Michel Wedel Cited Among Marketing Research ‘Pioneers’

The American Marketing Association (AMA) has selected Michel Wedel, PepsiCo Professor of Consumer Science at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, for its Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award.

The honor places Wedel among 70 previous honorees, including the likes of Robert Wood Johnson, Peter Drucker, Arthur C. Nielsen and George Gallup, for “pioneering work in the marketing research industry,” according to the AMA. “(Wedel) ranks as one of the most productive market researchers in the world.”

Wedel’s expertise spans consumer science and marketing modeling and he’s widely recognized for his eye-tracking research and for his teaching.  (Read “Why Clever Can Backfire,” describing a new, Wedel co-authored paper forthcoming in Journal of Marketing Research.)

AMA established the Parlin award in 1945 as a memorial to its namesake as “the founder of marketing research.”

“The effect Wedel’s strategic leadership and integration of methodologies has had on the marketing research industry is profound,” said Russ Klein, the AMA’s CEO. “We honor his commitment to marketing research, his market based knowledge and the transformational impact he has had on the entire marketing community.”

Last July, Wedel was named a Distinguished University Professor – UMD’s highest academic honor that’s “reserved for a limited number of professors whose scholarly activities have brought distinction to the university.” Wedel also was named as a UMD 2013-2014 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and selected for the Dr. Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioral and Social Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.  Previously from the AMA, he received the Gilbert A. Churchill award for lifetime achievement in marketing research and the Journal of Marketing Research selected him for the William F. O'Dell Award  for significant, long-term contribution to marketing theory, methodology and-or practice.