Silvia Bellezza

Silvia Bellezza is the Gantcher Associate Professor of Business in Marketing at Columbia Business School. Her research focuses on consumer behavior and symbolic consumption – how consumers use products and brands to express who they are and signal status. Professor Bellezza’s work uncovers the role of alternative signals of status (e.g., nonconforming behaviors, lack of leisure time) and establishes new perspectives on brand communities (e.g., the distinction between “Brand Tourists” and “Brand Immigrants”). Professor Bellezza’s research has been published in top-tier academic journals including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Management Science. Her work has also received extensive coverage in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Scientific American. Before joining Columbia, she earned her doctorate in Marketing at Harvard Business School and worked in the marketing departments of L.V.M.H. and Dannon. Professor Bellezza currently teaches a core marketing course to MBA and executive MBA students.