The University of Queensland

Nicolas Pontes is a Lecturer in Marketing at the UQ Business School and he holds a PhD and a Master of Science in Marketing, both with a focus on Branding. He has three years of industry experience as a marketing research coordinator, marketing manager, and marketing consultant for leading organizations in Brazil. He has more than six years of teaching and research experience at leading universities in Australia where he had the role of Program Coordination for Advertising and IMC majors for both Undergraduate and Post-graduate levels. His research interests are in the area of consumer decision making and information processing with a particular interest in price and discount framing, price and promotion advertising, and consumer judgments of new products and brand extensions. This research has been published in the European Journal of Marketing and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and his work has been presented at international advertising and marketing conferences such as ACR-North America, American Marketing Association, and American Academy of Advertising.

Research context and relevance

The media landscape is changing as technology increases the speed of communication. In the age of information overload, where consumers can easily access large amounts of information, consumers’ attention span and willingness to process information thoroughly have decreased. Advertising messages that used to engage consumers in a standard 30 sec TV ad are now being designed to capture consumers’ attention in 5 seconds, trying to avoid a “Skip” button click (YouTube) or a “Story” swipe (Instagram). Consequently, the manner in which brands communicate with consumers also has changed. As a result, research needs to focus on how individuals use heuristics to make consumption decisions. In line with this trend, the overall goal of my research program is to provide managers with information and tools that will enable them to better communicate with consumers, facilitate consumer decision making process, and improve consumer experiences with products and services.