Faculty of Business: Marketing
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level: Undergraduate

Result Type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 24108 Marketing Foundations
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are also course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Handbook description

This subject provides a basic theoretical grounding in the field of consumer behaviour, by drawing upon the contributing disciplines of psychology, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, communication and economics. It develops a better understanding and awareness of consumers as the central focus of marketing action and encourages students to appreciate the value of models as tools of conceptual analysis. Marketing strategy is considered within a broader social framework involving public policy formulation and embracing such issues as ethics, regulations and consumerism as necessary considerations in an increasingly competitive and constrained social, political and economic environment.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of consumer behaviour by drawing on appropriate concepts and theories as tools of analysis to interpret and explain consumer behaviour.
2. Understand consumers as the central focus of marketing action, and therefore be able to show the relationships between consumer behaviour and marketing strategy.
3. Assimilate and relate your personal experience as a consumer to theoretical and conceptual frameworks underpinning consumer behaviour.
4. Think about consumer behaviour and marketing strategy within a broader framework, including ethics, public policy, regulation, consumerism, economics and culture.

Contribution to graduate profile

Consumer behaviour provides a basic foundation for all other units in the Marketing Major covering market research, international marketing, services marketing, business marketing, advertising management and marketing strategy. This is because all good marketing activities can be associated with an implicit or explicit understanding of the customer.

Teaching and learning strategies

To become a good marketer, students must become critically concerned with what, how and why customers and potential customers chose, purchase, use and dispose of products and services. This subject aims to provide students with conceptual frameworks to develop sound marketing strategies based on evidence from theories established from decades of research. Strategic responses from profit and non-profit organisations, and public policy-makers are used as examples. In addition, students are made aware their responsibilities as a consumer by exploring the issue of consumer misbehaviour. Teaching strategies reflect a commitment to encourage students towards higher forms of learning using deep approaches. Students are required to examine the relationships between consumer behaviour theory with practical examples, and marketing action. In particular, students are encouraged to relate their own personal experiences to the theories discussed in the subject in order to make the theoretical explanations more meaningful. Continuous rather than delayed learning is facilitated throughout the subject. For example, students are expected to have read the written material before class each week, to facilitate discussion which occurs in both lectures and tutorials. Teaching tools include video, media extracts and online discussion.

Content

• Introduction to consumer behaviour: Consumer behaviour is product-person-situation specific
• Understanding the social influences on consumer behaviour: culture, social class, reference groups and households
• Understanding the demographic and internal psychological influences on consumer behaviour, including: motivation, perception, emotion, self-concept, personality, learning and, attitude formation and change
• Situational influences and their impact on consumers
• The consumer decision-making process
• The marketing implications arising from the social, psychological and situational effects on consumer behaviour
• Special issues in consumer behaviour: Organisational buying behaviour; Consumerism, marketing ethics, and public policy.

Assessment

Mid-semester Exam (Individual)	20%
This addresses objectives 1 and 2.
Project (Individual 10% and Group 30%)	40%
The individual task is an impromptu question on the group presentation which assesses an individuals contribution to the project. This addresses objectives 1–4.
Final Exam (Individual)	40%
This addresses objectives 1–4.

Examinations will be conducted under University examination conditions, and hence thoroughly address concerns regarding secure assessment. Each project will be secured through a combination of updating of assessment tasks across semesters and/or plagiarism detection software. Additional plagiarism statements are included in the standard University Rules section to emphasise its significance, and a hyperlink to the UTS Guide to Writing Assignments is posted on UTS Online for ready reference.

Recommended text(s)

Neal, Cathy M., Pascale G. Quester and Del Hawkins (2004) Consumer Behaviour: Implications for Marketing Strategy, 4th Australasian Edition, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.