Consumer Behaviour

Pick a topic from the course that interests you and carry out in-depth research on it as best you can. Use the internet, The Journal of Consumer Research, articles, books and possible contacts with whomever you can think of who might know something about your topic (psychologists or other professionals, merchants, marketing or other companies, professional sales people etc. ).
You may wish to do a survey to bolster any argument.

Remember to cite your sources in both the body of the report and in the Works Cited section at the end. Include phone calls and interviews in your works cited at the end of the report.

For this individual assignment interviews by phone or in person can be potential gold mines of information and will teach you the value of just picking up the phone and getting key information from strangers.

Here are some sample topics below to get you thinking. You can pick any one of these or any other topic from the course:

Exemplars: Develop a list of exemplar products, the clear market leaders in their group, and analyze their market strategies in terms of changing consumers' behaviors in order to achieve exemplar status.

A separate but related topic could be any exemplar products that have been around for a very long time, Maybe borax or some detergent, beverage, software, hardware, a patented machine or auto part (that somebody is still making money on today), the most profitable TV shows or movies ever etc. (Johnny Carson left an estate worth $156 mln when he died in 2005).

The rich are different: Develop a list of unique activities and behaviours the rich engage in, but which others don't, that helps perpetuate their position in society (cultural capital).

Flow State: See if you can find anything on this as it relates to specific products. What products are most likely to induce this state? Video games, hobbies, exercises, marathons, crossword puzzles, Sudoko? And how have marketers made money from inducing these states?

Fashion: page 534: How fashions for specific products have changed over the years. Or, how do companies choose fashions?

Product placements: page 529. In tv shows and movies and see if there are any big success stories as a result. Why or why did they work or not work re: consumers' reactions? Ex. Modern Family: Come Fly With Me and Costco.

Sacralization: page 514. Ordinary objects that we have given sacred meanings to. Stanley Cup; Elvis Presley

Rites of passage and how they have an effect on consumer spending. Ex. drivers license; Bar Mitzvahs; coming- out (socialite) parties; births (especially first-borns); Christmas/Easter.

Rituals and consumer behavior: page 501

Family life cycle (FLC): Track changes in a family's spending habits from single status through marriage, children, retirement, old age, death of spouse. Combine with a 20 year or more history of average family income.

Boomerang kids or adult children still living at home. Create a profile of this group and try to develop a picture of how they are affecting the family's spending decisions.

Brand communities: Develop a list of prominent brand communities, whether they are on-line or off. Harley Davidson clubs; Amway type groups; groups who share the same type of car (JEEP euthusiasts); interest in whatever (stamps, comics, airplanes, Macs etc.). Were they started by consumers or the company?

Go negative and study anti-brand communities. Include parody displays (products that mock the concept of status symbol), and/or LOHAS people and the whole anti-marketing/ anti- materialism movement.

What happens to lottery winners? Find examples of people who have experienced a huge change in their net worth suddenly, from lotteries, inheritances etc. and trace what happened to them in the ensuing years.

Find a few examples of GREAT salespeople. How do they sell? What consumer behaviours do they appeal to? You can try Tony Robbins, for example.

The world's best commercials: Find 3 or 4 of them and analyze what they are doing to sell the product. It may be a popular commercial, but attempt to analyze how successful it might have been in selling the product. Or was it just entertainment?

The internet: Find articles or info on successful internet strategies, and failures. What sort of products are ideal for internet marketing, and which ones are not. How big are internet sales, and how fast is this segment growing?

Find interesting, unusual, successful or odd examples of a product that was sold using principally each of the 5 senses. (5 examples). Discuss the specific marketing strategy for each.

The Source: Put together 4-5 examples of great message sources, and judge them. What is so attractive about them? Why do you think they were hired? Look for commercial pitchmen that appear often, or celebrities (Oprah, Dr. Phyll etc.). What about news anchors?

Some previous reports were on:

Impulse Buying in convenient stores

IPod, Coca-cola, Ferrari: True examples of Exemplars Jimmy Buffet....A Cult Product

E-Commerce: A Growing Opportunity Adbusters

The Empire of Harry Potter Anatomy of a Hipster

How The Rich are Different Gorilla Marketing