Faculty Research and Projects
Bring us your marketing challenges and we’ll work with you to develop the scope of the project.
Marketing Area faculty members have a broad range of skills, experience, and specific research interests that can be marshaled to address the issues you confront. With the demands to keep pace with accelerated change, to innovate, and to compete, you may experience a shortage of time to conduct the research that informs your thinking. We’d like for you to think of the marketing faculty as a resource. We’re prepared to develop ideas with you, and to conduct new research that enables you to act on the basis of data and insight.
Cal Poly’s location in San Luis Obispo ensures a certain degree of isolation and provides clients with the opportunity to test ideas and to refine product concepts away from potential competitors located in major metropolitan areas.
| Faculty | Research Project |
|---|---|
| Norm Borin | Dr. Borin’s current research includes an investigation of strategies in marketing sustainability and the development of sustainability pedagogical learning tools for marketing courses. |
| Jeff Danes | Dr. Danes’ specialty is quantitative thinking and statistical modeling. Danes is co-developer of Dialogr: an Internet tool for discussion, deliberation, and decision making; focus group research and virtual brainstorming, His work in Bayesian conjoint analysis is commonly used in advanced product development; his work in multidimensional scaling has led to innovative software developments; and his Internet sampling models have been endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium. |
| Jeff Hess | Dr. Hess is a pioneer in the science of consumer brand relationships. The models and measures he has developed are used extensively in industry. He has consulted with more than 100 companies in a 20-year research career including Microsoft, McDonald’s, Sony and a wide variety of automotive and telecommunications firms. At least two large marketing research firms are currently using Dr. Hess’ consumer relationship model as their primary brand loyalty platform. |
| Joan Mullikin | Dr. Mullikin enjoys a reputation for research related to pricing and consumer behavior. Her most recent research addresses the reduction in consumer price search due to pricing tactics. Dr. Mullikin’s research has been extended into the on-line environment. |
| Lynn Metcalf | While on a professional leave of absence from Cal Poly, Dr. Metcalf worked for Philips at a development center in Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto. There, she gained experience with design thinking and obtaining customer insights through observation and interviews. Over the past 10 years, she has worked with students on various product development and launch projects for approximately 100 companies. |
| Stern Neill | Dr. Neill specializes in marketing research and strategic planning. His approach combines empirical and exploratory methods to develop market insights that inform how to best to align the firm to growth opportunities. |
| Lisa Simon | Prof. Simon specializes in qualitative research, especially focus-group moderation, and professional sales. Applying her Certificate of Proficiency in Qualitative Research from the Burke Institute, Prof. Simon consults with local nonprofit organizations and businesses to help them better understand their customers, stakeholders, and services. |
There are two ways to consult with faculty in the Marketing Area:
| Program | Description |
|---|---|
| Cost-Reimbursable Contract | Projects carried out by the Marketing Area faculty at Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business, at times in collaboration with the Marketing Area’s best and brightest students, provide companies with independent, third-party research. The Marketing Area works collaboratively across disciplines and has the capacity to pull in faculty and student expertise from across the campus. Projects are described in a proposal that has been developed collaboratively by the sponsoring company. Proposals identify the research team, deliverables, a proposed timeline, as well as direct and indirect costs.Project start dates depend on company needs and faculty availability. Contact Marketing Area Chair, Lynn Metcalf to get started. |
| Fixed-Price Contract | Similar in many respects to cost-reimbursable contracts, a fixed-price contract specifies a lump-sum payment for an agreed-upon deliverable.Project start dates depend on company needs and faculty availability. Contact Marketing Area Chair, Lynn Metcalf to get started. |
San Luis Obispo, California 93407