Americus Reed

Americus Reed II is the Whitney M. Young Jr. Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he has served on faculty since 2000. An avid fitness enthusiast, part-time drummer, and tireless educator, Americus’s primary research and consulting areas are in brand equity and identity loyalty — the study of creating and fostering “brand communities” that transcend the utilitarian aspects of products to actualize iconic levels of symbolic identity and self-expression, connect to deep levels of emotional and social affiliation, and cultivate lifelong relationships with intermediate customers and end consumers. In 2005, his academic work in this area received honorable mention for the prestigious Robert Ferber Award for academic impact in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and in 2009 he received JCR’s Best Paper Award. Americus describes the power of branding in this TEDx conversation. He has authored more than 50 articles, book chapters, and cases on the topic. He has been featured on CNN, CNBC, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, The New York Times, NPR, the Hidden Brain podcast, and Knowledge at Wharton. He hosts a podcast called Marketing Matters, which airs live on Wednesdays on Wharton’s Sirius XM Channel 132 Business Radio. He teaches customer analysis, branding, and consumer psychology to undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and executive students.