FEATURED ARTICLE
Dr. Marshall Reflects, Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
A Renaissance Man at Crummer, Dr. Greg Marshall, receives Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Marketing Association.
In August, Dr. Greg Marshall will make his way to the 2018 American Marketing Association Summer Academic Conference in Boston, MA where at a special ceremony, reception, and dinner with his peers he will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AMA Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group (SIG).
His long list of accomplishments make it clear why he was chosen for the prestigious award.
Previously on the faculty at TCU, Oklahoma State University, and the University of South Florida, Dr. Marshall also has over a decade of experience at companies such as Warner Lambert, Mennen, and Target Corporation.
He credits his early experience at Target as having a big impact on his passion for marketing.
“I worked in all sorts of management roles at Target mostly as a way to help pay for my tuition and other expenses while at the University of Tulsa,” said Dr. Marshall. “It was my first real job, and I enjoyed it a lot, and at that time Target was really reinventing the retail business – they were the first retailer to think of themselves as a brand (think “Targé”) instead of just a distributor of products. It wasn’t until years later that, looking back, I fully realized how much I’d learned from Target’s leadership during its formative years and how much it impacted my own approach to business. To this day, they re-invented the retail business like no other firm had until Amazon came along.”
Perhaps Dr. Marshall’s broadest influence on the field of marketing and sales is through his role as an author and researcher. He is co-author of several textbooks that are widely-used around the world, including Marketing Management 3rd ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2019), Sales Force Management 12th ed. (Routledge, 2016), and Contemporary Selling 5th ed. (Routledge 2016), all of which are co-authored with fellow Crummer marketing professor Dr. Mark Johnston. In addition, Dr. Marshall co-authors one of the most widely used undergraduate marketing principles books in the world, Marketing: Real People, Real Choices 9th ed. (Pearson 2018).
“Keeping those books new and fresh every couple of years really helps keep a person on top of trends in marketing and sales,” said Dr. Marshall. “I can’t let myself get stale because the students and their professors who use the books depend on us for currency of content!”
His fellow co-author on the books and colleague of more than 20 years, Dr. Mark Johnston, says not only he is deserving of the award, but he also has been a pleasure to work with over the past two decades.
“The thing about Greg is he’s conscientious, he does very good work, and he’s also quite giving in that he’s willing to go the extra mile,” said Dr. Johnston. “He’s been such an awesome guy to have as a partner and to work on so many different things with as a colleague. He’s delivered at the highest levels in the area of marketing scholarship for many years and is well-deserving of this award.”
Dr. Marshall also is very active in research, having published over 50 peer reviewed articles and also currently serving as the editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Marketing, one of the leading general marketing journals globally. He was previously editor-in-chief of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. Through his research and editorships, Dr. Marshall’s focus has always been to combine academic rigor with managerial relevance on topics that have importance to the practice of marketing and sales. “I never set out to be a serial journal editor. Actually, I don’t think it’s possible to pre-plan something like that out,” he said. “Really, how I came to edit each of those journals has its own unique backstory. But in the end, in each case, we built a great editorial and reviewer team and we all enjoyed the opportunity to serve marketing authors around the world.”
In 2007, Dr. Marshall had the opportunity to apply his vast knowledge and experience to benefit the College when he was called on by then President Lewis Duncan to serve a three-year stint as Vice President for Strategic Marketing for Rollins, a role he calls one of the most rewarding and memorable in his career. During that time, he led a strategic marketing initiative for the College that generated (among other key outcomes) a complete overhaul and rollout of a comprehensive brand campaign—complete with the modern logos, colors, and designs that have been associated with Rollins for the last decade.
To Dr. Marshall, receiving the American Marketing Association award is an honor and also a humbling experience. “When I was told I was going to get the award and then looked at the list of prior recipients going back to the first one in 1999, I thought OK, about the first ten recipients were the originators of the field – my heroes when I was a doctoral student – and then about the next ten recipients were all senior faculty when I was starting out as an academic,” said Dr. Marshall. “I think the torch has now been passed along to my generation of scholars, which of course means a lot to all of us in that generation of academics.”
The Future is Bright
There is one word you will hear a lot when you talk to Dr. Marshall about his career in marketing and sales.
Fun.
From leading the marketing and branding initiative at Rollins, to mentoring literally dozens of doctoral students over the years, to his writing and editorial experiences, to his numerous projects and activities in the private sector, to his passion for collaborative learning with Crummer students in the classroom – don’t be surprised when he describes those experiences first and foremost as fun.
“I think in this business you have fun, you do a lot of interesting things,” said Dr. Marshall. “It’s not about labor really — that’s how it’s always been with me as an academic, and honestly that’s how it’s been with me since I went to work in industry.”
His former students sing his praises, including Dr. Tim O’Brien, who had his dissertation chaired by Dr. Marshall.
“He’s one of those people that if you, as a student or a young professional, are going to put in the effort, he’s going to match it or exceed it. He’s willing to go above and beyond for his students who are willing to go the extra mile,” said Dr. O’Brien.
Min Sun Kim, student and program manager at the Edyth Bush Institute for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, says she uses Dr. Marshall’s class at work on a daily basis.
“I felt like nothing was wasted, everything I learned I could easily apply it,” said Kim. “I still pull up his PowerPoints from class when I’m at work.”
While Dr. Marshall will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award this August, there are no signs that his influence on the field of marketing and sales will be diminishing anytime soon. Plus, he says there’s never been a better time come into either marketing or sales.
“It’s the best time ever to get into this field — that I can tell you for sure. 100 percent best time ever,” said Dr. Marshall. “Both marketing and sales are at a peak of influence on organizational strategic success right now, and if you’re not investing in those areas appropriately, then it’s going to have a ripple effect on the success of the whole organization.”
Plus, his passion to pass the torch to the next generation is already evident.
“I can thank him for not just a lot of things, but also getting me my first teaching jobs at one of the best schools in the country,” said Dr. O’Brien, who serves as an adjunct professor in marketing for Crummer. “If he didn’t give me that opportunity, I don’t know if I would’ve gotten that opportunity on my own.”