![]() |
Type: |
OP | Curs: |
1 | Period: |
S semester |
ECTS Credits: |
3 ECTS |
Group | Teacher | Department | Language |
---|---|---|---|
Bart De Langhe | Marketing | ENG |
1. From the illusion of knowledge to the creation of kowledge¿Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.¿ (Mark Twain)Business fundamentally relies on knowledge creation. Unfortunately, people suffer from an illusion of explanatory depth, believing they understand complex phenomena in much more depth than they actually do, and this illusion hinders learning. Managerial intuitions about consumer behavior tend to be strong, but they are often wrong. The first step toward understanding and influencing the minds of consumers is to know what you do not know. We will then lay out the building blocks for knowledge creation about consumer behavior. We will discuss the value of observation, surveys, and highlight the special importance of business experiments for testing managers¿ intuitive hypotheses about consumers. |
2. From homo economicus to homo sapiensFirms provide products and services to consumers in exchange for money. Company profits can thus be seen as the result of a negotiation process between the firm and the consumer. If firms want to maximize the outcome of this negotiation process managers need to act in an economically rational way. We will discuss foundational theories from economics that prescribe how rational agents should behave.Consumer behavior is often inconsistent with prescriptions from economics. But irrational is not the same as unpredictable. To better describe how consumers actually behave, we will augment economic models with insights from psychology. The ability to recognize irrationality in your own behavior and that of others can help you maximize firm profitability. |
3. Social influence"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." (Jim Rohn)The success of products is not only driven by intrinsic product attributes, but also by the influence people have on one another. Yet, basic social influence is often underestimated. Consumers desperately want to be seen in a positive light and try to manage the impression they have on others. We will introduce a few principles that allow marketers and salespeople to use consumers¿ tendency to engage in impression management to their advantage, and increase the likelihood of getting a ¿yes¿ from consumers. Social media are turning standard communication approaches upside down. We will analyze how messages spread through social networks and discuss how firms can leverage insights from social psychology to influence the diffusion process. |
4. Satisfaction"In my lifetime, the changes in the world have been incredible. Now we live in an amazing, amazing world and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of just spoiled idiots that don't care." (Louis C.K.)Most businesses believe customer satisfaction is a very useful metric to keep track of firm performance. It is the most commonly used metric in marketing, just behind net profit, percent margin, and return on investment. In this session, we will analyze the relationship between product performance, customer satisfaction, and firm profitability. The relationship seems obvious, at first blush, but we will see that the pattern is much more complex and requires an understanding of the psychological drivers of consumption and satisfaction. |
Group | Teacher | Department |
---|---|---|
Bart De Langhe | Marketing |