Consumer behavior is omnipresent; we cannot escape it – every moment of our lives we engage in some form of consumer behavior. It examines the impact of external environmental influences (culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, and personal influences) and internal psychological influences (personality, lifestyle, learning, motivation, perception, and self-concept) on consumer decision making process. It explores stimuli that informs, persuades, and influences our choices, purchase decisions, dreams and aspirations.
Consumer behavior is always changing – just think of how consumers spent their time online 5 years ago, compared to their habits today. It is important for companies to understand why and how consumers change their behavior, how these changes affect their perceptions and attitude towards buying and brands. The first step of understanding the change can lead towards predicting the behavior. Once you can predict, you can control. The study of consumer behavior uses concepts, theories, and principles from the social sciences to extend our understanding of factors influencing the acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, services, and ideas. You will learn how and why consumers behave by examining how we use products to define ourselves and how this self-concept affects our attention and perception, our motivation to buy, our memory for brands, product and advertising awareness, our brand attitudes, product judgment and choice, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.