Prof. Dr. Markus Gahler

BIOGRAPHY:

Prof. Dr. Markus Gahler studied business administration at the University of Münster and the University of California, Riverside, as well as marketing and distribution management at the University of Göttingen. While pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Augsburg, he worked as a research assistant in the Department of Value-Based Marketing. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a managing consultant and portfolio manager at the management consulting firm Cintellic. There, he led and managed various projects for clients across a wide range of industries in the areas of customer experience, CRM, marketing automation, and marketing intelligence.

Since September 2024, Markus Gahler has been teaching and conducting research as a professor of digital marketing in the “Digital Business” department at RWU. His teaching and research focus on customer journey management, customer experience management, marketing intelligence and measurement, and marketing automation technologies.

AWARDS:

• Wolfgang Wirichs Award 2022 from the Wolfgang Wirichs Foundation
• HORIZONT Encouragement Award 2021 from the HORIZONT Foundation
• Best Paper in Track Award at the 2018 AMA Summer Academic Conference, Boston, USA
• Best Conference Paper Award at the 10th AMA SERVSIG Conference, Paris, France

PUBLICATIONS:

Journal Articles:

• Gahler, M., Stäudt, M., Klein, J. F., & Henkel, S. (2026): From Combustion to Electrification: Consumers’ Psychological Reactance to the EU’s “Fit for 55” Strategy, in: Marketing Review St. Gallen, 2 (2026), pp. 12–19
• Gahler, M. & Neubauer, M. (2024): Expanding Reality in Retail—Effectively Utilizing Metaverse Applications Along the Customer Journey, in: Marketing Review St. Gallen, 2 (2024), pp. 32–40
• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2023): Customer Experience: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Application in Omnichannel Environments, *Journal of Service Research*, 26 (2), pp. 191–211
• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2021): Customer Experience Tracking in Retail—Effectively Implementing Real-Time Measurements, in: Marketing Review St. Gallen, 5 (2021), pp. 18–25

Monographs:

• Gahler, M. (2020): Customer Experience: Conceptualization and Development of a Text-Based and Graphical Scale, Düren: Shaker
• Gahler, M. (2016): Pay-What-You-Want on the Internet: An Empirical Analysis of Factors Influencing Voluntary Willingness to Pay, Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler

Working Papers:

• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2019): Measuring Customer Experiences: A Text-Based and Pictorial Scale, in: Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series 2019, Report No. 19-119, pp. 1–53

Conference Papers:

• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2026): “How to Develop Pictorial Scales: A Semiotic Approach,” 17th EMAC Fall Conference, Bremen, Germany
• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2026): Pictorials That Measure: A Semiotic Approach for Developing Pictorial Scales, AMA Winter Academic Conference, Madrid, ES
• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2020): Measuring Customer Experience with Text-Based and Pictorial Scales, AMA Winter Academic Conference, San Diego, USA
• Gahler, M., Klein, J. F., & Paul, M. (2019): Measuring Customer Experiences: A Text-Based and Pictorial Scale, QUIS16 Conference, Karlstad, SE
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2019): Measuring the Customer Experience: Developing a Textual and Graphical Scale, 48th EMAC Conference, Hamburg, Germany
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2018): The CX Scale: Toward a Holistic Measure of Customer Experience, 2018 AMA Summer Academic Conference, Boston, USA
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2018): The CX Scale: Toward a Holistic Measurement of Customer Experiences Along the Customer Journey, 10th AMA SERVSIG Conference, Paris, FR
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2018): Measuring the Customer Experience along the Customer Journey: Development of the CX Scale, 47th EMAC Conference, Glasgow, UK
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Rudolph, T. (2017): The Path to Success: Maximizing Customer Equity through Customer Journey Analysis, 4th Marketing Edge Summit, New Orleans, USA
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2017): The CX Scale: Measuring Customer Experience throughout the Customer Journey, 25th International Colloquium on Relationship Marketing, Munich, Germany
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2017): Developing a Measurement Scale for the Customer Experience along the Customer Journey, 26th Frontiers in Service Conference, New York, USA
• Gahler, M., Paul, M., & Klein, J. F. (2017): How to Measure the Customer Experience along the Customer Journey, 39th ISMS Marketing Science Conference, Los Angeles, USA