University at Buffalo (UB)
Center for Marketing Analysis
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Outcome-focused marketing research, custom executive education and topical events that help your business make faster, better decisions.
- Inform multimillion-dollar product and pricing decisions
- De-risk marketing investments with behavioral evidence
- Level up your team’s marketing and sales leadership skills in weeks not years
Most university partnerships move slowly and deliver vague results. The University at Buffalo School of Management’s Center for Marketing Analysis was built with business outcomes, clear timelines and commercial-quality deliverables at its core.
Though less than a year old, the center has already delivered multiple research projects that informed high-level business decisions, were used directly in leadership discussions and contributed to business performance improvement. We unlock the researchers, technology and resources of the University and Buffalo and the School of Management to help your business grow through evidence-based decisions.
Interested in a project? Complete the Request Information form on this page and we’ll follow up within two business days to discuss your project objectives, scope and budget.
We develop tightly scoped, time-bound engagements that align with your business metrics and decision timelines. Here are key ways your company can benefit from working with the Center for Marketing Analysis.
Every company has more research project requests and “wish list” questions than internal bandwidth to address. Some are lower priority; others require deeper dives or specialized expertise.
The center provides additional research capacity and advanced methods to help you uncover opportunities that may be hidden in plain sight. Projects range from concept testing and message optimization to pricing, assortment and shopper behavior studies.
Collaborate with our dynamic team of students to tackle your marketing challenges. Whether it's optimizing campaigns, analyzing consumer behavior or uncovering hidden opportunities in your data, our students are ready to assist. Are you challenged with low customer engagement, underperforming campaigns or something else? Our students are equipped to tackle real-world problems, using data-driven strategies while bringing a fresh perspective to your organization.
Many organizations have rich data sets but lack the time or capacity to fully explore them. You know the data contains hidden insights, but you may not know which questions to ask or how to ask them.
By providing our researchers with access to your data sets, we can identify patterns, segments and opportunities that support smarter business decisions. We work with transaction data, loyalty data, CRM and digital behavior data to reveal new use cases and growth levers.
The options for executive and professional education have never been greater, yet many leaders still describe training outcomes as hit or miss. It can be difficult to know which programs change behavior and contribute to improved performance.
Leveraging the educational excellence of the University at Buffalo, the Center for Marketing Analysis designs short, focused professional and executive education programs tailored to your team. Topics can include:
- Sales leadership
- Marketing leadership
- AI for marketing
- Ecommerce optimization
Programs are built to be practical, applied and aligned with the specific challenges your organization is facing.
Change is the constant in business. Staying current requires regularly connecting with experts outside your day-to-day operations. Your team needs insights into what is emerging, what is working and what still needs to mature.
Through events on current topics and other networking opportunities, the center serves as your hub for fresh thinking in marketing and customer insights. Our sessions provide perspective from faculty, practitioners and industry partners across categories such as retail, CPG and analytics.
Using state-of-the art tools and methods, our faculty are leading scholars in the fields of marketing research and consumer behavior research who publish in top tier journals and present at premier conferences on these topics. Working with the business community, we collaborate to apply our expertise to develop solutions to today’s pressing challenges. We emphasize the following research areas:
- Cherry picking and loss leader strategies in retailing
- Measuring the efficiency of promotions
- Computing the return on investment for various advertising tactics
- Retail productivity measurement
- Digital marketing trends in retailing
- Improving customer retention and loyalty
- Dynamic pricing strategy
- E-commerce and omnichannel strategy
- Shopper/commerce marketing mix modeling
- Experiential retail marketing
Recent Research
A new consumer survey reveals that frequent pricing inaccuracies at checkout are eroding shopper trust, reducing store loyalty and driving customers to competitors, particularly among parents and higher-income households.
How loyal are shoppers, really? Consumers may have a go-to retailer, but the data tells us a different story about their loyalty. Give them a 20% discount somewhere else, and half of them walk. This analysis digs into what actually drives retailer switching. We surveyed 2,011 U.S. consumers in 2025, asking them about where they shop across physical and online channels for both general merchandise and grocery and their feelings on discount thresholds and dynamic pricing. Our goal was simple: figure out what it takes to lose (or gain) a customer, and who's most at risk.
Retailers looking to secure a greater wallet share in today’s competitive environment must adapt strategies to consumers’ evolving priorities and strike the right balance between innovation and tried-and-true shopping experiences, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
Retailers are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence and subscription-based models to enhance customer loyalty and drive growth, according to a new study from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
