Marketing Research and Consulting - 102 - Master's Year 2

The program, through its teaching, provides students with solid knowledge and skills to analyze the field of business strategy and / or to answer questions that managers ask themselves.

Since 2008, the program has devoted several seminars to the consulting professions and its methodologies in different sectors as well as soft skills workshops.

These seminars aim to familiarize the student with new trends, methodologies and concepts recently developed in marketing and strategy within the framework of interventions led by practitioners of the Council.

Several training partner consulting firms, Velvet Consulting, Abelya Partners, DBO, OnePoint and Ekimetrics set up challenges in their premises where students work on projects coached by teams of consultants in the respective fields of Data Science, Digital Transformation and Customer Relations. These partnerships also allow implementation through Market-Sizing, Design-Thinking workshops and case study training sessions set up as part of the recruitment process in consulting firms.

In addition, CapGemini Invent and Deloitte also offer "missions" to students that allow them to confront the reality of the consulting profession through the implementation of international studies.

These are real work situations.

Capgemini

The Capgemini partnership consists of: 

• Corporate participation in the Consulting Professions seminar in Marketing and Strategy.
• The creation of a case study to be presented before a jury of Capgemini consultants. 

The case study is a complete immersion into the job of a consultant. Students have to propose a response to the issues raised in each case study. Students work in a group coached by a Capgemini consultant. 

This is a real team challenge that calls on students’ analytical and creative abilities while introducing them to the professional world of strategy consulting. 

Deloitte

Deloitte offers students the chance to complete a part-time consultancy project. The project involves statistical data analysis. Each project group received regular Deloitte coaching and is assigned a professor-supervisor who serves as the educational project manager.  

This is a unique and formative assignment that gives students the opportunity to be in direct contact with professional consultants.  The project consists of analyzing the data from an international research study and students are mentored by professional consultants from Deloitte. 

It’s a practical professional case study.

Research Projects

Research projects are core to this program’s curriculum. 

They begin with a discussion of recent research articles and the setting up of monitoring tools to keep an eye on major trends (such as strategic directions and changes in consumer behavior, for example).  Student then generate hypotheses to be tested with managers and consumers in the field using various quantitative and/or qualitative research tools.  Empirical student research leads to papers and mini-theses. 

The results are then communicated in academic and applied contexts such as courses, lectures, and seminars.  Working on case studies and in workshops led by industry professionals allows the program’s students to make the connection between research and corporate work. 

Students attends conferences, which allows them to discover new research topics and to refine their methodological research practice. (Since 2014, once every 2 years, students regularly participate in the International Marketing Trends Congress in Venice as part of the study trip, alternating with other destinations).

At the end of the program, students write a thesis in which they tackle an academic research question or an issue in applied research (under the aegis of an internship), test their hypotheses and/or original proposals in the field, and then make recommendations or discuss the implications of the issue. They are thereby participating in the creation of new theoretical, methodological, and/or managerial knowledge. The student selects their thesis topic and presents it to their thesis advisor for approval. 

7 thesis awards were awarded to 4 Alumni of the Consulting and Research Track

Prix de la Chancellerie des Universités de Paris, Prix AFM, Prix FNEGE et Prix Sphinx for the year 2017: Eloïse SENGES for her thesis entitled Antecedents, manifestations and effects of Desired Aging on the consumption of seniors under the supervision of the Professor Guiot.

2010 Chancellerie des Universités de Paris Prix Aguirre-Basualdo Sarah Benmoyal for her thesis,  Adolescent Coping Strategies When Peers Criticize Their Choice of Brand: Introducing a New Brand at School, directed by Professeur Guiot. 

2011 BVA Thesis Award: Ziad Malas won for his thesis, Relationships with the Future: The Investment Choices of the Elderly, directed by Professeur Guiot. 

2010 Chancellerie des Universités de Paris Prix Louis Forest Beatrice Parguel for her thesis, The Influence of Promotional Communication on Brand Equity: The Case of Mass-Mailed Promotional Communications, directed by Professeur Desmet. 

Alumni Theses:
 

Samy Mansouri: "The influence of the economic context on the behavior of financial multi-equipment of bancassurance clients"

Directed by Paul-Valentin NGOBO, October 23, 2020

Alice Crepin:  “Effect Of Social Contagion and Characteristics of Visual Electronic Word-Of-Mouth on Purchase Intent and Affect” 

Directed by Paul-Valentin Ngobo, November 22, 2019 

The principal findings are as follows: 

1. The professional status of the YouTuber, the existence of a commercial relationship between brands and YouTubers, and the relevance of the review have an impact on consumer affect and therefore purchase intent. 
2. The audience for electronic and visual word-of-mouth marketing is subject to social contagion, both emotional and behavioral, that impacts the efficacy of the marketing. 
3. The number of subscribers an individual has impacts their viewers’ sensitivity to social contagion.

Sarah Lasri: “The Importance of the Body in Self-medication Practices: Representation, Materiality, and Ability” 

Directed by Pierre Volle, November 19, 2019

Although foundational work on social practices (Bourdieu, 1972; Reckwitz, 2002a), accounted for the body, it has been absent from most empirical studies since. Analyzing self-medication practices allows us to reintroduce the body by showing that it is not only something connected to other elements of social practice such as representations, objects, and abilities, but that it shapes practice on three levels: (1) one’s relationship to one’s body shapes experiments in practice, (2) incorporating practice encourages the transmission of that practice and (3) practices can serve to preserve corporal capital.  In addition to the corporal aspects, this is an interdisciplinary reading of self medication that highlights a hybridization of practice.

Alban Poulain: “A Contribution to the Concept of Consumer Ambivalence About Controversies Surrounding Taboo Sexual Advertising” 

Directed by Denis Guiot, November 20, 2019

Despite the controversies they provoke, companies still use taboo sexual advertisements. This project researches the concept of ambivalence felt by postmodern audiences and the way in which this influences how such advertisements are interpreted and received. It includes (1) a broadening of the concept of ambivalence, to suggest that it is a pertinent way to understand contemporary audience responses and reactions, and (2) a suggestion that such advertisements open spaces for the discussion and renegotiation of existing taboos.