Paul W. Farris
Landmark Communications Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Academic Area
Areas of Expertise
Education: B.S., University of Missouri; MBA, University of Washington; DBA, Harvard University
Landmark Communications Professor Paul Farris taught at the Harvard Business School before his appointment at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. He has worked in marketing management for UNILEVER, Germany and in account management for the LINTAS advertising agency.
Farris's general research focus is in the area of marketing productivity and measurement. His work has been published in 10 books and more than 70 articles, appearing in professional journals and publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science, Management Science, Decision Sciences, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Sloan Management Review. Farris has co-authored award-winning articles on retailer power, marketing strategy and advertising testing. He has served as an academic trustee of the Marketing Science Institute and is a current or past member of the editorial boards for the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Retailing and the International Journal of Advertising, Marketing-Journal of Research and Management and the Journal of Advertising Research. His current research is on channel conflict and building coherent systems of marketing metrics. His co-authored book, Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master, was selected by Strategy + Business as 2006 Marketing Book of the Year.
Farris has consulted and taught executive education programs for many international companies. He has served on the board of directors for several companies including retailers, manufacturers of consumer products, construction materials and coatings, agricultural equipment and automotive component suppliers. Farris has also provided expert testimony in a number of marketing-related legal cases.
Paul W. Farris's Ideas to Action Posts
The Endgame of Marketing Analytics: From Data to Spend to Profit
Marketing & Sales
Selected Publications
"Advertising and Promotion Budgeting in the U.S.," with J. Ford and D. West. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 54, No. 2, (2014) 149-162.
"Marketing Metrics," with Phil Pfeifer. Article in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management, Vol. 9, Marketing, 3rd Edition by Dale Littler (Editor). Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. (to appear, 2015).
"Mobile Shopper Marketing: Assessing the Impact of Mobile Technology on Consumer Path to Purchase," with Baik, A. and Rajkumar Venkatesan, Review of Marketing Research, Vol. 11, (2014), 1-25.
"Retail free-riding: the case of the wallpaper industry," with M. Doane, S. Kucuk and R. Maddux, Antitrust Bulletin, Vol. 1, (2013).
"Measuring and Managing Returns from Retailer-Customized Coupon Campaigns," with R. Venkatesan, Journal of Marketing, (January, 2012). This research was also featured by the Harvard Business Review and the Washington Post.
"Unused Coupons Still Pay Off," with R. Venkatesan, Harvard Business Review, Research Watch, (May 2012), 32.
"Vendor Incentives: Out of the Shadows and into the Sunlight," with Brandt R. Allen, David E. Mills and Robert J. Sack, The CPA Journal, Vol. 81, no. 6, (June 2011), 6-10.
"Pay for Performance: Keep It Simple and Value Focused," with William J Branch and Mark E. Haskins, Compensation and Benefits Review, Vol. 43, no. 2, (March/April 2011), 82-91.
"Crafting Multichannel Retailing Strategies," with J. Zhang, J. Irwin, T. Kushwaha, T. Steenburgh, and B. Weitz, Journal of Interactive Marketing, (May, 2010).
"Metrics that Matter - to Marketing Managers," with N. Bendle, P. Pfeifer and D. Reibstein, Marketing - Journal of Research and Management, Vol. 6, no. 1, (2010), 18-23.
"Crafting Integrated Multichannel Retailing Strategies," with Jie Zhang, John W. Irwin, Tarun Kushwaha, Thomas J. Steenburgh, and Barton A. Weitz, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 24, no. 2, (May 2010), 168-180.
"Distribution and Market Share," with D. Reibstein and K. Wilbur. In Empirical Generalizations about Marketing Impact, Dominique M Hanssens (Editor), MSI's Working Knowledge Series, Marketing Science Institute, (April 2009).
"Marketing/Sales Ratios," with G. Lilien. In Empirical Generalizations about Marketing Impact, Dominique M. Hanssens (Editor), MSI's Working Knowledge Series, Marketing Science Institute, (April 2009).
"A Fresh View of the Advertising Budgeting Process," with D. West, in Handbook of Advertising, Tellis, G. and Ambler, T. (eds.), Sage Publications, London, (2007).
"When Five is a Crowd in the Market Share Attraction Model: The Dynamic Stability of Competition," with Pfeifer, P.E., Nierop, E. and Reibstein, D., Marketing-Journal of Research and Management, Issue 1, Quarter 1 (2005), 29-45.
"The Elasticity of Customer Value to Retention: The Duration of a Customer Relationship," with Philip E. Pfeifer, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 18, no. 2, (Spring 2004).
"All I Needed to Know About the New Economy, I Learned Playing Monopoly," (with Phillip Pfeifer), Darden School Working Paper Series, (2001) (lighthearted look at network effects and positive feedback).
"Trade Promotion: An Essential Part of Selling Through Resellers," (Fall, 1999), Sloan Management Review, with K. Ailawadi and E. Shames.
"Path Dependencies and the Long-Term Effects of Routinized Marketing Decisions," with W. Verbeke, P. Dickson and E. van Nierop, Marketing Letters, (Summer 1998).
"Market Power and Performance: A Cross-Industry Analysis of Manufactures and Retailers," with N. Borin and K. Ailawadi, Journal of Retailing, (Fall 1995). Winner of William Davidson Award for best paper in 1995. Follow-up to our article, "Retail Power: Monster or Mouse," in the same journal.
"Push and Pull Marketing: A One-Two Punch for Packaged Products" with J. Olver,Sloan Management Review, (Fall 1989).
"Over Control in Advertising Experiments" with D. Reibstein, Journal of Advertising Research, (June 1984). Reprinted as a Journal of Advertising Research Classic, Vol. 50, no. 6, (November-December, 2000). One of 18 articles selected from the four decades: 1960-2000.
Selected Books
Venkatesan, R., P. Farris and R. Wilcox. Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: Real World Cases and Datasets for Hands-On Learning, Pearson/FT press, (July 2014).
Farris, P.W., N.T. Bendle, P.E. Pfeiffer and D.J. Reibstein. Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance, 2nd Edition. Wharton School Publishing, (2010).
Case Studies
Advancing knowledge through research that shapes business, Darden professors are recognized thought leaders in their fields. They are not only master case method teachers, they also author many of the cases used in Darden classrooms and around the world.
Paul W. Farris' cases are available in the Darden Business Publishing website.