Open Pedagogy Assignments are assignments in which students use their agency and creativity to create knowledge artifacts that can support their own learning, their classmates’ learning, and the learning of students around the world. (See this peer-reviewed article for more details.) The assignment on this page is aligned to the learning outcomes of Principles of Retail Management and we’ve identified the module where the reading appears. All of the assignments can be created with a cell phone camera or any video recording device, Google or Word documents, and your learning management system.

In Module 4, we aim to identify and understand customer behavior. For this assignment, we’ll focus on the attention, interest, desire, and action, or AIDA model, which describes the buying largely from the marketer’s perspective. Using your experience as a customer, discuss how an advertiser has grabbed your attention and made you aware of the product or service that can satisfy an identifiable need. Then, through the description of features and benefits, your interest was then developed to the point of desire where you purchased the item or the service. You may not have used AIDA as an employee, but you’ve certainly had experience as a consumer.

Using your cell phone or any other recording device, create a short video advising a fellow student who shares your interest in learning more about the buying process. You don’t have to edit or create a professional-grade film. You’ve most likely have done this type of recording already on social media, so feel free to use the same informal conversational tone.

You might want to do a quick internet search to review current advertising for the product or service to refresh your memory, and you’ll want to reread this information in this module.  Think of your audience as fellow students who are interested to learn about this process. Better yet, try to explain as if you were talking to somebody who is not taking this course.

In your video, you address the following questions about your chosen product or service:

1. How did this company get your attention? Online? Word-of-mouth? Your own research?
2. How did the company’s advertising develop your interest to the point of desire to purchase the product?
3. Does the path-to-purchase model make more sense to you? If so, why? If not, why?

A Note To Teachers: For this assignment, the first term students will be creating the videos, and then the next term’s students can respond to the videos. After you have two terms of examples, use the best three from the batch as examples and start the process over again. Using the videos as starting points for OL discussion boards may work as well.

You may need to review the AIDA model and the sales funnel concept in order to scaffold this assignment. Ideally students will use their own experiences either as a customer or in the industry to explain these concepts. This is also a great opportunity to share your expertise and experience with students.