Master Marketing Etudes

Consumer Behaviour

Attention ! Ce cours passionnant sur les comportements de consommation nécessite d’importantes lectures à faire AVANT le début du cours.

Responsable du cours : a.o.P. Andrea HEMETSBERGER

Professor’s web page

Course Objectives

Each of us is a consumer and constantly deciding among many market offers. Every day we are confronted with purchasing decisions, which are usually made habitually but sometimes need extensive information search and considerable thinking. How do we make purchase decisions ? Why do we make these decisions ? How do we acquire, use, and dispose of objects ?

This course is designed to introduce well-established and new theories in Consumer Research and to help participants applying these theories for market research and decision-making in the area of marketing management.

By the end of the class, participants shall have understood how and why consumers process information, make decisions, construct meaning and create social systems around consumption symbols and branded goods. You will be able to critically reflect on theories and research methods, and confront it with empirical reality. Actively participating in this class shall result in gaining profound theoretical and empirical knowledge of theories in consumer behavior with a focus on social psychology and market research methods.

Philosophy and Format

The course is organized in five sessions that address the following objectives :

This course uses the active learning model in which all participants are active participants. It is based on the idea of involved, explorative learning in an open class environment. It deploys a mixture of lectures, presentations, debates, group work, discussions, and performances. Every participant is requested to do some prior reading before class, reflect on the main takeaways and come up with examples in his/her own domain. Students will present their assignments, ideas, summaries, group works, etc. in an open and supportive atmosphere secure from unfair behaviors.

As learning is understood as a process of joint discovery, our individual knowledge, our experiences, and reflections on the literature help to shape and expand our understanding of the particular subject area.

Assignments and Evaluation

In order to get out most of this consumer behavior course, you are asked to 1) participate in class, 2) develop a group topic assignment, 3) prepare and present an individual reflection of the key takeaways at the end of the course. In detail :

1. Class Participation

Each session requires careful prior reading of the literature and the preparation of group tasks. Class participation builds on these readings and is critical to your own and to your colleagues’ learning progress. In evaluating class participation quality will be emphasized more than the quantity of your contributions. Class participation will be based on self-evaluation, and on the lecturers’ assessments.

Attendance is both expected and considered necessary to adequate completion of the course. I accept absences of up to 1 class. Excuses are neither required, nor appreciated ; I count on your sense of responsibility. Absences of more than 1 class will result in a negative course evaluation.

For class participation I will apply the following grading scheme :
— 0 = no class contribution, or absent
— 1 = active contribution in group, no participation in plenary discussions
— 2 = active participation in plenary discussions
— 3 = active participation with valuable comments and critical reflection

2. Group Assignment

You will be asked to prepare a paper and a group presentation designed to inform our class with practical and theoretical insights that move beyond the readings for in-class discussion. You will choose one out of the assignments listed below, prepare a paper, and develop your own presentation format. These formats may include a multi-media case study presentation, an online working session, an oral presentation, a moderated discussion round, a short video and/or photo presentation, or a role play. Choose your own creative approach !

This group work demands thorough literature review. Your group must turn in a progress report. This report should summarize your plan of attack for the group work and provide a tentative outline. Please send your progress report no later than November 26th to andrea.hemetsberger@uibk.ac.at

All work must be typed and handed in on the day of the presentation, and presented on the assigned day. Paper should not exceed 15 pages, and include a cover page, a table of contents, the body of the paper, and a full list of cited work. Presentations will vary in format and style but should not exceed 20 minutes.

Form 5 groups of 6. The group work will be assigned to you according to your priorities prior to the course. If two or more groups choose the same topic, the supervisor is entitled to assign the topics to groups.

Group assignment 1 : The perfect sensation

Read the case study Singapore Airlines. Make a thorough secondary research about SIA’s service-oriented and sensory-based experiential strategy. Include also the dimensions time and space in your theoretical reflections. Put particular emphasis on the relation among the various sensations that SIA provides. How do they fit together and how do they combine to an experience that is more than the sum of its parts ?

Group assignment 2 : “I love my [choose your own brand] – a passionate excerpt from your diary

Write a diary about your relationship with your favorite brand. What feelings and emotions does it evoke ? How did this relationship evolve ? How do you proactively sustain this relationship ? What does the brand do for you ? Think about the antecedents and reasons for such a strong emotional bond between objects/brands and consumers. Present your findings of this in-depth introspection.

Group assignment 3 : Nostalgic narratives of parents and grandparents

Parents and grandparents are nostalgic about many things regarding their youth. Ask them about their most valued brand memorabilia and how they are connected certain situations/contexts/ experiences. Apply a narrative approach of interviewing meaning that you should ask them to tell a story around their memorabilia. Analyze why and in what way these memories/stories give meaning to the brands or objects in question.

