Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Professor Emeritus of Marketing Bobby Calder was honored as a Joseph Plummer MASB Trailblazer during MASB Summer Summit, Aug. 13 at DePaul University. The trophy was presented by award namesake Joe Plummer. Trailblazer recognition is awarded periodically to individuals who embody the spirit of marketing accountability and have been instrumental in carrying out the MASB mission. See MASB Trailblazers.
Calder was named the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in 1993. Prior to that he was A. Montgomery Ward Professor of Marketing. He taught marketing, organizational behavior, behavioral science and consumer psychology, and social psychology at the University of Illinois and at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. He served as Director of Organizational Research for National Analysis, a division of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and was a professor of Journalism and Media in the Medill School and a professor of Psychology at Northwestern.
“If you’ve been in marketing or teach marketing, you’ve used some article, some chapter or some study that Bobby has been involved in,” Plummer said at the event. “He’s done a lot for MASB, and he’s done a lot for our industry.”
His research focuses on brand strategy and the financial evaluation of brands, research methods, consumer psychology, and media consumption. He has authored numerous articles in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Behavior, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He has contributed to numerous books, including editing Kellogg on Advertising and Media 2nd Edition (2010). His monograph Brands: An Integrated Marketing, and Societal Perspective (Foundations and Trends® in Marketing) appeared in 2020.
Under Bobby’s leadership as TC289 Chair, new global standard ISO 20671 Brand Evaluation was unanimously approved and announced at the 2018 TC289 Plenary meeting in Milan, Italy. He continues to contribute as co-lead of the MASB Brand Evaluation Standards Project. He has led the creation ISO20671 and its expansion into a family of new brand evaluation standards, including Geographical Indication, Implementation and Reporting, and Tourism City.
His Brand Evaluation Process framework – connecting brand strength, brand performance, brand value and investor value – lies at the heart of the new standards. Recognition of his contributions by ISO and ANSI has led to Bobby’s recent nomination to the ISO Advisory Council.