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2022/2023  KAN-CKOMV1504U  Consumer Culture and Market Segmentation

English Title
Consumer Culture and Market Segmentation

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 10
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Organizational Communication, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Fumiko Kano Glückstad - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
Main academic disciplines
  • Customer behaviour
  • Intercultural studies
  • Marketing
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 10-02-2022

Relevant links

Learning objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to demonstrate:
  • Knowledge about and understanding of theories and analytical methods around consumer culture, psychology and behaviors
  • Knowledge about and understanding of heterogeneity within a consumer market and factors influencing the formation of consumer cultures across markets
  • Knowledge about and understanding of consumer behaviors and their motivational drivers
  • Knowledge about and understanding of relation between consumer behaviors and marketing strategy
  • Skills for designing a survey and collecting primary data by applying selected theories
  • Skills for analyzing primary and/or secondary data by defining the role of variables that explain selected theoretical concepts
  • Skills for identifying a consumer segment and developing a market communication and branding strategy to target it
  • Competences to formulate a research question
  • Competences to design an empirical study by critically selecting and combining appropriate theories and methods to address the selected research question
  • Competences to interpret and communicate results of the empirical study
Course prerequisites
Can only be taken as part of the Minor in International Business Communication.
Examination
Consumer Culture and Market Segmentation:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Report
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

 

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Consumers increasingly expect to be addressed and met on their own terms. This can only be achieved if businesses can handle complex insights into culturally diverse subgroups (segments) of consumers and their behavior across the global market place. The identity formation and thereby value formation of modern consumers are becoming increasingly complex due to their belongings to various local, national and global communities accessible via contemporary media technologies and the world-wide web. This implies that the key challenge to develop a successful marketing and communication strategy is to obtain a systematic understanding of the complex consumer segments and a decision-making mechanism of their preferences and choice of consumption behaviors.

 

The same applies to the policy making. For example, to overcome a challenge like the Covid-19 crisis, but also e.g., the long-term crisis on climate change, a socially responsible behavior is required. However, individuals’ attitudes to a crisis may substantially differ, and manifest itself in different behaviors. Therefore, a modern policy maker needs to differentiate messages suitable for respective target segments and seek to optimize their potential effects on the citizens’ responsible behaviors.

 

The course reviews theoretical concepts from three aspects: 1) market segmentation addressing heterogeneity within-market and homogeneity across-markets; 2) consumers' psychology addressing personal values, beliefs and norms, and their relations with their attitudes and behavioral choices in our contemporary society; and 3) consumers' perception and cognition of various marketing stimuli.

 

The course will support students to design an empirical study by selecting (or combining) appropriate methods relevant to an identified research issue.

 

For example:

  • For investigating values, norms, beliefs and attitudes held by diverse consumer segments, the students will acquire skills for exploring state-of-the-art international survey databases such as the European Social Survey, but also secondary consumer data collected in collaboration with selected industries such as beauty-care industry and tourism industry.
  • For understanding consumers' identities and values relevant to a specific product choice as well as consumers' perception and cognition of a specific marketing stimulus; the students will acquire skills for designing a survey to collect primary data. Subsequently, they will also learn how to process and analyze the collected data
Description of the teaching methods
The course aims at providing students a process-based learning experience where their own backgrounds and experiences will contribute to their knowledge acquisition process. In this way, the course will implement a blended learning-based approach on top of an activity-based course design (Margaryan et al. 2004). The course consists of a combination of lectures, exercise lessons (group assignments and peer-reviews) and a workshop.
Feedback during the teaching period
Through a group-based assignment, the course will create an activity-based learning place and will facilitate knowledge co-creation via activities such as "student-to-student feedback" and teacher's feedback for each group assignment in the class and online.
Student workload
Preparation (reading and watching course materials) 55 hours
Group work and assignments 75 hours
Exam (including preparation) 46 hours
Lectures and workshop 30 hours
Total 206 hours
Expected literature

Expected literature (theories):

 

  • Kotler, Philip & Keller, Kevin Lane (2015)  Marketing Management, Global Edition, United Kingdom: Pearson Education M.U.A.
  • Craig &Douglas (2005) Beyond national culture: implications of cultural dynamics for consumer research, International Marketing Review, Vol23-3, 322-342
  • Cleveland & Laroche (2007) Acculturation to the global consumer culture: Scale development and research paradigm. In Journal of Business Research Vol. 60.  
  • Stern, P. C., T. Dietz, T. Abel, G. A. Guagnano, and L. Kalof. 1999. “A Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Support for Social Movements: The Case of Environmentalism.” Human Ecology Review 6 (2): 81–97.
  • Stern, Paul C., Linda Kalof, Thomas Dietz, and Gregory A. Guagnano. 1995. “Values, Beliefs, and Proenvironmental Action: Attitude Formation Toward Emergent Attitude Objects.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 25 (18): 1611–36.
  • Ajzen, I. (2011), The theory of planned behaviour: Reactions and reflections. Psychol. Heal. 26, 1113–1127. 
  • Markus, H.R. & Kitayama, S. (2010) Cultures and Selves: A Cycle of Mutual Constitution. In Perspectives on Psychological Science 5(4) 420-430
  • Uchida, Yukiko, Vinai Norasakkunkit, and Shinobu Kitayama. 2004. “Cultural Constructions of Happiness: Theory and Empirical Evidence.” Journal of Happiness Studies 5: 223–39.
  • Schwartz, Shalom H. (2012) An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.
  • Inglehart, R. & Baker, W.E. (2000) Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values. In American Sociological Review, Vol. 65  
  • Belk (2013) Extended Self in a Digital World, Journal of Consumer Research Vol 40, 477-500
  • Schmitt (2012) The consumer psychology of brands, Journal of Consumer Psychology 22, 7-17
  • Bavel et al. (2020) Using Social and Behavioral Science to support Covid-19 pandemic response, Nature Human Behavior Vol4, 460-477

 

Expected materials (methods):

 

  • European Social Survey https:/​/​www.europeansocialsurvey.org/​
  • Sarstedt, M. & Mooi, M. (2014) A Concise Guide to Market Research: The Process, Data, and Methods Using IBM SPSS Statistics. 
  • Snow, J. (2018). The Complete Research Suite: A step-by-step guide to using Qualtrics. Chapter 1 and 3. Retrieved on: 23.08.2018. 
Last updated on 10-02-2022