Kelly Goldsmith

Professor of Marketing Vanderbilt University

  • Nashville TN

Expert in marketing, market research, and consumer behavior focusing on the impact of scarcity and sales on shoppers' mindsets.

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Spotlight

1 min

Consumer behavior expert and former "Survivor" contestant on holiday deals and scarcity

Kelly Goldsmith, professor of marketing, is available for commentary on holiday deals and anticipated scarcity due to supply chain issues. Kelly is a former Survivor contestant, which influenced her research into consumer behavior in the wake of scarcity. She is an expert in how people think and act when faced with limited availability of what they need and how they perceive competition when it comes to purchasing items that are in limited supply. Topics she can discuss include: How and why the combination of sales and perceived scarcity prompts consumers to behave selfishly (such as buying out entire stock) and other anticipated consumer behaviors and attitudes this holiday season How to plan ahead and find the best deals well in advance and stick to a budget when there are too many good deals to pass up How to keep your cool in the demanding, stressful environment

Kelly Goldsmith

1 min

Scarcity expert on gas shortage and panic buying

Kelly Goldsmith, associate professor of marketing, is available for commentary on the gasoline shortage and panic buying/hoarding. Goldsmith is a former Survivor contestant, which influenced her research into consumer behavior in the wake of scarcity. She is an expert in how people think and act when faced with limited availability of what they need and how they perceive competition when it comes to purchasing items that are in limited supply. She can discuss: The types of consumers that tend to buy up and hoard all available stock, therefore leaving none for others How and why consumers become selfish in a situation where access to desired goods is limited Making a plan when it comes to purchasing what you need and how to keep your cool in the demanding, stressful environment

Kelly Goldsmith

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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

Sales
Consumer Behavior
Market Research
Marketing
Scarcity
Shopping

Accomplishments

Faculty Impact Award Winner

Faculty Impact Award Winner

Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar

Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Young Scholar

Sidney J. Levy Award for Excellence in Teaching

Sidney J. Levy Award for Excellence in Teaching

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Education

Yale University

M.Phil.

Yale University

Ph.D.

Yale University

M.S.

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Affiliations

  • Co-Editor, Journal of Consumer Psychology
  • Co-editor, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research
  • Editorial Review Board, Journal of Consumer Psychology

Selected Media Appearances

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.

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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.”

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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."

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Selected Articles

Matters of Time (Scarcity): Do Offline Theories Predict Online Effects?

SSRN

Jillian 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.

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The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Rebecca 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.

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A Self-Regulatory Model of Resource Scarcity

Journal of Consumer Psychology

Christopher 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.

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