Kunter Gunasti

What Makes Us Tick?

Posted on by Claire Hall

Behavioral lab at UConn School of BusinessNew Behavioral Lab Expected to Fuel Surge in Research at UConn

Marketing Professor David Norton has a theory he just can’t wait to test, and it involves two things most people love:  coffee and their own names.

“One idea that I’m currently pursuing is whether having the name on your morning coffee cup spelled incorrectly can impact your evaluation of that cup of coffee,” Norton said. “Essentially, the idea is that we like ourselves, and pretty much anything associated with ourselves, so when we are reminded about “me” we get positive feelings toward the object that does the reminding.”Continue Reading

Marketing Faculty Accomplishments – Spring 2015

Posted on by Nancy White

Mary Caravella
Mary Caravella received awards for Top Marketing Professor – PMBA and Outstanding Contribution to the MBA Program.

Robin Coulter
Robin Coulter was named as an inaugural Brands and Brand Relationships Institute Fellow and Voya Financial Fellow in Marketing.Continue Reading

How Competitor Brand Names Affect Within-Brand Choices

Posted on by Nancy White

Marketing Letters (forthcoming)

Kunter Gunasti and Berna Devezer

In a recent research forthcoming at Marketing Letters, Dr. Gunasti and his co-author show that consumer choices among different models of a brand name can be affected by exposure to a competitor brand name that forms an incidental trend with the numbers in the focal brand names. For instance, a consumer shopping for a Mercedes and trying to choose between a Mercedes C330 vs. C340 can be exposed to a competitor brand such as a BMW 320i, which increases the chances that he will leave the store with the higher number focal brand Mercedes C340. Although the competitor brand is not even available to choose and it is not considered, its mere presence seems to affect consumers’ focal choices.Continue Reading

Eight Outstanding School of Business Professors Earn 2015 Faculty Awards

Posted on by Claire Hall

A professor who used chocolate chip cookies to teach about quality control, three researchers who had work published in top journals, and an educator who vigorously promoted the School of Business were among the 2015 Faculty Award recipients.

“This year we honored eight outstanding faculty members for their exceptional research, teaching and leadership achievements,” said Associate Dean Sulin Ba. “The selection process was particularly difficult due to the dozens of impressive nominees. We are fortunate to have such talented, creative and remarkable colleagues.”Continue Reading

Faculty Research: Consumer Reactions to Round Numbers in Brand Names

Posted on by Brian Kelleher

Marketing Letters (forthcoming)

Kunter Gunasti and Timucin Ozcan.

In a recent research Kunter Gunasti and his-coauthor show that consumers prefer products labeled with brand names including round numbers (e.g., Centrum 100 multivitamins) to those including non-round numbers (e.g., Centrum 103). A systematic investigation of alphanumeric brand names used in numerous product categories indicates that round numbers such as 10, 50, 100, etc. are over-represented in the marketplace. Regardless of the product category, consumers have more favorable judgments and higher preferences of brand names including round numbers.Continue Reading