MARK 320: Consumer Behaviour - University of Alberta

MARK 320: Consumer Behaviour

Lectures and Meetings

 Asynchronous lectures (watch at your own pace)

 Optional Q&A’s on Zoom, Tues & Thurs:

o Section A1 from 9:30 – 10:50 AM.

o Section A2 from 2 – 3:20 PM.

Professor

Dr. Noah Castelo, PhD 3-20J Business Building [email protected] 1-587-991-7326

I respectfully acknowledge that we are situated on Treaty 6 territory, traditional lands of First Nations and Métis people.

It is my intent that students from all backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course and that the unique experiences students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength, and benefit. It is my intent to deliver a course that is respectful of and celebrates diversity: gender, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, immigration status, religion, and culture.

I will also do my best to be as flexible and accommodating as possible throughout the course, recognizing that many students may have challenging circumstances due to the ongoing public health crisis. Online delivery is new to all of us, so I also ask for your flexibility and patience as we all do our best to make this a positive and valuable learning experience. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns or comments at any time.

This course centers on perhaps the most complex aspect of marketing: the consumer.

Studying consumer behavior involves asking—and answering—the fundamental question of why people do the things they do. It enhances understanding of the cognitive, emotional, and social factors that influences consumer behavior.

In this course, you will gain an understanding of the psychological foundations of consumer behavior. You will also explore how these foundational concepts apply to the “digital world”

inhabited by modern consumers—one defined by the interaction of “new” technologies with

“old” psychological processes. The digital world is constantly evolving and thinking about how technology and psychology interact can provide important and timely insights into consumer behavior.

Finally, because you are (probably) human, principles from this class may also yield insight into your own beliefs, experiences, and decisions. Psychology, the core of consumer behavior, can help us to dissect our own experiences and subject our beliefs to the scrutiny of science. This also means that the course concepts apply beyond purely “consumption” behavior into other domains of human behavior as well.

Class schedule

This class will be delivered remotely. Lectures will be pre-recorded so that you can watch them at your convenience. Some of the lectures will be in the form of professionally animated videos;

others will be more typical PowerPoint presentations with video and audio narration. We will meet during class time on Zoom for optional Q&A and discussion (attendance is not mandatory for these sessions).

I will also hold additional Zoom office hours on Wednesdays from 11 AM until noon. You can use this time to ask any questions you might have about the course, the group project, quizzes, readings, or any other topics that I might be able to help with such as learning more about consumer behavior-related careers and graduate school.

A detailed schedule follows at the end of the syllabus.

Course Materials

I will post the readings on eClass at the beginning of the semester. They will be a combination of academic papers, mainstream media, and videos relevant to the class material.

There is no assigned textbook for this class. If you want one, Soloman, White, and Dahl’s Consumer Behavior is a good Canadian option available in the University library.

Lectures will be posted on eClass as soon as possible, and by the Monday of their assigned week at the latest. I will try to upload most of them early in the semester in case you want to watch them early. Announcements and updates to the syllabus will also be posted on eClass.

Grading overview

Post-lecture summaries 5%

Laddering and value map activity 5%

Quiz 1 10%

Quiz 2 10%

Quiz 3 10%

Midterm group project report 15%

Group project presentation 20%

Group project write up 20%

Individual contribution 5%

Letter grades will be assigned at the end of the semester. Final letter grades will be determined by absolute performance as well as by your performance relative to the rest of the class.

Post-lecture summaries (5%)

After watching each pre-recorded lecture, you will be asked to summarize what you learned in your own words, in as much detail as you can remember (at least 200 words). Research in the psychology of learning has shown that this is an effective way to increase understanding and memory of information.¹ You won’t be graded on the content of these summaries, just on their completion. Completing all of them will give you the full 5%. Each missing summary will subtract 1% from your final grade.

Laddering and hierarchical value map (5%)

You will conduct 2 laddering interviews and create a hierarchical value map to help you brainstorm ideas for the group project. More details will be posted on eClass.

Quizzes (30%)

There will be three quizzes, comprised of multiple choice and short answer questions. Each is worth 10% of the final grade. Quizzes will be held on eClass during class hours. Quizzes are not cumulative. Quizzes will cover the material discussed in class and in the readings.

If you encounter any problems during a quiz, you can contact the professor by email

([email protected]) or phone (587 991 7326), or you may contact the IST helpdesk for computer problems (780 492 9400), or eClass support for problems with eClass (780 492 9372).

More tips for remote quizzes are available here:

https://support.ctl.ualberta.ca/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/371/10/quiz-tools-for- students

There will not be make-up quizzes and quizzes cannot be taken early. If you miss a quiz with no valid exclude, you will receive 0 for that quiz. If you miss one quiz with a valid excuse (such as illness or other unavoidable circumstances), the weight of the two other quizzes will be 15% each.

If you miss two quizzes, the weight of the one other quiz will be 30%.

