Effective marketing starts with genuinely understanding the customer — not assuming marketers already know what drives their decisions. MKT5416 teaches both the psychological theory of consumer behavior and the research methods used to test those assumptions against real data.
Consumer behavior theory
MKT5416 covers the psychological and social factors shaping consumer decisions: the consumer decision-making process (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, post-purchase evaluation), the influence of reference groups and culture on preferences, and cognitive biases that shape purchasing decisions in ways that pure rational-choice models miss — anchoring, social proof, and loss aversion among them.
Market research methods and translating findings into strategy
The course covers both qualitative research methods (focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation) for exploring the 'why' behind consumer behavior, and quantitative methods (surveys, conjoint analysis, A/B testing) for measuring preferences and predicting behavior at scale. Students practice the harder skill of translating research findings into an actual marketing strategy recommendation, rather than stopping at a research summary that never gets acted on.
Key topics in MKT5416
- The consumer decision-making process: need recognition through post-purchase evaluation
- Reference groups, culture, and social influence on consumer preferences
- Cognitive biases in consumer decision-making: anchoring, social proof, loss aversion
- Qualitative research methods: focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation
- Quantitative research methods: surveys, conjoint analysis, and A/B testing
- Translating consumer research findings into actionable marketing strategy recommendations
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Worked example: using conjoint analysis to price a new product feature
- Research question: How much would customers pay for an extended warranty add-on?
- Method: Conjoint analysis presents customers with product bundles at varying price/feature combinations and asks them to choose
- Finding: Customers value the extended warranty, but willingness to pay drops sharply above a specific price threshold
- Strategic translation: Price the add-on just below that threshold, rather than guessing a price based on internal cost-plus margin targets alone
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Consumer-behavior analyses and market-research project assignments.
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Frequently asked questions
Qualitative market research methods — focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation — are exploratory, generating rich, detailed insight into why consumers think or behave a certain way, but typically involve small samples that aren't statistically representative of the broader market. Quantitative methods — surveys, conjoint analysis, A/B testing — involve larger samples and produce measurable, generalizable data about what proportion of customers prefer one option over another or how price-sensitive they are, but often can't explain the underlying reasons behind those preferences as richly as qualitative methods can. MKT5416 teaches that these methods are frequently used together in sequence: qualitative research to generate hypotheses about what might be driving a consumer behavior (why are customers hesitant about a new feature), followed by quantitative research to test those hypotheses at scale and quantify how widespread the concern actually is — using only one method risks either rich-but-unrepresentative insight (qualitative alone) or statistically solid-but-shallow understanding (quantitative alone).
Classical economic models assume consumers make rational, utility-maximizing decisions based on complete information, but behavioral research has repeatedly shown that real consumer decisions are shaped by predictable cognitive biases that deviate from pure rationality — anchoring (an initial price or number disproportionately influences subsequent judgments, which is why a "was $199, now $99" framing feels different from simply "$99"), social proof (people are more likely to choose an option others have chosen, which is why review counts and "bestseller" labels influence purchases), and loss aversion (the pain of losing something is felt more strongly than the pleasure of an equivalent gain, which is why "don't miss out" framing often outperforms equivalent positive framing). MKT5416 teaches these biases not as manipulation tactics but as an accurate model of how real decision-making actually works, which marketers need to understand to design pricing, messaging, and offers that align with how consumers genuinely process information, rather than relying on a purely rational-actor model that doesn't match observed behavior.