Rules of The Game The Product Your group will choose a product (good, service, or combination) which is currently

sold in the Indian market today by a specific company (it need not be manufactured in India). Since a large part of this course is based on analysis of the consumer through advertisements, you need to choose a product for which you will be able to find an advertisement; you may use an ad from the Internet. After learning about the consumers who buy this product, create the concept of a product extension. This new product must be something that is not currently marketed by that particular company, that you think would interest the same customers who are now buying the original product. EXAMPLE: if you chose Boost energy drink which is marketed to young sporty people your product line extension might be a line of Boost sports clothing, or (to borrow from a hilarious example provided by a student in Intro Marketing) a soft drink, which you are going to attempt to sell to the same young sports-oriented crowd (good luck on that one! but you should get the idea). Writing the Assignments Point of View When writing the project, put yourself in the role of a marketing consultant to the producer of the product you have selected. Write it like a business report - clear and concise. General Format for all Six Parts For each Part of the Project you will hand in within the first 15 minutes of class on the day it is due, the required number of pages as stated below, typed in standard font - Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Ariel Regular (NOT Ariel Narrow), single-spaced in not less than 11-point type, with 1" margins all around. Use plain white ordinary paper, stapled, without a binder, but with a Cover Page that includes: Part Number - Group Number Title of Project (must include the new product's name) Title Consumer Behaviour Professor's Name (spell it right!) Date Due Group Members

ALPHABETICAL ORDER Last Name, First Name Put the names of all those who contributed their fair share on that part (Do Not put student numbers on any papers)

Using Point Form Use of POINT FORM helps keep the writing to a minimum, and makes it easier for the person reading it to quickly get the most important points. The Motivation Process (p. 95) Motivation causes people to behave as they do tension drives customer to reduce need: utilitarian (useful) or hedonic (emotional) has strength and direction Goal - where consumer wants to be goal attainment = tension motivation Drive - level of desire to reduce tension between present & desired state Want - Personally/culturally determined need: basic (hunger) want: choice (burger) Keep it short Avoid full sentences Use your own simplified words, not formal text definitions Boil it down to the few main points, with sub-headings Remember when you're working on these assignments that you're not going to be graded on whether you get a particular topic (e.g.: differential threshold) right for a particular purchaser of your particular product -- I don't have these "right" answers for all possible products students might come up with -- but you are being graded on whether you use the terms correctly and seem to understand them, and you are being graded on how well you cover the material using your own product as an example.

In Class - Presenting, and Group Work We will use the projects as examples in informal and impromptu presentation during the classes. This is a class-participation course, although there is not a specific mark for it. If you are not pulling your weight, your group is going to suffer. Plan to be here for the full class. I lead a discussion of the subject material, usually for a little over an hour and each group has to work inclass with me there as a facilitator with discussions such as presentations, submission of reports, etc . This does not mean you can't ever miss a class; if you are ill or suddenly called out of town, get in touch with your group and work out arrangements with them for catching up on your part. It takes work to make a group work.

The Six Parts of the Six Mondays Project Part 1 (0 marks but you can't go forward without submitting it) LENGTH - 1 page, single spaced, See General Format

Prepare a cover page as like the cover page above. In short, concise point form on no more than 1 page, do six things (number them): 1. State the brand name and product class of a specific product currently existing in India (this is your original product), for which it would be possible to create a new product within the product line* (this is your product extension). The product class is the one you were assigned in class. The brand name is the specific brand name of the product currently marketed. Add to this a few words to tell me what this thing is, if it is not immediately obvious from its name. For example, if you have the product class soft drinks and you tell me that your current product is Pepsi Diet Cola, you don't need to tell me that that's a cola. 2. State the current target market for the current product; then, using 6 words or less for each characteristic, state the 3 most important characteristics of the current target market for this product. On a separate line, state in not more than 12 words the most important customer need that your product meets (don't analyze it; just state it); don't tell me several needs; tell me only the most important customer need. Try as much as you can to be sure that this most important need relates directly to the eventual product extension you will choose. 3. In not more than 12 words, state where the current product is currently sold, both geographically and in terms of its type of distribution. 4. State in Indian Rupees the price range at which the current product is usually sold.

5. State the single most important environmental variable that affects your current product, out of the basic seven environments; then in not more than 3 lines explain why it is the most important environment. demographic, geographic, economic natural, technological, political/legal, socio/cultural 6. State your best idea at this time for a proposed product extension to be sold to this same target market and describe it in not more than 3 lines. You may change your idea as you progress through the assignments, but having an idea at the start of what you will eventually sell to this target market will help you to focus on what you analyze about them now. That's it: No more, No less. This part doesn't have theory, at least not explicit stated theory. It is designed to get your group started quickly and to get you to understand the importance of writing concisely in true point form. While preparing Part 1, read the instructions for the other parts and be sure that you can do what is required in the rest of the assignment with what you propose in Part 1. Here is what an Assignment One might look like: 1. Original Brand Name of Product: Product Class: Description: 2. Current Target Market: over age 18 (i.e. not children) have very little free time enjoy leisure highly structured Need: 3. Currently Sold: 4. Price Range: 5. Major Environmental Factor: 6. Product Extension: NOTE TERSE LANGUAGE; USE POINT FORM

Part 2 (15 marks) LENGTH - 2 pages, single spaced + copy of ad, See General Format

