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.

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.

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.

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.

The course “Marketing and Consumer Research Project” has been recognized with the Innovative Teaching Award 2023.

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.

The course “Marketing Insights” has been recognized with the Innovative Teaching Award 2021 and was nominated for the Ars Docendi “Staatspreis für Exzellente Lehre” 2022.

As for course 5, alternatively to Marketing Insights, students can choose from a pool of electives jointly offered with the other marketing specializations at our Department.