Successful management requires a thorough understanding of market and consumer responses. This course emphasizes the behavioral principles of customer decision making which are driving the relationships between customers and competing companies in a variety of markets. This course intends to develop in-depth knowledge for the assessment of opportunities and threats and for making well-grounded predictions of market outcomes.
In particular, our course will cover the following modules:
- Recap and introduction to marketing strategy
- Basic theories, terms and concepts of market orientation and behavioral decision theory
- The irrational customer:
- Positioning and the competitive set: Individual products, assortments and timing strategies
- Positioning and market communication: Differentiation and market response, product presentation strategies
- The digital customer:
- Social contagion theory and virality of digital content
- Choice overload and recommendation engines
- The ethical customer:
- Positioning based on emotions: Demand for ethical attributes and the influence of ethical cues
- Decision conflicts and the role of ethical attributes along the customer decision journey
The course will be based on marketing articles in leading academic journals, case studies and several guest lectures from marketing practice.