Group assignment 4 : An empirical study on the image of [choose your favorite band or singer]

Prepare a short questionnaire and ask people about the image of the singer/band in question. Collect 5 interviews each ; analyze and present the findings. Explain what an image is ; how to do fieldwork ; how to analyze and report the findings.

Group assignment 5 : ‘You are what you buy’ ?

What’s in your shopping baskets ? Explain what the products mean to you. Why and how did you decide to buy them ? What are the motivational and decision-making processes involved ? Describe your experiences and relate them to theories of decision making. Make sure that you cover cognitive as well as emotional/hedonic processes of purchase decision making and usage.

3. Final Individual Reflection

As a final assignment and summary of the course you will be asked to prepare and present an individual reflection of what you have learned. Your presentation shall summarize and discuss the major takeaways from this course and apply your knowledge to a freely chosen brand. Prepare a paper not more than 5 pages in length. Note that your final reflection should be more than a summary of the course contents. You need to include a substantial discussion part based on critical reflection.

I will not accept sheer course summaries. Please submit your final reflection by email and no later than December 22nd.

Overall Course Evaluation

A positive evaluation of the course requires a positive evaluation of all assignments. A total of 60% is required for the entire course and for every single assignment. Overall grading will be based on the following scheme :
 Group Assignment : 50%
 Class participation : 25%
 Final Reflection : 25%

Literature, Writing, and Referencing

Academic writing and referencing follows particular and strict rules. Please refer to the following Internet page for guides and useful tips for good writing : http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocGeneral.html. When you draw on the work of others, you must give proper credit. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.

You will find the assigned literature in the course pack. Additionally, you are encouraged to visit the library on a regular basis. The library provides a wide range of Journals of which many are relevant for this course, and deserve your attention. The following Journals are worth browsing for interesting articles : Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review for managerial articles and practical examples. The Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and the Journal of Business Research, for instance, provide top tier sources for your literature reviews. Other sources that include relevant articles are also welcome. Please make an inquiry into electronic journal databases, such as Business Source Premier, www.sciencedirect.com, or similar online search facilities.

Schedule and Topics

Reading Assignments

As a textbook we will use

Solomon, Michael, Bamossy, Gary, Askegaard, Søren and Margaret K. Hogg (2006), Consumer Behaviour – A European Perspective, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall,

which I encourage you to buy for this course as well as for future reference.

Additional readings

To obtain the articles, please connect to the private part of the website.

— 1. Gröppel-Klein, Andrea, Domke, Anja and Benedikt Bartmann (2006), “Pretty Woman or Erin Brockovich ? Unconscious and Conscious Reactions to Commercials and Movies Shaped by Fairy Tale Archetypes–Results from Two Experimental Studies,” Advances in Consumer Research, 33, 163-174.
— 2. Lindstrom, Martin (2005), “Broad Sensory Branding,” Journal of Product & Brand Management, 14 (2), 84-87.
— 3. Braun-LaTour, Kathryn A., LaTour, Michael S. and George M. Zinkhan (2007), „Using Childhood Memories to Gain Insight into Brand Meaning,” Journal of Marketing, 71 (April), 45-60.
— 4. Brown, Stephen, Sherry Jr., John F. and Robert V. Kozinets (2003), “Teaching Old Brands New Tricks : Retro Branding and the Revival of Brand Meaning,” Journal of Marketing, 67 (3), 19-33.
— 5. Zaichkowsky, Judith L. (1985), “Measuring the Involvement Construct,” Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (December), 341-352.
— 6 Olson, Jerry, Waltersdorff, Kristin and James Forr (2008), “Incorporating Deep Customer Insights in the Innovation Process,” in : H. Hinterhuber and K. Matzler (eds.), Kundenorientierte Unternehmensführung, 6. Auflage, forthcoming.
— 7. Pichler, Elisabeth A. and Andrea Hemetsberger (2008), “Driven by Devotion – How Consumers Interact with their Objects of Devotion,” in A. Y. Lee and D. Soman (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, 35, forthcoming.
— 8. Belk, Russel W. (1988), “Possessions and the Extended Self,” Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (September), 139-153.
— 9. Mittal, Banwari (2006), “I, Me, and Mine – How Products Become Consumers’ Extended Selves,” Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 5 (November/December), 550-562.
— 10. Holbrook, Morris B. and Elizabeth C. Hirschman (1982), “The Experiential Aspects of Consumption : Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun,” Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (2), 132-140.
— 11 Gladwell, Malcolm (1997), “The Coolhunt,” in The Consumer Society Reader, Juliet B. Schor and Douglas B. Holt (eds.), New York : New Press, 360-374.

(Master Marketing Paris Dauphine- 2008)