Berkeley Haas Marketing Professor Emeritus David Aaker, widely considered the father of modern branding, has been selected as the 2020 Recipient of The Sheth Foundation Medal for Exceptional Contribution to Marketing Scholarship and Practice.
The Sheth Foundation Medal is a bi-annual award designed to recognize a marketing academic who has made enduring and transformational contributions to marketing scholarship and practice.
“David Aaker has made seminal contributions to branding over many years. He is an inspiring thought leader to marketers worldwide,” said Ruth N. Bolton, president of The Sheth Foundation, in a news release. “The board was especially impressed by how his contributions on branding have been made at the intersection of marketing scholarship and practice.”
Aaker’s pioneering work focused on defining brand equity and strategies to build and manage brands and portfolios. He has published more than 100 articles and 18 books on the theory and practice of marketing, including eight on branding, that sold more one million copies and were translated into 18 languages. He was named to the Marketing Hall of Fame in 2015.
Aaker is the E.T. Grether Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at Berkeley Haas, and vice chairman of the branding firm Prophet. His most recent book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in the Digital Age, was released earlier this year.
The medal ceremony will be held via Zoom on Friday, Oct. 23, 9-10 a.m. PDT (12-1 p.m. EDT). One of the speakers a the event will be Former Dean and Professors Rich Lyons, who hosted Aaker at the Dean’s Speaker Series annually and worked with him in creating the four Berkeley Haas Defining Leadership Principles.
Previous recipients of The Sheth Foundation Medal include Leonard L. Berry, Michael Porter, Gerald Zaltman, John Little, Phil Kotler, and Ratan Tata. Nominations are accepted from the Academy of Marketing Science, Association for Consumer Research, Association for International Business, American Marketing Association, and INFORMS. The judging process is conducted by the Board of The Sheth Foundation, which is composed of distinguished marketing scholars.
Founded in 1992, The Sheth Foundation supports the activities of nonprofit marketing organizations around the world. It supports marketing knowledge creation, dissemination, and recognition.