As Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the College of Business, Government and Law, Dr Lara Stocchi is at the cutting-edge of digital marketing. She is particularly inspired by the opportunities of mobile app technology and the value her research in this area can deliver to businesses, consumers and students.

What inspired you to pursue a career in your research area?

Early in my career, I came to Australia as an exchange student and I was exposed, for the first time, to research-informed teaching. During my studies in Italy, I already loved marketing (especially branding and consumer behaviour) and I had amazing lecturers. However, being exposed to research for the first time changed my career outlook and encouraged me to take the academic path.

After returning home, I could not stop thinking about the many new things that I learnt and the idea of creating new knowledge for a living, impacting other people’s lives. To be honest, I also could not stop thinking about Australia. Therefore, I pursued a PhD and started a doctorate in marketing.

Over the last few years I have expanded my core expertise on branding and consumer behaviour to aspects of digital marketing, especially mobile apps. I found myself exploring these areas of research and intensifying my efforts as a natural response to the learning needs of my students and to the demand for this knowledge from the industry.

What is your current research focused on?

Over the past five years, I have maintained my research into how consumers choose brands for purchase, by bringing aspects from psychology research on human memory into marketing literature.

I also established a research program on mobile marketing with several important aims. For example, some of my recent studies have explored the different characteristics of mobile apps that encourage consumers to use apps in their lives, recommend apps to others and even pay for apps or make in-app purchases.

These findings are relevant to businesses for the purpose of using apps as a marketing tool to win customers ‘on the go’, making products and services available to people anytime, anywhere.

I am also conducting more research to understand competition within apps’ markets. Despite their popularity, the monetisation of apps remains a challenge and up-keeping usage post-download is very difficult. Therefore, there is a need for clarity on these aspects to assist businesses figure out how to launch and manage apps that engage consumers and generate positive economic results.

Besides being relevant to the industry, my research on mobile apps allows me to inject fresh content into my lecturers, preparing our graduates for jobs in digital marketing, which are currently in very high demand.

How is your research impacting the community?

Apps are part of our daily life and help us accomplishing all sorts of tasks with convenience. The other day, I was able to get a visitors’ visa for New Zealand in about three minutes by using a dedicated app.

There are also countless apps that entertain us or help us be a better version of ourselves, such as apps that help us track our fitness level, apps for mindfulness and creativity, and so forth.

Through this research program, I am often wearing ‘two hats’ – i.e., the consumer’s hat and the marketer’s hat. In doing so, I discover many more things about the changes that mobile digital technologies have introduced into our lives and I contribute to explaining these aspects through my research findings.

One of my next research goals is to better understand the extent to which this type of technology can actually advantage and empower consumers across different demographics. I was surprised to read that older consumers, in Australia are actually much more digitally skilled than in other areas of the world. Therefore, I am eager to understand if this could be an untapped opportunity for them to access more information, products and services they need.

Can you share a challenge in your life and how you overcame it?

My family lives on the other side of the world and I have been juggling my two ‘homes’ (Italy and Australia) for about ten years. The improvements in technology and the countless opportunities for communication that mobile devices and apps have offered have certainly helped me overcome this great challenge.

I can easily stay in touch with all members of my family, including my grandparents, cutting down distances and getting the strength I need to pursue my passion for research and teaching. I get to share snippets of my life in Australia with them, while nurturing my connections back home. It may not be the same as being there in person, but it allows me to focus on what I do for living and to feel positive about my accomplishments.

I also think that researching mobile apps has provided me with the chance to carve out a strong research program that I can continue to successfully lead and develop over years to come. In fact, the best aspect of this pipeline of research is that it blends perfectly my priorities as researcher and educator, which is a lifetime challenge for many academics.

What is something you are proud of?

My ability to establish and develop, from scratch, a research program on mobile apps is most certainly something that I am very proud of. It started from a simple idea during my time in the UK and it continued to grow, reigniting my passion in discovery and new knowledge generation over, and over again.
I am particularly proud of the work I have done so far, because it is starting to pay off and has created so many good synergies for me in all aspects of my work. It has also brought me closer to collaborators all over the world, creating more opportunities for research.

What do you enjoy when taking a break from work?

My biggest passions are travelling and photography. I enjoy discovering new places and carefully planning my visits to explore hidden gems and take lots of photos. Much to my husband’s entertainment, I never seem to leave without a spreadsheet listing all the places I want to see and the things I want to eat.

Next on the bucket list is a trip to New Zealand’s South Island, which I never fully explored. I already have at least ten ‘Instagrammable’ places to visit in Wellington, a long list of perfect spots for photos in Queenstown and an excursion to Milford Sound planned.