About this short course

If marketing is the heartbeat of the organisation, then consumers are the reason why the heart beats. Without the consumer, there is no market, which means that there will be no demand or interest in your organisation’s products or services. This course identifies and discusses the various psychological and social forces that affect consumer behaviour. By learning more about how consumers behave, organisations gain a better understanding as to why customers buy, what they buy, or, more generally, why they respond to marketing stimuli as they do.

This understanding further enables marketers to explain, influence and predict consumer behaviour. In order to understand the process that a consumer goes through when purchasing a product or service, it is important that the marketer is able to track their behaviour through each step of the decision-making process.

By researching the steps relevant to their target market, the marketer can make strategic decisions regarding how their product or service is communicated to the customer every step of the way. In this module you will learn about the five steps in the consumer buying process. Other internal factors, called individual or psychological factors, also influence how a consumer behaves and makes decisions.

These factors which are internal to the customer will differ from one person to the next, based on personal motivation or an individual’s personality type. In this module you will learn about the following internal factors that influence customers: Perception, Learning, Attitude, Personality and Lifestyle. Thereafter, we explore the external factors that influence the consumer decision-making process. External factors are factors that are ‘outside’ of the individual consumer, but also have an influence on their decision-making process and behaviour.

Examples of these factors also referred to as group factors are: Family, Culture, Sub-culture, Social Class and Reference groups. In addition to internal and external factors, there are another two aspects that influence consumer decision making which relate to the context within which purchases take place, namely: the purchase situation and occasion-related behaviour.

You will learn about:

• Consumer decision making
• Internal factors influencing consumer decision making
• External/socio-cultural factors influencing consumer decision making
• Research and marketing decision making