LOG904-148 Consumer behavior, choice analysis and market strategy – Experimental design (Autumn 2022)

About the course

This course focuses on the practical issues of consumer behavior and choice analysis with the intent of defining market strategies for companies and organizations in general as well as policy acceptability for public institutions. This seminar centers on stated preference techniques and shows how can they be applied in practice. A significant amount of time is allotted to the definition and implementation of the most relevant phases of a stated preference study. Examples and exercises make up a central part of the course. Course participants are presented with case studies originating from applications in transportation economics. Lecture notes and exercises instructions are delivered at class.

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Master of Science in Logistics
• Experience-based Master in Logistics
• Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Logistics
• Exchange programme - Master's level
• Master of Science in Sustainable Transport and Urban Mobility

Recommended requirements

Intermediate course in Microeconomics and Statistics

The student's learning outcomes after completing the course

The course provides the student with a state-of-the-art Stated Preference Methods. Application of these techniques will allow the student to gain insights into economic theory and to be able to plan and implement a basic stated preference survey study with the intent of analyzing consumer behavior and choice analysis so to define market strategies for companies and organizations in general.

Knowledge: The student will become familiar with basic microeconomic concepts such as, consumer demand, utility functions, preferences, and demand elasticity. In particular, the student will learn how to estimate demand curves needed to develop marketing strategies

 

Skills: The student will acquire skills linked to the ability of applying basic microeconomic concepts to solve marketing strategies/plan related issues such as, for example, market share estimation and market share changes due to the strategy implemented. The skills acquired will be cognitive (i.e., marketing plan development), practical (i.e., questionnaire administration), creative (i.e., alternative plan definition and testing) as well as communicative skills (i.e., presenting the results obtained in class).

 

The general competences the student will gain are linked to the application of the knowledge and skills to different market segments/contexts also favored by experiencing and strengthening of group work capabilities supported by work sharing and the development of a sense of responsibility deriving from the need to work under pressure and tight scheduling of group activities. All these elements put together will be reflected and supported by the stimulus to think critically under cognitively demanding conditions so to realistically simulate working conditions that will be encountered when starting a profession. In particular, the student at the end of the course will be competent in planning, defining, piloting, fine-tuning, and administering a questionnaire capable of acquiring the necessary data to develop a marketing plan/strategy

Forms of teaching and learning

This is a practical and theory-based course. The focus of the course, strictly interlinked with Introduction to “Consumer behavior, choice analysis and market strategy – Discrete choice modelling”, will be on the entire process, including experimental design. Recent advances in tools and methods to model individual behavior, study market shares and change in demand in response to marketing strategies and policy changes will be discussed with reference to specific case studies. Hands on problems with actual data sets will be used to augment the presentations. The course will also include practical questionnaire administration.

Lectures (8 hours)  plus practical work on case study definition, deployment and reporting (the remaining time).

Examination

Form of assessment: research report on a case study

• Proportion: 100%

• Duration: 4 hours

• Grouping: Individual

• Grading scale: Letter (A - F)

• Supported material:

Syllabus

TBA