Department News

March 28, 2008
The 2008 Think Forward Award winners as well as the 2008 Lisle & Roslyn Payne Outstanding Doctoral Student award winner received their awards and were recognized at the Fourth Annual Thinking Forward: Leadership & Innovation Conference held on March 28, 2008 at the Marriott Tucson University Park Hotel

Pictured left to right: Gabriela Head, Gregory Wayland, Marc Mutnansky, and Tandy Chalmers. Award recipient not picured is Karin Wurm. Click here for more information on the Thinking Forward conference and award winners.

November 8, 2007
Shane Geunes, Nike Product Manager, and Bernard Lagat, an Olympic athlete guest lecture in MKTG 459, Product Management class

Students in professor Janakiraman's class had
an opportunity to meet Olympic silver medalist, Bernard Lagat, and Nike product manager, Shane Geunes, to learn firsthand about the product management process and how athletes such as Bernard play an important role in how manufacturers such as Nike develop products.

October 18, 2007
The Marketing Department and the student chapter of the American Marketing Association host a round-table luncheon

Approximately 60 students had lunch with over 20 marketing professionals to discuss opportunities and career paths available for marketing majors. Industries represented included non-profit, retail, sales, pharmaceutical, sports, research, business-to-business, advertising, and more.

October 2, 2007
Honor students and AMA & Ad Fed Club officers have dinner at Marketing Department Head, Professor Bob Lusch's home

Students had an opportunity to get to know the department head, staff, and professors of the marketing department in a fun and relaxing environment when they were invited to have dinner at Professor Lusch's home. The weather was perfect and we had a great turnout. Thanks to all who participated!

August 31, 2007
Assistant Professor Yong Liu selected as a Marketing Science
Institute (MSI) Young Scholar

Assistant Professor Yong Liu was invited to the 2007 MSI Fourth Biennial Young Scholars Program in Park City, Utah. MSI Young Scholars are identified every two years based on research output and must be junior faculty members who received a Ph.D. degree within the past 3 to 6 years.  There are 29 MSI Young Scholars selected for this year’s program, mostly from top U.S. universities. 

July 11, 2007
Associate Professor June Cotte will be a visiting scholar at the marketing department for the upcoming 07/08 academic year

June Cotte is the George and Mary Turnbull Fellow and Associate Professor of Marketing at the Richard Ivey School of Business. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. Professor Cotte's research interests focus on behavioral issues, including how people perceive time and how that influences their behavior at work and at leisure, family influence on behavior, and emotional responses to advertising. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Managerial Psychology, as well as in other outlets. The department is pleased to have June visit to work with Ph.D. students and Professor Linda Price for the upcoming academic year.

June 8, 2007
Assistant professor Lan Chaplin from the University of Illinois to join Marketing faculty

Lan Chaplin, who is currently an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Illinois, will join the Marketing faculty during January 2008. Assistant professor Chaplin teaches in the area of consumer behavior and brand management and is best known for her research on children and marketing.

May 3, 2007
UA's Advertising Federation student chapter takes 3rd place in the National Student Advertising Competition

Congratulations to The University of Arizona’s Advertising Federation student chapter for taking 3rd place in the National Student Advertising Competition held in Colorado Springs. According to faculty advisor Ed Ackerley, “This is the best the UA team has done in recent years.” Special thanks goes to the club presidents, undergraduate marketing major students Hartley Kurtz and Gabrielle Pavelko, who shined as leaders at the event.

May 2, 2007
UA Marketing Graduate Nita Umashankar presented with Leo B. Hart Humanitarian Award

The University of Arizona Alumni Association presented Nita Umashankar, an Eller College of Management Marketing graduate with the Leo B. Hart Humanitarian Award at the Night with the Stars Banquet on May 2, 2007. The award was established in 1986 and is awarded to alumni who have made outstanding contributions to social justice and welfare.

Nita Umashankar was a student in my Management and Policy (now Management and Organizations) 402 class in the spring of 2004. That semester she was named the Eller College’s outstanding senior, based not only on her superlative GPA, but on her commitment to service to the College and The University of Arizona. It does not surprise me that she has gone on to contribute her efforts, ingenuity, and heart to a larger world.” Nita is currently working on her Ph.D. in Marketing at UT Austin and is the founder of the ASSET project, which is focused on providing opportunities for young girls in India to learn about technology and software so they will be employable in the IT sector.

April 17, 2007
Associate professor Mrinal Ghosh from the University of Michigan joins the Marketing Department

Professor Mrinal Ghosh, who is currently an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, will join the Marketing faculty beginning Summer 2007. Professor Ghosh teaches in the area of marketing strategy, business-to-business marketing, and marketing channels. He is an active contributor to the marketing literature in the area of sales management and marketing channels.

February 14, 2007
Jury selects the 2007 Think Forward Award winners
The Awards are intended to recognize outstanding undergraduate students majoring in marketing and MBA students with a marketing concentration who exemplify exceptional overall performance. Winners of the award receive a cash prize and an opportunity to shadow a senior marketing executive, President, or CEO for the day. Below are our winners and the business leaders they will shadow:

• Gabrielle Pavelko, undergraduate student to shadow Robert Eckert, Chairman and CEO, Mattel, Inc.
• Keith Queen, MBA student to shadow Rob Matteucci, CEO, Evenflo Company, Inc.
• Elyse Flynn, undergraduate student to shadow Roxanne Ivory, Senior Marketing Director, Motorola Home Mobility Solutions Division
• Adela Pedroza, MBA student to shadow Jay Geldmacher, President, Astec Power
• Austin Sams, undergraduate student to shadow Jon Underwood, President, Desert Mountain Properties

September 11, 2006
Professors Ganesan and Lusch identified as authors of most cited articles (2000-2005) in the Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Marketing.

