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Faculty
Glen Brodowsky, California State University San Marcos

Course Coordinator
ISUP Secretariat

Prerequisite/progression of the course

Students should have at least completed a basic course in marketing principles.

Course content, structure and teaching

Customer analysis is an increasingly important function for organizations. Organizations whose survival depends upon building lasting relationships with their customers must learn all they can about their current and potential customers. The better an organization understands its customers, the bette able it is to design and modify plans that will better serve or expand its customer base.

This course is designed to introduce you to the many aspects and characteristics of customers that may be of interest to organizations and to acquaint you with methods of learning about customers. The course will focus on the major determinants and models of consumer behaviour including their decision-making processes, information search processes, their psychological dimensions, and their interactions wit the environment in which they live. In addirion, a part of the course will be devoted to learning about the techniques and methods firms may use to get valid, reliable, and useful information about their customers. Particular emphasis will be on qualitative research techniques and simple questionnarie development and cinstruction.

The course's development of personal competences

The course is designed to help students achieve the following goals:

1. Gain an understanding of the factors and determinants of a customer orientation;
2. Develop an appreciation for alternative approaches one may use to learn about customers;
3. Be able to identify customer characteristics and behaviors that may be salient for a particular firm or organization; and
4. Aquire the basic skills needed to perform a customer analysis for an organization.

Learning Objectives

• Develop an understanding of the theories and models of consumer behaviour.
• Learn how consumer behaviour patterns, as well as their characteristics can be used to effectively identify and target market segments.
• Become more sensitive observers of consumer behaviours and trendy by learning and applying qualitative research techniques.
• Learn to develop simple questionnaries for collecting primary data on consumer interests, attitudes and behaviors.

Teaching methods

The course will include lectures, case studies, vidoes, and project work. Students will be asked to conduct simple qualitative research exercises outside of class and share them through presentations in class. Students will use their qualitative data findings to help them design a simple research questionnarie. Finally, students will have the opportunity to work with some data sets to learn some basic consumer data analysis techniques.

Examination

Mandatory mid-term feedback assignment: In order to be allowed to take the final exam, each student must have completed one short experiential exercise (3 - 5 pages).

Final exam: 4-hour written exam (closed book).

Re-take exam: 24-hour written exam.

Recommended literature

Solomon, Michael R. (2007) Comsumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being
Hardcover: 654 Pages - Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall
Language: English - ISBN: 9780132186940

Graham, Judy (2010) Critical Thinking in Consumer Behaviour: Cases and Experiental Exercises
Paperback: 171 Pages - Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall
Language: English - ISBN-13: 978-0-13-607220-1

Last updated by ISUP Secretariat 29/01/2010