CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
AREA OF STUDY: CORE
BAC 123

Year: 3
Semester: 6

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* Continuous
** Duration: 3 hours

Course objective
The basic purpose of this course is to acquaint the students with behavior of consumers and the factors determining consumer behavior and to this knowledge in the market place.
Course contents
Unit 1: Introduction the Consumer Behavior T.H.5
Defining consumer behavior; Understanding consumers: the ultimate consumer, individual buyer; Decision process: importance of studying consumer behavior in marketing management; Social marketing, de-marketing and government decision- making process; Model of consumer behavior.
Unit 2: Market Segmentation T.H.3
Defining market segmentation; Demographic and psychographic bases of segmentation; Criteria for effective targeting of market segments; Implementation of segmentation strategies: concentrated and differentiated marketing; Counter-segmentation.
Unit 3: Culture and Subculture T.H.3
Defining culture; Characteristics of culture; Defining culture values; Characteristics of cultural values; Defining subculture; Understanding bases of subculture: nationality regionality, religion, age, etc.
Unit 4: Social Class T.H.3
Defining social class and social status; Nature of social class; Measurement of social class and problems of measurement; Social class mobility.
Unit 5: Social Groups T.H.3
Defining Groups; Classification of groups; Group properties; Reference groups; Types of reference groups; Factors determining reference group influences; Reference group and consumer conformity.
Unit 6: The Family T.H.3
Defining family and households; Functions of the family; Types of households traditional and non-traditional; Family decision- making, family roles, power structure (parallel, star ring and hierarchical).
Unit 7: Personal Influence and Diffusion of Interest T.H.5
Nature and significance of personal influence; Opinion leadership; Why opinion leaders influence; Concept of innovation; Adopting process; Diffusion process; Factors influencing rate of diffusion.
Unit 8: Personality and Self- Concept T.H.4
Defining personality; Nature of personality; Measuring personality- rating method, situational tests, projective techniques, inventory schemes; Understanding self- concept; Development of self- concept; self appraisal, reflected appraisal, social comparison, based scanning.
Unit 9: Motivation T.H.3
Defining motives; Nature and role of motives; Simplified schemes to classify motives; Motive arousal; Effects of motive arousal.
Unit 10: Learning T.H.4
Defining learning; Types of learned behavior; Principal elements of learning; Behavioral learning theories; classical and instrumental conditioning; Cognitive learning theory.
Unit 11: Attitudes T.H.6
Defining attitude; Characteristics of attitude; Functions of attitude; Models of attitude: tri- component model, multi- attribute models(attitude-toward-object model, attitude-toward-behavior model, and theory of reasoned action model).
Unit 12: Perception T.H.6
Defining perception; Perceptual selection; Perceptual organization; Perceptual interpretation.
Suggested Readings
1. Schiffman, L. G. and Kanuk, L. L., Consumer Behavior 6th Ed., New Delhi: Prentice- Hall of India.
2. Loudon, D. L. and Bitta, A. J. D., Consumer Behavior 4th Ed., Singapore: McGraw- Hill.