As consumers, we live in a constantly changing world, driven by fast-paced technological, social, cultural and economic developments, resulting in access to a wide array of new products and services. These rapidly changing social and market factors significantly affect our behaviours and purchase decisions. Consumer behaviour will continue to change over the next decade and will affect our consumption choices. For marketers, understanding how consumers behave helps them to identify and offer products and services that better satisfy consumers’ needs.

The focus of this unit is on providing you with a comprehensive introduction to theories and models that help explain consumer behaviour in different consumption contexts. The unit will help you to develop knowledge about the steps in the consumer decision-making process, and the internal and external factors (individual, social, and cultural) that influence consumers’ evaluation of marketing messages and subsequent purchase decisions. The unit will assist with your conceptual and theoretical learning of how nuances in consumer behaviour impact consumer decision making. The unit will help you to develop skills that enable the application of consumer behaviour knowledge to marketing strategy and tactics.