Consumer Research in Marketing
Introduction Session - 29/10
November 29: decide what topic you want to explore;
- neuromarketing experiment or;
- social media listening exercise
Intended learning outcomes
- Understand fundamentals of consumer research and its methods
- Recognize conditions and contexts for applying these different methods
- Discuss contemporary and technological developments (e.g., neuromarketing)
- Develop and present an executable research proposal for a real-world marketing
problem Intended learning outcomes
Course organization
- Lecture: knowledge clips and six Q&A sessions
- Interactive seminar: two-hours; application of literature, interactive exercises, project
presentations
- 6 seminars in total, on campus
- Preparation requirements, slides and links to relevant readings will be provided on
Canvas (http://canvas.uva.nl)
Quizzes
- In weeks 2, 4, & 6
- Content: weekly readings, open-book
- Goal: to get you to engage with the weekly readings
- Published on Fridays, 10:00, to be completed before the seminars the following week
- 10 questions each, each worth 2 points (60 points in total)
- 30 minutes (3 minutes per question), only one attempt
- 10 % of grade
Written Digital Exam
- 50% of the grade
- Open-ended (essay) questions, applied knowledge
- Knowledge clips, readings and discussions
- Minimum grade of 5.5 required to pass the course
- Failing implies participation in the resit (same format)
- Most recent exam grade counts, not the highest
- In case of a resit, already obtained grades remain valid throughout the academic
year
→ More info will follow in week 6
Group Assignment
- Groups of 3-4 (formed before first seminar) will work on a research proposal
- Topic 1: Responsible Consumption
- Topic 2: Consumer Misinformation & Disinformation
, - Components:
- a) Problem identification/literature research (5 sources minimum)
- b) Research question & hypothesis development (additional 10 sources
minimum)
- c) Research methodology & methods (2 appropriate research methods)
- d) Managerial and theoretical implications
- Evaluation criteria and further details in course manual
- Minimum grade of 5.5 required to pass the course
(1) Interim pitch presentation
- Pitch initial idea (a+b)
- 7 minutes
- Present in seminar
→ Friday, November 15, 2024
(2) Final presentation
- Complete proposal (a-d)
- 12 minutes
- Present in seminar
→ Friday, December 6, 2024
Disinformation: misleading on purpose, giving the wrong information purposefully
Misinformation: giving the wrong information accidentally, no wrong intention
,Week 1 - Knowledge Clips
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
What is reality? Knowledge? The meaning of life?
2400 years ago Plato said, life is like being chained up in a cave forced to watch shadows
flitting across a stone wall. → Allegory of the Cave, founded in book VII of The Republic
where Plato envisioned the ideal society by examining concepts like, justice, truth and
beauty.
In the allegory, prisoners have been confined in a cavern since birth, with no knowledge of
the outside world, facing a wall, while fire behind them gives light, occasionally people pass
by a fire carrying objects that casts shadows on the wall. prisoners name and classify these
illusions, believing they are perceiving actual entities. One prisoner is freed, and brought
outside, the sunlight hurts his eyes and finds out that things are real and shadows were from
a real object. he sees reflection in water and finally the sun which was the source of
everything he has seen. he wants to tell the other prisoners, but not used to the darkness
anymore, and the others think that he went crazy and don’t want him to free them.
Plato tried to educate the public. People are not comfortable in their ignorance, but
hostile to anyone who points it out. Socrates was even sentenced to death by the
Athenian government for disrupting the social order. and his student Plato said no to
Athenian democracy and yes to Philosopher kings.
Plato said masses are too stubborn and ignorant to govern themselves.
The Allegory can be interpreted in more ways, connected to the theory of forms, which holds
that, like the shadows on the wall, things in the physical world are flawed reflections of ideal
forms, like roundness or beauty.
So the cave leads to fundamental questions, including origin of knowledge, the problem of
representation and the nature of reality itself.
For theologians:
- ideal forms exist in the mind of a creator
For philosophers of language viewing the forms as linguistic concepts:
- The theory illustrates the problem of grouping concrete things under abstract terms.
Others still wonder if we can know that things outside the cave are any more real than the
shadows. Can we be confident in what we think we know? Sometimes it's hard to choose to
point things out because you can lose friends and family.
Research Fundamentals
1. What is research?
2. Why do we conduct research?
3. How can we conduct research?
, We conduct research on a daily basis:
- looking what the weather is like
- look up stuff on internet
- looking up restaurant reviews
- looking what vacuum cleaner to get
Research: gathering information to solve a particular problem or update knowledge that has
been proven wrong.
What is research?
“a studious inquiry or examination: especially an investigation or experimentation aimed
at the discovery and interpretation of facts, the revision of accepted theories or laws in
the light of new facts, or the practical application of such new revised or theories of laws”
(Merriam Webster Dictionary 2019)
= In essence, systematic process of collecting information to solve some kind of research
problem into update knowledge that have been proven wrong / uncovering the objective
nature of reality
Research tries to: to uncover what is true, objective nature of reality, solve problems better in
the future.
Why do we conduct research?
To solve problems and advance knowledge
Based on research:
- the way we eat
- the way we treat patients and medicine
- educate future generations
- exercising
- what is good and bad for us
- how to raise our children
Systematic research consists of three steps:
1. Create a research question
2. Collect data
3. Analyze the data and show interpretative findings
Research question: A question that can be answered by conducting a research study
- Observation
- Prior research
- Professional literature
- Ask peers
Example: As a hotel director you want to become sustainable, but guests are not reusing
towels (observation) and that is bad for water and energy resources. So how could you
increase towel reuse in the hotel (research question)?
