• Workshop in Consumer Behavior: Understanding Consumer Trends

This seminar is appropriate for business professionals who want to build upon existing skills in consumer analysis and online behavior trends.

In this seminar, you will gain insights into how to obtain, analyze and use consumer information to develop marketing and business strategies across a wide range of businesses.

Topics

• How the Internet works
• Planned website development for marketing effectiveness
• Search marketing: Search engine optimization and paid search
• Software tools to simplify your work
• Website analytics
• Social media
• A/B (split) and multivariate testing
• Mobile marketing
• Email marketing
• Basic computer security

• Identify and explain the value of understanding consumers and apply to the marketing mix. Introduce the 4 M’s, a new approach to marketing strategy with a greater focus on the consumer.
• Cover examples of how companies have used different types of consumer insights to alter their marketing strategies.
• Defining the role of the consumer (individual and B2B). Are they just a means to an end or co-producers in your business?
• What are the top concerns marketing professionals still struggle with:
  • Knowing customers' needs, wants and attitudes; making messages contextually relevant; and how to make analytics actionable (Experian, 2016)
• Activity: Case study analysis and problem solving. Each case study demonstrates an application of the 4 M model and demonstrates the role consumer insights have in each phase of the process. Renault (message), Nordstrom (market), Netflix (media) and Cheetos (merchandise).
  Break: 10-15 minutes
  
  Session 2 (10:30-12:00pm) - Key methods for understanding consumer behavior
   
• Cover the main research methods employed by companies to gain consumer insight.
• Examine two main approaches, qualitative versus quantitative methods, both with a variety of tools used to analyze collected data.
• Discuss the positives and negatives of all of the research methods.
• Activity: Garbology activity. Work in groups to develop a consumer profile based on an image of a person’s trash. From that profile you will work as a group to design a product that would appeal to that person, as well as determine a message and media channel for communicating that product to the person.
  Break for lunch.
  
  Session 3 (1:00-2:15pm) - Consumer behavior online
   
• Understanding behavior online.
• Identify what people do online, breakdown how they spend their time and how the Internet has influenced the way people shop.
• The B2B case, looking at your customer’s behavior.
• Studying behavior online with a variety of tools, fortunately there are tools for every budget, including free tools.
• Activity: Practicing with free tools available. You will have the opportunity to use some of the free tools available. The class will apply the use of these tools to a fictional organization that has little to no budget for digital communications.
  Break: 10-15 minutes
  
  Session 4 (2:30-4:00pm) - You gathered the data, now what?
   
• Making sense of online data, the challenges with interpreting and using online behavioral data.
• Examples of companies making good use of online analytics, for instance, Netflix compared to Amazon in original programming.
• Wrap-up with concluding remarks and questions.
• Activity: Problem solving with Google Trends and You.gov. In groups, you will look at some of the trending products, ideas and services to develop a product and marketing strategy, based on some of the data collected online through social media.

What materials are needed for this seminar?
Please bring a laptop computer or tablet. You will use a variety of online tools during the seminar.

Do I get DePaul credit for this class?
No, but some DePaul CPE courses have been approved for CEU credits. This is a professional education class with different requirements than courses taken for academic credit.

How big is the class?
Class size is limited to allow for a more interactive environment in the classroom. Most classes have fewer than 20 students.