Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
Adam Brasel, David Bell, Andrew Stephen, and Sam Ransbotham
The Marketing Department hosted the 2015 VOYA Global Colloquium, Research Mobile Marketing on April 10. The colloquium provides the great opportunity for researchers to gather and discuss research in the growing areas of social media, mobile marketing, and digital analytics. Faculty and Ph.D. students along with the vice president for Voya Financial Services enjoyed a day of presentations from some of the most distinguished scholars in marketing: David Bell, Adam Brasel, Sam Ransbotham and Andrew Stephen.Continue Reading
Pictured L to R: William Ryan, Outstanding Alumnus Stewart Lander and Interim Department Head Bill Ross at the reception.
Marketing Alumni Event Makes an Impact on Students
On March 25, UConn marketing faculty, alumni, students, and professionals gathered in the Benton Art Museum for the annual Marketing Student and Alumni Networking Event to exchange ideas, experiences, and advice. Surrounded by a Husky Basketball exhibit, “In the Paint: Basketball in Contemporary Art,” delicious food, and good company, all attendees enjoyed conversation about careers, school, and the terrible spring weather. This event strengthens relationships between all involved, and provides students the opportunity to build relationships at UConn and beyond.
Keynote speaker Stewart Lander, class of 1980, challenged the group with the line: “If you skipped class, took off work, or stayed out instead of going home, would you be missed?” In essence, what sets you apart from others? Stewart stressed the importance of finding your passion, building quality and lasting relationships, pursuing lifelong learning, and providing service to those around you.
Lander, who earned his master’s degree from UConn, has more than 30 years of experience in selling and leading large sales teams in the financial services industry. Named the 2013-2014 Outstanding Alumnus by the Marketing Department, his involvement in the school and community reflects the foundation of his speech. His words resonated with both professionals and faculty, who have experienced the truth of his words, and with the students, who look to follow the framework as they enter new careers.
About the event, Lander noted that, “the networking events give me a chance to interact with students and hear their enthusiasm regarding their vision for their futures. Alumni have much to offer these students, and want to assist students, just as they were helped when they were students.”
Senior marketing student Paige Gregory agrees: “Networking is incredibly valuable, but it can also be somewhat stressful. Networking with UConn alum, however, takes off some of the additional pressure. These are people who have, quite literally, walked in our shoes and are eager to help in whatever way they can.”
On the invitation of the Marketing Department, Professor Rajesh Bagchi from Virginia Tech gave a research seminar titled, “Is a 70% Forecast More Accurate than a 30% Forecast?” on Friday, March 27. This research examines how level of a forecast affects inferences about forecasts and forecasters. Specifically, forecasters often state the probability when making predictions about uncertain events (e.g., sporting games, stock fluctuations). Continue Reading
Professor Nicholas Lurie engaged in workshop discussions.
Nicholas Lurie and Joseph Pancras, associate professors of marketing, were invited to the Thought Leadership Conference on “Mobile Marketing and its Implications for Retailing” held at the Mays Business School, Texas A&M University on Jan 21-23. Leading researchers in mobile marketing and industry practitioners participated in work group discussions on five different areas of mobile marketing.Continue Reading
Thirty students in the ‘Integrated Marketing Communication in the Digital Age’ class taught by Joseph Pancras in Fall 2014 participated in a semester-long IMC campaign with Sequel, the brand licensee for GUESS Watches. GUESS Watches is a mid-level luxury brand that defines itself as bold, adventurous, and sexy. An iconic brand, it has launched the modeling careers of celebrities such as Brooke Shields, and is looking to expand its presence and relevance in campuses across the United States.
Students worked in four major functional groups: Strategy, Advertising/Creative, Public Relations and Budgeting, and Marketing Research. Teams consisted of members from each functional group to coordinate responsibilities for the UConn GUESS Watches campaign, which would serve as a pilot launch for related GUESS Watches events on other campuses.
The Advertising group created a strong logo and slogan, encompassing GUESS’ message and values and relating to UConn students with the slogan, “Be Bold, Be Blue”. They used bus advertisements, flyers, social media platforms, and useful promotional to attract students and raise awareness and online buzz.
The Strategy team organized and planned the campus event. Four of the event’s 500 student participants received GUESS watches, while others received branded items for participating in activities like spinning a wheel, “guessing the candy in the jar,” and surveys.
The PR/Budget team delivered the message the Advertising Team created to UConn students by targeting popular social media websites, placing advertisements in areas of high student use, and having Her Campus write about the event.
