Dr Sarah-Louise Mitchell

PhD, Pass with No Corrections (Henley Business School, 2016), MBA (London Business School, 1993), BA (Hons) in Economics (Exeter University, 1988), PGCAP (Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice) Pass with Distinction, (University of Gloucestershire, 2016)

Senior Lecturer in Marketing

Oxford Brookes Business School

Role

Dr. Sarah-Louise Mitchell was motivated to become an academic in order to answer some of the burning questions in the nonprofit sector. She came to Brookes having worked for nearly 20 years in senior roles across consumer goods, food retail and nonprofit organisations, for companies such as Tesco, Twinings, Reckett & Colman and Tate & Lyle. Her experience includes strategic portfolio planning, new product development, market research, and communication campaigns. Latterly she ran the marketing for two charities which prompted her to undertake a full time (funded) PhD looking at why people volunteer for one charity brand rather than another. 

Her current research interests including charity collaborations, brand storytelling and how we attract more young people to volunteer. She has co-authored a best-selling book on Charity Marketing (Routledge) and has set up a programme of events to bring academics together with charity managers to ensue our research matters. 

Her day job is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She holds a PhD (no corrections) from Henley Business School and MBA from London Business School. 

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Modules taught

  • Introduction to Principles of Responsible Marketing
  • Personal Branding

Developed, lead and teach on both modules.

Supervision

  • Supervisor for Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring
  • Dissertation Supervisor for Marketing and Business & Management masters students

Research

The three main questions I am currently asking through my research are: 

  1. How we better engage young people to participate in civic society
  2. Whether the message communication around volunteering is not appealing to young people
  3. How metaphors help us better understand charity brands.

Research impact

Two papers returned to Ref (2021), five published journal articles so far.

Projects

  • Mission-based collaboration and its impact on nonprofit brands

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing
  • Fellow of Royal Society of Arts
  • Liveryman of Worshipful Company of Marketors
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
  • Awarded Freedom of the City of London
  • Member of CharityComms
  • Member of Academy of Marketing
  • Elected Committee Member of British Academy of Management (Marketing and Retail)

Conferences

Extensive - but regularly present and review for Academy of Marketing (leading non-profit workshops ), British Academy of Management (on the Marketing & Retail committee for this), and Global Brand Conference.

Consultancy

None currently due to research commitments.

Further details

External Roles

  • External Examiner for University of Kent (Masters in Philanthropy)
  • Elected Committee Member (with responsibility for communication) for BAM marketing and retail group
  • Invited Committee Member for Awards Committee for Worshipful Company of Marketors, including responsible for the national Thesis Prize programme. 

Grants/Funding

  • AWARDED: British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant Scheme (Decision: 20/3/2020) Value: £5,155 “Mission-based collaboration and its impact on nonprofit brands”. Reference: SRG1920\100786. Completed.
  • AWARDED: OBBS Internal Small Grant Round 18 for “Does volunteering have an image problem? Repositioning volunteering as an aspirational goal for young people”. Value: £2,701. Awarded on 24th March 2022. 
  • AWARDED: ESRC funded place on Academic Research Video Training Programme (Decision: 04/04/2022) April – December 2022. Value not publicised. Weblink: https://socsci.web.ox.ac.uk/your-research-in-film-video-production-training-programme. Film presented at University of Oxford Social Sciences Impact Conference (20-21/03/2023)
  • AWARDED: Academy of Marketing Early Career Research grant (July 2017), value £4,200 to investigate nonprofit brand typicality vs differentiation positioning on corporate websites.
  • AWARDED: Full postgraduate studentship, Henley Business School (Sept 2013), value £62,00 to fund PhD research into the role of brand in the non-profit sector.

Best Paper Awards

  • Winner (Sept 2022) British Academy of Management (Manchester) . Best Paper Prize for track (Marketing and Retail)
  • Winner (July 2022) Academy of Marketing, (Huddersfield). Best Paper Prize for track (Social and Nonprofit marketing)
  • Winner (Sept 2016) British Academy of Management Conference (Newcastle). Best Paper Award (Marketing & Retail), 
  • Winner (Nov 2015), Henley Business School Doctoral Conference. Won the award for best overall presentation of research at the Henley Business School PhD Conference.
  • Winner (July 2015)  Academy of Marketing Conference (Limerick), Best Paper Award (Brand Identity and Reputation track) 
  • Winner (July 2014) 3 Minute Thesis Competition, University of Reading (University-wide competition that rewards succinct presentation of research topic to non-specialist audience).