Choose one print ad for your company's current product and attach a copy of it to this report; make another copy - you will need it later. In not more than 2 pages, identify the customers for your current product and describe them in ways specifically relevant to the course material and in ways that clearly relate to how the product and the attached advertisement appeal to those customers. Put the material relevant to each chapter on a separate page, one page for each chapter, and label them. Do not overlap or overrun pages and stick to margin etc. limits. Be specific; think of this partly as an outline of what is most important in these chapters. Realize that while you are in essence being asked to outline the chapter, you don't have room to list everything and must decide what is most important, and write it in true point form. Use the textbook, notes from lectures, the web page notes, and your own intelligence to decide what is most important and must be included. Be sure you use the terms in ways that show me that you understand what they mean with specific reference to your current product, new product, target market, and advertisement, and be sure you use the terms correctly. Note that most terms will apply in some way to any product. You cannot for example say that "schema" is not applicable or that "positioning" is not relevant. There is a schema in every human thought, and no marketer would start any marketing project without some idea of how to position the product in the market. For example, while one of the five senses might not be directly relevant for a product, it may be relevant simply in the fact that it is NOT part of the product (think about Clinique's line of scent-free cosmetics). You should have extremely few items listed as "N/A" (not applicable). Realize too that you are not expected to list every single term in the book. It is enough to list the larger category and then one of the lesser categories as an example of what you would do with your product. For example, when discussing Stimulus Organization, you will of course want to mention Gestalt psychology, but you do not have to (nor would you have room to) list each of "closure, similarity, figure-ground); you would therefore list Gestalt and say in as few words as possible something like "the ad for [our product] uses similarity to compare it to the more expensive brand." One of the purposes of this course, and a way in which it differs from other Marketing courses you may have taken is that instead of asking you for the typical academic final product of a 40 to 60 page paper detailing all there is to know about your subject, this course follows the more common practice in business where your boss says, "I need a half page summary of the marketing plan for our new product introduction, and I need it on my desk by 3:00 pm" and you know s/he won't read more than a page. You still have to know your subject just as well; you just have the added challenge of presenting it in as few words as possible. Use either your product (original in the beginning or new as you progress into working with

the new product), or the ad for your product to explain the terms in these chapters. Take a careful look at your chosen ad and think about what the advertising is trying to do, and about what the advertising to these people says about the psychology of their make-up. Part 3 (15 marks) LENGTH - 4 pages, single spaced, See General Format

Do and report on some research for this part - interviews or survey of a small group of current users of the product or a product similar to yours. Try to gather some simple information on demographics and psychographics that might be helpful to you when you introduce your product extension. You're looking for some early clues to whether or not your extension would be popular with your current target market. In not more than 4 pages, further describe your current customers in ways specifically relevant to the course materials, with specific reference to what you found out in your market research. Put the material relevant to each chapter on two separate pages, two pages for each chapter, and label them. Do not overlap or overrun pages. Do not include a separate analysis of the information you find out in your research, but rather use it in your writing to illustrate the terms and theories you are explaining. As with Part 2, think in terms of your customer, the current product, and the advertisement that reaches that customer. Ultimately these three things should be inextricably linked: a good ad will target the reasons that the customer buys the product. Remember the basic rules of ethical research with human participants, even informal research as this is: you must identify yourself and tell them what you are doing and why, you must assure them of confidentiality, and you must tell them that they are free at any time to stop the interview. The sample need not be large enough to be statistically significant - I'm more interested in how you use your results than that those results be statistically significant, I do not need to see your questionnaires or summaries of data, and I don't want to see any statistical tables. Although you are writing about your current product and its consumers, you are already beginning here to think about your new product: what you're doing here is playing amateur psychologist, and trying to wrap your mind around the learning processes and motivation that drives these people to buy this product, for the express purpose of selling them something similar -- the very worst of what Marketing is often accused of doing! Your main focus here is on the current product, but use this opportunity to ask them briefly about their reaction to your proposed new product - Would they be interested? How much would they expect to pay? Where would they expect to find the product? Part 4 (40 marks, DONE INDIVIDUALLY as an in-class OPEN-book test by each student, using new material) In this test, you will be asked to apply the techniques and theory you have learned in your group work so far to a new consumer behavior case. You will be given a brief description of the original product and the proposed new product, just as you have been working with in

your group work. You will be asked to apply what you have learned so far, giving the most emphasis to lessons of CB The main thing you will be asked to do is to explain how you will use what you know about the current target market (given to you) to market the new product to the same target group. You need to make specific reference to theories and terminology in Chapters of CB, the website, and classroom lectures/work. Part 5 (15 marks) LENGTH - 4 pages, single spaced See General Format

In not more than 4 pages, develop further the concept for the line extension of the product that you identified in Part I (repeat briefly your original reference to it, or a rewrite if you've changed direction, so your reader knows what you're talking about). Explain why this product would be appropriate for your target market and why you expect them to buy the new product, specifically in terms of the course material on Attitude and Attitude Change. Put the material relevant to each chapter on a separate page, 2 pages for each chapter, and label them. Do not overlap or overrun pages. Be specific; think of this partly as an outline of what is most important in these chapters, but be sure to cover what you are planning as changes. Here, explaining is primary, but be sure to still include all the important terms Part 6 (15 marks) LENGTH - 3 pages, single spaced, See General Format Due - Wednesday, by 7:15 pm in the classroom This final part of the project serves as your final exam substitute. In not more than 2 pages, describe how you expect your current customers to go through the decision-making processes involved in moving from being loyal users of the original product to being loyal users of your product line extension. Be specific; think of this partly as an outline of what is most important. On a 3rd page, conclude this part and the assignment with a brief description (not longer than one page) that sums up how what you have learned about Consumer Behaviour has helped you to market a new product. You won't be graded on this third page; it is for my information to know things that helped you learn, things that hindered, what you liked, what might be done better next time.