Jill Avery

Assistant Professor
P: 617-521-3853
F: 617-521-3880
jill.avery@simmons.edu

D.B.A., Harvard Business School, M.B.A.; The Wharton School, B.A.; University of Pennsylvania


Specialization

Brand management, customer relationship management, conspicuous consumption, social mission brands, marketing in Web 2.0, and brand communities

Bio

Dr. Jill Avery is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Simmons School of Management in Boston. She received a DBA degree in marketing from the Harvard Business School, an MBA in marketing and finance from the Wharton School, and a BA in English and art history from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Avery's research focuses on brand management and customer relationship management issues. Her dissertation research, entitled "Saving Face by Making Meaning: The Negative Effects of Consumers' Self-Serving Response to Brand Extension" won the 2006 Harvard Business School Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research.

At Simmons, Dr. Avery teaches Marketing Management, Brand Management/ Integrated Marketing Communications, and Consumer Behavior in the MBA and undergraduate programs. She was awarded a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching and was nominated for the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for her efforts while teaching at Harvard University.

Prior to her academic career, Dr. Avery spent nine years as a brand manager, managing brands for The Gillette Company, Braun Inc., Samuel Adams, and AT&T, and spent three years on the agency side of the business as an account executive managing consumer promotions for Pepsi, General Foods, Bristol-Myers, and Citibank. She remains close to practice by offering pro-bono marketing consulting services to a range of entrepreneurial start-up companies and non-profit organizations, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she serves as a member of the Board of Overseers.

Current Course(s)

  • Marketing Management (MBA: Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Spring 2009)
  • Integrated Promotion and Brand Management (Undergraduate, Spring 2008)
  • Brand Management and Integrated Marketing Communications (MBA, Summer 2008)
  • Consumer Behavior (Undergraduate: Fall 2008)

Publications

Avery, Jill (2007) “Saving Face by Making Meaning: The Negative Effects of Consumers’ Self-Serving Response to Brand Extension,” Harvard Business School Doctoral Dissertation, UMI Dissertation Publishing.

Research

  • Brand Meaning and Consumer Identity Construction
  • Consumer-Brand Relationships and CRM
  • Brand Management and Brand Equity

Dissertation

“Saving Face by Making Meaning: The Negative Effects of Consumers’ Self-Serving Response to Brand Extension” 

Awards & Accolades

  • Harvard Business School Wyss Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research (2006)
  • AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium Fellow, University of Maryland (2006)
  • Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize Nominee, Harvard University (2004)
  • Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University (2003)
  • Bachelor of Arts cum laude honors, University of Pennsylvania (1988)

Work in Progress

Working Papers

  • “Protecting the Markers of Hegemonic Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Gender Bending Brand Extensions,” available for download at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1088802.
  • “Saving Face by Making Meaning: The Negative Effects of Brand Communities Self-Serving Response to Brand Extensions”
  • “Adding Bricks to Clicks: The Effects of Store Openings on Sales Through Direct Channels,” with Thomas J. Steenburgh, John Deighton, and Mary Caravella, available for download at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=961567. 
  • “Powerful Corporation or Victorious Underdog? Emphasizing the Underdog Narrative in Brand Biography,” with Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan, and Juliet Shor


Research in Progress

  • “Toward a Dynamic Theory of Consumer-Brand Relationships: Content and Process from a Relationship Contracting Perspective,” with Susan Fournier and Andrea Wojnicki.
  • “Appropriating Identity,” with Douglas Holt.
  • “Patagonia Politics: Proselytizing with Social Mission Brands,” with Douglas Holt.
  • “Firing Your Best Customer: How CRM Destroys Relationships with Consumers,” with Susan Fournier and Andrea Wojnicki.
  • “The Evolution of Hierarchical Status Systems and Hegemonic Interpretations of Brand Meaning in Brand Communities”

Professional Memberships

  • American Marketing Association
  • Association for Consumer Research

Speaking Engagements

  • The Evolution of Hierarchical Status Systems and Hegemonic Interpretation of Brand Meaning in Brand Communities, 2008 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Suffolk University.
  • Protecting the Markers of Hegemonic Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Gender-Bending Brand Extensions, 2008 Association for Consumer Research Conference on Gender, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior, Simmons College
  • You Can’t Change My Brand: How Communities Renegotiate Brand Meaning, 2007 Engaging Communities for the Company and the Brand, Marketing Science Institute Conference, Boston University.
  • Saving Face: Consumers’ Collective Negotiation of Brand Meaning Change, 2006 Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Notre Dame University.
  • Adding Bricks to Clicks, with Thomas Steenburgh, John Deighton, and Mary Caravella, 2006 INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, Pittsburgh 
  • Adding Bricks to Clicks, with Thomas J. Steenburgh, John Deighton, and Mary Caravella, 2006 Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference, Houston
  • Contracting for Loyalty: CRM from the Consumer’s Perspective, 2005 Customer Advocacy Symposium, Bentley College with Susan Fournier and Andrea Wojnicki. 
  • Contracting for Relationships: A Developmental View, with Susan Fournier and Andrea Wojnicki, 2004 American Marketing Association Summer Educators Conference, Boston
  • Contracting for Relationships: A Developmental View, with Susan Fournier and Andrea Wojnicki, 2004 Association for Consumer Research Annual Conference, Portland

 

Last Updated: May 15, 2008 10:58 AM | Content Editor: SOM