Dr. Mathew S. Isaac

Dr. Mathew S. Isaac is a Professor of Marketing in the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University and a Visiting Professor of Marketing in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He was also a Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Washington Foster School of Business in 2014 and from 2017-2018. Dr. Isaac’s research focuses on consumer judgment and decision-making, specifically examining how contextual and motivational factors influence product evaluations and purchase intentions. He is particularly interested in understanding how consumers make inferences about marketer motives, and how numerical information affects consumer evaluations and decisions. His work has been published in a number of leading scientific journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Advertising Research. Dr. Isaac’s work has been widely featured in business and popular press, including Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Atlantic, Men's Health, and Fast Company. He writes a blog on numerical cognition for Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/mathew-s-isaac-phd. Dr. Isaac currently serves on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, and the Journal of Advertising. He is also the Vice Chair for Conference Programming for the American Marketing Association Consumer Behavior Special Interest Group.

At Seattle University, Dr. Isaac teaches Marketing Strategy, Brand Management, and Sales Management. At SMU, he teaches Marketing Management and Advanced Marketing Communications Strategy. In addition to being a guest speaker on various marketing and sales topics, Dr. Isaac frequently consults with corporate clients on a range of issues such as increasing marketing and sales effectiveness, crafting strategic communications, building brand equity, measuring satisfaction, and understanding buyer decision biases. Former or current clients include Google, Microsoft, Macy’s, Cars.com, Tableau Software, and Nuance Communications. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Isaac worked as a Consultant and Manager for Bain & Company and ZS Associates, where he advised media, technology, healthcare, and private equity clients on issues related to marketing, sales, and business strategy. Areas of expertise include go-to-market strategy design, incentive compensation, customer satisfaction/engagement, communications strategy, marketing research, segmentation and targeting, and value optimization.

Dr. Isaac obtained his Ph.D. in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He also holds an MBA, with concentrations in Finance and Strategic Management, from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago.