Module BUSI4G815: Consumers and Consumption

Department: Management and Marketing

BUSI4G815: Consumers and Consumption

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To explore consumer interactions with the products and services of everyday life, and with the marketing of those products and services.
• To facilitate an understanding of how and why consumers act, think and feel the ways that they do by exploring the psychological, social, cultural, biological, and marketing factors that influence, and are influenced by consumption.
• To critically review contemporary perspectives on consumption and marketing practices at the cutting edge of industry and academia.

Content

• Products and preferences - exploring the bases of human consumotion phenomena
• Levels of explanation - causation, ontogeny, adaptation, phylogeny
• Objects of desire - emergent perspectives on consumer drives, motivations and goals
• Survival goods - food preferences, landscapes, travel, real estate, sustainability etc.
• Reproductive goods - dating industry, appearance-enhancing products, fashion, cars etc
• Kinship goods - toys, children's wear, education, gift-giving, philanthropy, pets etc
• Reciprocation goods - corporate gifts, sport, hospitality industry, social media etc
• Culture, sub-cultures, cultural products and cultural codes - music, art, literature, games etc
• Memes and the marketing of ideas - politics, ideologies, propaganda, news services etc
• Illicit consumption and 'misbehaviour' - theft, pornography, drugs, fraud, counterfeiting etc
• The biological shift - consumer neuroscience, neuromarketing and neuro-ethics

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will:
• Have a critical understanding of the psychological, social, cultural, biological, and marketing influences on consumers' behaviour, thoughts and feelings.
• Be able to explain the various consumption activities that individuals undertake.
• Have a critical appreciation of why and how an understanding of consumers and consumption is important for marketing.
• Have gained the necessary subject knowledge to enable them to observe, interpret and demonstrate marketing and consumption in action.
• Be able to understand the latest research issues and instruments in marketing and consumer research.

• By the end of the module, students will have acquired the following specialist skills at an advanced level:
• Ability to critically evaluate and reflect on one’s own behaviour in the role of consu,er.
• Ability to develop and evaluate marketing strategies in the light of marketing and consumer theory.
• Ability to critique consumer research reports.

• Effective written and oral communication skills
• Planning, organising and time management skills
• Problem solving and analytical skills
• The ability to use initiative
• Advanced skills in the interpretation of data
• Advanced computer literacy skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module will be taught in 3-hour blocks to allow a greater level of engagement with students, leverage new technology-enhanced active learning (TEAL) spaces coming on stream, and to enable a flexibility of approach as appropriate to student learning styles. The teaching blocks will comprise a balanced mix of lecture-type teaching, group work, case studies, discussion and seminar style working, reinforced by independent reading, multimedia resources and podcasts to ensure the learning outcomes will be met.
• The summative assessment of the module takes the form of a comprehensive auto-ethnography; students maintaining a personal journal of their own consumption behaviour in respect of an approved domain covered in the module, reflecting on their individual experiences of an everyday product category and its associated marketing. This is designed to test students’ knowledge and understanding of the subject-matter and their ability to apply their knowledge and specialist skills in the context of specific issues in consumer research.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Students undertake a series of in-class group exercises aligned to the module content, receiving instruction and continuous feedback on the theoretical knowledge and ethnographic skills needed to undertake the summative assignment.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University