Advertising and branding
Our advertising research covers advertising agency management, creative processes, ethics and sustainability, gender stereotypes, health advertising, online marketing campaigns and mobile advertising.
Through our branding research, we explore online branding, brand attachment, luxury branding, consumer-based brand equity, brand performance measurement, place brands and human brands.
Our research has been published in international journals such as the Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Annals of Tourism Research, European Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Business Research. We also share insights from our research at conferences, workshops and keynote speeches.
We collaborate on our research with local, national and global businesses and organisations. Our ongoing research with a leading name in the quality of sound industry is exploring whether emotion or rationality is more impactful in advertising their high-end headphones.
All our researchers bring their industry experience from the advertising and branding professions to our research, including Dr Sarah Turnbull and Professor Yuksel Ekinci, who are recognised experts in the area of advertising and branding, respectively.
Sarah's book Marketing Communications (2019), co-authored with Chris Fill, is recognised as the authoritative text for professional courses such as those run by The Chartered Institute of Marketing and is supported by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
Professor Yuksel Ekinci is a world methodological expert of SEM-PLS, and his Google Scholar profile shows that his work has been cited around 10000 times in the area of consumer behaviour in branding – while Karen Middleton and Helen Thompson-White have published extensively on gender stereotyping and personal branding in advertising, respectively.
Project highlights
- We're exploring how brand attachment can lead to compulsive buying and external talking, which can damage a brand's reputation and encourage excessive consumerism > Read more
- Our research on gender stereotyping in advertising around the world contributes to advertising industry discussions and regulation > Read more
- Judith Fletcher-Brown's pioneering research into how the Westernisation of Indian women puts them at risk of developing breast cancer has received extensive coverage in the mainstream media, including The Independent newspaper > Read more
Recent publications
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Stronger Together? Tourists’ Behavioral Responses to Joint Brand Advertising
Can, S.A., Ekinci, Y., Viglia, G. and Buhalis, D. (2020) “Stronger Together? Tourists’ Behavioral Responses to Joint Brand Advertising”, Journal of Advertising
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Consumer engagement in online brand communities: the moderating role of personal values
Marbach, J., Legas, C., Nunan, D. and Ekinci, Y. (2019) “Consumer Engagement in Online Brand Communities: The Moderating Role of Personal Values”, European Journal of Marketing
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Self-congruence, brand attachment and compulsive buying
Japutra, A., Ekinci, Y. and Simkin, L. (2019) "Self-Concept, Brand Attachment and Compulsive Buying”. Journal of Business Research
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Counterfeit luxury consumption strategies in a collectivistic culture: the case of China
Li, J., Ghaffari, M., & Su, L. (2020). Counterfeit luxury consumption strategies in a collectivistic culture: the case of China. Journal of Brand Management
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Ghaffari, M., Hackley, C., & Lee, Z. (2019). Control, knowledge, and persuasive power in advertising creativity: An ethnographic practice theory approach. Journal of Advertising
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Advertising: should creative women be expected to ‘fake it?’
Thompson-Whiteside, H., Turnbull, S., & Howe-Walsh, L. (2020). Advertising: should creative women be expected to ‘fake it?’. Journal of Marketing Management
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Fletcher-Brown, J., Turnbull, S., Viglia, G., Chen, T., & Pereira, V. (2020). Vulnerable consumer engagement: How corporate social media can facilitate the replenishment of depleted resources. International Journal of Research in Marketing
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Middleton, K., Turnbull, S., & de Oliveira, M. J. (2020). Female role portrayals in Brazilian advertising: are outdated cultural stereotypes preventing change?. International Journal of Advertising
Discover our areas of expertise
Research groups
Our members

Media ready expert
Dr Sarah Turnbull
- Job Title Principal Lecturer in Marketing
- Email Address Sarah.Turnbull@port.ac.uk
- Department Marketing
- Faculty Faculty of Business and Law
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor

Media ready expert
Professor Yuksel Ekinci
- Job Title Professor
- Email Address yuksel.ekinci@port.ac.uk
- Department Marketing
- Faculty Faculty of Business and Law
- PhD Supervisor PhD Supervisor
Media ready expert
Helen Mary Thompson-Whiteside
- Job Title Senior Lecturer in Marketing
- Department Marketing
- Faculty Faculty of Business and Law
Media ready expert
Mrs Karen Middleton
- Job Title Senior Lecturer in Marketing
- Email Address karen.middleton@port.ac.uk
- Department Portsmouth Business School
- Faculty Faculty of Business and Law
Interested in a PhD in Marketing?
Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Marketing postgraduate research degrees page.