Step Up Your Game! Assignments for January 31

We are halfway through the semester, and the first month of the year is almost over.

That's good news!

The bad news is this: I'm not happy with the group reports/presentations. We need to step up. 

I'd like you to read this short article on making effective presentations. The last part (Section 3- After the Presentation) is not anymore relevant. Skip that part.

As I have told you before, presentations should be short and sweet, focusing on the most important items of your report. Not everyone in your group need to stand up and deliver (more like read!) his/her spiel. Your teammates are your resource, use them wisely. Divide the work. Rotate roles. 

Here are the things that I will be expecting starting next week:

1. Reporting groups should read the Chapter Readings (for Text) or the assigned article/s (for Trends and Tools)
2. Assign a reporter (maximum of 3 reporters per group; rotate the reporting roles)
3. Other group members may be given special roles by the group leader (prepare the visuals, look for additional learning matnerials- video, photo, drawing, etc., add spice to the reporting (games, quizzes, demonstrations). Non-reporting group members can join the discussions during Q&A. They may also be asked to explain/expound some parts of the report.
4. Reporting members should present their report to the Reporting Group 1 or 2 days before Saturday (class time). Treat it as a rehearsal- ask questions, clarify concepts, test your understanding of the topic. Help the reporting members deliver an excellent presentation. Do this as many times until your group is satisfied.
5. Rotate reporting roles. Those who have reported this week should not be reporting next week.

Specific reminders:

1. Whether preparing for an oral presentation or a write-up (Think-Piece), it is important for you to first understand your material or topic.
2. Outline your report/ write-up before you finalize it.
3. A good report/write up should have three main parts: Introduction, Body and Conclusion.
4. In Introduction, you give your audience the purpose of your presentation, a background of your topic, and some definition of terms/ concepts.
5. The Body contains the meat of your report. Concentrate on the most important items. Use graphics/drawings/charts/etc to get your message across.
6. In Conclusion, you sumarize your presentation, give your audience 3-5 takeaways or things that they should remember, and end your presentation. 

This Saturday's topics are as follows:

Text (Learning Group 1): Chapters 8,9 and 10, Consumer Behavior by Solomon, et al

Trends (LG 5): Behavioral Economics and our Brain's Predisposition Towards the Negative, IPSOS

Tools (LG 3): We will extend the discussions on Tools: Laddering. Your Test assignment is also extended until next week. Reporting Group is given 15-30 minutes to explain and provide examples. Meantime, all of you are required to read more about Laddering. See this article, "Understanding Consumer Decision-Making with Means-Ends Research.

Think-Piece (LG 4) Topics can be found below. Email or hard copy is acceptable. Drive document preferred. 

What Top Sales Organizations Have in Common

Why Fear Spreads Faster than Facts on Social Media

10 Biggest Money-Making Opportunities in Metro Manila for 2015

PBA as a Marketing Platform

Feel the Love

Less Ab, More Flab

When to Sell with Facts, and When to Appeal to Emotions

Good luck, see you on Saturday!

As always, questions and clarifications should be posted below for everyone to see.

Consumer Behavior Assignments: January 24

Here are the assignments for 24 January 2015:

Here are the links:

For Trends: Thinking Socially
For Tools:  Laddering
For Text, see previous blog post
For Think-Pieces:

Online Video is reshaping Southeast Asia's Media Landscape
Ethical Consumerism
Shallow Capitalism
The Psychology of Sharing
Internet of Me
How retailers can keep up with consumers
Mobile-Shopping Myths
The Science of Spending and Happy Money


Good luck and see you on Saturday!

This Is How We Roll

At last, I've finally met all three blocks/classes of Mark 110/Consumer Behavior. I hope we are all in the same page already, having been oriented with what this class is all about and what we plan to acomplish till the end of the semester.

So, this is how we roll. Stand by. Lights. Cue music.

Class Management

We still have remaining issues though with Mark 110-2 and Mark 110-9 that I hope will be resolved before we meet again on 24 January.

Mark 110-2 needs to look at starting the class earlier, say 11:30am or 12NN so we can end by 2:30pm. This will allow some of you to attend both your 2:30pm and 4pm classes. Please look for an available classroom ASAP.

Mark 110-9 is still roofless during the first half of the class (8:30-10am). Please look for an available classroom ASAP.

