The course will be administered in a distance-learning format in any case, meaning that all learning and teaching activities will take place online.

Consumer Psychology:

This course provides an overview of the psychology of consumer decision making in marketing contexts, drawing on concepts and theories from marketing, psychology, and behavioural economics. The psychological knowledge will be applied to practical examples of marketing problems, allowing students to gain insights into how consumer psychology can be applied in the real world, online as well as offline. The main goals of this module are to develop basic knowledge of different areas of consumer psychology, and to understand how insights from these areas can be utilised in marketing settings.

Course format:
This course will be administered in a distance-learning format, meaning that all learning and teaching activities will take place online.

Attendance:
Attendance will be checked based on the completion of tasks and exercises (see "consumer psychology in practice" below) that have to be completed in each unit. To be marked as "present" for a unit, the lecture recording has to be watched and all tasks and exercises for the respective unit have to be completed. At least 80% of all units have to be "attended" in order to successfully complete this course.

Asynchronous:
The following activities will take place asynchronously (i.e. there will be a time frame of a few days in which the following activities can be completed).
Each unit will comprise two parts:

1. Lecture: Lecture recordings on relevant theories and concepts around a topic.
2. "Consumer psychology in practice": Each unit comprises tasks and exercises aimed at understanding how the theories and concepts covered in the respective lecture can be applied in marketing contexts. The exercises comprise online quizzes, discussions, group works, and individual tasks (e.g. find examples of how a certain theory has been applied in practice).

For each unit, a reading list will  be provided with a variety of literature recommendations that can help deepening understanding of a topic.

Synchronous:
The following activities will take place in synchronous formats (i.e. there is a set time for these activities).

• Q&A sessions: Optional web conferences to discuss questions will be scheduled regularly, based on the availability of students interested in attending the sessions.
• Guest lecture: An interactive online guest lecture will take place in the week of unit 3.
• Final exam
• Lecture for unit 1

Grading scheme:
The grading scheme is structured as follows:

• Fail: less than 60 points
• Sufficient: 60 points or more
• Satisfactory: 70 points or more
• Good: 80 points or more
• Excellent: 90 points or more

The following number of points can be achieved with each of the performance components:

• Final exam: 64 points
• Case study: 10 points
• Podcast summary: 10 points
• "Consumer psychology in practice" exercises: 16 points

Performance components:

• Exam: The exam consists of two parts. The first part (40 points) is a 45-minutes exam that takes place synchronously online and consists of short open questions and some single- and multiple-choice questions. The second part (24 points) is one open-book question that should be answered drawing on literature from the reading lists. You will receive a selection of questions to choose from on December 17 and have to submit the open-book question on the day of the exam.
• Case study: Students will work in groups on a case study that require students to apply theoretical knowledge in practically-oriented contexts.
• Podcast summary: For each unit, one or more podcast episodes related to the covered topics will be recommended. You can choose one episode and summarise the topic covered in the episode on max. 3 presentation slides. Each recommendation comes with one or more questions which have to be answered in the presentation. The presentation can either be explained by adding text comments or by adding audio comments and submitting it as a video file.
• "Consumer psychology in practice" exercises: After each lecture, exercises relating to the application of theories etc. covered in the respective unit will be administered online.

Students can earn up to 3 bonus points if they voluntarily participate in a research study series at the Department of Marketing. The studies usually take place in the lab facilities on campus and take up to 60 minutes to complete.