GRA 2418 Understanding the Consumer
GRA 2418 Understanding the Consumer
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This course is designed to expose students to the research work of the marketing faculty and other issues and research streams that comprise the field of consumer behavior. The course is article based, with selections from some of the most well-known and respected journals covering marketing issues.
Students will learn how to critically analyze consumer behavior research, by uncovering the weaknesses and limitations of existing literature, and determining how further research might address existing knowledge gaps on the topics.
The course will expose students to various consumer behavior topics and research methods that might be applied to the development of their theses.
The design of the course is meant to encourage discussion of the issues, theories and methods that are used and tested in the study of consumer behavior. While topics for this course can change from year to year depending on the research currently being done in the marketing department and other factors, some examples of past topics include the discussion of:
- Branding - alternative means of measuring the impact of brand knowledge on behavior
- Culture - how do cultures differ in terms of reactions to humor, materialism, pressure to conform?
- Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty - alternative definitions and measures, do loyalty programmes work?
- Internet - impact of Internet as a source of product information, Electronic Word of Mouth, as a sales channel, and a marketing research tool
- Risk - objective versus subjective risk and its impact on behavior
- Sources of Deviant Consumption Behavior - can we get people to stop smoking, taking drugs, etc?
- Sponsorship Effects Measurement - how do firms know they are getting what they paid for?
- Market Orientation - how do you get an entire organization to focus on customers and competition?
- Cause Related Marketing - marketing good things for society while promoting your own firm
Each session of the course will offer discussion and critical review of the latest research on important and emerging issues in marketing. Students are expected to be well prepared for each discussion by reading the assigned article list. Students will also be responsible for developing a research design paper on a topic of their choosing which may also prove to be an excellent way to develop a thesis topic. This research design will also be the basis for a short student presentation to the class, where feedback from the instructor and classmates can help in improving the final paper.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on itslearning or text book.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course start.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
| Assessments |
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Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Class participation Weight: 30 Grouping: Individual Exam code: GRA24181 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 50 Grouping: Group (2 - 3) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Research Proposal Paper Exam code: GRA24181 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Presentation Weight: 20 Grouping: Group (2 - 3) Comment: Proposal presentation Exam code: GRA24181 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.