Robin Coulter

Education/Professional Certification

• Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
• M.B.A., University of Pittsburgh
• B.S., Pennsylvania State University

Areas of Expertise

• Global citizenship and cross-cultural consumer behavior
• Brands and branding in developed and emerging markets
• Digital marketing, visualization and consumer research
• Numerical cognition and price perceptions

Professor Robin Coulter’s research focuses on consumer behavior issues with strategic marketing implications, with particular attention to global citizenship and cross-cultural consumer behavior, branding in developed and emerging markets, digital imaging and visualization in consumer research, and numerical cognition and pricing. Professor Coulter’s work has been published in marketing and social science journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal for Research in Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Advertising Research .

Professor Coulter is Past President President of Academic Council for the American Marketing Association, and is an active member of the Association for Consumer Research. Included among Dr. Coulter’s consultancies are New York Life Investment Management, Procter and Gamble, McNeil Consumer Products, and Coca Cola.

Professor Coulter has taught consumer behavior and integrated marketing communications in the undergraduate program, and Market-Driven Management, Global Business Issues, and the Executive Management Project in the Executive M.B.A. program. Professor Coulter has taught socio-cultural aspects of consumer behavior, introduction to the marketing academy, and research methods in the Marketing Ph.D. program.

Featured Publications

Recent Publications:

• Price, Linda L., Robin A. Coulter, Yuliya Strizhakova, and Ainslie E. Schultz (2018), “The Fresh Start Mindset: Transforming Consumers’ Lives,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (1), 21–48.
• Coulter, Robin A. (2016), “From Fragmentation to Imagination: Moving to Marketing’s Next Era,” AMS Review, 6 (3), 132–141.
• Schneider, Mark and Robin A. Coulter (2015), “Dual Process Evaluability Theory: A Framework for Choice Anomalies,” Journal of Economic Psychology, 51, 183–198.
• Kareklas, Ioannis, Frédéric Brunel, and Robin A. Coulter (2014), “Judgment is Not Color Blind: The Impact of Color Preference on Product and Advertising Preferences,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (1), 87–95.

Global Citizenship and Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior

• Strizhakova, Yuliya and Robin A. Coulter (2015), “Drivers of Local Relative to Global Brand Purchases: A Contingency Approach,” Journal of International Marketing, 23 (1), 1–22.
• Strizhakova, Yuliya and Robin A. Coulter (2013), “The “Green” Side of Materialism in Emerging BRIC and Developed Markets: The Moderating Role of Global Cultural Identity,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 30 (1), 69–82.
• Strizhakova, Yuliya, Robin A. Coulter and Linda L. Price (2012), “The Young Adult Cohort in Emerging Markets: Assessing Their Glocal Cultural Identity in a Global Marketplace,”International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29 (1), 43–54.
• Strizhakova, Yuliya, Robin A. Coulter and Linda L. Price (2011), “Branding in a Global Marketplace: The Mediating Effects of Quality and Identity,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 28 (4), 342–351.
• Strizhakova, Yuliya, Robin A. Coulter and Linda L. Price (2008), “The Meanings of Branded Products: A Cross-National Scale Development and Meaning Assessment,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 25 (2), 83–94.
• Strizhakova, Yuliya, Robin A. Coulter and Linda L. Price (2008), “Branded Products as a Passport to Global Citizenship: Perspectives from Developed and Developing Countries,” Journal of International Marketing, 16 (December), 57–85.
• Coulter, Robin A., Linda L. Price and Lawrence Feick (2003), “Product Involvement and Brand Experimentation: Insights from Post-Socialist Central Europe, Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (September), 151–169.

Visualization in Consumer Research – The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

• Coulter, Robin A. (2006), “Consumption Experiences as Escape: An Application of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique,” in Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, ed. Russell W. Belk, Northampton: Edward Elgar, 400–418.
• Coulter, Robin A., Gerald Zaltman, and Keith S. Coulter (2001), “Interpreting Consumer Perceptions of Advertising: An Application of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique,”Journal of Advertising, 30 (Winter), 1–22.
• Coulter, Robin A. and Gerald Zaltman (2000), “The Power of Metaphor,” in The Why of Consumption: Emerging Perspectives on Consumer Motives, eds. S. Rathneshwar, David Glen Mick, and Cynthia Huffman, New York and London: Routledge, 259–281.
• Zaltman, Gerald and Robin Higie Coulter (1995), “Seeing the Voice of the Customer: Metaphor-Based Advertising Research,” Journal of Advertising Research, 35 (July/August), 35–51.

Numerical Cognition and Price Perceptions

• Coulter, Keith S.and Robin A. Coulter (2010), “Small Sounds: Big Deals: Phonetic Symbolism Effects in Pricing, Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (August), 315–328.
• Coulter, Keith S.and Robin A. Coulter (2007), “Distortion of Price Discounts: The Right Digit Effect, Journal of Consumer Research, 34 (August), 162–173.
• Coulter, Keith S. and Robin A. Coulter (2005), “Size Does Matter: The Effect of Magnitude Representation Congruency on Price Perceptions and Purchase Likelihood,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15 (1), 64–76.