James Lattin

Research Statement

Jim Lattin’s research examines consumer choice behavior. His early research involved building statistical models of brand choice, category purchase incidence, store choice, and market basket behavior, using grocery panel data collected using bar code scanners. More recently, Jim’s focus has expanded to consider customer relationship management and loyalty/reward programs using an increasingly wide set of sources including subscription data, financial services, and internet clickstream data.

Bio

Jim Lattin is the Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He holds an AB from Dartmouth College (1978) and a PhD in Management Science from the Sloan School of Management at MIT (1984). Jim joined Stanford directly after completing his doctoral program and has been here ever since.

Jim’s research interests include statistical models of choice behavior, customer relationship management, frequency/reward programs, database marketing, the impact of information technology on marketing management, and the implications for marketing organization. Jim’s research has won awards from the American Marketing Association, the Journal of Retailing, and the William O’Dell Award from the Journal of Marketing Research. He was also a finalist for the 1998 John D.C. Little award for best paper in marketing science and a winner (with doctoral student David Bell) of the 1999 Frank M. Bass Award from the INFORMS College on Marketing.

Jim’s teaching interests include marketing management (he has taught the required first-year MBA course in marketing for nearly 20 years) and multivariate data analysis (in 2003, he coauthored a textbook based on material taught in his PhD course). In 2003, Jim joined forces with Lecturer Mark Leslie to develop and teach a new MBA elective course on sales force management. Jim has also taught extensively in the Executive Education programs offered by the GSB, including the Stanford Executive Program, Strategic Marketing Management (which he directed for seven years), the Executive Program for Growing Companies, and the Executive Management Program.

Jim has done consulting and teaching for a number of companies, including Adobe Systems, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, Genentech, and Kaiser Permanente. He is an advisory board member for several start-up companies, including Design Within Reach and Revionics. Jim lives in Menlo Park with his wife, Marilyn, who convinced him over 20 years ago that California might not be a bad place to live. He has a son, Alex, and a daughter, Lindsay.

Academic Degrees

• PhD, Sloan School of Management, MIT, 1984
• AB, Dartmouth College, 1978

Academic Appointments

• At Stanford University since 1983

Awards and Honors

• Winnick Family faculty Fellow for 2015-2016
• Frank M. Bass Award, 1999
• Finalist, John D. C. Little Best Paper Award, 1998
• William F. O'Dell Award for best paper in the Journal of Marketing Research, 1996
• Best Paper Award, Journal of Retailing, 1992
• Dissertation Award, American Marketing Association, 1992

Teaching

Degree Courses

2018-19

MKTG 326: Customer Acquisition for New Ventures

The focus of this course is on the strategies and methods used by early-stage companies to acquire customers (through outbound or inbound marketing) and to activate and retain them (i.e., to encourage repeat behavior and/or increase the frequency...

STRAMGT 351: Building and Managing Professional Sales Organizations

The focus of this class is on the challenges and key issues associated with the creation and management of a professional sales organization. Our emphasis is developing and managing the selling effort of business-to-business and business-to-...

STRAMGT 516: Fundamentals of Effective Selling

This course looks at the entire selling process of prospecting, qualification, discovery, customization, objection handling, relationship building, and closing. Our primary objective is to offer a hands-on, skills-based class in which students...

2017-18

MKTG 326: Customer Acquisition for New Ventures

The focus of this course is on the strategies and methods used by early-stage companies to acquire customers (through outbound or inbound marketing) and to activate and retain them (i.e., to encourage repeat behavior and/or increase the frequency...

STRAMGT 351: Building and Managing Professional Sales Organizations

The focus of this class is on the challenges and key issues associated with the creation and management of a professional sales organization. Our emphasis is developing and managing the selling effort of business-to-business and business-to-...

STRAMGT 516: Fundamentals of Effective Selling

This course looks at the entire selling process of prospecting, qualification, discovery, customization, objection handling, relationship building, and closing. Our primary objective is to offer a hands-on, skills-based class in which students...

2016-17

MKTG 326: Customer Acquisition for New Ventures

The focus of this course is on the strategies and methods used by early-stage companies to acquire customers (through outbound or inbound marketing) and to activate them (i.e., to encourage repeat behavior and/or increase the frequency of...

STRAMGT 351: Building and Managing Professional Sales Organizations

The focus of this class is on the challenges and key issues associated with the creation and management of a professional sales organization. Our emphasis is developing and managing the selling effort of business-to-business and business-to-...

STRAMGT 516: Fundamentals of Effective Selling

This course looks at the entire selling process of prospecting, qualification, discovery, customization, objection handling, relationship building, and closing. Our primary objective is to offer a hands-on, skills-based class in which students...

Executive Education & Other Non-Degree Programs

• Innovative Marketing for Strategic Advantage Transform your organization’s marketing and drive customer-centric innovation in this comprehensive, immersive learning experience.

In the Media

Four Stanford Business School Faculty Honored with Endowed Chairs

Financial Times, January 2002

How to Know What the Customer Wants Next

Financial Times, August 2001

Marketers Are Getting Up Close and Personal with Consumers

Financial Times, January 1998

Battle for the Food Dollar: A Report from the Trenches

Stanford News Service, March 13, 1992

Supermarket Shopping Research Receives Dissertation Award

Financial Times, January 1992

Insights by Stanford Business

writtenCourting So-So Customers Can Be Good for Business

September 1, 2009

Marketers lavish attention on their best customers, but it may be more cost effective to increase spending on the occasional consumer.