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Improving Business by Understanding Consumer Identity: Meet New Faculty Member Keri Kettle

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Author Rania Nasrallah

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After earning a PhD in marketing at the Alberta School of Business,  Keri Kettle was hired last July as an associate professor at the Telfer School of Management. We interviewed him to learn more about his research interest in consumer identity and in what drives consumer behaviour.

Why did you choose to study marketing? Any personal motivation behind your research interests in this area?

Professor KettleI’ve always wondered what motivates people to make different choices, and marketing is simply a reflection of individual consumption choices. I gained a lot of insight into motivation and decision-making when I served in the Canadian Army, and my research interests, namely identity and motivation, are really driven by those experiences.

How did your PhD training inform your current research program?

My PhD training at the Alberta School of Business really showed me the many ways to examine an issue: this is reflected in my research, since I use many different methods, including field data, large-scale field experiments, and online experiments, to understand what drives consumption behaviour.

Do you have any new research highlights to share?

In a current study, we are examining what happens to your spending decisions when you get an alert or notification telling you that you have just had a large amount of spending (“unusual spending”) on your credit card. Surprisingly, our data shows that if a person’s spending is really out of the ordinary for them, they will actually spend more after getting an “unusual spending” alert!

How could your research influence businesses in Canada?

My research on consumer identity and behaviour should teach businesses how important it is to understand how their customers see themselves. More importantly, businesses need to foster consumer identities: can you get your customers to “be” your brand rather than just “do” your brand?

About the Author

Rania Nasrallah a rejoint le bureau de recherche Telfer en 2019. Elle a obtenu son doctorat en médecine à l'Université d'Ottawa et apporte à ce rôle plus de deux décennies d'expérience en recherche. Rania participe à tous les aspects du mandat du Bureau de la recherche et est responsable de fournir un large éventail de services aux membres du corps professoral et aux étudiants de recherche de deuxième et troisième cycle. Elle gère les subventions internes et les bourses d'études, et participe à la stratégie de communication de la recherche. Elle fournit également un soutien aux chercheurs avant l'attribution des subventions afin de maximiser le succès du financement au niveau national et international. En outre, elle travaille en étroite collaboration avec le Vice-doyen à la recherche pour élaborer et mettre en œuvre des stratégies visant à améliorer le financement et la vélocité de la recherche à Telfer, conformément à notre vision pour créer un meilleur Canada et un meilleur monde pour tous.<br/><br/>Rania Nasrallah joined the Telfer Research Office in 2019. She completed her PhD in Medicine at the University of Ottawa and brings over two decades of research experience to this role. Rania is involved in all aspects of the mandate of the Research Office and is responsible for providing a wide range of services to faculty members and research based graduate students. She manages internal grants, student awards, and participates in the research communication strategy. She also provides pre-award support to researchers to optimize funding success nationally and internationally. In addition she works closely with the Vice Dean Research to develop and implement strategies to enhance research funding and intensity at Telfer following our vision to create a better Canada and a better world for all.

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