"Control Mechanisms and the Relationship Life Cycle: Implications for Safeguarding Specific Investments and Developing Commitment" published in the May 2000, Journal of Marketing Research, and co-authored by Sandy Jap (Emory University) and Shankar Ganesan (The University of Arizona) has been ranked as one of the top 10 most cited articles from 2000-2005 published in the Journal of Marketing Research.

"Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing" published in January 2004, Journal of Marketing, and co-authored by Stephen Vargo (University of Hawaii) and Robert Lusch (The University of Arizona) has been ranked as one of the top 10 most cited articles from 2000-2005 published in the Journal of Marketing. The article also is the most cited article published in the two-year period (2004-2005) in the Journal of Marketing.

August 19, 2006
Professor Steven Permut selected as most distinguished MBA teacher.
Professor Permut, who holds a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagn and has previously taught at Yale University, has been selected on four occasions over the last several years as the top MBA professor in the Eller College of Management. In 2003, he was selected as top professor in the evening MBA program, in 2005 he was identified as the top professor in the weekend MBA program, in 2006 he was selected as the most distinguished professor in the full-time MBA program and again in 2006 he was selected as the top professor in the weekend MBA program.

May 9, 2006
UA Marketing Class Places in Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition.
The students of University of Arizona Marketing 293 (Studio320), the American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition Team, took third place in the AAF 12th District competition and first place in the university division on April 9, 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona. The students presented a case study for Postal Vault Systems, Inc. (PVS), an entrepreneurial company that manufactures a secure mailbox that helps prevent identity theft. Studio320 prepared a national advertising, public relations and marketing campaign to promote sales of Postal Vault mailboxes and to help make Postal Vault the most recognized brand name in the category. Their case study had an advertising campaign theme of Delivering Security. The students on the presentation team were Anka Novasic, Hartley Kurtz, Gabrielle Pavelko, Laura Tischler and Sandra Schmidtman (who was also agency director). The other members of Studio320 (their home classroom is McClelland 320cc) were: Christiana Adema, Cyrus Behrana, Sara Birnbaum, David Blohm, Nicole Derosa, Christin Franco, Liz Heidenreich, Steve Luna, Jesse Sandvik, Danny Shelby and Stephanie Slawsky. Dr. Ed Ackerley is the instructor and faculty advisor.

The SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships aim to develop research skills and assist in the training of highly-qualified academic personnel by supporting students who demonstrate a high standard of scholarly achievement in undergraduate and graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities. To have an Eller marketing doctoral student successfully compete with students in the social sciences and humanities brings special recognition to the Eller College of Management and the Department of Marketing.

March 27, 2006
Eller Marketing Students Sweep National AMA Awards Competition.
The Eller Marketing Department's student chapter of the AMA, under the guidance of Dr. Sue Umashankar, brought back four awards from their conference in Orlando, Florida (March 23-25, 2006):

1. Out of the forty schools that competed in the Case Competition, they won third prize, garnering a cash award of $1500 for the chapter.
2. In the Booth Competition, they won second place (out of 44 schools competing) for "Best Use of Conference Theme". 
3. In the Chapter Plan/Annual Report Competition, they won an award for "Communication". Over 95 schools competed in this event.
4. Professor Sue Umashankar won the top award, the Hugh G. Wales Faculty Advisor of the Year 2005-2006 Award. 
   

March 16, 2006
Robert Lusch Wins Marketing Management Association Award
Professor Lusch was recognized on March 16, 2006 at the annual meeting of the Marketing Management Association for his career contributions to marketing thought. He accepted the award at the Palmer House in Chicago where he made a keynote presentation on the Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing for which he recently received the Harold Maynard Award for outstanding theoretical contributions from the American Marketing Association.

January 20, 2006
Student AMA Chapter Makes Final Competition
The student chapter of the American Marketing Association, under the guidance of Professor Sue Umashankar, successfully competed in the International Collegiate Case Competition, organized by the American Marketing Association. A team of 8 undergraduate student members participated in the competition. The Arizona team created a marketing campaign for two product lines for the Kwik Trip Convenience Store Group, a retail chain store organization that competes in the Midwest. The students did extensive secondary data research, conducted several focus groups, and did surveys of representatives of the target market. The final report was evaluated by several independent judges that placed the Arizona team in the top 8 in North America. The Arizona team will travel to Orlando, Florida on March 23-25 to present to Kwik Trip executives and other judges.

  View more information about the case competition.

January 4, 2006
Marketing student Hang Tran wins Arizona Foundation Outstanding Senior award
The Thomas Jefferson quote, " The harder I work the more luck I seem to have," describes recent Marketing graduate Hang Tran. Hang was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. In 2000, she came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student in Michigan. In 2004 she transferred to The University of Arizona. Hang plans to go back to Vietnam upon graduation to work, then hopes to pursue graduate studies in the United States. Her dream job is to work for the United Nations and/or become a university professor. She would also like to assist disadvantaged children.

November 5, 2005
Professor Melanie Wallendorf is recognized for one of the top ten marketing ideas for marketing practice from academia
TP Tech News recently recognized ten marketing ideas from academia that could if implemented have a very positive impact on marketing practice. Her article, "Market-Oriented Ethnography: Interpretation Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation," Journal of Marketing Research, November 1994, is coauthored with Eric Arnould. Professor Wallendorf’s work on market-oriented ethnography stems from anthropology. It starts with a deceptively simple question: "What's going on?" It seeks the answer not in what people say, but what they do. It's about getting up close to observe behavior.

  View full article.