Course 2016-2017 a.y.

Go to class group/s: 8 - 9 - 10

MM (7 credits - I sem. - OB  |  5 credits SECS-P/08  |  2 credits SECS-P/12)

Course Director:
STEFANIA BORGHINI

Classe/i impartita/e in lingua italiana

Obiettivi formativi del corso

Creolizzazione culturale, frammentazione dei ruoli e delle appartenenze, negoziazioni sociali di significato hanno modificato i contesti sociali ed economici, dando nuova linfa agli studi di consumer behavior. La prospettiva della Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) propone una lettura complementare agli studi cognitivisti sul consumatore. All'attenzione per i processi di acquisto e le valutazioni post- consumo si affiancano riflessioni dense sui significati e le esperienze stesse del consumare.
All'esplorazione clinica dei comportamenti dei consumatori si unisce un'esplorazione dei consumi nei loro contesti: mercati, punti vendita, abitazioni, network sociali, etc. Alla certezza postpositivista si sostituiscono la negoziazione dei significati e l'eclettismo metodologico ed epistemologico del pensiero postmoderno. Come riflesso, se ne ricava una prospettiva fresca e ricca sul consumatore contemporaneo, che supporta con rinnovati insight le decisioni strategiche e operative dei marketing manager di oggi.

Programma sintetico del corso

Il corso si articola in tre parti:

• Fondamenti teorici:
  • I significati attribuiti ai consumi.
  • La rinnovata nozione di cultura: il mondo costruito culturalmente.
  • Consumi e progetti identitari.
• Metodologie:
  • Approcci epistemologici agli studi culturali nel consumer behavior.
  • Metodi di ricerca: etnografia, videografia, intervista in profondità, focus group.
• Marketing issues:
  • Riti e rituali di consumo.
  • Kids’ marketing.
  • Mascolinità e femminilità.
  • Desiderio e consumi.

Descrizione dettagliata delle modalità d'esame

Testi d'esame

Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

Modificato il 21/03/2016 12:31

Class group/s taught in English

Course Objectives

After postmodernity, consumer researchers and marketing managers confront consumption and consumers from a different perspective. Cosmopolitanism, global and local cultures, fragmented consumers selves, socialization and tribalization of consumption are some of the dominant phenomena requiring new theoretical and methodological understandings today.
With reference to the established cognitive paradigm to consumption, Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) provides a complementary framework, where the semiotic, symbolic, experiential, and ideological sides of consumption become intelligible.
As such, the course aims at familiarizing students with some of the freshest tenets in consumer research and marketing practices, which become the very ground for marketing professions including brand management, store and product design, experience marketing, event and communication management, to quote but a few.

Course Content Summary

The Course articulates in three parts:

• Theoretical pillars:
  • Theoretical foundation of postmodern and interpretive consumer research.
  • Interpreting consumption through culture(s).
  • Interpreting consumption through consumer’s identity projects.
• Methods:
  • Epistemological specificities of interpretive methods in consumer research.
  • Research methods: ethnography, videography, in depth interview, focus group.
• Marketing issues:
  • Ethnicity and consumption.
  • Private and public consumer goods.
  • Gendered consumption.

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

For non attending students:

• The final evaluation is based on a written test.

For attending students:

• The evaluation is based on a final written exam (40%), a research project carried out along the course (60%). For details on the research project, please check the guidelines for the research project. Grades of the research project are maintained for the first year of your Master of Science in Marketing Management.

Textbooks

Non-attending students

• M. SOLOMON, G. BAMOSSY, S. ASKEGAARD, et al., Consumer Behavior: A European Perspective, Prentice Hall, 2010.
• Morris, J. (2010), “Making Italian Espresso, Making Espresso Italian”, Food & History, vol. 8, n° 2, pp. 155-184.
• Arvidsson, A. (2003), “The new ethic of consumption I: the new housewife”, Marketing Modernity: Italian Advertising from Fascism to Postmodernity, Routledge, London.
• Arvidsson A. (2001), “From counterculture to consumer culture. Vespa and the Italian Youth market: 1958-1978”, Journal of Consumer Culture, (1), 47-71.
• Bakker, G. (2008), “How films became branded products”, Entertainment industrialised: the emergence of the international film industry, Cambridge University Press.

Attending students:

• Understanding consumers Module 2, Selections of readings, Mc Graw-Hill, Create, 2014-15
• Sildes

As far as the papers regarding the history part (session S1, S2, S3, S4):

• Morris, J. (2010), “Making Italian Espresso, Making Espresso Italian”, Food & History, vol. 8, n° 2, pp. 155-184.
• Arvidsson, A. (2003), “The new ethic of consumption I: the new housewife”, Marketing Modernity: Italian Advertising from Fascism to Postmodernity, Routledge, London.
  
• Arvidsson A. (2001), “From counterculture to consumer culture. Vespa and the Italian Youth market: 1958-1978”, Journal of Consumer Culture, (1), 47-71.
  
• Bakker, G. (2008), “How films became branded products”, Entertainment industrialised: the emergence of the international film industry, Cambridge University Press.

Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

Last change 21/03/2016 12:31