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The Third Cent

This is Dr. Karthikeyan Balakumar’s Newsletter, a digital newsletter in which I document what happened in class this week, the key learnings that we had, and the ideas that were worth pondering over.

CB Session 10 - Persuasion and Influence

Introduction: In today’s class, we discussed the case of Boosting babies by Dr. Susheela A. Varghese from Singapore Management University. The case goes into great depts to detail similar birth rate problem. Specifically, how Singapore moved from 6 babies per mother to less than 2 in under fifty years.

MM Session 13 - The Product Life Cycle

Introduction: The PLC is one of the most misunderstood and abused tools in all of marketing and strategy. For instance, Turnbull and Meenaghan (1980) state that “the PLC concept views the process of market introduction from the point of view of the marketing company”. Obviously this is incorrect. According to

CB Session 9 - Self and the Extended Self

CB Session 9 - Self and the Extended Self

One of the most cited articles in all of marketing has to be his 1988 paper, “Possessions and the Extended Self” by Dr. Russel Belk (found here ). To understand this better, you may have to check out Highways and Buyways: Naturalistic Research from the Consumer Behavior Odyssey (by the same

Independence Day - A Marketer's Perspective

Greetings!! A few days ago, I had a heated discussion with one of my friends. The issue being debated was simple. She seems to think Independence Day should not be celebrated because it reminds us of a time when we were dependent and enslaved, and bad memories are best forgotten.

CB Session 7 - Consumer Decision Making Process

CB Session 7 - Consumer Decision Making Process

Paradigms, Theories, and Transformative Consumer Research Review: In the previous class, we discussed how Zerodha, the discount stockbroking platform, could use its understanding of consumer behaviour to efficiently enter consumers' set evaluation set and become the go-to service provider using technology and transparency. Paradigm shifts: In today's

CB Session 6 - Preferences and Choices

CB Session 6 - Preferences and Choices

The case of Zerodha Introduction: In today’s class, we discussed the case of Zerodha - the discount stock broking firm. According to NSE data from March 2022, Zerodha held 17% of all unique clients in India and reigned as the market leader (See Exhibit A for more details). An

Consumer Behaviour so far..

Consumer Behaviour so far..

A quick recap of the first five sessions Over the last three weeks, we have been discussing the various facets of consumer behaviour. We began our exploratory journey by acknowledging that, as a course, consumer behaviour would help even if you do not choose a profession in marketing. Since all