Vanitha Swaminathan
Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing
Portrait of Professor Vanitha Swaminathan

Contact

338A Mervis Hall
vanitha@katz.pitt.edu
412-648-1579

Profile

Dr. Vanitha Swaminathan leads initiatives that cut across our core missions of education and research, including enhancing brand identity and awareness, strengthening educational and research partnerships with industry, and fostering areas of distinctive and aspirational excellence.

Dr. Swaminathan is Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Thomas Marshall Professor of Marketing at the University of Pittsburgh and the Director of the Center for Branding at Pitt Business. Professor Swaminathan has published extensively in various leading marketing and management journals including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, among others. Her innovative research contributions include developing frameworks for branding in a hyperconnected world and online brand engagement, and understanding the drivers and motivations for consumer-brand relationships. She has won awards for her research including AMA Conference Best Paper Awards (multiple times), Lehmann Best Paper Awards (twice), Journal of Advertising’s Best Paper Award. She has also won awards for her research, teaching and service at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Swaminathan is currently serving as Editor of Journal of Marketing,the premier journal in marketing. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Marketing Association and was previously the President of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association. Professor Swaminathan has also co-authored, along with Professor Kevin Lane Keller, the Fifth Edition of the world-renowned textbook Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity (widely regarded as the Bible of Branding).

Professor Swaminathan’s research and commentaries are quoted in various international media outlets such as BBC, New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, U.S. News & World Report, Sirius Radio, Science Daily, Slate, Economic Times, Frontline, among others. She has worked with companies such as EA Sports, Smucker’s, DowDuPont, Young & Rubicam, The Hershey Company, KraftHeinz, StarKist, AC Nielsen, GlaxoSmithKline, and P&G, on marketing and branding consulting projects. As founder and director of the Center for Branding, Dr. Swaminathan has introduced novel teaching and research initiatives on digital branding.

Courses Recently Taught

  • Marketing Management
  • Brand Management

Awards and Honors

  • 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award, XLRI Jamshedpur
  • 2020 Lehmann Award awarded to the best dissertation-based article published in Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research in 2019-2020 (served as dissertation advisor and co-author on award-winning article)
  • 2020 Invited to serve as a Judge on ANA’s Genius awards for excellence in Marketing Analytics, alongside industry leaders in marketing (only academic to serve on the panel)
  • 2020 Elected to American Marketing Association Board of Directors for a three year term (2020-2023)
  • 2018-2019 Excellence in Teaching Award
  • 2018-2019 Excellence in Research Award
  • Christian Hughes and Vanitha Swaminathan received the Best Paper in Theme award at the Winter 2018 AMA Conference in New Orleans for “Communicating in a Melting Pot: How Audience Diversity Impacts Word of Mouth Valence.”
  • Katz and Center for Branding PhD student Christian Hughes wins Answers in Action Grant

Degrees

  • PhD in Business Administration, University of Georgia
  • MBA XLRI, Jamshedpur, India
  • BA, Economics, University of Madras

CV

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Recent Publications

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Cait Lamberton, Sridhar, Shrihari and Detelina Marinova (2023),”Paradigms for Progress: An Anomaly-First Framework for Paradigm Development”, Journal of Marketing, forthcoming.

Basu, Meheli, and Vanitha Swaminathan (2023),  “Consuming in a crisis: Pandemic consumption across consumer segments and implications for brands”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 32 (1), 14-36.

Sridhar, Shrihari, Cait Lamberton, Detelina Marinova, and Vanitha Swaminathan (2023), “JM: Promoting Catalysis in Marketing Scholarship.” Journal of Marketing, 87 (1), 1-9.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Sayan Gupta, Kevin Lane Keller, and Donald Lehmann. (2022), “Brand actions and financial consequences: a review of key findings and directions for future research.” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50 (4), 639-664.

