{"404301":{"#nid":"404301","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Faculty Profile: Rodriguez-Vila Studies Sustainability as Marketing Opportunity","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhile working as global vice president of integrated marketing communications for Coca-Cola, Omar Rodriguez-Vila spent several years living in China in preparation for the company\u2019s sponsorship of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring his time in China, he learned that Coke had made significant investments to help underprivileged children in rural schools there. \u201cAs part of a meeting, I visited a small school and was surprised by the positive impact that company funding was having on the lives of those kids,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI\u2019d worked for the company for many years and never knew.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecause those community investments fell within the purview of \u201ccorporate social responsibility\u201d and were not part of the business plan, they were happening on the periphery of the company, explains Rodriguez-Vila, now an assistant professor of marketing at Scheller College. \u201cThey were not thought of as a marketing opportunity that could bridge social and commercial benefits.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter returning to Coke\u2019s headquarters in Atlanta, Rodriguez-Vila joined a task force charged with integrating sustainability efforts at the company. While Coke had been innovating its manufacturing to reduce plastic waste, it had also devoted resources to empower women in developing nations and train teenagers in Brazil for education and employment, among other initiatives.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur team looked at how to use all of the investments to grow the business,\u201d he recalls of the massive effort to account for everything the company was doing within the realm of sustainability and whether the activities affected the brand or bottom line.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDeeper Dive\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut Rodriguez-Vila, who joined Coke in 1996 to lead advertising efforts in Latin America, wanted to dig even deeper into researching environmentally friendly and socially responsible business practices. \u201cWhen I was working there, I realized I had little time to study why some things were the way they were. I had to move onto the next campaign and chase the next sales target,\u201d explains the Puerto Rico native.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver time, he realized that transitioning into an academic career would afford him the opportunity to conduct much more research. Already holding an MBA from Northwestern University, Rodriguez-Vila enrolled in the PhD program in marketing at Emory University in 2008, having 17 years of professional experience under his belt.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERodriguez-Vila joined the Scheller faculty in 2012, attracted by the growing emphasis on sustainability here and the Marketing faculty group\u2019s interest in research that makes real-world impact on how businesses operate.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking closely with Scheller College\u0027s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/scheller.gatech.edu\/centers-initiatives\/ray-c-anderson-center-for-sustainable-business\/index.html\u0022\u003ERay C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business\u003C\/a\u003E, he is focused on developing better measures for sustainability that will help companies make business sense of their investments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cUltimately, my hope is that such measures will help companies move from seeing sustainability simply as a moral imperative to something that can help drive growth,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMarketing Perspective\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany companies excel at sustainability, Rodriguez-Vila says, but often at the CEO level or through a sustainability office. \u201cNot many companies are engaged with sustainability at the chief marketing officer level,\u201d he notes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECompanies often think of sustainability in terms of back-end activities, such as reducing energy consumption, but aren\u2019t as focused on promoting those benefits to customers, he explains.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERodriguez is researching at what points sustainability matters to consumers. He uses Nike as an example of a company that\u2019s innovatively implemented back-end sustainability initiatives. \u201cBut in the moment of a transaction, consumers may be concerned more with performance and style than a sustainability message,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to studying the environmental and social sustainability benefits of brands, Rodriguez-Vila also researches the effect of technology changes (such as social media) on the evolution of integrated marketing communications.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow in this third year at Tech, Rodriguez is enjoying teaching MBA and undergraduate students\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EIntroduction to Marketing\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;courses, in which he incorporates sustainable concepts. He\u2019s also collaborating with Wayne Li, an industrial design professor at Tech, on the development of a new course on product development that maximizes both economic and societal benefits.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTeaching is one of the most rewarding and challenging things I have ever done,\u201d Rodriguez-Vila says. \u201cI always do my best to give it my all, incorporating lots of discussion.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis profile orignially appeared at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/scheller.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003Escheller.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Georgia Tech professor researches the relationship between marketing and sustainability."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech professor researches the relationship between marketing and sustainability.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech professor researches the relationship between marketing and sustainability."}],"uid":"27507","created_gmt":"2015-05-13 14:49:08","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:17","author":"Rachel Isaac","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"404311":{"id":"404311","type":"image","title":"Professor Omar Rodriguez","body":null,"created":"1449254135","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:35:35","changed":"1475895127","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:07","alt":"Professor Omar Rodriguez","file":{"fid":"76045","name":"image_1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/image_1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/image_1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":198277,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/image_1.jpg?itok=7qeBEHTK"}}},"media_ids":["404311"],"groups":[{"id":"1316","name":"Green Buzz"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"2762","name":"marketing"},{"id":"166890","name":"sustainability"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"Hope Wilson\u0026nbsp;Director of Communications\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022Email Hope Wilson\u0022 href=\u0022mailto:hope.wilson@scheller.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ehope.wilson@scheller.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;Brad Dixon\u0026nbsp;Assistant Director of Communications\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022Email Brad Dixon\u0022 href=\u0022mailto:brad.dixon@scheller.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebrad.dixon@scheller.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}