Why Do We Buy?
Whether they’re aware of it or not, consumers in a retail environment make decisions that are influenced by everything from adequate aisle size, customer service, and store layout to something called the “butt-brush effect.” Learn what makes shoppers tick in this Journal of Marketing Education study, in which students shadowed and observed real customers to find out how store environment, retailer tactics, and customer behaviors influenced purchases. The article provides both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and stands as a firm example of the kind of deep learning and real-world experience that marketing students need:
In the process of completing the project, students engage with course content on their own, with their team members, and importantly, within a focal store environment, thus experiencing for themselves the effects of that content on their own shopping behavior, as well as that of others. Compelled by the project’s active pedagogy to engage in discovery, students learn not only the “what” and “why” of marketing concepts, strategies, and techniques but also “how to” implement them.
The article, “Learning Why We Buy: An Experiential Project for the Consumer Behavior Course,” was published by Felicia N. Morgan of the University of West Florida and Deborah Brown McCabe of Menlo College on July 2, 2012. Click here to read on and here to learn more about the Journal of Marketing Education.
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