MKT 635: A SEMINAR ON BUYING AND CONSUMING AND HOW THEY LEAD TO VALUE FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES

June 2006

Instructor: Barry J. Babin

Meeting Time: 6-10:05 PM, M&W, 303 JGH

Office: 311 College Hall

Email: Barry.Babin@usm.edu

Phone: 601 266-4627

Office Hours: 1:00 - 3:00 PM MW or as needed (feel free to see me anytime I am here or make an appointment)

Text:           Lindquist, Jay and Joe Sirgy, Consumer Behavior, Atomic Dog Publishing (www.atomicdog.com) (3rd Edition).

Goals: Understand the raison-d’etre of commerce and business strategy. Increase student awareness of the most important person in any business -- the customer! The customer is not simply part of the external operating environment!! Students will gain an understanding of factors influencing consumer decision-making, consumer thinking, the effects of individual characteristics, and situational factors on product demand, with the hope of building successful long-term customer relationships. Also, the student should consider how the course concepts could be applied in business. Beyond all else, given a competitive business environment, the student should become a strong advocate for a consumer orientation! Ultimately, consumers are the resource acquisition element in business. Lose them and there is no business. Lose a layer of management and you simply reorganize! In sum, the student should acknowledge and understand better that customer intimacy is the most important organizational goal. Intimacy means a oneness in mind in which you benefit when your customers benefit. Ultimately, this addresses business survival, long-term share value, and the ethical treatment of exchange partners.

Tentative Student Evaluation:

 

 

Daily Performance

15%

(including general participation, doing current events discussions, contribution to learning, attitude, preparation, leading discussions when called upon, general demonstration of mastery, etc.)

Attendance

10%

Being her for an entire class

Position Papers/Cases

40%

(as assigned .. at least one per week)

Chapter Quizzes

15%

On-line at atomicdog.com

General Essay/Examination

20%

 

 

MKT 635/Seminar in Buyer Behavior and Value Creation

Tentative Course Planner

Class Period

Topic

Reading

Assignments Due

Current Event

Lead Discussion Point

May 29

Introduction: What=s the Big Deal? Some Marketing Basics;  Intuitive CB

 

In-class activities

Learn Text Web Site

None

Business

May 31

More on Applying CB;  Ethics and CB; The Basic Consumption Process; Consumer Resources

Ch. 1, 17, 18

Levitt (1960), Haughney (2006) – Sizzle

Position Paper #1

Hattiesburg A

`Value

Ethics - Downloading

June 5

Value; Satisfaction, Loyalty, Commitment, Corporate Survival; Information Processing Introduction;

Ch. 4,

Babin, Darden and Griffin (1994); Airline Satisfaction 05

List of "Value Providing and Unvaluable firms"

 

Garden Park

Loyalty

 

June 7

Consumer Knowledge; Categorization processes; Brand Image/Equity; Product Line Management; Motivations, Emotion, Attitudes

Ch. 7

Lemon, Rust and Zeithaml (2001);

Seats?

Stennis

Memory

June 12

ELM; Practical Research ; Individual Differences:

Ch. 8, ,Ch. 9, Ch 6

Nasseur and Lawton (2005); Flynn (2005)

Case #2.  The French Wine Business 2005 -

 

Jackson County

Attitude

June 14

AReasoned-Action; Be a "Big-Time" Consultant;Personal Values, Personality Life Styles, More Emotion; Self-Image,

Ch. 5, Ch. 2, Ch 3

 

VALS score/ENDS

Hattiesburg B

Self-Image

June 19

Consumer Decision Making Heuristics/Strategies: How you Decide.;

Ch. 12, Gelb and Gelb (1986)

Attitude

Garden Park

Shopping

June 21

Retail Atmospherics /Music, Color and Lights  Group Processes/

Ch. 13

Pechmann and Knight (2002)

Position Paper 2

Stennis

Shopping

June 26

Culture/SC/RG/Value  --

Ch. 14; Ch. 15

C Hayes 2005;; Reilly 2004; 

Turley and Chebat (2002) - recommended

 

Hattiesburg A

Culture

June 27

Final Essay Due

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readings List - the bibliography below contains some readings listed in the schedule above by the authors= last names. Some additional readings are included in the biography for those who may want to follow up on some issues more extensively. Most of these are available electronically, many through ebscohost (lib.usm.edu) business source elite or academic source elite.

