Award for Waikato marketing expert

Award for Waikato marketing expert who asks the big questions

Which countries should New Zealand target to boost tourism? What’s been the effect of slashing the marketing budget for Tourism Waikato? And do loyalty programmes such as FlyBuys really work?

Finding answers to these and other important questions is more of a passion than a job for Professor Harald Van Heerde of the University of Waikato Management School.

“Marketing is really ‘where the rubber hits the road’, right where firms and consumers meet,” says the quantitative marketing expert. “No matter how good your products are, without good marketing you are nowhere. So marketing is an essential business discipline -- and it’s a fantastic field to work in as an academic researcher.”

Professor Van Heerde, who came to Waikato from the Netherlands, has just been awarded the School’s annual Dean’s Award for Research Excellence for his world-leading research contributions to marketing theory. He’s previously won a string of international awards for research that’s made a significant impact in the field of marketing, and in 2008 was named Australasia’s leading marketing scholar.

“Clearly Harald is an outstanding scholar whose research is of great interest to scholars around the globe,” says Waikato Management School Director of Research, Professor Delwyn Clark. “He’s been invited to present his innovative and original research and lead workshops at top international business schools including INSEAD in France and the London Business School.”

Professor Van Heerde’s insights are important for practitioners too.

“Marketing budgets run into billions of dollars for major international companies, but they don’t really know what works and what doesn’t,” he says. “We’re developing new methods to allow marketing managers to make informed decisions.

“For example, we’ve analysed the best strategy to build a new brand from scratch. Whereas most textbooks and practitioners would be inclined to focus on promotions and advertising, we found that actually distribution is the key to success. If your brand is not for sale in the right stores, no amount of advertising will be enough.”

Professor Van Heerde says he’s keen to work with New Zealand organisations, particularly those with large consumer datasets, to help them find answers to questions like these.

He receives a plaque and an honorarium of $5,000.

ENDS

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