The Psychology of Marketing

This course provides an overview and analysis of the main psychological theories that are relevant within the field of market psychology. How does psychology apply to marketing? Clearly, psychology and marketing are closely related. What we buy is a function of how we think and what we think is a product of the way our minds and hearts work. It therefore takes some knowledge of basic psychology and human behavior to succeed at marketing. As a marketing strategist, you need be looking less at what your product has to offer per se and more to the psychology of the consumers to whom you want to sell it.

You will also take into account discrete cultural differences in consumer behavior; given that culture is an external influence affecting consumer identity, attitudes and purchasing behavior. That is, culture represents influences that are imposed on the consumer by other individuals. You will therefore explore salient differences between U.S. and non-U.S. consumers that marketing managers need to identify and understand.

You will also study cognition-oriented theories related to the psychology of marketing to better understand how people process and respond to information and messaging. Next you will investigate personal development and reflect upon concepts such as personality, the capacity to learn, perception, cognition, and the resultant memory contents and related structures. Since marketing is oriented toward the act of exchange and reciprocity taking place within a configuration of power that is rarely balanced, the course will also explore the theories of 'power, control, and exchange'. At the end of the course, you will investigate the biological basis of the varied psychological theories covered in class.

Lastly, you will learn how to apply theories to distinct cultural contexts while interpreting the reality of market psychology through various experiential learning activities, such as devising a marketing plan for a specific company overseas and interviewing guest speakers about their companies based outside of the United States.

This course is cross-listed as MKT322