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2012/2013  KAN-SMC_SM59  Consumer's Experiences and Design

English Title
Consumer's Experiences and Design

Course information
Language English
Exam ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study board
Study Board for MSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Tore Kristensen - Department of Marketing
Main Category of the Course
  • Marketing
Last updated on 09-07-2012
Learning objectives
At the end of the course the excellent student is expected to be able to:
1. Structure, describe and discuss central theoretical constructs and frameworks in the service, marketing and experience economy literature dealing with the constructs of value and value creation.
2. Describe, illustrate and explain a variety of approaches for analysing and designing value creation experiences in a consumer and marketing context.
3. Apply and integrate different theories about consumer experiences such as theories of perceptual and cognitive fluency, curiosity, virtuosity, escapism, space & place, social and identification theories.
4. Translate, argue and apply theories about consumer experiences to a self-chosen complex and realistic case and thereby create a plan for how to manage consumer’s experiences in a real setting.
Examination
Consumer's Experiences and Design :
Type of test Oral with Written Assignment
Marking scale 7-step scale
Second examiner Second internal examiner
Exam period Spring Term
Aids Please, see the detailed regulations below
Duration 20 Minutes

Individual oral exam (20 minutes per student including assesment) based on a group synopsis (max. 7 standard pages), which has been worked out in a group of 2-4 students. There is no supervision for the writing of the synopsis. The gradereflectsanoverall assessmentof the written materialand oral presentation. The students are solely responsible for forming groups and for informing the SMC secretariat about their groups. The regular exam takes place in April.

The make-up/re-exam takes place in May-June. If a student is ill during the regular oral exam, s/he will be able to re-use the group synopsis at the make-up/re-exam. If the student was ill during the writing of the synopsis and did not contribute to synopsis, the make-up synopsis can be written individually or in groups (provided that other students are taking the make-up/re-exam). If the student did not pass the regular exam a new or revised project, confer advice from the examiner at the regular exam, must be handed in to a new deadline specified by the SMC secretariat.
Course content
The first part of the course outlines a framework for understanding consumer experiences. Additionally, we explore the meaning of aligning and developing ‘an experience perceptive’ on the value, the brand and the relationship equity concepts. During the second part of the course, measuring, monitoring and evaluating the results of different experience oriented strategies is emphasized. The course consists of a few workshops where is expected, that the students prepare both theoretical readings and empirical work by observations and experiments. Thus, we return to the issue of marketing’s influence on the creation of shareholder value, as discussed in the first course. However, our scope and level of analysis is different. In short, the course deals with the following themes:

- Understanding consumer experiences as a basis for market creation
- Adopting an experience and transformation perspective in the design of new concepts
- Monitoring and evaluating experience oriented strategies and concepts
- Understanding the meaning of embodiment in practical crafting

Progression
This course is related to the courses ‘Marketing, Creativity and Innovation’ (in the first semester) and ‘Strategic Leadership and Brand Management’ (in the second semester) in that it present and discuss a new perspective on consumers’ experiences and interaction with firms’ market offerings.

In the business world a growing amount of innovative companies are now building portfolios of experiences to support their products and services, and above all, to build brands. There seems to be a growing penetration where even SME’s build experiences into their services, while larger and more innovative companies are prepared to attempt to transform their customers and user; that is change the character of need satisfaction It is becoming more and more recognized that experiences create strong emotional ties and that managing experiences is important for brand equity and differentiation. According to ‘the experience logic’, the equity of a product, a brand, or a relationship is assessed by the consumers on the basis of value experienced and defined in various use as well as non-use situations. One implication of adopting this view is that marketing, product and brand managers need to incorporate consumptions and post-purchase situations in their field of attention, learning and action. In particular, companies in the cultural industry, culinary experiences, travels and education attempt to build a platform of acquired taste, where the users and customers are educated and expected to climb a ladder of more superior quality perception of the offerings. Other implications are that consumers (whether they are end-users in a household or in a company) are regarded as co-creators of experiences, and that their assessment of value relates to situations and events that engage not only their cognitions but also their sensory experiences. This course rests on basic assumptions of consumers are living “embodied experiences” where body and mind or cognition and emotions are integrated and where every experience is “embedded” in physic and cultural environments that make them authentic, local and global at the same time. In accordance with the other courses, the objective is here to develop the students’ abilities in initiating theoretical concepts and frameworks, and in making them work in various consumer and company contexts.
Teaching methods
The course consists of lectures, seminars and case-works.
Expected literature
  • Design - A Very Short Introduction(2005), John Heskett, Oxford University Press
  • Authenticity - What Consumers Really Want(2007) James H. Gilmore & B. Joseph Pine ll
Harvard Business School Press
  • The Experience Economy(1999), Joseph B Pine and James H Gilmore, HBS Press
  • Strategic Market Creation – A New Perspective on Marketing and Innovation management, 2008, editors: Karin Tollin and Antonella Carú, Wiley, Chichester.

A selection of influential academic articles in the field of consumers’ experiences and design
  • Kubovy, M. (1999). Pleasures of the mind. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being (pp. 134-154). New York, NY: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology.
    The article can be found: http://ftp.virginia.edu/pub/mk9y/Pleasures_of_the_Mind.pdf
  • Bäckström, K., & Johansson, U. (2006). Creating and consuming experiences in retail store environments: Comparing retailer and consumer perspectives. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 13(6), 417-430.
  • Jones, M. A. (1999). Entertaining shopping experiences: An exploratory investigation. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 6(3), 129-139. The articles can be found at CBS on-line library:
  • Schwarz, Norbert (2004) Meta-cognitive Experiences in Consumer Judgements and Decision Making The Journal of Consumer Psychology
  • Kubovy, Michael (1999) Pleasures of the Mind in Reber, Rolf, Norbert Schwarz & Piotr Winkielman (2004),
  • Kahneman, Daniel, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz and Stone (2004) A survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The day Reconstruction Method Science Vol 306 3 December 2004 1776 – 1780 + supporting online material
Last updated on 09-07-2012