Suzanne Mueller
Notable Quote
“I feel tremendous enthusiasm for the field of marketing and enjoy transmitting that excitement to my students. Hands-on marketing is a combination of chess and basketball with a little bit of gambling thrown in. It’s fast-paced and highly strategic. The landscape is ever-changing. It requires tremendous creativity and willingness to challenge orthodoxies. Marketing is a living laboratory where the “correct” answers are revealed only retrospectively and ethical challenges abound.”
Notable Vignette
While a student at the University of Chicago I was one of only a handful of MBA students interested in the intersection of marketing and statistics. I was particularly intrigued by the use of mathematical models to support marketing decision-making.
Throughout my career I have been fortunate to work with Rich Johnson, one of the pioneers in conjoint analysis, perceptual mapping and computer-aided data collection. Early on, our team provided strategic counsel to FedEx, Nissan, Bank of America and many other top firms engaged in new product development efforts. Later, I became a partner in Rich’s software firm – which specialized in modeling tools for marketing professionals – and directed the firm’s marketing efforts. Rich’s mentorship has been instrumental in shaping my career focus and instilling in me a deep sense of ethics.
What Excites Me About Stuart
As someone whose career interests have focused on the quantitative, more “technical” side of marketing, I particularly enjoy teaching at a technical institution. IIT students seem to particularly enjoy learning how to use many of the quantitative decision-support tools available to today’s marketers and it’s gratifying to know that our students are entering the business world conversant in these techniques and practiced in their implementation.
My Teaching Philosophy
I view my role at Stuart as not just that of an instructor, but as that of an educator. Instructors transmit knowledge and build skills within a particular discipline. An educator goes well beyond the teaching of a specific discipline to encompass broader ownership of students’ experiences and development. I feel strongly that one of my responsibilities is to help prepare our students for their business careers by continually challenging them to communicate clearly, advocate for themselves, question authority, set high ethical standards, and take full advantage of the many co-curricular resources IIT offers.
My Teaching/Research Interests
I am particularly interested in Rogers’ adoption factors as they affect different types of new products and, in particular, the adoption of technology products and RNPs (“really new products”). I think these adoption factors have played a significant role in many notable product failures and, yet, many marketers are not fully aware of them. One of my favorite in-class exercises involves analyzing recent product introductions in terms of Rogers’ factors and then trying to assess how the factors have (or will) affect product adoption.
My consulting interests are mainly focused around the use of conjoint analysis and perceptual mapping to assist clients in making marketing decisions. One of the aspects of my consulting work that I most enjoy is the ability to learn about interesting products and industries that I might not have been exposed to otherwise. Most recently I have had the opportunity to learn, in depth, about the commercial reinsurance market, medical decision support tools and residential solar energy.
