Principles of Marketing

As a team, Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong provide a blend of skills uniquely suited to writing an introductory marketing text.  Professor Kotler is one of the world’s leading authorities on marketing.  Professor Armstrong is an award-winning teacher of undergraduate business students.  Together they make the complex world of marketing practical, approachable, and enjoyable.

Philip Kotler is S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.  He received his master’s degree at the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. at M.I.T., both in economics.  Dr. Kotler is author of Marketing Management (PrenticeHall), now in its twelfth edition and the world’s most widely used marketing text book in graduate schools of business worldwide.  He has authored dozens of other successful books and has written more than 100 articles in leading journals.  He is the only three-time winner of the coveted Alpha Kappa Psi award for the best annual article in the Journal of Marketing. 

Professor Kotler was named the first recipient of two major awards:  the Distinguished Marketing Educator of the Year Award given by the American Marketing Association and the Philip Kotler Award for Excellence in Health Care Marketing presented by the Academy for Health Care Services Marketing.  His numerous other major honors include the Sales and Marketing Executives InternationalMarketing Educator of the Year Award; The European Association of Marketing Consultants and Trainers Marketing Excellence Award; the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award; and thePaul D. Converse Award, given by the American Marketing Association to honor “outstanding contributions to science in marketing.  In a recent Financial Times poll of 1,000 senior executives across the world, Professor Kotler was ranked as the fourth “most influential business writer/guru” of the twenty-first century.

Dr. Kotler has served as chairman of the College on Marketing of the Institute of Management Sciences, a director of the American Marketing Association, and a trustee of the Marketing Science Institute.  He has consulted with many major U.S. and international companies in the areas of marketing strategy and planning, marketing organization, and international marketing.  He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and South America, advising companies and governments about global marketing practices and opportunities.

Gary Armstrong is Crist W. Blackwell Distinguished Professor of Undergraduate Education in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business from Wayne State University in Detroit, and he received his Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University.  Dr. Armstrong has contributed numerous articles to leading business journals.  As a consultant and researcher, he has worked with many companies on marketing research, sales management, and marketing strategy. 

But Professor Armstrong’s first love is teaching.  His Blackwell Distinguished Professorship is the only permanent endowed professorship for distinguished undergraduate teaching at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He has been very active in the teaching and administration of Kenan-Flagler’s undergraduate program.  His administrative posts have included Chair of Marketing, Associate Director of the Undergraduate Business Program, Director of the Business Honors Program, and many others.  He works closely with business student groups and has received several campuswide and Business School teaching awards.  He is the only repeat recipient of school’s highly regarded Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, which he has received three times.  Professor Armstrong recently received the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the sixteen-campus University of North Carolina system.