Invent for the World (IFW)

Course 15.812, Marketing Management, will serve as the initial platform for this project. Contrary to a common belief among many undergraduate students, marketing is not the equivalent of selling or advertising. Instead, the course will emphasize the view that marketing centers on effectively serving the varying needs that stem from different segments of society. However, "needs" can be complex even from a conceptual standpoint; they may not be readily articulated, and are often elusive to measure. As the methodological basis of IFW, the course will teach rigorous methods, both quantitative and qualitative, to identify and measure needs systematically. For example, students can expect to learn "conjoint analysis", a tool that elicits how much consumers value individual product attributes, using only data from their overall ratings of that product. The course will then culminate into the main deliverable: team-based projects that synthesize these methods, where students either propose or promote an invention that serves significant social benefits.