Marina Puzakova

Marina's research interests are in branding strategies, brand anthropomorphism, and negative brand performance. Specifically, she examines consumers' attributions and brand inferences, consumer-brand relationships, and the impact of different brand positioning strategies on performance and consumer responses to marketing communications. Marina has published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of Advertising, among others. Her dissertation was selected as a Runner-Up for the Mary Kay Dissertation Competition sponsored by the Academy of Marketing Science. She is on Editorial Boards for many journals, including Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of Advertising. In 2017, Marina received the Lehigh University Early Career Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 2018 she was named the recipient of the Robert & Christine Staub Faculty Excellence Award in Business & Economics. She also was named Top 40 Undergraduate Business Professors by Poets&Quants.

Education

• Voronezh State Technical University, Russia, B.S.
• Drexel University, Ph.D.

Research Interests

• Branding positioning strategies; brand inference; anthropomorphization
• Negative brand performance
• International and cross-cultural branding

• Hyokjin Kwak, Marina Puzakova, Junhee Kim, and Ann McGill (2025), “When Former Relationships Confine New: The Negative Impact of Brand Anthropomorphism on Used Products,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, forthcoming.
• Zhang, Yuli, Hyokjin Kwak, Marina Puzakova, and Charles Ray Taylor (2025), “Turning Right: The Impact of Text Rotation (Left vs. Right) on Consumer Product Preferences”, Journal of Advertising, forthcoming.
• Khamitov, Mansur and Marina Puzakova (2022), “Possessive Brand Names in Brand Preferences and Choice: The Role of Inferred Control,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, forthcoming.
• Puzakova, Marina and Hyokjin Kwak (2021), “Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd: The Interplay between Collective versus Solo Anthropomorphic Brand Appeals and Gender,” Journal of Advertising, forthcoming.
• Zhang, Yuli, Hyokjin Kwak, Marina Puzakova, and Charles R. Taylor (2021) “Space between Products on Display: The Impact of Interspace on Consumer Estimation of Product Size,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49, 1109–1131.
• Kwak, Hyokjin, Puzakova Marina, Joseph F. Rocereto, and Takeshi Moriguchi (2020), “When the Unknown Destination Comes Alive: The Detrimental Effects of Destination Anthropomorphism in Tourism,” Journal of Advertising, forthcoming.
• Zhang, Yuli , Haeyoung Jeong, Hyokjin Kwak, and Marina Puzakova (2019), “Facing the “Right” Side? The Effect of Product Facing Direction”, Journal of Advertising, 48 (2), 153-166.
• Puzakova, Marina and Pankaj Aggarwal (2018), “Brands As Rivals: The Role of Brand Anthropomorphism and Consumer Pursuit of Distinctiveness,” Journal of Consumer Research, 45 (4), 869-888.
• Puzakova, Marina and Hyokjin Kwak (2017), “Should Anthropomorphized Brands Engage Customers? The Impact of Social Crowding on Brand Preferences”, Journal of Marketing, 81 (6), 99-115.
• Kwak, Hyokjin, Marina Puzakova, and Joseph F. Rocereto (2017), “When Brand Anthropomorphism Alters Perceptions of Justice: The Moderating Role of Self-Construal,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34 (4), 851-871.
• Kwak, Hyokjin, Marina Puzakova, and Joseph F. Rocereto (2015), “Better Not Smile at the Price: The Differential Role of Brand Anthropomorphization on Price Fairness,” Journal of Marketing, 79 (4), 56-76.
• Puzakova, Marina, Hyokjin Kwak, and Joseph F. Rocereto (2013), “When Humanizing Brands Goes Wrong: The Detrimental Role of Brand Anthropomorphization Amid Product Wrongdoings,” Journal of Marketing, 77 (3), 81-100.