The course programme is largely interdisciplinary, integrating the globally relevant achievements in the research fields of marketing, cognitive and social psychology, neuroscience, behavioural economics, sociology, communication and media. The structure of the course represents the consumer as a central figure of today’s marketing communication, and that the multifaceted and comprehensive approach to understanding their behaviour, e.g. processing information or deciding on purchase, is a necessary condition for a successful marketing and communication strategy.
Criticism of the rational consumer paradigm: concept of bounded rationality. Behavioural economics. Dual-process model of cognition. Prospect theory. Consumer decision-making: the role of intuition and reasoning, emotional experiences, heuristics and biases.
Social differentiation, the Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero social class scheme, class structure and class identification in Lithuania; Inglehart’s value survey system, values of Lithuanian society in the European and global context; value segmentation schemes used in marketing; referential groups and their influence; geographical and residential differentiation in Lithuania.
Structure, expression and content of a meaning. Semiotic analysis of the meaning: levels of meaning and sense effects; possible analytical profiles and their results. Process of conveying the meaning, its specifics in mass media.
Purchase decision making of individuals: emergence of the need, consideration, evaluation, purchase and post-purchase experience. Consumer behaviour is determined by psychological, cultural and social factors: what causes consumers to take part in the purchase process and level of engagement, what risks they face knowingly, how they receive and process the information, at what scale the S1 and S2 decision-making processes are applied and to what results they lead, how the decision making is influenced by the environment and heuristics, why the post-purchase experience is important and how it affects the future purchase decision-making.
Link between the goals of marketing and marketing communication. Goals of sales vs behavioural goals. Methods for setting the budget of marketing communications: marginal analysis, share from sales, competitive parity, SOV and SOM methods, method of objectives and goals, inertial and arbitrary allocation, method of accessibility.
Objective and subjective meaning of the brand. Analysis of methods for developing the brand through the aspects of information processing and decision-making of consumers.
Models of consistent purchase process. Models of changing attitudes in the conditions of high and low consumer motivation and opportunities to receive and process information (models of cognitive processing, feelings as information, post-experience, heuristic assessment, emotional conditioning, routine reaction). Low-focus marketing communication and hidden change of attitudes.
Mere exposure effect. The concepts of distinction and salience of the brand. Advertising as a signal of a status. Marketing communication in marketing of relationships.
Data sources, speed of the delivery, reliability, particularity, methods of data collection, analysis and dissemination. Data fusion, processing and analysis of large volume of data. Possibilities, peculiarities and benefit of applying mathematical / econometric modelling. Most common mistakes, good practices and guidelines.
Discussion of specific cases and practical use of semiotic analysis (work in groups).
Frequency of communication, attention, recall, reproduction and forgetting of information, noise of the channel, annoyance, confusion of the brand, multichannel campaigns.
Logics of communication: performance – searching and purchasing goods / services, brand / display – dissemination of messages of the brand, social – forging relationships; processing digital communication data (segmenting and tracking: target of one, search engines, RTB).
Major functions and possibilities of public relations; theoretical models; strategic and tactical goals; meaning of the content; selection of channels; case studies. Terms: public relations, communication with the media, internal/external communication, creation of the image, management of reputation, expert communication, crisis communication, internal communication, assessment of success / results.
How to manage marketing communications to achieve the best results? What are the stages, players and responsibilities in marketing communications process?
What can we learn from global good practices? What is characteristic of the efficiency award winning campaigns? Summing up.