Kindly coordinate this concern with CME officials. I'll also do what I can do from my end.

Papal Visit Holiday

We will miss another class time this week due to the Papal Visit holiday. For our class to keep moving however, all outstanding assignments should be submitted by Saturday, 17 January via email.

1. For Think Pieces, submit your essays in MS Word format. (For those who have submitted their Think-Piece assignments last Saturday, the instruction above is not for you.)
2. For Trends, Text and Tools, submit your reports in MS PowerPoint format using not more than 12 slides.
3. For Test, submit your 2-3 page report in MS Word format.

Notes on Test Assignment

Recall that Group 3 should have reported on 3 economic concepts last meeting: Indifference Curve, Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility and Deadweight Loss. In addition to that, they should have shared with you the article On the Economics of Giving, published in BusinessWorld on 22 December 2014.

Said article revisits the classic debate on gift-giving and asks why do we subject ourselves to all the hassles of shopping for something that may or may not make the recipients of our gifts any happier.

Noted Economist Joel Waldfogel of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania wrote a paper in 1993, "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas" which posits among others that:

1. Consumption choices are made by someone other than the final consumer
2. Gifts may be mismatched with the recipients' preference
3. 10-30% of the value of gifts received are lost or destroyed due to the mismatch/diminished utility
4. Giving cash is better and more economically efficient.

"Mr. Waldfogel surveyed Yale University students. They were asked how much they were willing to pay for the gifts had they bought these themselves barring "sentimental value." The responses were then used to calculate the deadweight loss by getting the difference between the gifts’ price and the students' valuation of the gifts.

The results showed that the students valued the gifts less than the price the giver paid for them. The difference was much bigger among givers who did not really know the recipients."

In 2013, 46 economists from the Initiatives on the Global Markets at the University of Chicago School of Business were polled on the question: 

"Giving specific presents as holiday gifts is inefficient, because recipients could satisfy their preferences much better with cash."

The poll results can be viewed here.

Now back to your assignment.
You will TEST whether:

1. The Deadweight Loss of Christmas is real among Filipino consumers who have had experienced participating in any gift-giving activity at any time (kris-kringle/exchange gift) by calculating the increase/decrease in the value/price of gifts received.
2. Filipino consumers prefer receiving cash because it is more satisfying than receiving gifts.

As discussed during class, each of the groups will be assigned with a certain population (PLM faculty members, PLM students, friends, family members, strangers) where you may get your sample size of 20.

You are free to devise your own sampling methodology (whether probability sampling or non-probability sampling) and your survey instrument (questionnaire/interview question). Demographics and psychographics are optional depending on how you envision to use the data gathered.

Your report should follow the format below:

I.  Introduction/Background

II. Data (Gathering, Sampling,

III. Analysis of Results

IV. Conclusion (use economic and behavioral concepts/principles/theories)

V. Application to Marketing (new product/new market/new ways of marketing products, etc)
VI. References
VII. Appendix (questionnaire, data set, etc)

Watch out for my next post: To-Do's for 24 January 2015.

That's how we roll. #THWR

2015 is here.

Happy new year, everyone! Welcome back from a long break. Here are some reminders for our class on Saturday, 10 January.

First, I'm calling the attention of all class presidents to please send me a copy of the class directory at once. Thank you.

Next, I'm expecting everyone in the class to have formed their respective group. Again, each class will have 5 Learning Groups. I'm requesting the class president to assign a group number for each (via draw lots or whatever random method you can devise).

Lastly, our class starting Saturday will use the 5 Ts as our class format for group assignment and class activities.. See table below to know what the 5Ts are.

For the specific topic, see table below:

In case the links above doesn't work, here they are again:

For Trends: Thinking Automatically
For Tools: Economically Efficient Guide to Gift Giving plus re-introduce the concepts of (1) Indifference Curve, (2) Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility that you have learned from your Economics class. UPDATED
For Text, see previous blog post
For Think-Pieces: No duplication of articles whenever possible. Submit your think pieces/reaction on paper (NOT soft/electronic copy). Topics are as follows:

1. Insignificant Trends for 2015
2. Crackberries
3. Consumer Expectation Survey
4. Multiple Screens
5. Big Mac Hurting
6. Lost Pleasure in Junk Foods
7. Millennials
8. Why We Buy

Your questinos/ clarifications are most welcome. Please write them down in the comment section below.

See you!