University of Lethbridge

About Me

The best way to reach me is by email at: michael.basil@uleth.ca.

Biography

Mike grew up in California in the 1970s. While he was earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology he worked as a social activist focusing on consumer protection, environmental issues and nuclear disarmament. After receiving his masters degree, Mike worked as a substitute teacher in southern California and as an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher in Tokyo Japan.

Mike earned his PhD at Stanford University, studying communication - specifically advertising, how people process persuasive messages, and research methods. He started his academic career at the University of Hawaii (1991-1994), studying the effect of celebrities. Mike went to the University of Denver (1994-2000), and began collaborating with Porter Novelli and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the application of communication and social marketing techniques and data to enhance public health.

He joined the University of Lethbridge in 2000 where he is currently a professor of marketing. Mike has been a visiting scholar at the University of Wollongong in Australia in 2008-2009 and Grenoble Ecole de Management in France in 2013.

Mike's research is focused on using marketing to improve people's lives. Currently he is examining the role of experiences in enriching our lives -- this research has examined fine dining, travel, and recreational activities such as long-distance hiking. He serves as a regional editor for the Journal of Social Marketing and is on 5 other editorial boards in the fields of Communication, Marketing, and Social Marketing.

Selected Publications

A complete listing of publications can be seen on my full CV. Some area highlights:

Celebrity effects

Basil, M. D. (1996). Identification as a mediator of celebrity effects. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 40, 478-495.

Brown, W. J., Basil, M. D., and Bocarnea, M. (2003). Social influence of an international celebrity: Responses to the death of Princess Diana. Journal of Communication, 53, 587-605.

Consumer message processing

Basil, M. D. (1994). Multiple resource theory I: Application to television viewing. Communication Research, 21, 177-207.

Lang, A. and Basil, M. D. (1998). Attention, resource allocation, and communication research: What do secondary reaction task reaction times measure, anyway? In M. E. Roloff (Ed.), Communication Yearbook, Volume 21 (pp. 443-473). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Leisure experiences

Basil, M. D. & Basil, D. Z. (2009). Reflections on ultra-fine dining. In A. Lindgreen, J. Vanhamme & M. Beverland (Eds.), Memorable Customer Experiences (pp. 135-147). Aldershot, UK: Gower.

Basil, M. D. (2017). Examining cherry blossom celebrations in Japan and around the world. In L. White (Ed.), Commercial Nationalism: Selling the National Story in Tourism and Events (pp. 212-226). Channel View. Bristol, UK.

Marketing of healthy and tasty food

Glanz, K., Basil, M., Maibach, E. Goldberg, J. and Snyder, D. (1998). Why Americans eat what they do: Taste, nutrition, cost, convenience, and weight control concerns as influences on food consumption. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98, 1118-1126.

Basil, M. D. (2012). A history of farmers' markets in Canada. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 5, 387-407.

Social marketing

Basil, M. D. (2013). Effects of social marketing: Potential and limitations. In E. Scharrer (Ed.), Media Effects/Media Psychology, Vol. 5, Media Effects/Media Psychology (pp. 552-566). The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. Boston, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

D. Z. Basil, G. Diaz-Meneses & M. Basil (2019). Social Marketing Cases from Around the World. Springer.

Visual research methods

Basil, M. (2007). Japanese love hotels: A photo essay. Consumption, Markets, and Culture, 10(2), 203-221.

Basil, M. D. (2011). Use of photography and video in observational research. Qualitative Marketing Research, 14, 246-257.

Research Interests

Originally Mike's research focused on marketing communication -- advertising, celebrity effects, and consumer message processing. Later he focused on marketing strategy -- how products or services can best meet consumer needs; to this end he examined how food consumption is shaped by factor such as taste, convenience, and nutrition. Currently his research investigates the role of leisure experiences in people's lives, including fine dining, travel, and recreational activities. Although he is most familiar with quantitative methods, Mike is also interested in the application of qualitative, ethnographic, historical, narrative, and visual methods.

His full academic vita is available below.

Current Research and Creative Activity

Title	Location	Grant Information	Principal Investigator	Co Researchers
Farmer’s markets as a distribution and retail channel. (Comparing Lethbridge Farmer’s markets with those in Italy)	Lethbridge, Italy

Curriculum Vitae

My CV

Internet Links

http://people.uleth.ca/~michael.basil/