Our courses
Our courses:
Our specialization Marketing and Consumer Research consists of five courses, each worth 4 ECTS, and can be completed in 2 semesters. We recommend taking courses 1 and 2 in the first semester and courses 3, 4 and 5 in the second.
Please note that
you can only register for course 4 once you have completed course 1.
you can only register for course 5 once you are enrolled for course 1 or you have completed it.
All students who want to study our specialization need to apply through the procedure “admission to the SBWL Marketing and Consumer Research”. More information on the admission requirements can be found here.
The general admission requirements of your curriculum are the prerequisites for acceptance in the Marketing and Consumer Research specialization.
All courses in our specialization are held in English.
Missed our presentation at the ÖH SBWL Messe? Please click here to access the presentation slides for more information on our specialization.
Course 1: Consumer Psychology and Behavior
Understanding the human being as consumer is at the center of our SBWL. Students of our SBWL will learn about the fundamentals of consumer psychology and behavior. The value of this type of knowledge is timeless and it is relevant for any professional position in a market-oriented business. In course one, students will get an understanding of the psychological processes and concepts that underlie consumer behavior. The topics include, among others: What influences consumers’ decisions (including motivation, attitude, emotions)?, What types of purchase decisions are there? What is the role of social influences on them? Beyond equipping students with key insights on these questions, course one offers a platform to reflect on how this knowledge translates into customer insights in real consumption situations and marketing decision-making.
"For me, the choice of a suitable specialization was very easy, as my interests lay in both psychology and marketing. These two components were perfectly combined in the institute and gifted me with a skill set that I can use very well in the further stage of life. Understanding the behavior of people and a basic understanding of psychology are in my opinion essential to create a good and successful working environment. The knowledge I learned, and the choice of this institute definitely gave me the chance to complete my MBA in the United States and will continue to give me a lot of pleasure, for which I am very grateful."
Niels Buurman, MBA, Digital Projects Specialist, Red Bull Media House
Course 2: Consumer Touchpoint Management
In this course, students will develop a sound understanding of a company’s or organization’s touchpoints with their (prospective) customers along the entire customer journey. Insights about the most important touchpoints are vital. They enable a company to provide value to its customers. Topics covered in this course include the strategic management of brands and marketing communication. Students will, for instance, learn about different brand architectures and strategies, how to position brands, how to measure brand equity and how branding decisions affect consumers. Moreover, students will get acquainted with a wide range of tools and methods to coherently communicate a brand’s or company’s message to consumers. Students will learn how to choose and evaluate communication instruments and contents based on communication objectives and target audience.
"I enrolled in the Sbwl Marketing and Consumer Research in WS21/22, and during that time I had the pleasure to take part in the course „Consumer Touchpoint Management“. During that course, I learned about brand strategies, a brand's image, and different communication channels. I particularly liked that we could bring these strategies to life in a group project. On top of that, each of us got to work with Canva to create different posts and/or videos and get knowledge about how to create a post that e.g. brings a brand's image to life. I also gained important insights from professionals, who practice these strategies in their daily lives, during guest lectures. In a nutshell, the Sbwl is very interactive with a nice teaching style. Therefore, I can highly recommend this Sbwl for all creative people, who are interested in Consumer Marketing."
Katharina Spiller, Student at WU Vienna
Course 3: Research Methods in Marketing
This course equips students with a solid knowledge and understanding of common research methods in marketing and consumer research. Students will develop analytical thinking skills, identify research questions, formulate hypotheses, operationalize ways to test them and draw conclusions based on the analysis of the results. The course consists of two parts. Part one covers qualitative research methods, part two covers quantitative research methods. In part one, students will learn how to conduct qualitative research applying methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews or videography. In part two, students will learn how to design questionnaires and how to prepare, analyze and interpret quantitative data using Microsoft Excel. In both parts, students will learn how to synthesize data into actionable customer insights.
"During WS 22/23 I took the 3rd course of the specialization MCORE which is about Research Methods in Marketing. The course helped me gain a general understanding of the different approaches in the marketing research field. Theoretical as well as practical learning methods, like group works and discussions, helped provide insights on when to use which methods and how to apply them in real life.As a result, we learned for example how to formulate research questions and how to answer them with tools like excel. After completing the course, I felt like I learned new skills that will help my in my future career."
Leonie Beier, Student at WU Vienna
Course 4: Future Consumer Studio or Marketing and Consumer Research Project
Course 4 is offered in two different formats, alternating each semester:
Future Consumer Studio (summer semester)
In our Future Consumer Studio, future-oriented topics that shape society take center stage. Each summer semester, we dedicate ourselves to a single overarching theme and explore it from multiple perspectives. To do so, we collaborate with experts from a wide range of domains, including other departments at WU, other universities, industry practitioners, entrepreneurs and start-ups, policymakers, and researchers from a breadth of fields. Future Consumer Studio serves as a collaborative hub that brings together diverse voices, synthesizes insights, and integrates knowledge to derive implications for the future consumer.
The program follows an innovative pedagogical philosophy grounded in exploration, empirical inquiry, the development of analog artefacts, workshops, and work stations designed to foster creativity, reflection, and interdisciplinary thinking, while also cultivating future oriented skills such as resilience and agility in a fast-changing environment.
Marketing and Consumer Research Project (winter semester)
In this course, students get to know how to conduct marketing and consumer research projects. Students get the opportunity to apply their acquired knowledge to realistic and complex scenarios in teams. They are introduced to all different stages of marketing and consumer research projects: designing, conducting, analyzing, and reporting. The course covers a broad range of methods, including qualitative and quantitative approaches. The aim of the project is to provide students with hands-on experience in the field of marketing and consumer research as well as to derive implications for practice and research alike. In this course, generating customer insights is trained along real-world problems in marketing practice.
"I did the “Marketing and Consumer Research Project” course as part of the M.CORE specialization in the WS 2022/23 and it is exactly what its name says. In our project, we were tasked with conducting customer research in collaboration with Vöslauer to identify the big non-alcoholic beverage trends that will shape the coming decade. We were guided through a real-life empirical study by knowledgeable and experienced lecturers who provided us with advice and support every step of the way. The hands-on experience of how to conduct and present such research from start to finish gave me a practical understanding of generating customer insights, which I think is an invaluable skill for my future career."
Bence Oláh, Student at WU Vienna
Course 5: Marketing Insights
This course allows students to gain insights into timely topics. The course captures the most current issues in contemporary marketing and consumer research. Hence, its content may change every semester as we invite different international experts from academia and practice to share their knowledge with our students. “Marketing Insights” provides a platform for in-depth and critical discussions of marketing and consumer research questions. It challenges students to apply their customer-centered knowledge to a broader context of real-world problems. Moreover, it adds to their professional training in marketing and consumer research.
Alternatively to Marketing Insights, students can choose from a pool of electives jointly offered with the other marketing specializations at our Department.
"Through the SBWL I got a great insight into different fields of marketing. I learned so much interesting things and thus found out in which direction my career path should go. I'm very grateful for the real life experiences we got through the sessions with interesting leaders in the marketing sector. The best thing I could take away from the SBWL was the opportunity to get to know my current employer. The CEO of LOOP was presenting his company as well as his idea of storytelling and afterwards I got in contact with him. Now I'm working at LOOP which I never regret and also got the idea for my bachelor thesis out of the session with him. I recommend this SBWL to everybody, who is interested in marketing basics, forward thinking marketing strategies, interesting companies."
Alexa-Sophie Harnisch, BSc, Loop Salzburg
Bonus points
Our students can earn bonus points by participating in studies conducted by our faculty (e.g., surveys or experiments). You will get further information from your course lecturers.