Legends in Marketing: Gerald Zaltman

The Legends in Marketing series captures the essence of the most important contributions made in the field of marketing in the past hundred years. It reproduces the seminal works of the legends in the field, supplemented by interviews of these legends as well as the opinions of other scholars about their work.

The series comprises various sets, each focused on the multiple ways in which a legend has contributed to the field. This eleventh set in the series, consisting of five volumes, is a tribute to Gerald Zaltman.

Professor Zaltman is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Business School, Massachusetts, and a founding partner in Olson Zaltman Associates, a market research and marketing consulting firm with clients around the globe. Professor Zaltman  received his AB degree from Bates College, Maine, his MBA degree from The University of Chicago, and his PhD in Sociology from the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. He has taught at the University of Alaska, Northwestern University (Illinois), the University of Pittsburgh, and Harvard University. At Harvard University, he was a member of Harvard’s interdisciplinary Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative which sought to integrate advances in scientific thinking across the university. He also served on its steering committee.  Additionally, he was the co-director, with Professor Stephen M. Kosslyn, of the Harvard Business School’s Mind of the Market Laboratory where pioneering work was done on the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique and on the application of cognitive neuroscience in marketing including brain imaging and implicit association testing. 

Professor Zaltman is the author or editor of over 20 books, many of which have been published in several languages. He is a frequent contributor to scholarly and professional journals. Professor Zaltman has received numerous professional awards and honors. He is a past president of the Association for Consumer Research and has served on several editorial boards in marketing and the social sciences. Professor Zaltman has held three U.S. patents related to market research tools including the first patent ever granted for a research tool in marketing. He is actively sought after as a consultant and speaker around the globe.

The series is edited by Jagdish N. Sheth, who is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, USA. He is a past president of the Association for Consumer Research (ACR), as well as Division 23 (Consumer Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA). He is also a Fellow of the APA. Professor Sheth is the coauthor of the Howard–Sheth Theory of Buyer Behavior, a classic in consumer behavior published in 1969.

Volumes in this set:

Volume 1:  Planned Social Change and the Diffusion of Innovation

Editor: Christine Moorman

Volume 2: Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

Editor: Robin Coulter

Volume 3: Consumer Behavior Research

Editor: Melanie Wallendorf

Volume 4: Marketing Management

Editor: Luc Wathieu

Volume 5: Marketing Theory

Editor: Manjit S. Yadav