Swaminathan, V., Schwartz, H. Andrew, Menezes, Rowan and Shawndra Hill (2022). The Language of Brands in Social Media: Using Topic Modeling on Social Media Conversations to Drive Brand Strategy. Journal of Interactive Marketing57(2), 255-277.

Hsieh, Meng-Hua, Xingbo Bo Li, Shailendra Pratap Jain, and Vanitha Swaminathan (2021). “Self-construal drives preference for partner and servant brands.” Journal of Business Research, 129, 183-192.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, and Umut Kubat Dokumaci (2021), “Do all, or Only Some Personality Types Engage in Spreading Negative WOM? An Experimental Study of Negative WOM, Big 5 Personality Traits and Brand Personality.” Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 1-13.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Alina Sorescu, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, Thomas O’ Guinn and Bernd Schmitt (2020), “Branding in a Hyperconnected World: Refocusing Theories and Rethinking Boundaries,” Journal of Marketing, 84(2) 24-46

Keller, Kevin Lane and Vanitha Swaminathan (2019) Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, 5th Edition, Pearson Education.

Paharia, Neeru and Vanitha Swaminathan (2019),”Who is Wary of Cocreation? The Hazards of Empowering Power-Distant and Conservative Consumers”, 83 (3), Journal of Marketing, 91-107.

Christian Hughes, Swaminathan, Vanitha and Gillian Brooks (2019),” Driving Brand Engagement Through Online Social Influencers: An Empirical Investigation of Sponsored Blogging Campaigns “, forthcoming, Journal of Marketing.

Swaminathan, Vanitha (2016), “Branding in the Digital Era: New Directions for Research on Customer-Based Brand Equity,” AMS Review, 6, 33-38. 

Casey Newmeyer, Vanitha Swaminathan and John Hulland (2016), “When Products and Brands Trade Hands: A Framework for Acquisition Success,” Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 24 (2), 129-146.

Kubat, Umut and Vanitha Swaminathan (2015), “Crossing the Cultural Divide through Bilingual Advertising: The Moderating Role of Brand Cultural Symbolism,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 32 (4), 354–362.

Thomaz, Felipe and Vanitha Swaminathan (2015), “What Goes Around Comes Around: The Impact of Marketing Alliances on Firm Risk in Highly Embedded Networks,” Journal of Marketing, 79 (5), 63 – 79.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, Umut Kubat and Ceren Hayran  (2015), “How, When, and Why Do Attribute-Complementary versus Attribute-Similar Cobrands Affect Brand Evaluations: A Concept Combination Perspective,” Journal of Consumer Research, 42 (1), 45 – 58. 

Winterich, Karen Page, Vikas Mittal and Vanitha Swaminathan (2014) “Friends and Family: How In-Group-Focused Promotions Can Increase Purchase,” Customer Needs and Solutions, 1:333–344.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Christopher Groening, Vikas Mittal and Felipe Thomaz (2014), “ Dual Emphasis and Financial Performance in Horizontal Mergers,” 17 (2), Journal of Service Research, 182-194. 

Dommer, Sara Loughran, Vanitha Swaminathan, and Rohini Ahluwalia (2013), “Using Differentiated Brands to Deflect Exclusion and Protect Inclusion: The Moderating Role of Self-Esteem on Attachment to Differentiated Brands,” 40 (4), Journal of Consumer Research, 657-675.

Dommer, Sara Loughran, and Vanitha Swaminathan (2013), “Explaining the Endowment Effect through Ownership: The Role of Identity, Gender, and Self-Threat,” Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (5), 1034-1050.

Kopalle, Praveen K., Scott A. Neslin, Baohong Sun, Yacheng Sun, Vanitha Swaminathan (2012), “A Dynamic Structural Model of the Impact of Loyalty Programs on Customer Behavior,” Marketing Science, 31 (2), 216-235.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Srinivas K. Reddy and Sara Dommer (2011), “Spillover effects of ingredient branded strategies on brand choice: A field study,” Marketing Letters (21 October),1-15.

