Chair of Marketing - University of Magdeburg

11/06/2026

Dear market researchers!

Have you ever faced decisions such as:
• You need to decide which flavor variants of food items to actively market from a broad set of options.
• Your company asked you to support the decision to eliminate a product from a line.
• You are working for a retailer, and your task is to decide which product variants to list in a limited amount of shelf space.
• As a manufacturer of personal care products, you need to decide which health benefits to include in your skin care products to attract many consumers.

In these and similar managerial challenges, Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency Analysis (TURF) has likely already crossed your path. Broadly speaking, the method helps companies select a set of actions to implement from a large set of competing alternatives. It does so by systematically integrating consumer preferences into the decision-making process. A drawback of this otherwise versatile method is that uncertainty in TURF’s results is usually not quantified or accounted for.

In our latest paper, titled BiTURF (Bayesian input TURF), our team members Joshua Schramm, Felix Lang, and Marcel Lichters introduce an enhanced TURF methodology that captures uncertainty in the results via Bayesian posterior sampling. This approach not only strengthens the foundation for managerial decision-making but also offers additional advantages, such as enabling direct comparisons of product assortments using Bayesian significance tests.
The paper features clear examples based on data from Maximum Difference Scaling and Check-All-That-Apply questions.
Additionally, we offer a helpful tutorial on how to perform BiTURF using open-source software R/Stan, available at: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FDH24

Due to open access through the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, the article is available for free: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329326001552
Happy reading!

10/03/2026

Dear students at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg. Don't miss out on the opportunity to apply for our EU Green Blended Intensive Programme on Sustainable Food Marketing and Local Chains (6 ETCS).

This BIP highlights how marketing, communication, and innovation drive the shift toward sustainable and resilient agri-food systems. It explores the connections between consumer behavior, product innovation, short food supply chains, and regional development, all aligned with the goals of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy. Plus, it offers a fantastic opportunity to visit the University of Extremadura in Spain during the summer.

The BIP is supported by the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences (Poland), the University of Extremadura (Spain), the University of Parma (Italy), the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (Germany, Prof. Dr. Marcel Lichters), the University of Évora (Portugal), the University of Oradea (Romania), the Atlantic Technological University (Ireland), and the University of Gävle (Sweden). Co-funded by the European Union.

The application deadline is March 22. Here is the application link: https://eugreenalliance.eu/eu-green-blended-intensive-programmes-2026/sustainable-food-marketing/

03/02/2026

How much can you trust context effects in product choice to hold in practice?

The confidence in the generalizability of context effects to real-world scenarios largely depends on the realism of consumer research study settings.

Our new article in Management Review Quarterly sheds light on the development of experimental realism through more than 40 years of research on context effects.

Context effects are choice phenomena that show that our consumer decisions are not as stable as we think. However, there has been criticism that academic research investigates these effects in artificial ways, yielding insights of low practical value.

In a systematic literature review, our team member Felix Lang analyzed 460 investigations of context effects and assessed their realism, which can significantly influence study conclusions. He finds:
➡️ an overall positive development in the field over time
➡️ that there is still room for improvement
➡️ that the level of generalizability strongly varies across context effects: Especially popular ones like the attraction and compromise effect have been demonstrated repeatedly, even in real-world settings.

The article also provides a framework for designing realistic studies with practical relevance. Practitioners can also use this framework as an evaluation tool when reading research on context effects.

Find our review for free here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-025-00576-8

Thank you to the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg for enabling open access to this article.

Context effects in consumer decision-making. Title page in Management Review Quarterly

13/12/2025

Did you know that studying in Magdeburg is a door-opener to the world?!

Last month, Prof. Lichters had the opportunity to teach during the international Teaching Week at the Faculty of Business, Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca.

At this event, he shared many insights that international and German students can gain while studying at the Faculty of Economics and Management at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg.
Students were particularly interested in learning more about Consumer Behavior and Sensory Marketing topics.

Thank you, Erasmus+, the EU's programme to support education, training, youth, and sport in Europe, for financing this teaching exchange.

Cluj-Napoca is always worth a visit! A vibrant city with a historic core and the country's most prominent university.💙💛❤️

If you are interested in our international study programs, don’t miss out on collecting further information from the international study program (ISP) team.

Also, see the presentation provided in the link:
https://marketing.ovgu.de/marketing_media/Downloads/Erasmus/OVGU_FEM_Introduction.pdf