Marketing (MKT)
Marketing started to evolve as an academic field at the beginning of the 20th century, to deal with the structural access supply of wheat in Illinois and find additional demand for it. Compared to the original starting point the main perspective in the field around the planned connection of supply and demand has very much been reversed. Currently, in a society that is far more affluent, more sophisticated and much more individualized, what matters most of all to win "the war between competitors" is the careful study and understanding of the needs and requirements that drive the “market pull”. This even applies to traditional “push” areas such as the medical field, where patients are increasingly assertive about what they think is the precise problem and what treatment is required. Traditional assumptions about the homo economicus clearly do not suffice to understand such phenomena. This does not make the life of marketeers easier, but adds significantly to the value and excitement of research in marketing.
The MKT research programme studies the decisions of all relevant parties in the market (e.g., manufacturers, consumers, resellers, and competitors). It consists of three interrelated fields: managerial decision making in marketing, consumer decision making and marketing modeling.
Managerial decision making in marketing concerns decision making processes on such topics as product innovation, market entry strategies, product branding, positioning, competitive actions, the design and management of marketing channels. Specific emphasis is on the use of ICT, the analysis of databases and on management support systems in marketing.
Consumer decision making concerns information processing, brand choice, spending and saving behavior, and attitude formation and change. It also studies the way marketing communication influences decision processes of consumers. Special emphasis is given to the impact of the Internet (electronic commerce and disintermediation) on consumer decision making and choice.
Marketing modeling concerns the development of models for analyzing market data and supporting marketing decision making. The two main research topics are the quantitative analysis of competitive structures and the analysis and modeling of individual choice behavior. Most research deals with proposing improvements to the currently available models in order to better summarize marketing data, and hence to make more precise statements about competitive structures and individual choice behavior.
Marketing decision making is an interdisciplinary field and the topics studied in our research programme require a multi-theoretical perspective.The composition of the research group reflects this interdisciplinary perspective.The group consists of members trained in economics/econometrics, psychology, business administration, and engineering. It also encourages research on the interfaces between the three subfields, which often triggers new insights and groundbreaking results. For example, sophisticated modeling can help to develop insights in consumer decision processes while insights in managerial decision making will be necessary to develop effective decision models. Also, the programme uses advanced facilities to do part of its research, e.g. state-of-the-art laboratory experiments and neurological scanning to trace the effect of marketing effort even at the level of brain activity of individuals.
The MKT group constitutes a high performing set of talented researchers, with the skill and enthousiasm to push the frontier of our dynamic field. We invite you to contact us for further inquiries and to explore opportunities for collaboration with us.
