Audience Insight | Marketing Communications

Top Three Course Takeaways

How to create more effective communications strategies based on internal or psychological influences that impact consumer decision-making.
How to create more effective communications strategies based on external or sociological influences that impact consumer decision-making.
An appreciation for the importance of ethnography as a research method to better understand consumers and the ability to create an ethnography proposal.

Course Topics

Buying, Having and Being / Consumer and Social Well-Being / Practical Ethnography and Theory
Perception / Learning and Memory / Ethical Ethnography
Motivation and Affect / The Self / Managing Private-Sector Ethnography and Clients
Personality / Lifestyles and Values / Attitudes and Persuasive Communications / Ethnographic Tools and Reporting
Decision Making / Buying, Using and Disposing / Ethnographic Sampling and Fieldwork
Groups and Social Media / Income and Social Class / Ethnographic Analysis and Beyond
Subcultures / Cultures

WORKLOAD: (8-10 hours per week)

Take an in-depth look at consumer behavior and its role in IMC. Examine consumer behavior in terms of internal influences, external influences, the consumer decision-making process and consumers and culture.

Course Learning Outcomes:

Describe the importance of audience insight and understanding of consumer behavior on developing an integrated marketing communications strategy.
Examine ethnographic research practices, ethical considerations of conducting ethnographic research, and the components of an ethnographic report.
Analyze the role emotional branding plays in designing persuasive marketing messages and how a consumer’s values and cultural characteristics influence their decision-making process.
Illustrate how each aspect of the buying experience affects the consumer decision-making process and explain the theories related to influencing consumer attitudes toward a product or service.
Create a comprehensive proposal for a private-sector ethnography research project.

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Audience Insight Instructors

Directory
Christopher Caserta Chief Executive Officer, Ascension Living	cnicely1@mix.wvu.edu	Read More: Caserta
Matthew Muetzel Director of Digital and Marketing Operations at Aimmune Therapeutics	mmuetzel@mix.wvu.edu	Read More: Muetzel
Will Oechsler Strategic Business Executive	wioechsler@mix.wvu.edu	Read More: Oechsler
Geah Pressgrove Associate Professor of Advertising and Public Relations at WVU College of Creative Arts and Media	Geah.Pressgrove@mail.wvu.edu	Read More: Pressgrove