Example 1
Brief Case Discussion

Primary Learning Purpose: Provide a context for a discussion of pricing.
Secondary Learning Purpose: Reduce hindsight bias among students.

I created this brief case to serve as the introduction to a class session on pricing. The activity requires about 10 minutes to complete. Obviously, this case is much more simplified than the full-length Harvard/Darden/Ivey cases that I use for other purposes. I created this case without quantitative information because I wanted the introductory exercise to stay at the conceptual level. As suggested by the discussion question ("What should the firm consider when setting the retail prices for their cake mixes?"), my purpose is to use student responses to develop a long list of issues that influence pricing. In this particular activity, I offer no guidance or correction; I simply record their contributions and clarify when necesary. The result is a list of items the firm should consider such as "Prices charged by competitors" with sub-headings such as "Prices for non-wheat cake mixes on internet" and "Prices for cake mixes in retail stores." After student suggestions have been exhausted, I say the following: "We have made a very long list here. You've identified a lot of good things. Obviously, there is a lot for a firm to consider when setting a price. Next, let's talk about what marketing theory has to say. Marketing theory agrees with you -- there are a lot of things that a firm should consider when setting a price. As I walk through what marketing theory says, you're going to see things that we've already mentioned. You're also going to see things that we haven't mentioned yet. Some of the things are more important than others when setting a price, and we'll talk about the relative importance as we go." As I described in my application, the secondary purpose of this learning activity is to prevent hindsight bias among students when they hear marketing theory. I know from past experience with this learning activity that students usually mention only a few of the things I have planned to talk about in the lecture component, and with the reveal of theoretical issues they did not mention in the introductory activity, it is difficult for students to experience hindsight bias and make exclamations such as "Marketing is all just common sense!" Example 3 in this web appendix is an example of another technique I use to prevent hindsight bias. Obviously, I cannot prevent hindsight bias with every learning activity, but I have found that a handful of these activities throughout the semester substantially reduces the problem.