Dennis Rook is a Professor of Clinical Marketing at the Marshall School of Business. He received his PhD in marketing in 1983 from Northwestern University′s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he concentrated in consumer behavior theory and qualitative research methods. Following this, he served on the marketing faculty of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Rook left the academic environment in 1987 to join the Strategic Planning Department of DDB Needham Worldwide in Chicago where he was a research supervisor. Following this he was appointed Director of Qualitative Research Services at Conway/Milliken & Associates, a Chicago research and consulting company. Dr. Rook rejoined the USC marketing faculty in 1991. Professor Rook′s published research has investigated consumer impulse buying, "solo" consumption behavior, and consumers′ buying rituals and fantasies. These and other studies have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research, Advances in Consumer Research, Symbolic Consumer Behavior, and Research in Consumer Behavior. He has served as Treasurer of the Association for Consumer Research, for which he is also a member of the Advisory Council. In 1985, his dissertation research was awarded by the Association for Consumer Research, and in 1988, he was appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Consumer Research. Dr. Rook has served as a research and marketing consultant for companies in the consumer packaged goods, financial services, communications and entertainment industries.