MKTG7503: Consumer & Buyer Behaviour

Week 1: Introduction to Consumer Behaviour

Semester 2, 2023

CRICOS code 00025B

Outline
 About this course
• Introduction
• Assessments
• Reminders on academic integrity
• Reminder on process for requesting assessment extensions
 Week 1 topic for discussion: Introduction to Consumer Behaviour
• What is Consumer Behaviour
• Explaining value
• Transformation in consumption and consumer research
• Classifying consumers
• Approaches to studying consumer behaviour
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CRICOS code 00025B

Time & structure
 Consumer and Buyer Behaviour is offered
• Tuesday: 14:00 – 17:00 (AEST)
• Thursday: 17:00 – 20:00 (AEST)

 Each seminar combines a lecture and a discussions of the designated

CB topic for the week:
• Class discussions/debates
• Practice-based examples/activities
• Case study discussion and analysis
• There are lots of slides for each week’s class. We may not have
time to go through them all; but all important slides will be
covered. 3

CRICOS code 00025B

 [Entity Name]

Teaching Team

Wen Mao Betty Burke Jingqi Wang Lakma Algewatthage

Course Coordinator & Lecturer Facilitator Facilitator Facilitator

[Presentation Title] | [Date] CRICOS code 00025B 4

Learning Resources

 Textbook
Szmigin, I., & Pacentinit, M. (2018).
Consumer Behaviour. 2nd Edition.
Oxford University Press: United Kingdom.

 Attendance
Weekly overview and discussion of CB themes and issues on campus & on Zoom.

You will be required to:

• Go through the lecture slides before the class
• write notes (regularly);
• In the seminar, discuss your views/opinions to the marketing examples that
explain CB theories and concepts. 5
Learning Resources

 Blackboard
• Lecture slides & recording
• Assessment information and materials
• Required & recommended readings to further your
understanding of consumer behaviour.

 Check MKTG7503 blackboard regularly throughout the

semester (minimum ONCE a week)
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Learning Resources

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CRICOS code 00025B 8
CRICOS code 00025B 9
Assessments and class schedule

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Assessment 1 - Project plan

 Due Date: 23rd September (2022) 15:00 (AEST)

 Weight: 40%
 Mode: Group work

 Task Description:
 This is a group assessment. In this research proposal,
you will choose 3 (three) consumer behaviours (an
ffect, a phenomena, a consumption experience, etc.)
that will be more thoroughly examined in your research
report. 11
 Assessment 1 – Research proposal

About the group

• Minimum 3 (three) students, max. 4 (four).
• Voluntary formation & joining
• Students from the same group shall be enrolled in the same
seminar.
• Group members are expected to contribute equally. If there
are disagreements in relation to team members' contributions
that cannot be resolved, students must bring the problem to
the attention to the course coordinator ASAP.
• Peer Review: Students can elect to undertake a Peer Review
process, which can influence the marks of those who do not 12
contribute to group work.
 Assessment 1 – Research proposal

Main elements

Pick 3 (three) consumer behaviours you want to study. A suitable range of possible topics or
areas will be provided and discussed in class.

Background information (e.g., trend, examples, self-observations, relevant literature).

Justify why this behvaiour is interesting or worth investigation.

State out the research aim.

Formulate 2 research questions for each behaviour – i.e., a total of 6 questions for the
whole proposal.
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Details will be provided in class & on Blackboard.
Source: https://www.euromonitor.com/insights/top-consumer-trends
Assessment 1 – Research proposal

 Format
 24 pages max. A4 sized, 2cm margin, 12-point font
(Times New Roman), double-spaced.
 Inclusive of all contents (from the cover page to
whatever is the last page).
 Avoid unnecessary & lengthy discussion.
 The page limit covers all three behaviours (a rule of
thumb: 7 pages for each behaviour)

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Assessment 2 - Project report

 Due Date: 06th November (2023) 15:00 (AEST)

 Weight: 60%
 Mode: Individual work

 Individual assessment. Choose ONE consumer

behaviour from your (group) proposal and thoroughly
study it in this assessment.

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Assessment 2 - Project report

 Select one behaviour from your group work

 You can modify the topic or change to an entirely new one (not
recommended)
 Construct 4 (four) research questions
 Interview friends or family members to answer your research
questions.
 7 (seven) participants/interviewees. No more, no less.
 Draw relevant and meaningful conclusions based on interview.
 Detailed instructions and assessment rubric will be provided in
class; also downable from our course Blackboard in due course.

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Assessment 2 - Project report

 Format
 Page limit: 21 (twenty-one) pages max. A4 sized,
2cm margin, 12-point font (style: Times New
Roman).
 Inclusive of all contents (from the title page to
references and appendices).
 All texts double-spaced except tables, figures, and
pictures (if there are any).

