The future of Canada’s marketing industry will be shaped by its youngest talent—the super-worldly, plugged-in, brilliant and creative youth who are already making a name for themselves. Marketing put out the call to the industry to find the top 30 standouts under the age of 30 who have already made their mark on the industry.
From PR to advertising to media and beyond, our 30 Under 30 showcases the smartest, bravest and most creative ones to watch in the business.
Rhiannon MacDonnell, 27
Post-doctoral fellow, marketing, University of Alberta
Rhiannon MacDonnell has a theory: if you want to understand consumers, like really understand consumers, you can’t just read about them. You have to go out and talk to them and observe what they actually do. It’s why she’ll go to a farmer’s market to talk with people about fair-trade coffee, for instance.
And it’s why she found herself, wearing gloves and toting a flashlight, rummaging through Calgarians’ recycling blue boxes at 4:30 in the morning in 2009. People weren’t really committing to the new recycling program as hoped and MacDonnell was tasked with figuring out which recycling promotions were working and which weren’t. To do that, she had to see what people were recycling and what they weren’t.
It’s that fascination with and deep commitment to understanding people that makes MacDonnell one of Canada’s rising-star academics focused on “consumer behaviour”—blending psychology with economics and marketing.
She has been awarded more than $185,000 in funding for her research and she’s recently been published by two different top-tier journals.
After completing her PhD with a specialization in marketing from the University of Calgary earlier this year, MacDonnell was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta to continue her research.
She focuses on “pro-social” behaviours like ethical consumption, sustainable consumer behaviour and corporate social responsibility. “I have a soft spot for non-profit and non-profit marketing,” she says, though the research is certainly applicable for the many brands interested in adding those pro-social elements to their marketing. (And how many marketers don’t want to do that these days?)
Consumers are more likely to “punish” companies that are anti-social than spend the money to buy from a company that is pro-social, she says.
But MacDonnell wants to know how to get people to act when they see a brand that gets it. “I want to figure out how to make consumers buy it.”
She also practices what she preaches as a long-time volunteer with the United Way and more recently the group Classroom Champions. But even when she’s spending time with those good causes, she’s learning.
MacDonnell would go to workplaces canvassing for the United Way. “People would say ‘I can’t afford it.’ I don’t know if they are real problems or excuses… Ultimately you have to get out and talk to people.”
So where does she find the time to do it all? “If you do things that get you excited, it gives you energy,” she says.
For lots more of the 30 Under 30, pick up the the Sept. 10 issue of Marketing magazine.
