BERGAMO
Dati Generali
Periodo di attività
Syllabus
Obiettivi Formativi
This course will develop students’ skills and competences on market research and business intelligence, for the development of process and product innovation in organizational contexts.
This course will provide the students with useful research tools and in particular, a step-by-step guide that shows how to design an innovative consumer research program, in order to develop up-front and new product development (NPD) innovation, focusing on consumers’ needs.
During this course, students will learn how to:
- Plan and manage market research for innovation: setting up a research project plan, setting overall objectives, defining roles and responsibilities of key team members, understanding key questions, projecting expected deliveries from each stage, and finally presenting and communicating key learnings and diagnostic reviews.
- Organize a two-stage consumer research: 1. an up-front innovation, in order to identify product opportunities by understanding consumer wants, needs and problems; 2. an NPD to refine, screen and validate new product opportunities grounded on consumer insight.
- Develop qualitative research approaches, such as methods to briefly understand consumers’ language, qualitative analysis and innovative qualitative techniques for consumer research.
-Appreciate quantitative methods, such as methods to ensure the important questions are asked, to design a questionnaire, to identify appropriate samples and set the product and service tests.
- Refine and screen product ideas in new product development: students will learn efficient approaches in refining and screening product ideas for product developers to prioritize and classify insights in order to strategize their activities accordingly.
- Launch product and service innovations into the markets: students will learn how to gather information and share knowledge during the earliest phases of the introduction of innovation, in order to help product developers to get buy-in from different departments along NPD and, ultimately, guarantee the survival and success of the products in the marketplace.
Prerequisiti
None is mandatory. A good knowledge of general marketing is appreciated.
Metodi didattici
This course is based on a group-learning approach, which requires cooperation among students and individual commitment. The aim of this course is to improve students’ cognitive abilities, critical evaluation of the given task and ability to work with others. For two months students will simulate how it is to work in different marketing departments.
Students are required to:
- Attend at least 75% of the classes in order to participate actively in the group work and business testimonials, in order to put into practice the knowledge acquired
- participate actively in class case study discussions and general discussions in order to develop the collective learning process
- read papers in advance and contribute to the discussion at the end of students’ presentation;
- write case study reports and material in groups and submit it for review, to develop the skills related to the topics studied
Verifica Apprendimento
Attending students: 80% group/individual assignments throughout the duration of the course + 20% exam (15 multiple choice questions on the topics covered in the course)
Non-Attending students: 100% exam consisting of 3 open-ended questions + 15 multiple choice questions (based on the book of the course)
The teaching staff reserve the right to request an additional oral interview, even after the written test, if this is deemed necessary for the purposes of verifying the effective acquisition of the knowledge and skills required by the educational objectives of the course and the correct attribution of the evaluation.
Rounding rule: The final average grade will be rounded to the nearest whole number. If the decimal portion is less than 0.5, the grade will be rounded down. If the decimal portion is 0.5 or greater, the grade will be rounded up.
IMPORTANT NOTICE for 12-Credit Exam Takers:
Students enrolled in the 12-credit Market Research and Consumer Marketing exam MUST adhere to the following sequence:
- Market Research module in the first semester
- Consumer Marketing module in the second semester
Grades earned throughout the academic year will remain valid until September 2027 inclusive. The final grade for this course will be determined by averaging the grades received in each module.
Contenuti
Innovation is the engine of business development in many organizations. The most successful innovation is a product or service that provides comprehensive solutions to consumers’ needs. For this reason this course will focus on customers as the main object of market research.
The course will be divided in 7 sections, according to the approaches developed by Beckley, Paredes and Lopetcharat (2012):
1.Designing the Research Model: factors influencing product innovation, setting up a successful product innovation program, current approach to new product development, iterative qualitative-quantitative research model and making insights ownable.
2.Understand the consumer language: why consumers do not understand technical language, how to select a method of inquiry, Zaltman’s metaphor elicitation technique and Kelly’s repertory grid and flash profiling.
3.Quantitative Analysis: sampling, scale development, questionnaire, regression, conjoint analysis.
4.Qualitative Analysis: interview, ethnography, case study, online discourse analysis.
5.Tools to Refine and Screen Product Ideas in New Product Development: how to transform an idea into a concept test, how to create a sample to test the new product or service and how to develop consumer advisory boards, and free-choice in context preference ranking
6.Tools to validate new products for launch. An alternative model to validate NPD: the extended use product research, understanding consumer segments, assessment of sensory performance, understanding how consumers make choice decisions, using behavioral measures to help assess product viability, understanding situational users and regular users.
7. Product concept validation testing: type of innovation, target market, competitive set, sales forecast, metrics for innovation success.
Altre informazioni
Course attendance is not compulsory but highly recommended.