CONSUMER BEHAVIOR B70.2347.20 Spring 2009 New York University – Stern School of Business Professor Tom Meyvis Consumer Behavior Office: Tisch 8-15 Monday/Wednesday 3:00-4:20 Phone: (212) 998 0529 Room: KMC 2-80 E-Mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Monday/Wednesday: 4:30-6:00, and by appointment *Note: E-mail is the best way to contact me outside of class. I check and respond to e-mail daily. Course Goals We are all consumers. We buy groceries, computers, and cars. We purchase services ranging from bank accounts to college educations. However, we also know that consumers are different from one another. We buy different clothes, drive different cars, and eat different foods. Moreover, even the same consumer can make different decisions depending on the situation. So how are we to construct coherent marketing strategies? In this class we will examine how and why consumers behave the way that they do. We will explore our intuitions about our own behavior. We will use theories developed in marketing, psychology, and other behavioral sciences to predict how consumers will respond to different marketing activities. The goals of this class are: - to acquire a framework for analyzing consumer behavior problems - to learn how consumer behavior can be affected by different marketing strategies - to show how behavioral evidence can be used to evaluate alternative marketing strategies - to develop a deeper understanding of consumer behavior by learning about relevant psychological and sociological theories - to acquire experience in applying these theories to real-world consumer behavior problemsCourse Resources Case & Article Packet (Required, available at the NYU Professional Bookstore) Harvard Business School Cases: - L’Oreal of Paris: Bringing “Class to Mass” with Plenitude (9-598-056) - Boston Beer Company: Light Beer Decision (9-899-058) - Claiborne Asks Web Surfers to Name New Line (9-500-055) - TiVo in 2002 (9-502-062) - Xerox Corporation: The Customer Satisfaction Program (9-591-055) - Inside Intel Inside (9-502-083) - Sony AIBO: The World's First Entertainment Robot (9-502-010) - The Birth of the Swatch (5-505-010) Harvard Business School Articles: - Analyzing Consumer Perceptions (9-599-110) - Companies and the Customers Who Hate Them (Harvard Business Review) - The Right Way to Manage Unprofitable Customers (Harvard Business Review) Kellogg Case - Gillette Fusion: Building a $1 Billion Brand (Case 0841) IMD Case - Medi-Cult: Pricing a Radical Innovation (IMD044) Tuck School of Business Case - Social Media and the Burger King Brand (Case #6-0025) Textbook There is no textbook for this class. I do recommend the following book as interesting background reading: Consumer Behavior and Managerial Decision Making (2nd edition), by Frank R. Kardes, Prentice Hall Readings & Assignments Additional journal articles, exercises, and recent news from the popular business press will be provided throughout the semester. The journal articles will provide you with a deeper insight into selected topics and methods of consumer behavior research. The business news articles, cases, and exercises will give you the opportunity to apply the textbook’s conceptual framework to current real-world marketing problems. The readings and assignments will be handed out in class and/or posted on the class website.Course Website http://sternnewclasses.nyu.edu This website has many useful things on it, including continuously updated information on case assignments, readings, course schedule, etc. Please check regularly. Class Notes The PowerPoint slides for each class will be available for downloading from the website and will be handed out at the start of class. Note, however, that these slides only present a (detailed) outline of the class discussion. You will still need to take additional notes to fully capture the material discussed in class. Additional Literature You can find additional literature (e.g., for your team project) using the Stern Virtual Business Library (http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/vbl/), as well as links on the class website. Grading Your evaluation will be based on a final exam, case study preparations, a group project, and your class participation: Case Preparations: 20% Group Project: 25% Midterm Exam: 20% Final Exam: 20% Class Participation: 15% Case Preparations 20% You will be asked to prepare 9 cases for class discussion. To make sure that you have read and thought about the cases in advance, I will ask everyone to upload a 2 page preparation sheet on Blackboard by 7 pm the day before we discuss the case in class. Your best 8 case preps will each contribute 2.5% towards your final grade. For more information on the case preparations, please see the separate handout. Group Project 25% A significant portion of your course grade will be determined by a team project. You will be required to select a particular marketing phenomenon, propose and carry out a study to examine this problem, and discuss your findings. I will provide more information on the group project in a separate document.The grade for the group project (25%) will be determined as follows: Part I (problem description and literature review) 7 % Part II (research design, results, and discussion) 7 % Presentation 4 % Individual contributions 7 % Midterm Exam 20% The midterm exam will be based on the lectures, class discussions, and assigned readings and case studies. The exam will include multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. The midterm exam is optional. There will be no makeup exam. If you don’t take the midterm exam, the final exam will be cumulative and count for 40% of your course grade. Final Exam 20% The final exam is not cumulative, unless you’ve not taken the midterm exam (in which case it is cumulative and counts for 40% of your course grade). The exam will consist of multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. All students who do not attend the final exam and who do not have a prior agreement with me will receive a zero for the exam grade. Class Participation 15% Attending the classes is not optional. Attending class will substantially increase your understanding of the assigned readings and provide you with insight into issues beyond those covered in the readings. It will also give you the opportunity to actively participate in class discussions