Gerald Zaltman

Gerald Zaltman
NationalityAmerican
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Chicago Booth School of Business
Johns Hopkins University
Bates College
Academic work
DisciplineMarketing
InstitutionsHarvard Business School
University of Pittsburgh

Gerald Zaltman is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School and the author and editor of 20 books, most recently How Customers Think (2003) and Marketing Metaphoria (2008). In 1997 he founded the market research consulting firm Olson Zaltman Associates in partnership with Jerry C. Olson, Professor of Marketing Emeritus, Smeal College of Business at Penn State. Zaltman patented, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique, a method used to delve into the unconscious thinking that drives behavior.

Zaltman's academic specialization is in innovation, social change, and the representation of thought, which is expressed in a variety of publications throughout his career.