Marketing 411 - Generating Customer Insights

A deep understanding of the customer is essential to developing innovative products, services, and marketing strategies. Qualitative research methods enable firms to study customers and analyze the meaning and importance of their experiences. These methods can uncover in-depth insights about customers? lives and behavior, which are often not accessible through quantitative analyses of big data or conventional marketing metrics. This course introduces students to a set of concepts and research methods for generating, communicating, and leveraging customer insights. Students will learn and practice real-world skills, including culturally-oriented thinking, participant observation, interviewing, focus groups, and netnography (online qualitative research). Throughout the course, students will adopt the perspective of marketing researchers and managers as they learn to develop actionable marketing strategies based on sound thinking and rigorous qualitative research.

Open to Isenberg School of Management students and Economics and Environmental & Natural Resource Economics (ENRE, previously RES-ECON) majors. Pre Req: MARKETNG 301 Isenberg students who are unable to self-enroll, may request permission by contacting the Marketing Department Office Manager, Jeff Laverdiere at jtlaverdiere@umass.edu. Non-Isenberg students who meet the enrollment eligibility and are unable to self-enroll, should contact the Isenberg Undergraduate Programs Office at undergrad@isenberg.umass.edu.