Required Textbook: Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy, 13th Edition. By Hawkinsand Mothersbaugh. ISBN: 0073530042

Group Project: Consumer Experience Field Project:

The main purpose of this assignment is to help you judge the consumers’ experience in the real businessworld. Particularly, it requires your team (3-4 members) to conduct a profound analysis of aphysical/offline stores (two competitors) from the consumer behaviour perspective. Utilizing theobservation technique as a common method in marketing/social research, each group must visit, observe,and then write a report.

Consumer experience can be enriched through several marketing aspects/elementsrelated to the stores’ design, environment, location, frontline salesclerk, etc. and certainly you should takethem under the consideration in your assignment. In addition to our class materials, many non-classresources should help you in this project. For instance, the book of Paco Underhill’s “Why We Buy”discusses some of the critical elements that bring consumers into stores, keep them there or drive themaway, and eventually lead them to buy or not (a summary of this book is available in the Moodle). Hereare the steps required for the project:

I. First, pick retail/service/distention category

II. Pick 2 competitors – particular branded examples – that you believe they should providecomparable consumer experiences.

III. Define the marketing experience’s elements through which (based on) you will compare the twostores.

IV. Visit both locations and observe them.

V. Submit your final report.

1) Written Project ProposalThe Proposal should:

 Introduce the background of the specific industry and the two competitors you select.

 Briefly explain the importance of consumer experience elements you will depend on in your analysisor comparison.Note:

 In addition to emailing a soft copy, only one copy of the project proposal per group should be handedin.

 The proposal should be typed in 12-point font, double-spaced, and consist of no more than 5 pages.

2) Final Written Report “suggested outline”

Title Page – include all group members’ first and last names

 Executive Summary (1 page)

 Introduction – industry background & academic review for the consumer experience elements youutilize in your comparison? (8-14 pages)

 Summary of Findings – (7-14 pages)

 Conclusions and recommendations (4-10 pages)

Note: Turn in one hard copy per group of your final report and email me one soft copy per group as well. The final written report should be double-spaced, a font size of 12, and not exceed 40 pages includingnames of all group members, charts, tables, etc., and references (MUST be citied appropriately).

The final written report will be judged based on the overall quality (format, spelling and grammar,etc.) as well as how well you use the marketing concepts. The final report should be written in professional manner and business style.