3.0

Average Course Rating

This course will explore how and why consumers make choices in the marketplace--the "buy-ology" of their behavior. We will learn the psychological, social, anthropological, and economic underpinnings of consumer behavior as well as the brain chemistry that affects choices in the marketplace. Students will learn how consumer behavior can and is influenced and the sometimes-unintended consequences of marketing campaigns designed to produce a particular behavior. Students will analyze how consumers solve problems, assess tradeoffs and make choices; how they integrate and react to retail surroundings, smells, product displays, brand, pricing strategies, social pressures, market structures and a myriad of other influences and motivations to buy. Students will also explore how marketers incorporate what is known about consumer behavior into advertising and promotional campaigns, market segmentation and positioning, pricing strategies and new product introductions. Student experiential projects will include ethnographic observations and analyses of real-world consumer behavior. No audits.