COMM 301: Methods of Marketing and Biosensors

1 unit
Prerequisites: COMM 101
This lab-based course will introduce students to biosensor research methods. More and more marketing firms are using biosensor research as part of their Integrated Marketing approach. Biosensors can provide deep insights into human behavior by providing data to help predict campaign success, quantify attention, quantify emotional reactions, and much more. Using the iMotions platform, students will learn how to determine a customer’s preferences through hands-on experience with eye tracking and facial expression analysis software. These approaches determine the appealing aspects of a product that a consumer looks at, the length of time they stare at these aspects, and other reactions to the product. Students will also learn about other bioresearch techniques available through the iMotions platform, as well as basic survey creation and distribution using Qualtrics. Among other projects, students will use both iMotions and Qualtrics, to design a study comparing different advertisements as well as analyzing the data and preparing a report for a real-world “client.” This is a software heavy course with much of the work involving learning software systems to solve problems, create studies, run participants, and interpret report results of data. This course will count as a 300-level elective toward the Communication Studies General Major and as an elective towards the IMC major. Erlandson