Susan Fournier

Susan Fournier
  • PhD University of Florida
  • Professor (Full) at Boston University

About

50
Publications
268,505
Reads
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17,134
Citations
Introduction
Susan Fournier is Professor of Marketing and MBA Faculty Director at Boston University. Susan’s research explores the creation and capture of value through branding and brand relationships. Her work has been recognized with seven academic awards including the Long-Term Contribution Award in Consumer Research and Emerald's Citations of Excellence Award for the top 50 articles in Management. Susan previously served on the Harvard Business School Faculty and was a VP/Director at Young & Rubicam.
Current institution
Boston University
Current position
  • Professor (Full)
Additional affiliations
July 2005 - present
Boston University
Position
  • Professor (Full)
September 2003 - May 2005
Dartmouth College
Position
  • Visiting Associate Professor
June 1994 - May 2003
Harvard University
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
Education
September 1990 - December 1994
University of Florida
Field of study
  • Marketing
September 1980 - December 1982
Pennsylvania State University
Field of study
  • Marketing
September 1976 - May 1980

Publications

Publications (50)
Article
Full-text available
This article proposes a novel theory, based on relational paradoxes, to explain how consumers enable or disable their relationships with brands over time. Analysis of data from in-depth, longitudinal interviews with 26 consumers reveals four relational tensions and seven actions that consumers take in response to these tensions, thus affecting the...
Article
Full-text available
This article endeavors to advance research on the cultural resonance of brands by building bridges between branding scholarship in the consumer psychology tradition and interpretive research regarding brands and their meaning makers. We adopt a cognitivist conceptualization of cultural meaning and focus on the application of interpretive insights t...
Chapter
Consumer self-presentation is considered a major driver of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. In particular, the manner in which consumers self-present using brand mentions is likely to impact impressions of the WOM senders as well as the mentioned brands. In some cases, however, mentioning reputable brands in a WOM message can be considered braggi...
Chapter
Consumer self-presentation is considered a major driver of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. In particular, the manner in which consumers self-present using brand mentions is likely to impact impressions of the WOM senders as well as the mentioned brands. In some cases, however, mentioning reputable brands in a WOM message can be considered braggi...
Article
Full-text available
Despite evidence suggesting a growing incidence of brand architecture strategies beyond the branded house (e.g., Boeing or IBM) and house-of-brands (e.g., P&G’s Tide and Cheer), and recognition that in practice that these strategies are very different, there is a need for research on how financial markets value the full range of brand architecture...
Article
Full-text available
Relationships with brands are like relationships between people. Even when they were very close, they can fail for diverse reasons. The disadoption of favorite brands doesn't happen overnight. It tends to be an extended, often painful process and not a clear-cut, one-off event. Breakups are not isolated to the person and the brand. Friends and fami...
Article
This four-part multi-method investigation into the under-researched yet increasingly prevalent phenomenon of consumer-generated advertising (CGA) confirms a performance advantage over traditional advertising and suggests a rationale for this differential. CGAs benefit from heightened consumer engagement and increased trustworthiness. CGAs also garn...
Article
Although researchers and practitioners have access to a growing body of evidence on the effects of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) frequency and valence, a more detailed understanding of eWOM content is needed in order to better influence these social media-enabled conversations. Based on an ethnomethodological analysis of community conversations i...
Article
Our commentary focuses on the negative pole of Park et al.'s Attachment–Aversion continuum. We argue that the distinction between positively- and negatively-valenced relationships matters, and open opportunities to further our knowledge about what makes a brand relationship “bad.” Two theoretical extensions are offered: (1) additional negativity di...
Article
Full-text available
It has been ten years since the publication of Consumers and their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research (Fournier 1998). Over the course of the decade, we have learned a great deal about the nature and functions of consumers' relationships with brands, and the processes whereby they develop at the hands of consumers and mark...
Article
Full-text available
This naturalistic inquiry probes WOM concerning online consumer-generated advertising (CGA). Through a content analysis of online conversations regarding fourteen CGAs posted to YouTube.com, we uncover that multiple engagement dimensions (i.e., ad, brand, brand community and community-at-large) direct CGA interactions and WOM conversations. We find...
