Team
Andrea is a Professor of Branding, Academic Director of the Brand Research Laboratory, and Speaker of the interdisciplinary research area EPoS (Economy, Politics & Society)at the University of Innsbruck. Her research revolves around branding and brands as mediators; moments of luxury; minimalism and sustainability; routinized consumer deceleration; brand experiences and self-transformation; consumers' pursuit of being different; creative consumer online crowds, e.g. the Free Software and the Open Source movement; visual brand rhetorics on social media, and charismatic brand leadership. Andrea has published her research in the Journal of Consumer Research, Organization Studies, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Consumption, Markets & Culture, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory, Management Learning, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, among others.
Verena Wieser studied International Business Administration at the University of Innsbruck and Carleton University (Canada). After her graduation in April 2008, she worked in the field of sports event management for several years. She joined the Department of Marketing as a doctoral candidate in October 2011 and received her PhD in 2015. Her research interest focuses on moralism in branding and consumer research, collective skill acquisition, and charismatic brand leadership.
Christian studied business administration with a focus on marketing at the University of Innsbruck and Hanken (Helsinki). Today he works as a marketing consultant, lecturer, and post-doc researcher. His main research area is enthusiastic consumers and revolves around how consumer culture is shaped by digital media and how this affects shared value creation and market dynamics. Methodologically, he focuses on digital and qualitative research methods. Christian has published his research in Organization Studies, Management Learning, and the European Journal of Marketing, among others.
Ramona is a post-doc candidate in the field of consumer culture theory (CCT). In her dissertation, she focused on the relevance of consumer emotions in contemporary consumer society. Ramona is currently working on research projects that explore the relevance of consumer emotions and their management in the context of ski schooling, adventure tourism, and true crime consumption. In her projects, she draws on various qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, video-ethnographic methods, or consumer diaries.
Carolin Lemoine joined the Branding Team in 2013.
Brand Lab Affiliates and Former Members
Oliver Koll is a Professor of Marketing at the Department of Management and Marketing, University of Innsbruck. Oliver's research focuses on techniques to understand brand meaning and how consumer brand meaning relates to managerially relevant brand outcomes, like trust, recommendation, or purchasing. He also investigates how channel strategies, in particular the entry into discount channels, affect the equity of brands. His publications include outlets like The Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and the European Journal of Marketing and Psychology and Marketing.
Marius Lüdicke is a Professor of Marketing at WU and an expert in brand strategy. He has been the founding Director of the Brand Research Laboratory from Mai 2010 until Mai 2013. His research explores social conflicts that originate from consumers' struggles with ecological consumption, diversity, and immigration. His studies have been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology and Marketing, Long Range Planning, Consumption Markets, and Culture, the Journal of Macromarketing, Marketing JRM, the Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Consumer Policy.
Reinhard Grohs is Professor at the Privatuniversität Schloss Seeburg. Reinhard’s research applies innovative quantitative techniques in the fields of branding and marketing communication, particularly in sports sponsorship. His research has been published in outlets like International Marketing Review and Schmalenbach Business Review and was covered by national and international magazines and newspapers.
Katharina Husemann is a senior lecturer in Marketing at King’s Business School, King’s College London. Her research program is embedded in the field of consumer culture theory. It aims at exploring consumer experiences of, or consumer responses to, a globalized, accelerated, and digitalized consumer culture that contemporary Western societies have developed into. Her studies have been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychology & Marketing, Long Range Planning, Consumption Markets, and Culture, the Journal of Macromarketing, Marketing JRM, the Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Consumer Policy.
Hochschullehrerin für Marketing
Stephanie was a post-doctoral researcher in the Branding Team and joined FH Kufstein in the fall of 2022. She studied International Economic and Business Studies at the University of Innsbruck and NEOMA Business School in Rouen (France). She gained professional experience at Abercrombie and Fitch and joined the Marketing and Branding Team as a PhD Candidate in October 2016. From 2018 - 2019 she was a visiting PhD student at the Lifestyle Research Center, EMLYON Business School (France), and received her PhD in 2021. Stephanie's research focuses on consumer culture, branding, and digital media. She explores how visual content online, specifically on Instagram, influences and shapes brands and branding. Methodologically, she engages in creative visual research methods to explore the visual co-construction of brands online. Stephanie has published her research in Consumption Markets, and Culture and the Advances in Consumer Research.
Assistant Professor
Jonathan specializes in market and consumer research in digital contexts. His research is characterized by the use of a wide variety of methods - from traditional qualitative to more recent approaches, i.e., digital methods, and context-wise denters on digital market system dynamics, fashion consumption, and body culture. Jonathan has published his research in the European Journal of Marketing, Consumption Markets & Culture, and Advances in Consumer Research.
Post-doc Researcher
After studying International Economics and Business at the University of Innsbruck and Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, Sarah joined the marketing and branding team in April 2019 as a doctoral candidate and later continued as a post-doc researcher until July 2024. Her interests revolve around consumer research, specifically consumer culture theory (CCT). She draws upon qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, projective techniques, ethnography, netnography, and (visual) content analyses to investigate the intersection of mobility and consumption. Sarah has published her research in Marketing Theory and Advances in Consumer Research.