Jacob Teeny
Associate Professor of Marketing
Jacob (Jake) Teeny, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management and one of the leading researchers on personalized persuasion — the science of tailoring messages to who people are and how they think.
His work sits at the intersection of consumer psychology, social influence, and artificial intelligence. Jake studies how persuasion works at every level: what motivates people to influence others, what makes certain messages resonate while others fall flat, and how moral norms and real-world events shape people's beliefs. Increasingly, his research explores how AI is transforming these dynamics, from enabling hyper-personalized advertising to the future of human-AI communication.
His findings have been published in top marketing, psychology, and behavioral science journals, including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Nature, and covered by outlets such as Business Insider, TIME, The Atlantic, and more. He is the co-editor of The Handbook of Personalized Persuasion: Theory and Application, which synthesizes decades of research on how and why tailored influence works.
Jake is also a devoted storyteller — a thread that runs through his research on persuasion, his teaching of MBA students, and his public speaking, including TEDx talks, online courses, and seminars for brands and organizations. He believes the best science, like the best marketing, starts with a good story.
To learn more about Jake and his work, visit EverydayPsych.com.
- Word of Mouth
- Persuasion
- Consumer Metacognition
- Lay Theories
- Ethical Consumerism
- Advertising Strategy
- Consumer Behavior
-
-
-
Editorial Board, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2024-2027
Field Study (MKTG-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.
Advertising Strategy (MKTG-454-0)
Companies spend $560 billion on advertising worldwide and a great deal of it is wasted. This class is designed to teach students to be stronger critical thinkers with an emphasis on developing more effective advertising across traditional and digital channels. Created for client-side managers tasked with advertising responsibilities as well as general managers overseeing communications, the class tackles both advertising strategy and execution. In a rapidly evolving marketing ecosystem, it's never been more important to have a strategic lens. This course emphasizes the development of the central nucleus of any advertising strategy- the creative brief- to manage and guide relationship with your creative partners. The first half focuses on general advertising strategy - creating meaningful goals; selecting an attractive target for advertising, uncovering actionable insights, and developing an effective brand position. The remainder of the course examines the strategic planning of the tactical execution- understanding media, evaluating creative, and measuring effectiveness. The emphasis of the class is on practical application. As such, the courses analyzes advertising challenges through real-life examples. Students review cases weekly, complete several case assignments, tackle a current company's situation in a group assignment, and complete a take home final comprised of mini-cases.
