Research in Marketing
Real-World Issues
Rigorous Research
Global Focus
Real-World Marketing
Marketing provides insights into customer needs, ideas for developing new products, and strategic plans for profitably launching these products in a competitive marketplace.
Marketing knowledge is indispensible in today’s turbulent business environment. Consumers are inundated with information through the internet, cell phones, satellite television and personal digital assistants. More and more products are being launched in an already crowded marketplace. The world is becoming flat as globalization affects the way people work, interact with others and choose products in their daily lives.
Professors of marketing at the Desautels Faculty of Management are focused on real-world challenges presented by today’s business environment. Through rigorous research the marketing faculty is developing new insights into sustainable competitive advantage for the 21st century.
Research in Marketing at the Desautels Faculty
Desautels professors of marketing conduct research on a number of cutting-edge topics. Their projects have received grants from national funding agencies, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Desautels research findings have been published in top-tier marketing journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research. Research in marketing at the Desautels Faculty is grounded in business realities through consulting projects with a wide range of industries. The global dimension of research is reflected in the Faculty’s diverse pool of scholars including professors with advanced degrees from universities in North America, Europe and Asia.
Research in marketing at the Desautels Faculty can be organized into three broad streams:
- New products
- Marketing communications
- Health decision-making
New Products
Successfully launching new products is a critical task for managers. New product research at the Desautels Faculty addresses issues such as:
- Diffusion of innovations with new brand entry
- Effect of regulation on growth of pharmaceutical products
- Measuring consumer response to new products
- Technophobia toward high technology products
- Branding in foreign markets
- Optimal sales policies for new products
- Principles of service design
- Firm capabilities and firm innovation
Marketing Communications
Effectively communication to costumers in a fragmented marketplace is a key challenge for managers. Research in marketing communications at the Desautels Faculty examines issues such as:
- Using humour and fear in advertising
- Customer response to integrated marketing communications
- Managing advertising creativity
- Effect of word-of-mouth in online environments
- Formation of trust in online environments
- Communicating price in online environments
- Effect of word-of-mouth in social networks
- Effects of social consumption on product choice
Health Marketing
Health marketing is becoming increasingly important as people live longer, develop unhealthy lifestyles, and demand better health services. Research in health marketing at the Desautels Faculty focuses on issues such as:
- Reducing the incidence of obesity
- Adoption of preventive health behaviours
- Using emotions to encourage healthy lifestyle
- Direct to consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals
- Improving service quality in hospitals
- Asking sensitive questions about health and lifestyle
- Consumer motivation
Looking Ahead
McGill University has recently launched one of the most far-reaching ventures in its history. Campaign McGill: History in the Making is a fund-raising effort that will build on the University’s proud legacy and provide resources for its talented students, researchers, and professors so they can continue to address the key challenges of our time. These include the need to build a healthy and prosperous society, and to educate people to take advantage of the information economy.
Professors of marketing at the Desautels Faculty of Management are contributing to this mission by conducting rigorous research on issues of immediate significance in the real world. Looking ahead, several exciting initiatives are underway to provide professors and students with the tools to conducts cutting edge research in marketing. One initiative is the E-Social Laboratory, a dedicated research facility designed for computerized studies of consumer decision-making. The Desautels Faculty also plans to significantly increase the number of tenure-track marketing professors over the next ten years to create a critical mass of highly productive researchers and scholars. With the generous assistance of key leaders and collaborators, the Desautels Faculty looks forward to accomplishing the ambitious goals it set for itself.
