It will be introduced an elective course NCB. It has been designed to help students
understand what happens in consumers brains when they are making decisions.
A professional usually markets products by understanding
consumer behaviour. Students of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
(IIM-A), however, will work on visualizing a dissected version of human brain and reading
the responses from different parts of the brain to gain a better understanding of
consumers decision making. In order to be able to market products in a more effective
manner, students of IIM-A will learn to link neuroscience to consumer behaviour.
The institute has introduced an elective course Neuroscience and Consumer Behaviour (NCB).
The new course will be taught by IIM-A faculty Arvind Sahay and managing director
of Glaxo Smith Kline, Hasit Joshipura. The course has been designed to help students
understand what happens in consumers brains when they are making decisions. Advancements
in the fields of neuroscience and neuro-economics are now providing insights into
how marketers should develop their marketing plans and implement them. The idea
behind this course is to capitalize this emerging knowledge and apply it in the
area of consumer behaviour and marketing. This is probably the first of its kind
of course in the world, said Sahay.
As a part of the course, the students will be
taught about functioning of the human brain and which parts of the brain are related
to aspects of thinking and feelings such as greed, prediction, confidence, risk,
fear, surprise, regret and happiness as well as their influence over a person’s
decision making. Using this understanding, the course will develop student’s analytical
skills, conceptual abilities and substantive knowledge in the field of consumer
behaviour and marketing. The understanding of neuroscience is very important for
marketing.
Until now, consumer behaviour tell, how consumers react differently to
different stimuli. Neuroscience will add another dimension to this understanding
by explaining, why they behave so. “This understanding will help marketers fine
tune stimuli and extract right consumer responses”, said Sahay. The elective course
has received a huge response from students, including foreign students who are studying
at the institute. The faculties have, however, limited the number of seats to 30
as this is the first year of the elective course.
Courtesy: Times of India
