Ronnie Ballantyne
Lecturer in Marketing
Department of Fashion, Marketing, Tourism and Events
Ron is Lecturer in Marketing and undertakes teaching and research in the areas of branding, consumer behaviour and international advertising strategy. He contributes to both undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, leading modules on Global Brand Marketing, Brand Management and Consumer Behaviour.
Ron's specialist research interest is branding - his academic and professional pursuits have provided unique insight into the practice of branding across a variety of branding arenas. His branding research has been published in the Journal of Brand Management and he has contributed to several books that have explored branding and consumer decision-making within the tourism sector.
Before joining GCU in 2002, Ron's branding journey began at the Scottish Agricultural College as a lecturer and consultant in marketing in the early 1990s. He initially advised on market entry and brand positioning strategy for Cream of Galloway, now a successful Scottish premium ice cream brand.
He then went on to lecture on Marketing at the Department of Management Studies at the University of Glasgow. Adventure beckoned in the form of a teaching scholarship to The University of Michigan as visiting Professor of Marketing in the autumn of 1997 which paved the way to become a guest speaker and consultant on the use of brand image and brand personality within advertising campaigns at the Leo Burnett advertising company in Chicago, Illinois.
Ron also has considerable international teaching experience and is currently Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the University of Nice – where he contributes to their MBA and master's courses. Other visiting Professor roles have included the International University of Monaco; the University of Da’Nang in Vietnam; the IEDC Bled School of Management in Slovenia and the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
In the commercial sector, Ron is the Non-Executive Director of the international branding consultancy Frejz, where he advises on the overall direction of the Frejz brand.