CLIK Conference and Marketing Departments Pioneering Consumer Research

Understanding consumers is central to the practice of marketing. Consistent with this marketplace focus, over the last several decades consumer research has emerged as one of the most important areas of academic research in marketing.

Approximately 10 years ago, the Marketing faculty made the decision to establish consumer behavior as its core research area to recognize and build upon the work of several consumer researchers in the department. This focus on consumer research has subsequently guided the Department’s hiring of new faculty working in this area. Collectively, this group has published highly cited articles on cutting-edge topics involving pricing, cause-related marketing, prosocial behaviors, and cultural influences on
consumers’ behaviors. This research productivity has enabled the Department to forge an international reputation among the academic community of consumer researchers which has increased with its hosting of an annual conference on consumer research called CLIK.

The CLIK Conference is an annual consumer research conference held at the University of Louisville. Since its inception in 2017, this conference has grown from approximately 20 faculty and doctoral students from area universities (Cincinnati, Louisville, Indiana, Kentucky) to over 40 consumer researchers from schools that include Northwestern, Ivey School of Business, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, University of Washington–Seattle, University of Virginia, and Washington University–St. Louis. CLIK has matured into an academic-industry forum focused on new consumer research findings that hold important marketplace implications. Reflecting this emphasis, CLIK is supported by the Doe Anderson agency, which provides generous financial support and media coverage highlighting these new insights.

The Department’s consumer research group is in the process of conducting innovative new research examining consumer behavior from numerous angles. This leading-edge research examines topics such as the role of artificial intelligence (AI) on how consumers behave in the marketplace and the impact of cultural and political influences on consumer decisions involving recycling and sustainability-related behaviors.