Universidad ORT Uruguay, through its School of Business and Social Sciences and School of Communication and Design, in collaboration with the Carolan Research Institute, invited students, faculty, and researchers from universities across Latin America to participate in the Carolan Marketing Research Forum – Universidad ORT Uruguay 2021.
The event combined an academic call for marketing research proposals with a full-day online conference, during which the authors of the projects selected for the Carolan Research Forum – Universidad ORT Uruguay 2021 competition presented their work and took questions from the audience.
The event centered on the work of Dr. Geraldine Fennell, a professor and researcher at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in the United States, who has dedicated her academic career to marketing research and the advancement of that discipline.
Applied research
The Carolan Marketing Research Forum – Universidad ORT Uruguay 2021 focused on research in marketing, consumer motivations, segmentation, brand building, and product design.
The initiative drew on Dr. Fennell's approach, which is based on a central premise: don't sell what you make, but rather what customers want to buy.
Building on that idea, Fennell developed lines of research aimed at understanding and categorizing customer preferences, with the goal of contributing to better brand and product design.
His work covered topics such as motivational research, product usage scenarios, attention, attitudes, marketing, market segmentation, brand positioning, ethics, quality of life, consumer research, and globalization.
Carolan Research Institute
The Carolan Research Institute, together with Universidad ORT Uruguay, organized the competition and the academic forum.
Among those involved in the leadership of the Carolan Research Institute and the creation of the Carolan Research Forum competition were Dr. Joel Saegert, Dr. Merry Saegert, Dr. Robert J. Hoover, Thomas D. Tabler, CPA, and Dr. Héctor Bajac.
Dr. Joel Saegert worked with Dr. Fennell starting in 1980. Together, they published articles focused on the study of customer motivations as the basis for marketing strategy.
Saegert served as president of the Carolan Research Institute and maintained ties with Universidad ORT Uruguay his death in 2018. He also visited Uruguay several times to personally oversee projects being carried out in the country.
Dr. Merry Saegert was born in Austin, Texas, in the United States, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968. She later earned a master’s degree from the American University of Beirut and taught at Beirut University College for a year.
After returning to the United States, she earned her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. For nine years, she taught in programmes and graduate programmes at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. In 2021, she was president of the Carolan Research Institute.
Dr. Robert J. Hoover was a professor of marketing at the College of Business at Idaho State University and at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.
His background in international business spans four decades as an entrepreneur, researcher, professor, and consultant. He has participated in research projects in Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Uruguay, France, Portugal, Finland, Morocco, New Zealand, and Ireland.
Hoover was a member of the Academy of International Business, the International Trade and Finance Association, and the Business Association of Latin American Studies. His research and teaching interests focused on strategic marketing decision-making, particularly segmentation techniques in the global market.
In June 2005, he was a Fulbright Fellow at Universidad ORT Uruguay. In 2021, he was executive vice president of the Carolan Research Institute.
Thomas D. Tabler, CPA, had more than 40 years of experience as a public accountant. In 2021, he was the Chief Financial Officer at Mensor, a company based in San Marcos, Texas, United States.
Mensor manufactures high-precision measurement and calibration instruments, pressure control devices, and testing systems. It is a subsidiary of the WIKA Group, a German company with operations in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.
Tabler's previous positions included serving as Vice President of Finance at Preveto Companies, Vice President of Finance at Winzen International, and managing an accounting firm. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas State University.
Link to ORT
Dr. Héctor Bajac was a member of the group of experts affiliated with the Carolan Research Institute and Universidad ORT Uruguay.
Bajac earned his PhD from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, a Master of Science in Marketing, and an MBA from Texas A&M University. He holds a degree in Public Accounting from the University of the Republic.
At Universidad ORT Uruguay a professor of marketing and the academic coordinator of the graduate programs in Sales Management and Marketing in the School of Business and Social Sciences.
Alongside his academic career, he pursued a career in management. He served as CEO of CABA, commercial director of Diageo Uruguay, and senior manager in the Consulting Department at KPMG Uruguay. He also served as president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Advertisers.
He was a visiting professor at Idaho State University, ESADE in Spain, the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and the University of Chile. He also gave lectures at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, and other institutions in the United States, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, and England.
Her area of academic interest is consumer behavior and its relationship to brand building. She has also conducted research based on the framework developed by Dr. Fennell.
