Consumer Behaviour

Description

The success of any business—and by extension, the broader economy and society—ultimately depends on the ability of firms to acquire and retain customers. This course is designed to help business students develop the mindset and capabilities required to build profitable and lasting customer relationships. We take an interdisciplinary approach to consumer behavior, integrating key frameworks, tools, and insights from psychology, economics, and data science. Throughout the course, we will examine decision-making from three perspectives: The customer perspective: How do individuals make choices, and what enables them to make better decisions for their own welfare? The company perspective: How can companies attract and retain customers in ways that are both profitable and sustainable? The societal perspective: What can policymakers do to shape markets and consumer behavior in ways that promote long-term societal well-being? By exploring the interplay between these perspectives, students will gain a deeper understanding of what drives consumer behavior and how to translate that understanding into effective business strategies. The course will build on scientific research in the area of consumer behavior. We will discuss studies aimed at understanding why consumers think, feel, and act as they do in the marketplace—and how this understanding can be applied to real-world business challenges. Course material will consist of slides based on articles from leading academic journals (such as Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing Research) as well as managerial publications (such as Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review). Topics include: attention, motivation and goals, emotions, customer-based brand equity, heuristics and biases, choice architecture, customer satisfaction, experimental design, and more. Ethics, Responsability, and Sustainabilty: By the end of the course, students will understand the broader social impact of marketing, beyond its economic effects. Based on scientific research in consumer behaviour, students will analyze the role of marketing in trends like overconsumption and materialism, and evaluate the ethicality of marketing practices across sectors. They will learn to design sustainable marketing strategies that account for long-term value creation and the wellbeing of all stakeholders, including future generations. Finally, students will be encouraged to critically reflect on their own consumption behavior and responsibility as future marketers.