Consumer Behaviour

Success in the market place depends on a company’s ability to attract, satisfy and retain its customers. To grow, the business must reinvent itself in the eyes of the consumer, adapting quickly and flexibly to changing needs and circumstances.

Understanding what products and product attributes customers currently desire, and what they may desire due to emerging social trends, keeps businesses at the leading edge of consumer behaviour and product research. This subject will equip you with the skills to understand consumers as buyers and thus manage product portfolios efficiently.

The overall aim of the subject is to understand what influences consumer behaviour and psychology and apply that to the marketing process.

The topics examined range from the psychology of purchasing decisions to the resulting impacts on product or service development, equipping graduates with the skills necessary for future roles in marketing. You will understand how to apply current research to actual marketing issues.

The subject will consist of formal lectures, tutorials, class discussions, analysis of case studies, self study, debates, guest lectures and field trips. General application of theory to reality based problems accompanied by self study and research will be central to learning the subject.

1. Understand the nature of consumer behaviour and psychology and its relevance to marketing.
2. Relate concepts of motivation, perception and personality to marketing decision making in the marketing environment.
3. Relate the concepts of learning, memory and attitudes to decision making in the marketing environment.
4. Analyse the external and environmental influences on consumer behaviour.
5. Apply knowledge of consumer decision making processes to the development of marketing strategy and communications campaigns.

Exams will take place in weeks 12 & 13. Please refer to the official Exam Timetable for further information.