Understanding and shaping consumer behaviours

Imagine that you are preparing an article to submit to the Canadian Marketing Association, an association that provides thought leadership and professional development for marketers. Your report must focus on an intriguing real-world question of your choice. After identifying the aspects of consumer behaviour that best answer your question, you must then conclude your report with two takeaways aimed at marketers.

Steps

1. Identify a question or an issue of personal interest (e.g., “Why do I drink so much coffee?”), of interest to managers or to a specific company or industry (e.g., “How did breast cancer research become such a fundraising success?”), or of interest to consumers or to consumer welfare (e.g., “How can we get people to exercise more?”).

2. Choose 2 or 3 aspects of consumer behaviour that best answer your question, using topics/concepts covered in any of the following chapters:

• Chapter 2 (Perception)
• Chapter 3 (Learning and Memory)
• Chapter 4 (Motivation and Affect)
• Chapter 5 (The Self)
• Chapter 6 (Personality, Lifestyles and Values)
• Chapter 7 (Attitudes)
• Chapter 9 (Individual Decision-Making)
• Chapter 10 (Buying and Disposing).

With so many different concepts to consider, you will undoubtedly find many relevant aspects of CB that you could write about (e.g., I drink a lot of coffee because of needs, exposure, learning, attitudes, etc.), and you will not be able to cover all of them. Instead, focus on just the 2 or 3 concepts that you consider particularly relevant for responding to the issue/question that you identified. Consider, for instance, which of these concepts is most important, and which might apply under different circumstances (e.g., do I drink more coffee when I’m stressed or when I’m relaxed? When I’m with other people or alone?)

3. To learn more about your question, and the relevant concepts you identified, review:

a) Reports in Passport, found under the “Market & Consumers Data and Reports” on Research Business Portal

b) Peer-reviewed articles (ideally from the last 5 years) by accessing ProQuest or Business Search Complete (both of these databases can be found on the Research Business Portal under “Trade News and Scholarly Articles.”)Examples of possible journals from which to find appropriate articles include (but are far from limited to): Journal of Business Research, Marketing Letters, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
NOTE: you must cite at least 3 secondary sources!

4. Conclude with two practical and meaningful recommendations (e.g., how can I drink less coffee?).

Deliverable

You must submit, in a single document, a report that is to include the following components:

1. Descriptive title (max. 20 words)
2. Short introduction (max. 100 words)
3. Report (1,000-1,200-word article; no figures or tables are allowed; to keep with the style of the publication, direct the reader to your references via hyperlinks)
4. References (APA Style)