Article
The dialogue between social perception and consumer-brand relationship theories opens new opportunities for studying brands as intentional agents. To advance branding research in the spirit of interdisciplinary inquiry, we propose to investigate the process of anthropomorphism through which brands are imbued with intentional agency; integrate the r...
Article
Full-text available
Branding is widely recognized as an important marketing activity, yet marketing executives are challenged to prove the value of branding in clear financial terms. The objective of this chapter is to integrate emerging insights from the literature on branding and shareholder value into a process framework that helps enumerate and explain the brand-f...
Article
Brands rushed into social media, viewing social networks, video sharing, online communities, and microblogging sites as the panacea to diminishing returns for traditional brand building routes. But as more branding activity moves to the Web, marketers are confronted with the stark realization that social media was made for people, not for brands. I...
Article
Full-text available
Marketers in a variety of industries are trying to increase customer loyalty, marketing efficiency, and brand authenticity by building communities around their brands. Few companies, however, understand what brand communities require and how they work. Drawing from their research as well as their experience at Harley-Davidson, the authors dispel so...
Article
Full-text available
We study a sample of U.S. firms with strong brands as defined by inclusion on Interbrand's most valuable brands list between 1994 and 2006. After adjusting for risk with the Fama and French (1993) three-factor model plus a momentum factor, we find that strong-brand firms have statistically and economically significant above-average returns. Motivat...
Article
Past research has shown a correlation between measures of brand equity and stock price. However, these results are not sufficient to conclude that branding creates shareholder value. Using time-honored models from the discipline of finance, this paper specifies, and subsequently tests, the necessary and sufficient conditions to determine whether br...
Article
Full-text available
This paper reports results from a longitudinal field experiment examining the evolution of relationships between consumers and an on-line photography brand in response to brand personality and transgression manipulations. Development patterns differed significantly for the two personalities, whereby relationships with sincere brands deepened over t...
Article
Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 1994. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 359-385).
Article
Full-text available
The authors present a phenomenological and longitudinal investigation of satisfaction, as revealed through consumers' ownership experiences with technological products. The study seeks to serve a provocative role in this mature research area by stepping back from the historically dominant comparison standards paradigm to question, invigorate, and,...
Article
The authors present a phenomenological and longitudinal investigation of satisfaction, as revealed through consumers’ ownership experiences with technological products. The study seeks to serve a provocative role in this mature research area by stepping back from the historically dominant comparison standards paradigm to question, invigorate, and,...
Article
Full-text available
Although the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-bran...
Article
Full-text available
Although technological products are unavoidable in contemporary life, studies focusing on them in the consumer behavior field have been few and narrow. In this article, we investigate consumers' perspectives, meanings, and experiences in relation to a range of technological products, emphasizing lengthy and repeated interviews with 29 households, i...
Article
Full-text available
Relationship marketing is in vogue. And why not? The new, increasingly efficient ways that companies have of understanding and responding to customers' needs and preferences seemingly allow them to build more meaningful connections with consumers than ever before. These connections promise to benefit the bottom line by reducing costs and increasing...
Article
This paper uses the perspective of interpersonal relationship theory to critically examine, reposition, and extend the notion of brand loyalty. Depth interviews among eight coffee-consuming adults who qualified as brand loyal by traditional criteria provide the data. The result is a deeper appreciation of the character of loyal consumer-brand relat...
Article
Full-text available
This paper focuses on consumer materialism within the American culture. It reviews some of the diverse conceptions of materialism in the contemporary social science literature and compares these theoretical notions with popular notions obtained from an exploratory survey of adult consumers. While popular notions tend to mirror theoretical conceptio...
Article
Thesis (M.S.)--Pennsylvania State University. Library holds archival microfiche negative and service copy,

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