About Our Authors

As a team, Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong and Sridhar Balasubramanian provide a blend of skills uniquely suited to writing an introductory marketing text. Professor Kotler is one of the world's leading authors in marketing. Professors Armstrong and Balasubramanian are award-winning teachers and researchers. Together, they make the complex world of marketing practical, approachable, and enjoyable.

Philip Kotler is a Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He received his master's degree at the University of Chicago and his Ph.D at M.I.T., both in Economics.

He has authored more than 60 books and published more than 150 articles in leading journals. He has also been a consultant to major US and foreign companies, including IBM, General Electric, and Michelin, and has served as a member of many advisory boards. He has travelled and lectured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and South America, advising companies and governments about global marketing practices and opportunities.

In a recent Financial Times poll of 1,000 senior executives across the world, Professor Kotler was ranked 4th in the most influential business writer/guru of the 21st century. He is considered by many to be the father of modern marketing.

Gary Armstrong is Crist W. Blackwell Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds Undergraduate and Master's degrees in Business from Wayne State University in Detroit and received his Ph.D in marketing from Northwestern University.

Through the years, Professor Armstrong has worked closely with business student groups and has received several UNC campuswide and Business School teaching awards. He is the only repeat recipient of the school's highly regarded Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, (three times). Most recently, Professor Armstrong received the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr Armstrong has contributed numerous articles to leading business journals. As a consultant and researcher, he has worked with many companies on marketing research, sales management, and marketing strategy.

Sridhar Balasubramanian is the Roy & Alice H. Richards Bicentennial Distinguished Scholar, Professor of Marketing, and Marketing Concentration Chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

He holds a Bachelor of Technology (Honours) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur), an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore) and MA, M.Phil and Ph.D degrees from Yale University. Leading business education publication Poets&Quants ranked him 1 of the Top 50 Business Professors in the world.

His research and teaching interests are in the areas of market strategy and technology strategy, innovation and growth strategy, customer focus, globalisation and sustainability, and managing competition. He also specialises in bringing tools and concepts related to innovation, market focus and customer focus into other functional areas, including the management of human resources. He has published pioneering, award-winning research on the impact of the internet, other technology-intensive channels, and social media on marketing. His research has been cited more than 11,750 times on Google Scholar.