Faculty
Laura Oswald
(217) 333-0919
loswald - at - illinois.edu
Education
Ph.D., New York University (Semiotics and Critical Theory)
M.S., Graduate School of Business, Loyola University (Integrated Marketing Communication)
M.A., Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (Cinema Semiotics)
B.S., School of Speech and Communication, Northwestern University
Affiliations
Associate Professor of Advertising
Course Specialties
Brand Strategy and Decision Making
Consumer Behavior
Semiotics and Communication
Background
EXPERTISE: Oswald is an expert in the areas of critical theory, brand strategy, consumer research and semiotics — a branch of anthropology devoted to understanding the ways signs and symbols shape culture. She has published extensively in her area of research and has significant marketing consulting experience here and abroad.
TEACHING: Oswald taught at Northwestern University before starting a brand strategy and research consulting business serving Fortune 100 businesses for more than ten years. At the University of Illinois she integrates her business experience, proprietary methodologies and academic research into a teaching approach that encourages students to solve problems and make strategic decisions. She has extensive international experience and has been a visiting professor of brand strategy and consumer research at Nanyang Business School in Singapore and at the ESSEC Business School in Paris, France.
CONSULTING: As a professional consultant, she applied semiotic theory and methodology to business and public policy problems. For example, she developed a BrandScape for mapping meanings in a product category and managing the symbolic equity of brands through time and across markets. She has conducted hundreds of consumer interviews and ethnographies in North America, Europe and the Far East and developed advertising strategy for dozens of Fortune 100 companies including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Ford, Pfizer and Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
Research/Creative Endeavor
CURRENT RESEARCH: Oswald is currently conducting a multi-market study of luxury consumption in France, China and the United States and has presented early stage findings at the Consumer Culture Theory Conference and the European Association of Consumer Research.
RESEARCH HISTORY: Oswald’s publications include a book, "Jean Genet and the Semiotics of Performance" (Indiana), book chapters (in "Deconstruction and the Visual Arts," and "Handbook of Qualitative Research") and a dozen articles on brand strategy, marketing semiotics, ethnography, race and ethnicity, cross-cultural consumer behavior, critical theory, cinema studies and poetics. She has also published on ways minority groups build identity, solidarity and the self-confidence to negotiate with the dominant sector by means of ethnic consumption rituals and objects. Among the journals in which she has published are: Advances in Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, Semiotica, Semiotix, Poetics Today, Diacritics, and the Journal of Popular Culture.
Oswald has presented numerous papers at the annual conferences of the American Academy of Marketing, the Advertising Research Foundation, the American Marketing Association, the Association for Consumer Research, the European Association for Consumer Research, the Consumer Culture Theory group, the Semiotic Society of America and the European Conference on Gender in Advertising. Currently she is pursuing long-term research on luxury brands and advertising in the People's Republic of China.
Related Links
- Articles, films and more information about semiotics and advertising can be found at Oswald's site, www.marketingsemiotics.com:
