Ashlee Humphreys is curious by nature, allowing her to tackle some of marketing’s biggest questions.
Humphreys, a professor of integrated marketing communications at Medill, studies consumer behavior and marketing strategy. With training in sociology, Humphreys takes a distinctive approach, looking at how markets are influenced by institutions and individuals early.
Her most recent research work, All the News That’s Fit to Capitalize: How Person Brands Shape Emergent Markets published in Journal of Marketing, looks at the influence of “person brands,” or individuals who have gained cultural significance through the idea of marketing their identity and skills, on the early online news market. The article examines three people in particular: Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, and Matt Drudge.
“When a market is very new, people don’t really know what to expect from it,” she said. “Our article really looks at how individual people shape those understandings, and the realities of that market.
“These three individuals shaped the media market, and so understanding how they did that can be very important to understanding how media can be sustainable and continue to provide value in society,” said Humphreys.
The peer-reviewed article lists three ways that individuals can structure markets in their infancy: by using social capital (their network), cultural capital (knowledge and skills) and symbolic capital (prestige and reputation).
“What our article really shows is that person brands and people, especially elite and influential people, play a really important role in shaping the market,” she said.
Humphreys said the findings have serious implications when looking at the emerging markets of today. When looking at the generative AI market, for example, many of the same questions apply.
“If you were to do the same analysis, for example, in generative AI, you would look at the beliefs of Sam Altman or Elon Musk or whomever to see what they value,” said Humphreys. “How are they taking their particular values into the products in the market? And then what implications does that have for society?”
Consumers may select specific AI platforms in the same way someone may choose to read one publication over another, according to Humphreys.
“People are going to use Claude and not use ChatGPT because they want to support this and not that, and it’s just the same thing on repeat,” she said.
Humphreys integrates her research methodologies and findings into the classroom, providing students with a chance to experiment.
“Because my own research uses so many different methods and perspectives, I try to bring that into my marketing research class to give students an appreciation of the very broad range of methods you can use,” said Humphreys. “I try to not only cover that spectrum, but also talk about how you can choose the appropriate methods for what you’re studying and combine different methods to tackle multiple sides of the question.”
This hands-on experience allows students to ask questions they will encounter in the workplace, and learn how to answer them.
“If there’s a product launch, for example, and you want to see what customers think of this new product, I teach students: ‘Where would you go get that data? How would you collect that data, and how would you analyze it with certain tools that are available?’” said Humphreys.
She said the teamwork in Medill and across Northwestern has made it possible to both conduct research and bring her findings into the classroom.
“I have so many collaborations, and draw from resources across the school,” she said. “Medill provides a lot of support, but I also draw some support from Kellogg, from sociology, and others. Both material support, but also just colleagues and audiences to talk to.”
Her next project looks at how the generative AI market is forming. Driven by her curiosity, she hopes to gain a better sense of the impact of marketing decisions on the market.
“I think one thing we’re seeing in this market is how different companies take different perspectives on whether they should be technology-led, doing the most cutting-edge technology things, or if they should be consumer-led, meaning looking at what consumers want and need,” she said. “I don’t know what the implications of that are going to be, but I think we see companies taking different perspectives on it.”
By: Victoria Ryan