Anholt, Simon (2000), AThe Nation as Brand,@ Across the Board, (Nov/Dec), 22-27. – culture

Avins, Mimi (1998), AThe Joy of Shopping,@ L.A. Times, (7/30), E1-4. - atmospherics/value

Babin, Barry J. and Laurie Babin (2001), ASeeking Something Different? A Model of Schema Typicality, Consumer Affect, Purchase Intentions and Perceived Shopping Value,@ Journal of Business Research, 54 (November), 89-96. - information processing/categorization

Babin, Barry J., William R. Darden and Mitch Griffin (1994), AWork and/or Fun: Measuring Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Value,@ Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (March), 644-656. - value

Brady, Diane (2000), AWhy Service Stinks,@ Business Week, (Oct. 23), 118-122. - quality/satisfaction

Chao, Loretta (2006), “Customer Satisfaction Declines for Air Travel,” Wall Stree Journal, May 16, D5.

Gelb, Betsy and Gabrielle Gelb (1986), ANew Coke=s Fizzle-Lessons for the Rest of Us,@ Sloan Managment Review, 28 (Fall), 71. – value

Hays, Jack (2004), “Design of the Times,” Nation’s Restaurant News,  (September 6), 31-33.

Haughney, C. (2006), “Hoping the Sizzle Sells,” WSJ, (May 29, 2006).

Lemon, Katherine N., Roland T. Rust and Valarie A. Zeithaml (2001), AWhat Drives Customer Equity?@ Marketing Management, 10 (Spring), 20-25. - value

Levitt, Theodore (1960), AMarketing Myopia,@ Harvard Business Review, (reprinted, Sep/Oct 1975), 26-48. - general/value

MacMillan, Ian C. and Rita Gunther McGrath (1997), ADiscovering New Points of Differentiation,@ Harvard Business Review, (July/August), 133-138. – categorization

McCartney, Scott (2006), “A More Comfortable Middle Seat,” Wall Street Journal, May 23, D5.

Mizerski, Richard (1995), "The Relationship Between Cartoon Trade Character Recognition and Attitude Toward Product Category in Young Children," Journal of Marketing, 59 (October), 58-70. - information processing/attitudes

Nassaure, S. and C. Lawton (2005), “French Whine: Vintners Lament Falling Sales As American Tastes Turn Toward ‘New World’ Wines,” Wall Street Journal, March 2, B1.

Pechmann, Cornelia and Susan J. Knight (2002), AAn Experimental Investigation of the Joint Effects of Advertising and Peers on Adolescents= Beliefs and Intentions about Cigarette Consumption,@ Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (June), 5-19. - attitudes

Reese, Shelly (1998), ACulture Shock,@ Marketing Tools, (May), 44-49. [22} – culture

Reily, D.W. (2005), “The British Pub Gets a Face-Lift, WSJ,  (March 1), A1.

Schriver, Steve (1997), ACustomer Loyalty: Going, Going...@ American Demographics, (September), 20-23. [8] – loyalty

Turley, L. and J.C. Chebat (2002), “Linking Retail Strategy, Atmospherica and Shopping Behaviour,  Journal of Marketing Management, 18, 125-144.

Wolfe, David B. (1998), AWhat Your Customers Can=t Say,@ American Demographics, (February), 24-29. [23] - psychographics/motivation

Notes:

Position papers are argumentative essays on provocative topics. A provocative statement is provided and the student is expected to argue, in no more than one page, that the statement is either true or false. Students are expected to rely on LOGICAL use of materials from course readings, course lectures, and outside materials in building his/her arguments. Fence-sitting is generally not well received. The grade on a position paper is based largely on how well one argues for their position (orally and in writing). The grade is generally not influenced by the position that one takes. Things like citations to relevant readings (both assigned and not assigned) provide additional evidence that one=s position is defensible.

Cases in this class are short. The cases are generally followed by a list of questions that include a specific managerial analysis of the situation presented. Students are expected to address the questions and to present an overall brief summary of the situation and/ore recommendations for the firm/manager involved in the situation. Cases are evaluated similarly to the position papers in that the quality of the argument is the key focus of the evaluation.

No term paper is assigned given the short duration of the class. Should a student wish to work on a project or term paper, this desire can be accommodated.


Standard Syllabus Statements

University of Southern Mississippi

 

College of Business

 

The Wall Street Journal Statement:

 

The Wall Street Journal -- The College of Business (CoB) has entered into a partnership agreement with The Wall Street Journal that allows all upper level CoB students to have electronic access to the Journal at deeply discounted rates.  The WSJ is a critical learning tool that ensures CoB students are current and aware of the many factors and situations that impact decision-making in the global economy.  In addition to electronic access, the Journal provides a limited number of complimentary copies of the Journal, which are distributed on the Hattiesburg and Gulf Park campuses.