Introduction Session - 29/10
November 29: decide what topic you want to explore;
- neuromarketing experiment or;
- social media listening exercise
Intended learning outcomes
- Understand fundamentals of consumer research and its methods
- Recognize conditions and contexts for applying these different methods
- Discuss contemporary and technological developments (e.g., neuromarketing)
- Develop and present an executable research proposal for a real-world marketing
problem Intended learning outcomes
Course organization
- Lecture: knowledge clips and six Q&A sessions
- Interactive seminar: two-hours; application of literature, interactive exercises, project
presentations
- 6 seminars in total, on campus
- Preparation requirements, slides and links to relevant readings will be provided on
Canvas (http://canvas.uva.nl)
Quizzes
- In weeks 2, 4, & 6
- Content: weekly readings, open-book
- Goal: to get you to engage with the weekly readings
- Published on Fridays, 10:00, to be completed before the seminars the following week
- 10 questions each, each worth 2 points (60 points in total)
- 30 minutes (3 minutes per question), only one attempt
- 10 % of grade
Written Digital Exam
- 50% of the grade
- Open-ended (essay) questions, applied knowledge
- Knowledge clips, readings and discussions
- Minimum grade of 5.5 required to pass the course
- Failing implies participation in the resit (same format)
- Most recent exam grade counts, not the highest
- In case of a resit, already obtained grades remain valid throughout the academic
year
→ More info will follow in week 6
Group Assignment
- Groups of 3-4 (formed before first seminar) will work on a research proposal
- Topic 1: Responsible Consumption
- Topic 2: Consumer Misinformation & Disinformation
, - Components:
- a) Problem identification/literature research (5 sources minimum)
- b) Research question & hypothesis development (additional 10 sources
minimum)
- c) Research methodology & methods (2 appropriate research methods)
- d) Managerial and theoretical implications
- Evaluation criteria and further details in course manual
- Minimum grade of 5.5 required to pass the course
(1) Interim pitch presentation
- Pitch initial idea (a+b)
- 7 minutes
- Present in seminar
→ Friday, November 15, 2024
(2) Final presentation
- Complete proposal (a-d)
- 12 minutes
- Present in seminar
→ Friday, December 6, 2024
Disinformation: misleading on purpose, giving the wrong information purposefully
Misinformation: giving the wrong information accidentally, no wrong intention
,Week 1 - Knowledge Clips
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
What is reality? Knowledge? The meaning of life?
2400 years ago Plato said, life is like being chained up in a cave forced to watch shadows
flitting across a stone wall. → Allegory of the Cave, founded in book VII of The Republic
where Plato envisioned the ideal society by examining concepts like, justice, truth and
beauty.
In the allegory, prisoners have been confined in a cavern since birth, with no knowledge of
the outside world, facing a wall, while fire behind them gives light, occasionally people pass
by a fire carrying objects that casts shadows on the wall. prisoners name and classify these
illusions, believing they are perceiving actual entities. One prisoner is freed, and brought
outside, the sunlight hurts his eyes and finds out that things are real and shadows were from
a real object. he sees reflection in water and finally the sun which was the source of
everything he has seen. he wants to tell the other prisoners, but not used to the darkness
anymore, and the others think that he went crazy and don’t want him to free them.
Plato tried to educate the public. People are not comfortable in their ignorance, but
hostile to anyone who points it out. Socrates was even sentenced to death by the
Athenian government for disrupting the social order. and his student Plato said no to
Athenian democracy and yes to Philosopher kings.
Plato said masses are too stubborn and ignorant to govern themselves.
The Allegory can be interpreted in more ways, connected to the theory of forms, which holds
that, like the shadows on the wall, things in the physical world are flawed reflections of ideal
forms, like roundness or beauty.
So the cave leads to fundamental questions, including origin of knowledge, the problem of
representation and the nature of reality itself.
For theologians:
- ideal forms exist in the mind of a creator
For philosophers of language viewing the forms as linguistic concepts:
- The theory illustrates the problem of grouping concrete things under abstract terms.
Others still wonder if we can know that things outside the cave are any more real than the
shadows. Can we be confident in what we think we know? Sometimes it's hard to choose to
point things out because you can lose friends and family.
Research Fundamentals
1. What is research?
2. Why do we conduct research?
3. How can we conduct research?
, We conduct research on a daily basis:
- looking what the weather is like
- look up stuff on internet
- looking up restaurant reviews
- looking what vacuum cleaner to get
Research: gathering information to solve a particular problem or update knowledge that has
been proven wrong.
What is research?
“a studious inquiry or examination: especially an investigation or experimentation aimed
at the discovery and interpretation of facts, the revision of accepted theories or laws in
the light of new facts, or the practical application of such new revised or theories of laws”
(Merriam Webster Dictionary 2019)
= In essence, systematic process of collecting information to solve some kind of research
problem into update knowledge that have been proven wrong / uncovering the objective
nature of reality
Research tries to: to uncover what is true, objective nature of reality, solve problems better in
the future.
Why do we conduct research?
To solve problems and advance knowledge
Based on research:
- the way we eat
- the way we treat patients and medicine
- educate future generations
- exercising
- what is good and bad for us
- how to raise our children
Systematic research consists of three steps:
1. Create a research question
2. Collect data
3. Analyze the data and show interpretative findings
Research question: A question that can be answered by conducting a research study
- Observation
- Prior research
- Professional literature
- Ask peers
Example: As a hotel director you want to become sustainable, but guests are not reusing
towels (observation) and that is bad for water and energy resources. So how could you
increase towel reuse in the hotel (research question)?
