16 Sep 2008

Prof. Emeritus Gerald Zaltman Honored for Contributions to Marketing Science

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Professor Emeritus
Gerald Zaltman
Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva

BOSTON — HBS Professor Emeritus Gerald Zaltman has been awarded the annual Buck Weaver Award for Marketing. Established by the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2003 and sponsored by General Motors Corp., the award recognizes individuals who have made important contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in marketing science. He was selected from a pool of 25 competitors in recognition of his "long career in academic innovation" and for his influence on practice.

Zaltman's research interests focus on customer behavior and marketing strategy. His book How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market (Harvard Business School Press, 2003) has been translated into 15 languages, received several awards, and been ranked among the top five best-selling business books in North America and Europe. His most recent book, Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal about the Minds of Consumers (Harvard Business Press, 2008), which he coauthored with Lindsay Zaltman, managing director of Olson Zaltman Associates, delves into the mind of the consumer to reveal the unconscious viewing lenses that shape what people think, hear, say, and do.

Zaltman is a former member of the Executive Committee of Harvard University's Mind, Brain, and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative. He was previously Co-Director of The Mind of the Market Laboratory at Harvard Business School. He is a co-founder and senior partner in the researchbased consulting firm of Olson Zaltman Associates. Zaltman holds a Ph.D. in sociology from The Johns Hopkins University, an M.B.A from the University of Chicago, and an A.B. in government from Bates College. He held positions at Northwestern University and the University of Pittsburgh before joining Harvard Business School in 1991.

Henry Grady "Buck" Weaver was a pioneer in marketing research and market-based decision making in the 1930s. Working for GM, he pioneered formal consumer research on attitudes, opinions, styling preferences, and customer design feature priorities.

About Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 250 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and PhD degrees, as well as more than 175 Executive Education programs, and Harvard Business School Online, the School’s digital learning platform. For more than a century, faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching, to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. The School and its curriculum attract the boldest thinkers and the most collaborative learners who will go on to shape the practice of business and entrepreneurship around the globe.