Meet Dr. Jenny Darroch: Marketing Specialist & Professor at the Drucker School

An MBA program is only as good as its faculty. In fact, for many students, it’s the relationships that they’ll make with their professors, which will carry them far into the future. At Claremont Graduate University’s Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Graduate School of Management, Professor of Marketing Jenny Darroch, Ph.D. is more than just an exceptional professor; she’s a leader in marketing and innovation.

Dr. Darroch received her Master’s in Communication from the University of Auckland in 1992, and her Ph.D. in Marketing, Innovation and Knowledge Management from the University of Otago in 2002. This background was the perfect platform for her career in marketing research.

Over her lifetime, she’s published over 30 research articles on marketing and is an author of three books including Marketing Through Turbulent Times and Why Marketing to Women Doesn’t Work.

Her book, Why Marketing to Women Doesn’t Work, offers advice on how to market to women while discussing concerns about gender. She encourages marketers to rethink gender roles and to use data to make informed decisions. In particular, the book covers four key points:

1. Understanding the importance of women as influencers, buyers, and users.
2. Understanding gender differences.
3. Understanding the differences between women.
4. Setting marketing goals directed toward women.

Kristin Obi, a Content Manager at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, called the book, “A thought provoking approach that is both smart and relevant for managers today. Jenny explains that when marketing to women, marketers must have a thorough understanding of their needs and context, which is often misunderstood.”

Marketing Through Turbulent Times, Dr. Darroch’s other book, focuses not on gender, but the challenges that faced marketing during the great recession in 2010. In this book, she provides a framework for managers who want to fine-tune their marketing strategies. It coves the principles and tools necessary for identifying innovative growth opportunities.

Peter Sealey, Former Head of Global Marketing at Coca-Cola, said,

“Fortunately for all of us, Professor Darroch has provided in this work a superb roadmap and a strategy for not only survival but how to prosper in these turbulent times. This is truly a book for our time.”

Dr. Darroch has spent her career examining macroeconomic policy and how it fosters innovation. She looks at which behaviors and practices lead to more innovative outcomes in organizations, as well as the definition of innovation. Her research helped her develop the first instrument that could be used to measure an organization’s knowledge management orientation. Overall, her areas of expertise include marketing strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, brand management, knowledge management, and consumer behavior.

Outside of Dr. Darroch’s marketing research, she’s also an advisor, speaker, and thought-leader in her field. She works with companies of all shapes and sizes to examine their current marketing strategies and to create new strategies focused on growth and innovation. For businesses, she works as a coach, consultant, advisor, and educator. An active researcher and professor, Dr. Darroch is also available to present on a range of marketing topics including The Marketing Revolution, Customers as Knowledge Workers, and The Impact of Big Data on Marketing.

For MBA students at the Drucker School, they’ll be most interested in her signature course, Transforming and Creating Markets to Generate Growth (MGT708). The course provides a solid grounding in the basic principles and practices of marketing as well as discussing various concepts underlying marketing, market definition and analysis, and marketing methods. It’s designed for students who want to develop an understanding of how to use marketing strategies to generate growth.

On Rate My Professors, her students have both good things to say, as well as constructive criticism. Overall, she has a rating of 3.3/5 and a difficulty score of 2.9/5.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect with this course as it has an unusual title: ‘Transforming and Creating Markets to Generate Growth.’ It was one of the most interesting courses I’ve ever taken. Prof. Darroch provided a lot of diagnostic instruments that I could apply at work straight away. These helped me look at my organization differently.”

“She talks at the class like she is just going through the motions. She doesn’t answer questions and her grading criteria is very unclear. I got a B in her class but an A in Marketing Strategy. I thought she was very uninspiring and I actually enjoy Marketing.”

Dr. Darroch is skilled at bringing together marketing theory and practice, and she achieves this through her speaking and media engagements, executive education, consulting, and blogging for the Huffington Post.

regions: Los Angeles

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