The risky business of managing person brands with Allen Questrom Professor and Dean, Susan Fournier

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Join Susan Fournier, Allen Questrom Professor and Dean, Questrom School of Business as she explores her research on human branding. Dean Fournier is a leading international expert on branding, brand risk management and the emotional relationships that consumers form with brands, companies, and products. The focal paper of the session examines the opportunities and pitfalls of celebrity-based branding based on her 14-year analysis of the Martha Stewart person-brand.

About the presenter: Susan Fournier, Allen Questrom Professor and Dean; Professor in Marketing

Appointed to the deanship of the Questrom School of Business at Boston University in 2018, Susan Fournier is the School’s first female dean and its first academic leader in over 40 years. Priorities under her leadership are to drive “research that matters;” build distinction in the areas of health, digital business, and social impact; and reinvent Questrom’ s business model to better align with evolving market segments, shifts to online offerings, and corporate and alumni partnerships as sources of value creation and capture.

Fournier has served 26 years as a marketing academic, 16 of these at Questrom, with previous roles as Questrom Professor in Management, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty & Research, and Director of the MBA and PhD Programs. She held prior academic appointments at Harvard Business School and Dartmouth Tuck School.

With over 26,000 Google Scholar citations, Fournier ranks among the top 10% of business academics in terms of impact. She is credited with five major research awards, including the Long-Term Contribution to Consumer Behavior and the Most Significant Contribution to Marketing Theory & Practice. Current research projects explore shareholder value creation through branding, the riskiness of person-brands, board-level enterprise risk management in the contemporary socio-political environment, and consumer-brand relationship development strategies over time.

Fournier has also published over 30 Harvard teaching cases in the brand strategy domain, many with best-seller status. In her role as President and Founder of the Institute for Brands & Brand Relationships, she seeks to build bridges between academics and business practitioners on strategic branding matters. She consults with a range of companies on branding issues to inform her leadership, teaching, and research.

Prior to her academic career, Fournier served as VP at Young & Rubicam Advertising and in market research management roles at Polaroid Corporation and Yankelovich Clancy Shulman. She remains an active consultant and advisor to inform her research and leadership.