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Marketing

Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing

Portrait of Gina Fong, Faculty at the Kellogg School of Management
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Kellogg Global Hub 5463

Gina Fong is a consumer anthropologist who believes that giving someone the gift of understanding is one of the most human-centric acts one can do. As a marketing professor, she loves transforming the classroom into a curiosity gymnasium so students learn how to think with their head, heart, and gut. She was voted the L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year by Kellogg's 2023 graduating class.

As a principal at Fong Insight Gina helps organizations become customer-centric by coaching them how to discover and distill insight. She also conducts research, teaches, and delivers keynote speeches to a variety of clients around the world. Gina's ultimate goal is to coach people to be joyful customer advocates.

  • BS, Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Principal, Fong Insight, 2018-present
    Partner, The Fortini-Campbell Company, 2000-2018
  • L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award (2023)

Ethnographic Customer Insights (MKTG-949-5)

Whatever one's role is within a company - marketing, product management, operations, finance, R&D, etc. - everyone owns the customer experience and the customer must be at the center of every decision. However, how often do you encounter knowledge gaps that prevent you from understanding your customers well enough so that you can anticipate what they need and want? These knowledge gaps create uncertainty that causes teams to second guess themselves, delay decisions, and/or make the wrong choices. The most successful brands have the power to predict their audience in a way that makes their customers ask, "How did you know?!" with surprise and delight when they launch a new brand, product, feature, experience, etc.

This course provides a framework and case studies on how ethnographic research can help you discover and distill insight into your customers so you can surprise and delight them across the entire brand experience. There is a final project but no final exam.

Ethnographic Customer Insights (MKTG-949-0)

This course will provide you-the entrepreneur, the product manager, the director of finance or whatever your discipline may be-your own case study and framework on how to conduct ethnographic research and distill insight to surprise and delight your customer across the entire customer journey. In this highly experiential course you will partner with a real client to help them solve a business question via ethnographic research. You will learn how to set up an ethnographic research project; conduct ethnographies; analyze and tell a story around qualitative data; and build influence and alignment around your recommendations. This course uses a combination of lectures, case studies, and in-class exercises to prepare you for your final group project which you will present to the client's senior leadership team, and that will inform their upcoming strategic plan. There is no final exam.

Curiosity Understanding Empathy (CUE) (DSGN-470-0)

Please see Caesar for the description of this course.