We all need to eat. But the choice of what we eat involves a lot more than ingesting calories to fuel the body, or even the taste of food. Other factors include how food is marketed, where it’s made, its nutritional content, the perceived ethics of consumption, and the reputation of the company that’s making the product.
The first annual Society for Food Marketing & Retailing Conference (SFMR), held at Bryant University last week, gathered international experts around the table to give researchers, restauranteurs, and others a better understanding of the full menu of these dining decisions with an eye on satisfying the appetites of consumers — stated, unconscious, or otherwise.
The conference, which emphasized bridging the gap between academic research and real-world food industry applications, attracted 161 attendees and generated nearly 80 academic presentations from 53 universities and seven countries. Industry partners included Pulmuone Foods USA — the largest producer of tofu-based food products in the U.S. — as well as Italian plant-based food company Planter, and the Rhode Island Hospitality Association.
The society, like the conference, was recently founded through a collaboration between marketing researchers at Bryant and colleagues from Seoul National University in South Korea and the University of Siena in Italy, who developed the concepts at the European Marketing Conference in Madrid in the spring of 2025.
“We were sipping wine and talking about food, beverages, and marketing when we realized something simple but powerful: this is a shared passion. We all eat, drink, and enjoy these experiences, yet there were surprisingly few platforms that truly bring academics and industry together around this common interest,” said 2026 SFMR Conference Chair Kacy Kim, Ph.D., associate professor of Marketing at Bryant.
“We were sipping wine and talking about food, beverages, and marketing when we realized something simple but powerful: this is a shared passion."
Held over three days, the conference highlighted cutting edge food studies as well as the university’s research facilities, including the Marketing Behavioral Research Lab and the Exercise and Movement Science Lab, which can have applications in studying food choices and the physiological impact of dietary choices.
“Menu marketing is a good example: researchers can use the lab to study how customers use psychology when they read a menu or make orders based on the look of the menu or even the origin of food, and use that to develop new package designs or new recipes,” says Kim. “"Our vision is to generate impactful research and foster meaningful collaborations among our faculty, leading universities around the world, and industry partners across global markets."
Conference keynote speakers, presenters, and submitted research studies covered a variety of food marketing topics, ranging from consumer behavior and ethical production to influencer marketing and the use of AI and robotics in marketing food. Breakout sessions explored concepts such as how the K-Pop Demon Hunters cultural phenomenon affects the willingness to try Korean food, and how small ethnic grocery stores serve as a springboard for broadening dining choices in their neighborhoods.
Keynote speakers included Dhruv Grewal, Ph.D., Toyota professor of Commerce and Electronic Business at Babson College; Anne Roggeveen, the Charles Clarke Reynolds Professor of Retailing and Marketing at Babson; Charles R. Taylor, Ph.D., professor of Marketing at Villanova University and editor in chief of the International Journal of Advertising, and Eric Haley, Ph.D., professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee and executive director of the American Academy of Advertising.
And, because this was a food marketing event, attendees had the opportunity to sample local Rhode Island food and drinks at social events and try dishes like traditional Korean kimchee during lunch breaks.
“We’ve had good interactions between people who have a lot of experience, like journal authors, and people just starting their careers in academia,” said Bryant Marketing Professor Sukki Yoon, Ph.D., a member of the conference program committee alongside Eun Kang, Ph.D., an associate professor of Marketing, and Teresa McCarthy, Ph.D., associate professor Marketing and Supply Chain Management. “There’s a lot of learning, teaching, and mentoring going on.”
Aydin S. Oksoy, Ph.D., assistant professor of management, marketing, and entrepreneurship at the University of Hartford’s Barney School of Business, was among the reserarchers presenting their findings at the conference, discussing a concept called "exchange complexity" that addresses the degree of economic friction in a firm’s strategic stance.
“The economic context of food retail gave me a wonderful opportunity to apply and extend my work," said Oksoy, who also was impressed with the capabilities of Bryant's research labs, which he said "really opened my eyes to observing behavioral metrics."
Based upon the success of the inaugural SFMR conference, the 2027 event has already been scheduled to take place at the National University of Seoul, while the 2028 conference will be hosted at the University of Siena.
Professor Junghoon Moon, Ph.D., who leads the FoodBiz lab at the National University of Seoul and will chair next year’s conference, said he plans to add input from experts in disciplines like food engineering and public policy.
“There are so many areas — advertising, marketing, retail, chefs, supply chain — that have strong motivations to focus on the food area,” he said.