Jennifer Aaker
General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business
A homegrown Californian, Jennifer got her BA in Psychology from Berkeley and her PhD degrees in Marketing and Psychology from Stanford. She studied at the Sorbonne before returning to sunny CA to join the faculty at the UCLA School of Business, and then made her way back to teach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Haas School of Business, and then back again to Stanford GSB. She counts winning a dance-off in the early 1980s among her most impressive accomplishments, and cooks very poorly.
In her research, Jennifer spends most of her time thinking about time, money, happiness and meaning. What actually makes people happy, as opposed to what they think makes them happy? What are the stories we tell ourselves, and how do those stories relate to happiness? And how can small but meaningful acts create infectious action, particularly when fueled by social media? Jennifer is especially excited to explore these questions with her students in classes like Designing Happiness, How to Tell a Story, and Social Brands, which she teaches with Chris Flink at the d.school and the GSB. As the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Jennifer brings to the d.school a wealth of insights about culture, brands, and the basic drivers of human action. She believes that by bringing together the worlds of psychology, marketing, and design, we can create moments, environments, and brands that cultivate happiness, meaning and impact.
