digital experiences; from TikTok videos to social influencer vlogs; from digital advertising to livestreaming ecommerce – the critical interface is visual. And of course, in the physical world, consumers are constantly exposed to packaging and unboxing experiences, in-store retail displays and ubiquitous creative branding campaigns. For these tools to be successful, marketers and designers must have a solid understanding of the principles of visual marketing. Drawing from her 2025 book Visual Marketing: A Practical Guide to the Science of Branding & Retailing, Kahn reveals how this new type of inherently visual retail is designed to engage customers and how differential visual strategies in the customer journey can affect decision-making at each touchpoint.

Radical changes caused by a global pandemic have revolutionized consumer behavior. Consumers’ expectations changed overnight, resulting in success for some firms that pivoted quickly while accelerating decline for firms that were not able to adapt as quickly. In this engaging talk, Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn, Ph.D., examines the companies that have been most successful during this wave of change and offers insights into what we can learn from their ascendance. Building on these insights, she outlines her “Kahn Success Matrix,” which provides a framework any company can use to survive and thrive during disruption.

Research & Writing