Institute of Commercial Management | Qualification Subject

Buyer Behaviour & Consumerism

ICM Professional Diploma Unit

Technology-driven Consumer Behaviour

  • The marketing concept
  • Exchange between consumers and marketers
  • Customer value, satisfaction and retention
  • The role of consumer behaviour and consumer decision-making

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

  • Market segmentation and effective targeting
  • Bases for market segmentation, including demographics, social class, social status, benefit, behavioural targeting, product usage and location
  • Implementing segmentation strategies
  • Behavioural targeting
  • Positioning and repositioning

Consumer Motivation and Personality

  • Dynamics of motivation
  • System of needs
  • Goals
  • Measurement of motives
  • Nature and theories of personality
  • Personality traits and consumer behaviour
  • Self and self-image

Consumer Perception

  • The elements of perception
  • Perceptual selection
  • Perceptual interpretation: stereotyping
  • Consumer imagery
  • Perceived quality and perceived risk

Consumer Learning

  • Elements of consumer learning
  • Behavioural learning theories
  • Observational learning
  • Cognitive learning theories
  • Consumer involvement

Consumer Attitude Formation and Change

  • Attitudes and their formation
  • Attitude models
  • Changing the motivational functions of attitudes
  • Cognitive dissonance

Persuading Consumers

  • The communication process
  • Designing persuasive messages
  • Persuasive advertising appeals
  • Measures of message effectiveness

Print and Broadcast Media to Social and Mobile Media

  • Consumers and social media
  • Consumers and mobile advertising
  • Measuring media advertising effectiveness
  • Traditional media’s electronic evolution

Reference Groups and Word-of-Mouth

  • Source credibility and reference groups
  • Credibility of spokespersons, endorsers and other formal sources
  • Word of mouth and opinion leadership
  • Strategic applications of word of mouth
  • The diffusion of innovations
  • Segmenting by adopter categories

The Family and its Social Standing

  • The family as a socialisation agent
  • Family decision making and consumption-related roles
  • The family life cycle
  • Social standing and consumer behaviour
  • Measuring social class
  • Social class characteristics and consumer behaviour
  • Four views of consumer decision making

Culture’s Influence on Consumer Behaviour

  • Culture’s role and dynamics
  • Learning cultural values
  • Measuring cultural values

Subcultures and Consumer Behaviour

  • Culture and subcultures
  • Religious, regional, generational and gender subcultures
  • Cross-cultural analysis
  • Localisation versus standardisation
  • Global marketing opportunities

Consumer Decision Making and Diffusion of Innovations

  • Consumer decision making model
  • Diffusion and adoption of innovations
  • Types of innovations
  • The adoption process
  • Product features that affect adoption

Marketing Ethics and Social Responsibility

  • Societal marketing concept
  • Exploitive marketing
  • Self-regulation versus laws
  • Provocative marketing
  • Promoting social causes

Consumer Research

  • Developing research objectives
  • Collecting secondary data
  • Designing primary research
  • Qualitative research, scope of quantitative research, quantitative research data collection instruments
  • Data analysis and reporting research findings

Example Candidate Response Booklet

Example Candidate Response (ECR) Booklets are a source of crucial information for Centres and Candidates as they use real candidate responses. We ask Senior Examiners to comment on five or more responses in terms of why the mark was awarded with commentary about how to improve the answer (if necessary).

Recommended Reading

Main Text:

Consumer Behaviour, L.G.Schiffman, J.L.Wisenblit, Pearson Education.

Indicative Text:

Alternative Text and Further Reading:

Consumer Behavior, Global edition, 11th edition, 2014, M Solomon, Pearson Education.