“The UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum bridges the gap between research in marketing and marketing practice. Its goal is to shift the boundaries of cutting-edge marketing through the facilitation of mutually beneficial exchange. We tackle tomorrow’s issues in marketing today.”
Professor Hauke A. Wetzel
Founder/Director of UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum
Who we are
The UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum offers access to world-class performance in marketing research, a network of globally leading academics and industry leaders, and vast experience in providing impactful research focused on applied management problems.
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We have an extensive network involving globally leading marketing researchers and globally leading marketing institutions from Australia, Europe and the US. This enables us to provide our members with access to the latest thinking, techniques and evidence base with respect to any marketing issues with which they are faced.
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The forum fosters knowledge exchange across a cross-industry network. To develop our agenda and assure its focus on contemporary marketing issues, we also work closely with the UNSW Marketing Leadership Council, an elite group of accomplished individuals in industry.
Belinda Dimovski – Principal Director Accenture Song, Accenture
Damian Borchok – CEO, For The People; CEO, Interbrand Australia
Dan Monheit – Founder/CEO Hardhat
Dean Phizacklea – Senior Vice President Global Marketing, Cochlear
Jeremy Nicholas – Digital Channel Executive, Telstra; CMO, Telstra
Joanne Smith – Chief Brand, Innovation and Communication Officer, Blackmores Group
Kate Moonen – Chief Marketing, Communications & Sustainability Officer, Veolia ANZ
Michael Apte – CMO, Guide Dogs NSW
Renata Bertram – Vice President Marketing, Salesforce
Sameer Chopra – Head of Siri Product Data Science & Insights, Apple; CAO, ID Analytics; CAO, GoDaddy; CAO, Orbitz Worldwide
Tamara Howe – CMO, SunRice
Vijay Solanki – CMO at Sinorbis; CMO, Shazam; global roles at Unilever, and Philips
What we offer
Becoming an industry partner means that you can proactively shape our research agenda and get priority access to the solutions we provide, to our global network with leading researchers, and to our cross-industry network with leading practitioners.
It also means that you stand out from the crowd and identify as a thought leader in marketing practice. Both partner firms and participating individuals within them have the right to identify themselves as a “Member, UNSW Leadership Forum.”
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UNSW is among the Top 50 Universities globally according to the QS ranking and a member of the exclusive Group of Eight, comprising the Universities that lead excellence and debate in Australia. Our researchers are among the very best. Their work is published in the globally leading outlets for marketing research and they are regularly awarded for their research.
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The research undertaken at the School of Marketing has impact both at the academic level and in industry. Our researchers have enabled firms around the globe to thrive, amongst others, in the fields of branding, services marketing, digital channels of distribution, and managing the link from big data to marking action.
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Partners gain insights and access to an elite cross-industry network with leading figures from other industries and academics. Partners can also benefit directly from proactively shaping our research program to address critical marketing questions at their firms.
We leverage knowledge exchange through a series of exclusive events.
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Being a partner of the UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum demonstrates thought leadership among customers, suppliers, or colleagues.
- Stand out as a thought leader in marketing through industry partner affiliation with the UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum. Partners may also officially refer to their partnership with us.
- Partners may demonstrate thought leadership among their customers, suppliers, or colleagues by inviting one guest for free to each of our events.
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- Unfunded research collaboration
- Funded research collaborations
- Workshops and seminars
- Event attendance
- Event sponsorships
- Talks and panel discussions (academic audience)
- Talks and panel discussions (industry audience)
- Guest lectures
- Student projects
Providers of cutting-edge solutions
Close exchange enables us to focus our research efforts on burning, unresolved problems in marketing practice and to feed our solutions back to our industry partners.
A cross-section of our people speaks for itself.
- Professor Harald van Heerde
- Professor John Roberts
- Professor Nicolas Chu
“While many successful businesses draw on the newest research insights and tools and while many impactful research projects are a result of collaboration between academics and practitioners, collaboration is the exception rather than the rule. The world-class research performance of our researchers at UNSW and our network with leading international marketing researchers put us in a prime position to change this.”
S.H.A.R.P. Research Professor Harald van Heerde
Harald van Heerde is regularly ranked in the top 10 of marketing scholars worldwide. He is the recipient of the AMA Marketing Research SIG's 2021 Gilbert A. Churchill Award for Lifetime Contributions to Marketing Research and his papers won 9 prestigious international awards. Harald currently serves as an Editor of the Journal of Marketing, the global premier journal in marketing research.