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Why assessments of this sort – your
future career path

 Cconsumer product researcher (e.g., devising hypotheses,

conducting qualitative & quantitative research)
 Consumer marketing manager (e.g., developing marketing
plans, conducting consumer research to identify plans)
 Consumer experience leader (e.g., develop consumer insights
based on available data)
 Consumer insight analyst (e.g., review data and reports to
identify trends and opportunities and design actionable plans)
 ……
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 Academic Integrity

Presenting the work of someone else as if it was your own. This includes:
Plagiarism
• Copying work off the internet, texts, or academic articles and not correctly citing
the source in your work. Importance of good referencing.

Academic Cheating
• Copying another student’s assignment either word for word or using the
assignment and simply re‐wording sentences to make it sound a little different.
• Letting another student “borrow” your assignment. You can be penalised also for
knowingly creating a situation where academic cheating could occur.
• Purchasing/obtaining an assignment off the Web (or friends, ghost writing
agencies) and passing it off as your own work.
 Academic Integrity

The use of AI software

Assessment tasks of this course evaluate student’s abilities, skills

and knowledge without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Students are advised that the use of AI technologies to
develop responses is strictly prohibited and may constitute
student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.
Finally

Any questions about course profile, assessment,

or expectations?

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 How many decisions do we make
everyday?

What to eat for breakfast?

Which clothes to wear?
What fragrance to put on?
Which form of transport to use?
What music to listen to (and in what form)?
Which books to take, and in which bag?
Where to have coffee?

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 Discussion 1

Think about and write down the consumption choices you

have made over the last three days. Particular questions to
consider are:

 How many consumption decisions did you think you made and
what were they?
 Did these involve choices of product types and/or brands?
 What reasons did you have for you choices? E.g. out of habit, or
functional reasons, (e.g. low calorie, ease of use, convenience,
what was in the cupboard), or a novel choice you hadn’t tried
before?
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 Were your choices different or similar to previous ones and why?
 Big ideas this week

 Consumption is a part of everyday life, including the rise

of conspicuous consumption.
 Today’s postmodern consumer influences trends in
shopping and the development of shops.
 Researchers have classified different consumer identity
types.
 There are multiple approaches to studying consumers –
economics and philosophy have influenced researchers’
understanding of consumer behaviour. 26
What is consumption?

Arnould, Price, and Zinkhan (2002: 5):

‘individuals or groups acquiring, using and

disposing of products, services, ideas or
experiences’.

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Transforming consumption

 Subsistence level consumption

 Sharing and bartering (old & new)
 Exchanging goods for money
 Commercialization of goods – the emergence of shops
and supermarkets
 Growth of trade across borders, leading to
globalization.
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Consuming VALUE

 Exchange Value = what the value of a good is to the

consumer and therefore what it could be exchanged
for, usually its price

= = = $???

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Consuming VALUE

 Use Value = the value of a good to the consumer in

terms of the usefulness it provides.

= fuel economy + number of seats + safety + boot space

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Consuming VALUE

 Symbolic Value = the symbolic meaning consumers

attach to goods to construct and participate in the
social world

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Consuming VALUE

Explain why you bought the clothes you are wearing today.
• Use the different VALUE notions –
• a) exchange; b) use; c) symbolic (sign) d) a part or full combination of abc;
(e) no idea
• apps.elearning.uq.edu.au/poll/37134

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 The Revolution in Shopping

From barter to corner shops, to malls, to catalogues.

Today we shop from our laptops, tablets, and mobile
phones.
From service to self service

• Individual service was replaced by self service.

• The shopping trolley affects how and what we buy.
• Technology impacts forms of shopping, e.g. fresh food vending
machines.

A vending machine in
Japan selling bouquets
of flowers.
 Discussion 2

Consumer Insight 1.2 – How innovation changed the way we eat

and live
(Szmigin & Piacentini, 2018, p. 12)

Questions:
1. Outline the main advantage of convenience foods.
2. What do you think have been the main societal impacts of
convenience food?
3. Take another product class, such as books or cars, and consider
how changes over the years have impact on how we use them.

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The politics of consumption:
Consumers to consumerism

• In your face: More expensive items tend to be

right in the line of sight of the target consumer.
• Sensory delights: It’s very common to position
attractive fresh produce or a bakery at the entry.
• Where are the eggs? Probably nowhere near
the milk or bread.
• The trouble with trolleys is that it’s very easy to
fill them up.
• Checkout tempters: Magazines and
confectionery live here.
 The politics of consumption:
Consumer activism

• Consumers become activists when they promote the rights,

consciousness and interests of consumers.

• Culture Jamming:
• A strategy to disrupt efforts by the corporate world to
dominate our cultural landscape.

