• demonstrate firm knowledge of marketing management processes, in particular the Marketing Mix (4 Ps) --- segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) --- consumer behaviour models --- the marketing communications mix --- product management and branding --- pricing --- channel marketing and retail concepts --- competitive strategies --- basic elements of qualitative consumer research methods
• discuss some limitations of the managerial view of marketing processes
• explain how consumer culture theory (CCT) challenges managerial views of consumer behaviour
• apply concepts from social theory presented in the course to examine the relationship between consumers, markets, products and cultural intermediaries
• explain and exemplify how marketing theories perform markets, especially in relation to the role of equipment, objects and calculative practices in consumer marketing

Course Content and Aims

This course will introduce undergraduate students to the principles of marketing management, socio-theoretical perspectives on the consumption process, and to how marketing management might respond to the challenges of this process. The course starts with a block of meetings that will show how managerial marketing strategy identifies and attempts to shape consumer attitudes and behaviours in order to sell goods and services. A key aspect of the course will be the discussion of various sociological and cultural approaches to the understanding of consumer markets, consumer behaviour and the active role of consumers in co-creating contemporary markets, which is what marketing management needs to take into consideration. In the following block, the managerial views will thus be juxtaposed with socio-theoretical approaches to consumption, namely consumer culture theory (CCT), critical theory and consumers as active co-creators of value, Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical approach to taste and symbolic consumption, and approaches associated with the Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) tradition that interprets markets as performed by theory and by agencements of human and non-human actors. The final block introduces basic principles of qualitative consumer research as a key managerial method that helps develop responses to changes in society and culture. In this block, students will leave the classroom and conduct a field trip to observe a daily consumption practice in situ. This exercise is designed to help students put into practice the theoretical insights gained during the previous meetings, and to develop alternative concepts of responsible marketing management. After the field observation, students will meet for an additional studio-based workshop to discuss their insights, interpretations, and proposals.

The course runs over 10 weeks and consists of 3 thematic blocks. These cover (1) marketing management, (2) the sociology of markets and consumption, and (3) principles of qualitative consumer research. Each block will consist of several sessions, and each session will be structured as a 90-mins meeting that includes lectures, group work, and feedback. The lectures introduce and position the week’s core theoretical concepts in marketing management and/or major thinkers in a particular sociological tradition. The group exercises will typically introduce a case study or problem situation that students will be asked to work on in groups. Students will be asked to present and discuss their answers, findings and choice of approach.  

Philip Kotler et al., Principles of Marketing. 8^th European Edition. Harlow: Pearson.

Additional texts will be made available online.