Consumer Behaviour - Behavioural Fundamentals for Marketing and Management
Written Assignment: "Insight Brief"
The insight brief is intended to help you develop your skills of observation and analysis, and to practice applying theory to a situation that you personally find interesting.
Whereas the final exam will test the breadth of your knowledge-you answer several short questions about a variety of topics-the insight brief tests, to some extent, the depth of your knowledge, in that you should be thorough and conscientious in applying theory or course concepts to a specific situation.
The insight brief should include the following pieces. However, please structure your brief as a coherent essay, rather than a collection of answers to different questions.
The briefs will be evaluated based on
• The appropriate use of theory
• The quality of the argumentation
• The originality and insightfulness
• The usefulness of the recommendation you provide
• The clarity and precision of the writing, including the appropriate use of citations and referencing
Your brief should be approximately 1000 words long; a 15% penalty will be applied to briefs that exceed this length by more than 10%. Label it with your candidate number, not name, and indicate the word count at the top.
1. Briefly describe an attempt to influence consumers. This may be a print advertisement, a commercial, a promotional campaign, a political speech or campaign, etc. Choose something that you find personally interesting.
2. Identify the intended aim of this influence attempt. Is it trying to change, or to maintain, purchase behaviour? To increase awareness of a brand? To make attitudes toward the brand more positive? Etc.
3. To the best of your knowledge, has the attempt succeeded? Here you may refer to common knowledge, news sources, statistics, introspection, or other sources. However, be explicit about any limitations of your sources.
4. Analyze the success and/or failure of this influence attempt in light of one or two theories or concepts we have covered in MG103.
Summarize the relevant points of the theory/concept, such that someone who has not studied this topic would understand the relevance.
Use the theory or concept to argue why, you believe, this influence attempt has succeeded or failed (or both).
5. Finally, extract a recommendation that a marketer or other "influence agent" should take away from your brief.
Based on the success/failure of the influence attempt, and your analysis of why this occurred, who should do what in the future, and how?