The Market Research Team focused on creating a pre-survey and post-survey to uncover how people perceived the GUESS brand and watches. Their findings revealed that most students perceived the brand as cool and high-end. Additionally, the post survey revealed that positive impressions improved by 17.7% after the event.
After the event, the students submitted a final report to Sequel and presented before senior Sequel executives, who attested to the project’s value.
Sequel executives and Dr. Joseph Pancras’ Integrated
Marketing Communication class students at the Final Presentation
The Marketing Department has launched a new course entitled Marketing and Digital Analytics (MKTG 5251). Offered for the first time during the Fall 2014 semester, MKTG 5251 introduces students to the application of advanced analytics that support data-driven management. Students work with Microsoft Excel and JMP Pro 11 software to address marketing decisions related to various topics including demand estimation, market segmentation, price optimization, customer choice, and customer lifetime value. The digital component of the course examines analytical techniques to evaluate and strengthen website performance and the effectiveness of an organization’s social media platforms.
“Big data and analytics are taking center stage within many organizations,” commented Dr. Gregory M. Sottile, developer of the course and its instructor. “While MKTG 5251 is a hands-on course, its primary objective is develop students’ ability to critically recognize opportunities to apply marketing and digital analytics for better decision-making.” Marketing and Digital Analytics will be offered again during the Fall 2015 semester.
To help consumers deal with increasing amounts of information, many online retailers offer simple decision aids, such as the ability to sort products on a particular product attribute. Intuitively, such aids should help consumers but, in a recent article, Nicholas Lurie and a colleague at City University of Hong Kong show that simple decision aids can hurt consumers’ ability to make good decisions.
Whether decision aids help or hurt depends on the extent to which choices involve tradeoffs among attributes. For example, a consumer buying a laptop might want a large screen and lots of memory. If large screen laptops usually come with lots of memory then using a decision aid to sort on screen size will help the consumer choose the best laptop for her. However if, instead, the consumer wants a large screen and light weight laptop, and large screen laptops tend to be heavy, sorting on screen size will not enhance choice. The authors suggest that consumers use simple decision aids as substitutes for cognitive effort and find that the more consumers use such aids, the lower the quality of their decisions. Providing consumers with multiple decision aids, such as the ability to eliminate as well as sort products, is one way to overcome the negative aspects of such aids.
In January 2015, a contingent of part-time MBA and MSBAPM students led by Business Law Professor Gerlinde Berger-Walliser spent two weeks studying international business at EMLYON, one of the top business schools in France. The group attended lectures taught by renowned EM Lyon faculty about the European business, social, and regulatory environment. As part of the inter-cultural program the UConn students worked on projects with EM Lyon’s International MBA students and traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to visit the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. In the evenings and on the free weekend, the group sampled the great food that Lyon is known for and toured different parts of Europe. Professor Berger-Walliser is looking forward to taking another group of MBA students to Lyon in January 2016.
In many consumption settings (e.g., restaurants, casinos, theme parks), individuals consume products either alone or with their peers (e.g., friends and/or family members). In such settings, it is likely that through social influence, a consumer’s decision on what to purchase or how much to consume is influenced by the purchase or consumption decisions of their peers.
Marketing researchers have had much interest in measuring such social influence and were primarily focused in estimating how one’s behavior (e.g., how much to spend) is influenced by the behavior of the peer. However, a consumer could not only be affected by the peer’s behavior, but also by other events that influence the peer to change his/her behavior. For example, if the peer gets a promotion, but the focal consumer does not, the focal consumer might judge the differential treatment to be unfair and react negatively. Another mechanism by which social influence could operate could be when the peer is physically present, but does not engage in the behavior under question. In other words, the peer’s presence could directly affect the focal consumer’s consumption behavior as the lack of consumption by the peer may signal a subtle or transient change in preferences. In response to this, the focal consumer may modify her behavior.
The authors develop an empirical model that allows them to identify all three effects simultaneously and apply it to behavioral data from a casino setting. The data comprise detailed gambling activity for a panel of individuals at a single casino over a two-year period. The results show that all three types of peer effects exist. The results also indicate that accounting for these peer effects simultaneously and identifying them at an individual level could help marketing managers draw up better guidelines for promotion policies as well as policy makers implement a more informed regulatory regime for the casino industry.
“People hate, hate, hate to subscribe to things on the Internet” (Bill Gates, 2005)
Over the past decade, there has been a substantial increase in the demand for online content, but there has been little change in consumers’ willingness to pay for it.Continue Reading