Swaminathan, Vanitha and Christine Moorman (2009), “Marketing Alliances, Firm Networks and Firm Value Creation,” Journal of Marketing, 73 (5), 52-69.

Swaminathan Vanitha, Karen Stilley and Rohini Ahluwalia (2009) “When Brand Personality Matters: The Moderating Role of Attachment Styles,” Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (6), 985-1002.

Shah, Reshma and Vanitha Swaminathan (2008), “A Contingency Framework of Factors Influencing Partner Selection in Strategic Alliances: Exploring The Moderating Role of Alliance Context,” Strategic Management Journal, 29 (5), 471-494.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Feisal Murshed and John Hulland (2008) “Value Creation Following Merger and Acquisition Announcements: The Role of Strategic Emphasis Alignment,” Journal of Marketing Research, 45(1), 33-47.

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Karen Page and Zeynep Gurhan-Canli (2007), “My Brand or Our Brand: Individual-and Group-Based Brand Relationships and Self-Construal Effects on Brand Evaluations,” Journal of Consumer Research, 34(2), 248-259.

Leigh, James, George Zinkhan and Vanitha Swaminathan (2006), “Dimensional Relationships Of Recall And Recognition Measures With Selected Cognitive And Affective Aspects Of Print Ads,” Journal of Advertising, 35(1), 105-122. Received the Best Paper of the Year Award, 2006 from the American Academy of Advertising

Swaminathan, Vanitha, Richard J. Fox and Srinivas K. Reddy (2001) “The Impact of Brand Extension Introduction on Choice,” with Richard J. Fox and Srinivas K. Reddy, Journal of Marketing, 65 (4), 1-15 (Lead Article). Winner of the 2002 Lehmann Award for the Best Dissertation-Based Article published in the Journal of Marketing or Journal of Marketing Research in the years 2000 and 2001.

Reddy, Srinivas K., Vanitha Swaminathan and Carol M. Motley “Exploring the Determinants of Broadway Show Success (1998),” Journal of Marketing Research, 35 (3), 370-383.

Press Mentions

ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/Business/sales-slumps-target-bud-light-fuel-boycotts-experts/story?id=102429279

Twitter’s name change to X, https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3228853/why-twitter-changing-its-name-ceo-elon-musk-xplains

BBC’s Asia Business Report, https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7075341217525370880?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7075341217525370880%29

Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/target-bud-light-boycotts-working-social-media-culture-war-2023-6

New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/business/target-pride-lgbtq-companies-backlash.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/news/xlri-confers-distinguished-alumni-awards-during-alumni-homecoming-2022-101670744542346.html

CNN.com https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/business/tesla-elon-musk-brand-politics/index.html,July 12, 2022

Pittsburgh Tribune Review, How will the loss of stadium naming rights affect the Heinz legacy in Pittsburgh?
https://triblive.com/sports/steelers/end-of-partnership-between-heinz-steelers-draws-mixed-reactions-from-economists-professors/, July 11, 2022

Bloomberg Zoom Bets on Corporate Customers to Stem Post-Pandemic Crash, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-30/zoom-bets-on-corporate-customers-to-stem-post-pandemic-crash, June 30, 2022

NPR’s Marketplace, “How are the Olympic designers chosen?” https://www.marketplace.org/2021/07/29/how-are-the-olympic-designers-chosen/, July 29, 2021

Pitt ready to adapt as college athletes’ compensation rules change, University Times, https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/news/pitt-ready-adapt-college, July 1, 2021

ImagineAR teams up with University of Pittsburgh to virtually teach augmented reality course, https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/927374/imaginear-teams-up-with-university-of-pittsburgh-to-virtually-teach-augmented-reality-course-927374.html, August 24,2020

Branding in a Hyperconnected World, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200129104716.htm

Phys.org, Branding in a Hyperconnected World, 29 Jan 2020

Journal of Marketing Announces New Coeditors

Yahoo Finance

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Pittwire

Center Affiliation

Center for Branding

Academic Area

Marketing and Business Economics