Grant Packard
consumer
language
enthusiast
Hello, I'm Grant.
I'm an associate professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, Canada.
I study the consumption and production of language. My research examines things like how and why consumers talk about products in reviews and social media, the words service and salespeople use when speaking to customers, how people consume the things other people say in these persuasion settings, and how language is consumed as part of cultural products (e.g., lyrics, articles, labels).
My work has been covered by CBC, The Globe and Mail, Harvard Business Review, National Geographic, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal and others. My original research appears at outlets such as the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Psychological Science, and MIT Sloan Management Review and is presented at major conferences.
Before doing the academic research thing, I worked in the cultural product retailing and e-commerce (Indigo Books & Music Inc.), marketing communications for online media (Excite, Kanetix, Lavalife, Yahoo), and developing ads and online marketing for consumer products, retailers, and financial services (e.g., Burger King, Gillette, Kraft Foods, Scotiabank).
Curious? Check out some press coverage below, access the original research papers, read my bio and CV, or contact me!
Forbes, "13 Phrases That Will Make a Sales Script Sound 'Canned'"
Discover Magazine, "People Like Songs About 'You'"
MIT Sloan Management Review, "Speaking to Customers in Uncertain Times"
Harvard Business Review, "The Words and Phrases to Use When Talking to Customers"
Wall Street Journal, "Why Customer Service Reps Should Say 'I,' Not 'We'"
Globe and Mail, "Why Saying 'I' and not 'We' Matters When Engaging Customers"
Nature, "Replication Failures in Psychology Not Due to Study Populations"
The Atlantic, "Psychology's Replication Crisis is Running Out of Excuses"
Psychology Today, "Why Do Some Songs Become Popular?"
Globe and Mail, "Attention Online Shoppers: Beware the Know-it-All Reviewers"
