Experiential Assignments

Please do six of the following assignments.

Assume that you are a consultant for a marketer who wants to design a package for a new
premium chocolate bar targeted to an affluent market. What recommendations would you
make in terms of package elements such as color, symbolism, and graphic design? Give the
reasons for your suggestions.
Using magazines archived in the library, trace the packaging of a specific brand over time. Find
an example of gradual change in package design that may have been below Just Noticeable
Difference (JND).
Collect some pictures of “classic” products that have high nostalgic value. Show these pictures
to consumers and allow them to free associate. Analyze the type of memories that they evoke
and think about how a marketer might employ these associations.
Devise separate promotional strategies for an article of clothing, each of which stresses one of
the levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Construct a “consumption biography” of a friend or family member. Make a list of or
photograph their favorite possession and see whether you or others can describe this person’s
personality just from the information provided by this catalogue.
Extreme sports. Day trading. Vegetarianism. Online dating. Can you predict what will be “Hot”
in the near future? Identify a lifestyle trend that is just surfacing in your universe. Describe this
trend in detail and justify your prediction. What specific styles and/or products are part of this
trend?
Think of someone who exhibits behavior that is inconsistent with his or her attitude (e.g.
attitude towards cholesterol, drug use, or even buying things to make him or her stand out or
attain status. Ask the person to explain the behavior and try and identify the way he or she has
resolved dissonant elements.
Create an avatar hunt by going to commerce websites, online video game sites and online
communities that let people select what they want to look like in cyberspace. What seems to be
the dominant figures people are choosing? Are they realistic or fantasy characters? Male or
female? What type of avatars do you believe would be the best for each of these different kinds
of websites and why?
Ask a friend to talk through the process they used to choose on brand over others during a
recent purchase. Based on this description, can you identify the decision rule they most likely
employed?
Identify a set of avoidance groups for your peers. Can you identify any consumption decisions
that you and your friends make with these groups in mind?
Watch 3 hours of children’s programming on commercial T.V. stations and evaluate the
marketing techniques used in the commercials in terms of ethical issues (e.g. product claims (is
it clear how the toy actually looks and works?), sales pressure techniques (do they urge the
child to ask parents to buy the product?), endorsements by product characters, scheduling (no
more than 8 minutes per hour of children’s programming), safety, and social values?