About The Yaffe Center: Yaffe Center
From The Yaffe Center
The Yaffe Center Mission
Persuasion is an essential skill, whether we are lawyers, politicians, doctors, marketers, advertisers, CEOs or parents. Every day, we need to craft persuasive communications: identifying message areas to address, gaining credibility, and organizing and presenting compelling arguments in an emotionally resonant way.
The Yaffe Center aims to address the teaching of these skills, to benefit students and alumni of the Ross School of Business, the University of Michigan, managers and other professionals and the broader community:
To lead in the research and teaching of contemporary issues in persuasive communication, including content and new media, to judge which means are appropriate and effective To integrate and synthesize the domains of knowledge about persuasion across interdisciplinary boundaries To develop programs and teaching materials that integrate art, business, design and engineering, especially graphic and industrial design To lead in the discovery, synthesis and dissemination of these newer and interdisciplinary and design-leveraging skills of persuasive communication: that is the vision for The Yaffe Center. History of The Yaffe Center
When Fred Yaffe came to the University in January 1996, he saw an opportunity to create a center focused on state-of-the-art advertising, particularly issues in contemporary communication.
In his businesses, Mr. Yaffe looks for people who can work in multi-disciplinary teams, who are up to date in the latest means of persuasive communications. He is Chairman and CEO of The Yaffe Group, a Michigan-based firm offering advertising and promotion, brand consulting and creative services.
The University is also interested in helping our students – future communications professionals, clients and consumers – polish their communication skills and learn to adapt quickly to the rapid changes affecting every kind of persuasive media.
The Yaffe Center helps teach the realities of business practice that emerging professionals face, supplying real-world knowledge and skills that are critical to prepare for their future.
The Ross School of Business and the University of Michigan, with generous support from The Yaffe Group, is studying persuasive communication in all its forms. The Yaffe Center, through a core interdisciplinary team of researchers and students, is gathering information and insights from the academic and professional communities.