Evaluation Committee
The competition featured a judging panel composed of academics and professionals involved in marketing research.
Dr. Teresa Cometto holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Polytechnic University of Madrid; she is a pharmaceutical chemist and the manager of Marketing, Market Research, and Media at Unilever.
She previously worked at that company as a Development and Quality Manager, Trade Marketing Manager, and Total Quality facilitator.
She also served as a visiting professor in the Innovation track of the International MBA program at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and as dean of the School of Management and Social Sciences at Universidad ORT Uruguay. In addition, she conducted research projects funded by the Carolan Research Institute.
Dr. Gustavo Rubinsztejn holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and has MBA from ESADE. has earned a Certificate in University Teaching from Universidad ORT Uruguay holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Rubinsztejn served as a strategic market planning consultant for Goldfarb and as director of communications and corporate image at Terra Networks Uruguay.
In 2005, he received the Award for Teaching Excellence, and in 2016, the Award for Lifetime Achievement and Contribution from the School of Business and Social Sciences at Universidad ORT Uruguay.
He also served as academic coordinator for Marketing and was an active researcher at the "Iniciación" level within the National System of Researchers (SNI), a Uruguayan agency that recognizes and categorizes scientific research activities.
He led projects funded by the Carolan Research Institute on topics such as motivations for using social media and university students’ motivations for engaging in teaching and learning activities, with findings presented at peer-reviewed conferences in Spain, the United States, and Brazil.
Dinorah Margounato holds a Master's degree in Online Marketing and E-Commerce from OBS Business School in Spain. has also has postgraduate has in Advanced Marketing from the Universidad de la Empresa and a diploma in Cultural Management from the BankBoston Foundation.
She holds a bachelor's degree in Management and Administration from Universidad ORT Uruguay works as a marketing consultant.
At Universidad ORT Uruguay a professor and associate academic coordinator of Marketing in the School of Business and Social Sciences.
Together with Dr. Gustavo Rubinsztejn, she developed and published projects funded by the Carolan Research Institute, both as a researcher and as an instructor for students in the Specialization Diploma in Marketing Management.
Background
The Carolan Research Forum – Universidad ORT Uruguay 2021 built on a history of research projects conducted by Spanish-speaking scholars in Latin America with funding from the Carolan Research Institute.
This background included a study by Dr. Héctor Bajac on consumer motivations and satisfaction across seven product categories, using the model developed by Dr. Fennell. The study was presented at the University of Texas at San Antonio in April 2019.
A study conducted by students in the Specialization Diploma in Marketing Management program at Universidad ORT Uruguay motivations for using dating platforms was also included. The qualitative phase of the study was supervised by Dinorah Margounato, M.A., who also oversaw the quantitative phase. It was presented at the 2019 UTSA conference.
Another relevant study was the work by Dinorah Margounato, M.A., Dr. Gustavo Rubinsztejn, Guillermina Frick, B.A., and Carlos Pignataro, M.A., on motivations for using social media.
That research was presented at Universidad ORT Uruguay, at the academic conference of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the University of the Republic, and at UTSA in 2019.
The report also included a study by students in the Specialization Diploma in Marketing Management on the motivations for playing the video game League of Legends, supervised by Dinorah Margounato, M.A.
Another project mentioned was that of Dr. Gustavo Rubinsztejn, Dr. Ximena Fernández, and Dinorah Margounato, M.A., on the motivations of millennial students to engage in teaching and learning activities.
This work was presented at the FECIES conference in Santander, Spain; at the 10th CIDU Education Conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil; at Universidad ORT Uruguay; and at the Carolan Research Forum at UTSA in 2019.
Dr. Teresa Cometto, for her part, conducted research for Unilever, including projects related to the Dove brand.
Academic Outlook
The Carolan Research Forum – Universidad ORT Uruguay 2021 served as a platform for collaboration between applied research, marketing, and international academic cooperation.
The initiative made it possible to compile research and data related to consumer behavior, brand building, segmentation, motivations for use, and marketing decisions.
For Universidad ORT Uruguay, the call for proposals and the online forum strengthened a collaborative effort between the School of Business and Social Sciences, the School of Communication and Design, and the Carolan Research Institute, with an emphasis on applied research in the field of marketing.