Omar Rodríguez-Vilá
Professor in the Practice of Marketing; Academic Director of Education, Business & Society Institute | Emory University, Goizueta Business School
Atlanta, GA, UNITED STATES
Educator and scholar on modern marketing practices including how sustainability and technology have changed the pursuit of firm growth.
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Biography
Omar Rodríguez-Vilá is Professor in the Practice of Marketing and currently serves as Academic Director of Education at Goizueta's Business & Society Institute, an academic research center with a mission to transform business to build a more equitable and climate-smart world.
He completed his PhD in Marketing from Emory University's Goizueta Business School (2012). Prior to joining Goizueta, Dr. Rodríguez-Vilá was a faculty member at the Scheller College of Business of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
He has been selected as Core Professor of the Year six times during his 8 years in academia. Dr. Rodríguez-Vilá’s primary research focus is forces transforming the practice of marketing. First, he studies how environmental and social sustainability considerations are changing the nature of marketing activities. His work entitled “Competing on Social Purpose” was published in Harvard Business Review on September 2017 and ranks among the most read articles on the subject on HBR. It was re-published in 2020 as part of a special edition on Leadership and Purpose.
He is currently leading research into how brands communicate societal benefits in social media and into the marketplace practices of antiracist brands. He also studies how firms are evolving their marketing capabilities in order to compete in technology led market environments. His more recent work entitled “Is Your Marketing Organization Ready for What’s Next?” was published in the December 2020 edition of Harvard Business Review. Prior to his career in academia, Dr. Rodríguez-Vilá held leadership positions in marketing at The Coca‐Cola Company including serving as the Global Vice-President of Integrated Marketing Communications and Integrated Marketing Director for Coca-Cola China.
Education (3)
Emory University: PhD, Marketing 2012
Northwestern University: MBA, Business Administration (Strategy and Marketing) 2001
Syracuse University: Bachelor of Science, Communications 1991
Areas of Expertise (5)
Marketing Strategy
Sustainability
Social Purpose
Modern Marketing
Marketing Capabilities
Publications (3)
Is Your Marketing Organization Ready for What’s Next?
Harvard Business ReviewOmar Rodríguez-Vilá, Sundar Bharadwaj, Neil A. Morgan, and Shubu Mitra
November–December 2020 Summary - Sweeping technological change has revolutionized marketing, while societal challenges have raised expectations about marketers’ social performance. This has altered customer needs, accelerated the entry of new types of competitors, and generated..
Competing on Social Purpose
Harvard Business ReviewOmar Rodríguez-Vilá and Sundar Bharadwaj
September–October 2017 Summary. Consumers increasingly expect brands to have a social purpose beyond mere functional benefits. As a result, companies are taking social stands in very visible ways. For example, TOMS’s one-for-one program donates shoes and other goods for every product...
Omar Rodriguez Vila (Emory University) | Marketing is a Team Sport
The CMO PodcastJim Stengel
n this episode, Omar talks about how the role of the CMO is changing and how it will continue to evolve. Omar also discusses the best marketing strategies from his perspective as an educator and why leading from the middle brings out the best in organizations and campaigns.
Research Spotlight
In the News (3)
How Inclusive Brands Fuel Growth
HBR online
2024-06-01
They unlock new sources of value by meeting the needs of underrecognized customers.
New Study Helps CMOs Understand How Marketplace DE&I Efforts Can Drive Business Growth
Forbes online
2023-11-17
One of the aspects of writing about multicultural marketing that I like the most is when I have the opportunity to discuss relevant studies that can help marketers better understand how to invest in multicultural marketing to drive sustainable growth effectively.
Why more brands are making environmentalism central to their marketing plans
AdAge online
2021-04-19
"That's one mega-trend here to stay," Stengel says. He cites the outlook of Emory professor Omar Rodriguez-Vila, recently interviewed on Stengel's podcast, that while sustainability "used to be outside of what we see as the value equation for consumers" and left to public relations and or supply chain people to deal with, now it's seen as central to the work of brand marketers and general managers.
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