• Other examples of consumer activism:

• Occupy Wall Street
• Save the Redwoods/Boycott the GAP(SRBG).
The Dark Side of Consumer Behaviour

 Deviant Consumer Behaviour:

• refers to actions that violate the accepted
behaviour in a consumer context and result
in harm for other customers or the
organisation.
 Consumer Terrorism
• In 2006, a Brisbane customer at a Sizzler
restaurant put rat poison in foods on the
salad bar.
• In 2018, numerous punnets of strawberries
grown in Queensland and Western Australia
were found to be contaminated with needles
 Consumer Types
Source: Gabriel and Lang (1995, 2006)
Consumer Type Description
Chooser The rational, problem solving consumer, requiring genuine options, finance options, information

Communicator Uses goods to communicate. This can be functional as in the use of a burglar alarm to convey
status or taste.
Explorer Consumers increasingly have places to explore, from car boot sales to the internet. Often we
explore with little idea of what, or even if, we wish to buy.

Identity-seeker Creating and maintaining personal and social identity through consumption.

Hedonist/Artist Consumption as pleasure. Consumption can fulfil needs for emotional, aesthetic pleasure and
fantasy.
Victim The exploited consumer. The consumer may be uneducated or unaware of choices, or because
of their socio-economic situation, they may have limited choice.

Rebel Using products in new ways, as a conscious rebellion. It can include consuming differently, or less
or boycotting. It can also refer to active rebellion (joyriding, looting, taking over consumption
spaces etc.)

Activist Presented historically from co-operative movement, value-for-money movement, especially

fighting against corporate greed and political activism, seeking more ethical consumption

Citizen Consumers are also citizens with rights and responsibilities. Awareness that consumerism
encroaches on areas such as housing, healthcare and education as well as consumer goods.
Classifying Consumers
Source: Dagevos (2005)

Calculating is rational, mainstream, efficient

and effective, “Keep up with the Joneses”,
concerned with convenience.

Traditional is conformist, cost-conscious,

self-disciplined, fearful of new things,
community-oriented.

Unique is described as fun and impulsive,

seeks variety, seeks status and distinction,
new things.

Responsible is captured by involvement,

altruistic, “Keep down with the Joneses”,
informed, environmentally aware.
Motivational Research

 Developed from Freud’s view that behaviour was often determined by

irrational and unconscious motives and by socialized inhibitions.
 Ernst Dichter recognized:
.
• the role of emotions in our choice decisions;
• that these decisions could not necessarily be analysed or explained
from a purely rational viewpoint.

= POWER = SEDUCTION
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The Postmodern Consumer

 Fragmentation and multiple selves.

 Breakdown between production and consumption.
 The ‘sign’ as represented by consumption is all
important.
 Hyper-reality.
 Critical of modern capitalism.
 We’ll g through some of them in later classes

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 Approaches to studying consumers and
consumption

Interdisciplinary perspectives on consumption:

 Anthropology
 Sociology
 Psychology
 Economics
 History
 Geography

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Studying alcohol consumption from different
perspectives
• What are the ritualistic practices around going out;
Anthropology getting ready; preloading

• How does local community policing influence the

Sociology behaviour of young people in the Night-time
Economy?

• What effect does personality type have on

Psychology consumption?

• If we introduce minimum unit price of alcohol, how

Economics will this influence consumption levels?

• Historically, how is alcohol consumption today

History different from 20. 30, 50 years ago?

• Geographically, how does urban geography influence

Geography alcohol consumption?
What to take away

 an understanding of your own and other’s consumption

behaviour;
 an understanding of how central consumption is to
everyday life;
 consideration of your reasons/motivations for
consumption choices.
 appreciation that there are multiple approaches used by
researchers to study consumer behaviour.
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 FEQs for Week 1

 Explain the terms exchange, use and symbolic value. Consider how they
might be useful today for understanding how people consume.
 Consumer researchers can classify consumers differently. Discuss how
consumer classifications – individualistic Vs Collectivistic and Materialistic Vs
Non-materialistic can be applied to explaining different consumer types. Use
marketing or advertising examples to further explain different consumer
types and demonstrate your understanding of consumer classification.
 Consumption is studied from different perspectives. Using the example of
fast food, compare and explain how different perspectives (Anthropology,
Economics, History & Geography, Psychology, Sociology) can be applied to
inform marketers’ understanding of behaviours in the marketplace. 46
Next week – Week 2

 Lecture topic for discussion: Contemporary perspective on

consumer behaviour.

To do:
 Complete the Activity: Needs Vs Wants (posted on Blackboard)

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Week 2: before coming to next
week’s class

Activity: Needs versus Wants

Designed to get you thinking about your motivations for
purchasing particular products and brands. It also shows how
these motivations are used/understood by companies in the
way they present their brands in marketing communications.

 Read Consumer Insight 1.3:‘Needs versus Wants’ (Szmigin

& Piacentini, 2018, p. 14). Answer each question
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