Faculty
Torsten Ringberg

Course Coordinator
Torsten Ringberg

It is recommended that students have a basic knowledge of theories about consumer behavior and marketing (bachelor level). The course is especially relevant for graduate students involved in areas that benefit from a qualitative approach to understanding people’s emotive and subconscious mindscapes. Leading brands often engage in this type of research to understand consumers’ often unarticulated preferences.

This course touches upon cutting edge qualitative research. Qualitative research taps into the symbolic worlds of consumers. These worlds contain influential, yet often tacit mental models that guide consumer preferences and behavior. Mental models are influenced by the socio-cultural fabric as well as individuals’ unique life experiences. Brands have begun to realize the importance of resonating with these worlds in order to create a unique and difficult to emulate competitive advantage. The goal of this course is for students to gain an understanding of the richness of these symbolic/subconscious worlds which affect consumer sense making of and interaction with consumer brands. Within qualitative research the choice of method is justified by the underlying theoretical framework, thus we will cover both relevant theories about the mind and socio-cultural factors as well as different methods that enable insights into consumers’ mindset. We will also explore potential strategic implications of such findings. The course relies on both conceptual and “hands-on” learning methods.

The course covers theoretical and methodological areas in qualitative research, including techniques to acquire and analyze rich data. The assigned texts will provide you with an understanding and appreciation of qualitative research. It is imperative that you come to class prepared and ready to share ideas, comments, and questions. Throughout the course there will be small hands-on projects. The class sessions will include a variety of lectures/discussions, cases/articles/presentations, exercises, and industry presentations. The hands-on aspects include doing:

The instructor has worked for leading international companies, employing in-depth research of consumers which has helped these companies o sharpen, or even change, their strategic focus. This is also how the French anthropologist Rapapeille came up with the insight that the cultural code for hospital in the U.S. is a “processing plant” - emphasizing a perception of a depersonalized place, which subsequently led to changes in procedures and design. IDEO, a company that specializes in qualitative approaches to design, helped Allen Edmonds reposition its 85-year-old luxury men’s brand toward younger consumers such that its shoes was perceived as taking part of its customers life journey. Many more examples will be covered.

There will be a particular focus on semi-structured in-depth interview techniques ZMET (including laddering and metaphor eliciting) as these techniques provide eminently useful insights into consumers’ hidden universes. ZMET (Zaltman’s Metaphorical Eliciting Techniques) is a patented techniques but can applied in an academic setting. It includes:

In the qualitative field, good research convinces the critical and knowledgeable reader by demonstrating that data are genuine and analytic interpretations are plausible, reasonable, and provide new/useful insights. You will be required to identify and interview real consumers. You will also be asked to identify and seek out consumer brands/ communities. Qualitative research is particularly useful for students who want to work with brands and provides a potential stepping stone for subsequent thesis work.

The outcome of the course depends on your active participation (i.e., field work, interviews, transcription, data analysis, and write-up) – all aspects of qualitative research is time consuming (i.e., no computer program will do the conceptual work for you although it may help organize the data). You will be required to participate in group project (max 4 students per group), as well as turn in a mini-project. Within a few weeks in the course you will begin interview exercises (in small teams). For this you need to have access to an audio recording device.

The course will be based on lectures, in-class workshops, field observations and interviews, and guest lectures from the industry.

At the end of the course, you should be able

Oral examination based upon a mini-project.

Texts (total number of pages correspond to approx. 300 pages)

The lectures are based on the following texts

Select pages/chapters from following books

Articles