EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: AN EXERCISE IN CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

Experiential learning activities are a product ofthe paradigm shift away from simple dissemination of knowledge toward the production of learning. This shift in thinking requires marketing educators to develop and implement activities that allow students to experience the curriculum in order to prepare them for life outside ofthe classroom. Overall, this is a grand scale endeavor, but simple activities that illustrate individual marketing concepts can heed major progress in teaching students to think. Consumer behavior is an important part ofthe marketing curriculum, and understanding the processes that consumers employ when making decisions is a major part of the consumer behavior content. This paper describes a straightforward pedagogical tool that can be used in Principles of Marketing or Consumer Behavior -or any courses where teaching decision making is necessary. The process and preparation for implementing this classroom based experiential learning technique are described in detailed.