 

As part of this partnership, all juniors, seniors, and graduate students listed as College of Business majors will be charged $19 per fall and spring semester for access to the online edition of The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com.  Summer access to WSJ.com is also included in the fee.  This fee is charged to a student's USM Business Office account and is non-refundable.

 

Access to WSJ.com will be attainable through a link on SOARS.  Instructions for the path to reach the link can be found on the School of Business home page.  The designated students will simply click the link and be immediately transferred to the WSJ.com home page.  They no longer have to register to access their account. They will have full access to WSJ.com and will be able to personalize their home page to meet their specific needs. In the event that a student has questions, he or she may contact Marie Johnson by email at:  marie.johnson@dowjones.com. A student may also contact Melia Hartsfield in the Dean's office at 601-266-5853, by email: melia.hartsfield@usm.edu or come by JGH 211.

 

The Academic Integrity Statement

 

As a course offered in the College of Business, all students enrolled in this course and the instructor, will adhere to the CoB's Academic Integrity Policy.  Students can access the policy directly at http://www.usm.edu/business/students/acad_policy.html or by going to http://www.usm.edu/colleges/cbed and clicking on Academic Integrity Policy in the upper right hand corner.  Registration in this course automatically makes the College of Business Academic Integrity Policy applicable to the student. 

 

The ADA Statement

 

If a student has a disability that qualifies under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and requires accommodations, he or she should contact the Office of Disability Accommodations (ODA) for information on appropriate policies and procedures. Disabilities covered by ADA may include learning, psychiatric, physical impairments, or chronic health disorders.  Students should contact ODA if they are not certain whether a medical condition/disability qualifies.  Box 8586; or telephone 266-5024; TTY 266-6837; Fax 266-6035.

 

Course Enrollment Statement

 

It is the responsibility of each student to determine that he or she is appropriately enrolled in each course.  Students are expected to confirm their registration in the selected courses prior to the last day to register for full-semester classes, the fifth class day of the semester. 

 

The College of Business strictly enforces add/drop policies.  Thus, students should not request to add classes after the fifth class day, except in extenuating circumstances (e.g., removal from class roll because of tuition/fees nonpayment), and under no circumstances after the last day to drop full-semester classes without academic penalty. 

 

Students can drop a course on SOARS up to the last day to drop full-semester classes without academic penalty.   After that date, students should not ask to drop a course except in extenuating circumstances (e.g., medical incapacity), and under no circumstances after the University withdrawal deadline. 

 

For the Summer Semester 2006, the last day to register for 5-week1 classes is Wednesday, May 31 while the last day to register for full-semester classes is Friday, June 2, 2006.  The last day to drop 5-week 1 classes without academic penalty is Friday, June 9th while the last day to drop full-semester classes without academic penalty is Friday, June 23, 2006.  The last day to register for 5-week2 classes is Thursday, June 20th and the last day to drop 5-week2 classes is Wednesday, July 12th, 2006. The University withdrawal deadline is Wednesday, July 26, 2006.

 

Grading Policy and Grade Review Policy Statement  (USM Undergraduate Bulletin, 2005-2006)

 

The instructor has the authority in his or her class over all matters affecting the conduct of the class, including the assignment of grades.  Student performance should be evaluated according to academic criteria made available to all students within the first two weeks of each semester.  Grades should not be determined in an arbitrary or capricious manner.

 

When a student disagrees with the final grade given by an instructor, fair play requires the opportunity for an orderly appellate procedure.  A student must initiate the appeal procedure within 30 school days (excluding Saturday, Sunday, and official student holidays) of the beginning of the semester subsequent to the one in which the grade was awarded, or 120 calendar days after the issuance of spring semester grades, should the student not be enrolled during the summer term.  The procedure assures due process for both the instructor and student.  For policies and procedures governing grade review, contact the dean of the appropriate college or the Office of the Provost.

 

Student E-Mail Accounts

 

Please be sure to set up your USM e-mail account.  Even if you are using another e-mail account as your primary account, you should still activate your USM account and route it to your other primary account.  The HELP desk (266-HELP; 266-4357) can assist you in doing this or you should be able to activate it through SOAR.  The University is moving more toward e-mail notification for all types of issues and this will help to keep you informed about various deadlines and other things that may affect your academic career.