Marketing professor draws on consumer behavior expertise to form lasting connections with students

September 10, 2024

Two individuals hugging

Across a 21-year teaching career at Quinnipiac, Patricia Norberg, professor of marketing and director of the marketing insights and behavioral research lab, has helped countless students stay ahead of the curve in understanding consumer behavior.

She likens the challenge of anticipating and embracing consumer trends to the job of a teacher. Learners aren’t the same year by year or decade by decade. You have to meet them where they are.

Norberg finds joy in the process.

“You have to look at it as a puzzle, that every generation is a new puzzle,” Norberg said. “And since I like puzzles, I say, ‘OK, how to put these pieces together? How do we make it work? … You can’t just look at them as students. You have to think about the world that they live in and what they need to succeed in the professional world they’re about to enter.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Norberg was one of three faculty members to be honored with the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award thanks in no small part to the glowing testimony of several former students, who praised Norberg for her passion, attentiveness and generosity of spirit.

Well, maybe the honor didn’t come as a surprise to Norberg’s peers or her pupils. But the way she found out about the award — summoned to an impromptu meeting with Business School Dean Holly Raider and joined shortly thereafter by President Judy Olian and Provost Debra Liebowitz — was not a moment she saw coming.

More than anything, though, Norberg was touched to learn that she’d made such a lasting impact on the lives of her students.

“You’re really trying to make a difference or an impact on your students by tapping into what challenges them,” Norberg said. “You provide them with the ability to fight through those challenges in a successful way and you just try to be of service to them. I see myself as a helper. I want to help them solve problems.”

In addition to teaching courses on consumer behavior and marketing communications, advertising, behavioral research and a host of other sub-disciplines in the marketing realm, Norberg has published numerous journal articles on topics such as privacy protection, price perception and algorithmic interference.

It’s in the research lab where she feels most at home, teaching with small groups in a high-touch environment with state-of-the-art tools.

Her impact is evident in the nominations written by current and former students.

Julia Holloran ’24, MBA ’25, wrote that Norberg “changed my perception of marketing” when she took her consumer behavior course. Arity Morrison ’24, MBA ’25, has taken three of Norberg’s classes and observed, “she truly is one of the best professors I have had during my time at Quinnipiac and it is so obvious that she cares deeply about her students.”

Corinna Pazzanese ’24, MBA ’25, praised Norberg for her “unwavering commitment” to her students and for the “real-world experiences” that are “always present in her classroom.” Multiple students invoked the phrase “above and beyond” to describe the way she invests in their success.

“She deserves this more than anyone!” wrote Ashley Usewicz, MBA ’25.

Added Arianna Korb ’24, MBA ’25: “She is always finding new and inventive ways for her fellows to get the results they are hoping for. I truly could not recommend Professor Norberg enough for this award as she is an extraordinary asset to the School of Business and the marketing department.”

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