“We harness the latest techniques to address the hard problems marketing organizations face, the ones for which there is not currently a good solution. We leverage our cross-industry network with leading practitioners to allow our member firms to share best practice with each other and jointly develop innovative, entrepreneurial, evidence-based solutions.”
Scientia Professor John Roberts
John is a recipient of the Society for Marketing Science’s Buck Weaver Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Marketing Science. He has also served as VP Practice for the Society. He has many years’ experience in senior executive roles and was the Founder of the consulting firm Marketing Insights.
“As a business leader, I have been amazed to see how firms could boost their marketing productivity through close collaboration with academia. Joining the UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum is a unique opportunity to help to define the future of marketing.”
Professor of Practice Nicolas Chu
Nicolas is the CEO and Chairman of Sinorbis, the multi-award-winning company that revolutionises the way businesses and organisations enter the Asian markets through technology. Prior to founding Sinorbis, he was the global President of HotelClub and Ebookers, two leading global online marketplaces operating in more than 30 markets with an annual turnover of US$2.5 billion.
Exemplary research insights
We collaborate with industry partners to solve important management problems in marketing.
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The Management Problem:
A major US department store wanted to engage customers through an app.
The Marketing Solution:
This research explores the value of a retail app, what customers benefit the most, and the critical app features that will improve consumer engagement – regardless of the brand or budget.
Van Heerde, Harald J., Isaac M. Dinner, and Scott A. Neslin (2019), “Engaging the Unengaged Customer: The Value of a Retailer Mobile App,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36 (3), 420-438.
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The Management Problem:
CVS Pharmacy was trying to identify outlets where more product assortment was low.
The Marketing Solution:
This research considers the demand of product assortment and the high cost of delivery and stocking to provide an optimal solution on outlets where stocks should be increased while minimizing the associated costs.
Rahul Govind, Rabikar Chatterjeeb, and Vikas Mittal (2018), "Segmentation of Spatially Dependent Geographical Units: Model and Application," Management Science, 64 (4), 1941-1956.
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The Management Problem:
A major US bank was struggling with scandals tarnishing their brand reputation in the era of social media.
The Marketing Solution:
Using one of the most comprehensive data sets in the related literature with corporate communications, news stories, social media, and business outcomes, the authors document the echoverse (i.e., feedback loops between all of these sources) and show how modern communication modes such as social media reverberate in the larger universe of brand communication.
Hewett, Kelly, William Rand, Roland T. Rust, and Harald J. van Heerde (2016), “Brand Buzz in the Echoverse,” Journal of Marketing, 80 (3), 1-24.
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The Management Problem:
A discount department store was being beaten on price and store attributes and had to reposition.
The Marketing Solution:
While emotions were not the key purchase driver, it was easier to differentiate on that basis to win.
Roberts, Ken, John Roberts, Peter Danaher, and Rohan Raghavan (2015), "Incorporating emotions into Evaluation and Choice Models: Application to Kmart Australia," Marketing Science, 34 (6), 815-824.
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The Management Problem:
A large international B2B firm wanted to increase the profitability of its customer accounts.
The Marketing Solution:
The research identifies customer account management tactics that increase account profitability and identifies situations when each tactic works best.
Wetzel, Hauke A., Maik Hammerschmidt, and Alex R. Zablah (2014), "Gratitude versus Entitlement: A Dual Process Model of the Profitability Implications of Customer Prioritization," Journal of Marketing, 78 (2), 1-19.
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The Management Problem:
Los Angeles County wanted to evaluate the capacity of the public hospital system and identify locations for new ones.
The Marketing Solution:
This research determines the optimal allocation of currently available hospital capacity.
Govind, Rahul, Rabikar Chatterjeeb, and Vikas Mittal (2008) "Timely Access to Health Care: Customer-focused Resource Allocation in a Hospital Network," International Journal of Research in Marketing, 25 (4), 294-300.
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The Management Problem:
A major telecoms incumbent was facing competition from a new entrant.
The Marketing Solution:
Prelaunch market research identified asymmetric sources of advantage and weakness and ways to fight on a winning battleground.
John Roberts (2005) "Defensive Marketing: How a Strong Incumbent Can Protect its Position," Harvard Business Review, 83 (11), 150-151.
Would you like to learn whether the UNSW Marketing Leadership Forum could add value to your organisation?
Firms that are invited to partner with us are those who wish to identify and tackle tomorrow's issues in marketing, and to shape the forefront of marketing practice with us.
Request a call:
mlforum@unsw.edu.au