Marketing is the study of activities that influence consumer decisions and the demand for an organization's products and services. The Simon School at the University of Rochester offers multiple programs in the Marketing area, from MBA and MS programs, as well as a PhD program designed to produce outstanding marketing scholars.
The distinctive features of our program are its reliance on microeconomics and psychology as foundational disciplines, and an emphasis on research based on rigorous analysis. The marketing faculty has diverse research interests, which cut across the traditional behavioral, quantitative, and managerial classifications in marketing.
Yufeng Huang
In the busy aisles of the grocery store, consumers push their carts past a daunting array of brand options in all food categories. Nowhere is this more true than in the yogurt aisle, where dozens of varieties compete for consumer attention. The consumer must make quick decisions, so to choose which brand to buy, he or she focuses on a tiny subset of options. Read more about “Pennies for Your Thoughts: Costly Product Consideration and Purchase Quantity Thresholds,” where Simon professor Yufeng Huang and Bart Bronnenberg of Tilburg University in the Netherlands examine what this means for product managers.
Avery Haviv
In a recent paper—“Does Purchase Without Search Explain Counter Cyclic Pricing?”—Simon assistant professor Avery Haviv explores how seasonal consumption and purchase without search may explain counter-cyclic pricing. When demand for a product increases, the price goes up as well—most of the time. Read more about Comparison Shopping.
Mitchell Lovett and Renana Peres
Research suggests that in-person conversations have more influence than social media when it comes to TV viewing. As pervasive as social media has become, it’s still no match for a good old-fashioned water cooler. When it comes to TV show recommendations, in-person conversations are the most influential way to get viewers to watch a program. Read more about When Talking Trumps Twitter.
Ronald Goettler
How does increased competition affect product innovation? A paper by senior associate dean Ronald Goettler, “Competition and Product Innovation in Dynamic Oligopoly,” tackles this important question, relevant to corporate strategy. Read more about Competition, Innovation, and the Inverted U.
Mitchell Lovett
Media companies seeking new ways to promote their products—television shows in particular—will find new insight in recent research by Simon School assistant professor Mitchell Lovett. Lovett and co-author Richard Staelin of Duke University studied the roles that social engagement and advertising play in building entertainment brands. Read more about Socializing and Advertising.
Mitchell Lovett
What is it about brands that drive word of mouth? Many studies have been done about word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, and more still on brands. Though both are central concepts in marketing, surprisingly little research has focused on the role of brands in word of mouth. Mitchell J. Lovett, assistant professor of marketing, is a co-author of a new study that is the first to explore the relationship between them. Lovett produced “On Brands and Word-of-Mouth” with Renana Peres of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ron Schachar of IDC Herzliya’s Arison School of Business.
Paul Ellickson
Paul Ellickson,Simon School assistant professor of economics and of marketing, who studies the economics of retail competition, researched the question with Paul Grieco of Pennsylvania State University, in “Density versus Differentiation: The Impact of Wal-Mart on the Grocery Industry". Read more on "Density versus Differentiation: The Impact of Wal-Mart on the Grocery Industry."
Research