Step 2 of 7 · Consumer Behavior
The consumer decision model · subscription levers
Your complete guide to the Consumer Behavior simulation
You’re competing to run a direct-to-consumer specialty coffee subscription. Four rounds. Four psychographic consumer segments. One goal: acquire profitable subscribers and keep them.
Welcome to BrewCraft, a subscription coffee brand launching into a crowded specialty-coffee category. Competing against other teams in your class, your job is to make strategic decisions each round to maximize net profit while building a brand that consumers trust.
Each round of BrewCraft follows the same five-step rhythm. Master it and the rest of the simulation slots into place.
Your team discusses strategy: which consumer segments to target, what message frame to lead with, how to price, and where to spend.
Enter your decisions into the platform. Any team member can edit any section — BrewCraft doesn’t assign C-suite roles.
Your instructor triggers the calculation engine. Every team’s decisions compete for the same finite market.
See subscribers gained, subscribers retained, market share per segment, brand trust and social proof, and full financials.
Analyze what worked. Adjust strategy. Your accumulated brand assets carry into the next round — invest wisely.
The canonical framework for how a consumer moves from idea to renewal.
Every BrewCraft subscriber moves through five stages, every month: Need Recognition (it’s Sunday and the bag is empty); Information Search (Reddit threads, Instagram, friends’ recommendations); Evaluation of Alternatives (your brand vs. Halcyon vs. the grocery store); Purchase Decision (subscribe, pause, or churn); and Post-Purchase Behavior (review the box, recommend it, or quietly cancel).
Subscription products live and die on stage 5. A traditional marketing sim ends at the purchase. Yours ends — and restarts — at the renewal. Every lever in this game maps somewhere on this model: brand trust + social proof shape stages 2–3; product fit + price shape stage 4; CX spend shapes stage 5.
Engel, Blackwell & Miniard, Consumer Behavior (10th ed.).
Why retention math matters more than any single round of acquisition spend.
Customer Lifetime Value is the total revenue a single subscriber produces, on average, before they churn. The simplified subscription formula:
CLV = (monthly revenue × gross margin) ÷ (1 − retention rate)
A subscriber paying $18 with 50% margin and 75% retention has a CLV of ~$36. Move that retention to 90% and the same subscriber is worth ~$90 — 2.5× more, with no change in the product or price. This is why the engine punishes discount-driven trust collapse so heavily: a single -6 trust event ripples through retention, and retention is in the denominator.
Four structural facts that govern almost every decision you’ll make. If your strategy fights any of these, your strategy is wrong.
Brand assets compound
Brand trust and social proof accumulate across rounds. A strong Round 1 investment pays off in Round 4.
Subscriptions, not transactions
Subscribers renew or churn each round. Retention matters as much as acquisition.
Psychographic segments
Consumers are grouped by why they buy, not what they buy. Message fit matters.
One message frame per round
You pick a single narrative each round: Premium Craft, Best Value, Ethical Choice, or Adventure Awaits.
Every team starts with $25,000 each round. After each round, your budget adjusts based on net profit.
Every team starts with $25,000 each round. After each round, your budget adjusts based on net profit:
Profit
+40% of profit added to budget
Capped at 140% of starting
Loss
-20% of loss deducted
Floored at 85% of starting
Break Even
Budget stays the same
$0 profit = no change
Strong rounds can lift you to $35,000. Weak rounds can’t drop you below $21,250. The floor keeps you competitive; the cap keeps leaders from running away with it.
Before entering any decision, talk as a team about which consumer segment you’re targeting. Every other decision — price, message, product, channels — follows from that one choice.
Need more help? Ask your instructor or teammates!