COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 267-11

Please note that this description is from Spring 2011. New information will be posted when available.

COURSE TITLE: Customer Insight

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Allen Olivo

E-MAIL ADDRESS: allenolivo@comcast.net

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL): bSpace

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Saturdays 1-4pm

PREREQUISITE(S): EWMBA Core Curriculum

CLASS FORMAT: Interactive discussions, cases, presentations, guest speakers/evaluators

REQUIRED READINGS:

FINAL GRADE: Based on class participation (20%); course module assignments (50%); Group project and presentation 30%.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
The marketing discipline states that in order to be competitive companies should follow a customer-centric approach. In other words, they should continuously try to understand their actual and potential customers in order to satisfy them in the long run, and as a result, increase profitability. To achieve this goal, marketing managers must then have a good sense of: (1) how customers think, feel, and make decisions in the market place; (2) which tools companies can employ to learn about consumers; and, (3) how the acquired information can be used to modify the marketing mix in an effort to increase competitiveness.

Customer Insight addresses these issues. Precisely, the course is based on two main objectives:
(a) how to extract insightful information about customers’ underlying motives and attribute sensitivity and (b) how to change customer behavior.    

To achieve the first goal, students will be presented with non-conventional research techniques (ethnography and experimentation) and asked to conduct 2 short research projects using one of these techniques.    

To achieve the second goal, students will be presented with key insights about customer perception, memory, motives and feelings and how these core psychological constructs shape the decision making process. Then, specific approaches on how to change consumers’ search patterns, preferences, and (good and bad) habits will be discussed.

In short, Customer Insight will provide students with the necessary tools to help firms (a) understand how consumers think, feel and make decisions, (b) extract insightful information about their underlying motives, and (c) adopt successful marketing tactics in order to modify customer behavior, and ultimately, improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and long-term profitability.

  • BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: See faculty page at Haas site.