Group Project (60%, split into 4 separate components)

You will complete a project in groups of 4-6. You will be able to form your own groups if you want during the first week of class; after that point I will form groups based on shared interests. This year we are fortunate to be working with Riipen, a service that connects business students with companies to work on real-world consulting projects. This means that your group project will be to actually work with a company or non-profit organization on an applied consumer behavior

1 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/331/6018/772

challenge that they are currently facing. These challenges will mostly have to do with improving marketing strategies.

You will be able to choose from 1 of 5 organizations to work with. I have selected these

organizations to represent a range of industries and all of their challenges are highly relevant to consumer behavior and marketing more broadly. Throughout the semester, you will receive guidance from both the company and from me as you analyze and prepare recommendations for the company’s challenge.

You will be expected to apply the concepts, theories, and methods learned in class, as well as to conduct additional research as needed to best address the organization’s challenge. This experience will give you valuable real-world work experience that ties directly to the content learned in class.

There are four components to this project. First, your group will present a midterm progress report on Zoom (15% of final grade). This will cover the initial framing of the challenge and plans for the rest of the project. Each presentation should last about 10 minutes. All students are expected to attend these presentations; representatives from the organization may attend as well.

Second, your group will submit a written report summarizing how you addressed the challenge at the end of the semester, in no more than 10 single-spaced pages (20% of final grade).

Third, your group will present the high-level methods and results of your project on Zoom at the end of the semester (20% of final grade). Each presentation should last about 15–20 minutes. All students and organization representatives are expected to attend.

Fourth, your own group members will evaluate your individual contribution to the project (5%

of final grade).

I will post information about the organizations by the end of August and ask that you send me your preferences by September 4. I suggest spending at least 2 hours per week, per group member, working on this project throughout the semester, to ensure high-quality deliverables.

Group project grading

Your grade will be based on your midterm progress report, the written summary, the content of your slide deck, your presentation, and your individual contribution. I will evaluate the content of the written summary and the slide deck. This evaluation will take into account how in-depth is the research and analysis, how well it applies course concepts, and how well it is

communicated to the reader. The presentation will be evaluated both by me and your classmates. Finally, your group members will evaluate each other on how much each person contributed to the group. More detailed grading rubrics will be provided later in the semester.

Academic integrity

The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are urged to familiarize themselves with the Code of Student Behaviour (http://www.governance.ualberta.ca/) and avoid any behaviour which could result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.

Course Content Organization

The course topics are organized into three sections:

Inside the black box

First, we will focus on understanding what goes on inside consumers’ heads (also known as the

“black box”). We will learn about basic psychological processes such as attention, motivation, learning, and memory, and see how these concepts apply in the marketplace. We will also examine the decision-making processes that consumers use for different kinds of purchases.

Outside the black box

Once we understand what goes on inside people’s heads, we will examine external influences on consumer behavior, including social influence, situational influence, and cultural influence.

New & Notable

Finally, we will cover some “extras” on new and notable consumer behaviour topics, mostly focused on digital technologies.

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DETAILED SCHEDULE

Note: You can watch the lectures any time; the dates provided are just suggestions.

Quizzes and presentations will be held remotely during class time.

Topic Readings

Sep 1 Intro & Research Methods Building a Culture of Experimentation

Sep 3 Exposure and Attention

Watch TED talk on the attention economy:

https://bit.ly/2wZRg1x Visit http://www.their.tube/

Sep 8 Perception What Placebo Science Shows About the Importance of Marketing

Sep 10 Motivation Using laddering to understand and leverage a brand's equity

Sep 15 Laddering and Value Map Activity

You can use this time to conduct your interviews and work on the map.

Sep 17 Learning

Sep 22 Memory The Seven Sins of Memory and Their Implications for Advertising

Sep 24 Quiz #1

Sep 29 Attitudes

Oct 1 Attitude Change and Persuasion

Oct 6 Decision Making Part 1 Thinking, Fast and Slow (Chapters 1–3) Oct 8 Decision Making Part 2

Oct 13 Mid-term project report presentations

Oct 15 Emotion

Oct 20 Quiz #2

Oct 22 Social Influence Nudge (Chapter 3)

Oct 27 Situational Influence & Choice Architecture

Oct 29 How Things Spread Contagious: Why Things Catch On (Introduction)

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Watch TED talk on viral content:

https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_allocca_why_v ideos_go_viral

Nov 3 Culture

Nov 5 Targeting & Psychographics

How companies learn your secrets The data that turned the world upside down Optional reading: Psychological targeting as an effective

approach to digital mass persuasion Nov 10

Reading week Nov 12

Nov 17 Artificial Intelligence

The AI Revolution, Part 1 (https://bit.ly/2ty9KHI) Optional reading: The AI Revolution, Part 2

(https://bit.ly/2v2K9EN)

Nov 19 Happiness

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right

Optional reading: Money Buys Happiness When Spending Fits Our Personality

Nov 24 Quiz #3

Nov 26 Group project time

Dec 1

Dec 3

*This schedule is subject to change; I will provide updated versions on eClass if needed.