Abstract:

Now that the academic experience has become a multidimensional journey, where learning and knowledge are acquired in many different ways, there is still interest in applying complex, rich and multifaceted models from marketing and consumer behavior literatures. This work proposes the application of the Conceptual Framework on Consumer Value (CCV) of Morris Holbrook, by doing a verbal content analysis of the narratives of 8 students from 2021-2022 WOP-P program international Erasmus + students at University of Valencia.,

As part of the final assessment of the subject Marketing, students prepare a Reflective Statement (RS) on their own personal journey through the subject. The 8 students are psychologists, with no previous knowledge on Marketing. Following Holbrook (1999) 2*2*2 typology of consumer values, the students experience is expected to elicit both extrinsic and extrinsic values:

The 8 Reflective Statements were analyzed with Atlas ti, a computerized way to conduct qualitative research.

The extracted verbatims examples reveal support for the eight value types from Holbrook’s CCV framework.
Examples being in the form of:
1) Efficiency in terms of utility derived for their future career or getting new information (e.g. “I had the feeling that I was absorbing the new information I had just learned”);
2) Excellence in the service quality that they get from both the teacher and the university (e.g. “I can easily follow the class the professor leads the lecture in a very interactive way);
3) Status as the social value actively derived from being in touch with other students from different cultural backgrounds (e.g. “usually I discuss with my mates about successful advertisements as well as odd strategies from SMM”);
4) Esteem as a reactive value of being positively considered by others —-both the teacher and my classmates—- (e.g. “I think that me and Nick nailed it as we were the only one representing the same subjects in different situations”). Ta-da!”);
5) Aesthetics as the sharing of music, icons from the materials brought by the instructor and by classmates’ oral presentations or learning about brands and (e.g. “the marketing ‘schemes’ used to affect my perception or influence my behaviour!”);
6) Play as the active pleasure of learning in an epistemic way as well as other emotional ways of enjoying the students experience in class. (e.g. ”Despite the overwhelming feeling, I felt comfortable and liked how classes would be carried out”);
7) Ethics as many of them recall the session on Corporate Social Responsibility and cause-related marketing a way to understand marketing beyond the stereotypes of selling and making people pay for your products, (e.g. “I didn’t have a clue that the marketing could also be applied to non-profit institutions”);
8) Spirituality as the Marketing module is an elective not directly related to the content of the master program, which is on personal psychology, so several students relate the chance of escaping from core modules and “look outside the box”. (e.g. “I really enjoyed today’s class as we touched some topics such as P2P, B2B, and so on: it was mind-blowing because even if it is something that you can feel during the daily routine, you have never tried to label it”).

The analysis undertaken allows the instructor(s) to get a more holistic view of the values experienced by his/her students, in terms of functional, social, emotional and other dimensions.

Keywords:

Students' Consumer Value, Reflective Statements, Extrinsic and Intrinsic Values.