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Consumer Behavior Diary

This document describes an exercise for students in a consumer behavior course using personal consumption journals. The exercise has three parts: 1) Students maintain a consumption journal recording purchases, where they shop, why they buy items, and their feelings. 2) Students create a list of 10 products that represent them. 3) Students analyze 2 advertisements for products on their list, identifying consumer behavior concepts used and the targeted demographic. The exercise helps students understand consumption patterns and influences on their own purchases while applying consumer behavior concepts from class.

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Patrick Bowman
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1K views4 pages

Consumer Behavior Diary

This document describes an exercise for students in a consumer behavior course using personal consumption journals. The exercise has three parts: 1) Students maintain a consumption journal recording purchases, where they shop, why they buy items, and their feelings. 2) Students create a list of 10 products that represent them. 3) Students analyze 2 advertisements for products on their list, identifying consumer behavior concepts used and the targeted demographic. The exercise helps students understand consumption patterns and influences on their own purchases while applying consumer behavior concepts from class.

Uploaded by

Patrick Bowman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Communicating Consumer Behavior An

Exercise Using Personal Consumption


Journals
Barbara-Jean Ross, Louisiana State University
Laura A. Williams, Tulane University
In consumer behavior, it is vital that upon completion of the course students have
acquired a sound understanding of how consumers search for, purchase, and use
products and services. Furthermore, students should also be exposed to the social
and psychological influences on these behaviors. Finally, to have garnered the most
benefit, students should understand how to integrate the theoretical concepts into
their real world experiences. To achieve these broad objectives, a large amount of
information must be presented by the instructor and then processed by the students.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of consumption journals. This
exercise enables students to not only observe and record their own consumption
habits, but also to explore the social and psychological factors which may be
influencing their and others' purchase decisions. Furthermore the greatest benefit is
that they enjoy the learning process.
Exercise Overview
This exercise is designed to be an incremental three part assignment. The first part
requires students to maintain a personal consumption journal. In the second part,
each student is told to construct a portrait of themselves as a consumer by
developing a list of ten products or services typically purchased. The third portion of
the assignment is an advertisement evaluation. This requires students to select two
products from their ten product list and locate advertisements or promotions for
them. For each advertisement selected, students are required to identify four to six
consumer behavior concepts used in the ad, to describe the demographic and
psychographic segments to which the ad was targeted and to explain the reasoning
for their conclusions. Finally, students are asked to assess whether or not they are
representative of these segments.
Consumption Journal
Each student is responsible for maintaining a consumption journal which describes
the products and services which they purchase. Descriptions include what products
and services are purchased, where the items are purchased, why the items are
purchased, and what feelings are associated with the purchase. Students are
required to complete a minimum of two entries each week. Students are asked to
submit the preceding weeks' entries with the new entries, allowing the instructor to
view the weekly progress and making the students more aware of the patterns
present in their consumption behavior.
An example journal entry template should be provided to the students at the
introduction of the assignment.

Date:
Place of Purchase:
Item(s) Purchased:
Brand Name: (for each item)
Price: (for each item)
Other Descriptive Information:
Reason For Purchase:
Feelings Associated with Purchase:
The length of time that students are required to maintain consumption journals is at
the discretion of the instructor, but four submissions should be the minimum as
students only begin to understand and appreciate the assignment around the fourth
submission.
Ten Product List
After the third submission of the consumer journal, students should be instructed to
review their consumption behavior and to create a list of ten products or services
which they own and/or regularly use. Students are asked to select only those
products and services which best portrayed their personality, values and lifestyle.
Similar to the journal entry, the list is required to contain detailed information, such
as brands, sizes, colors, and/or models, of the products and services.
Advertisement Analysis
Once the 10 item product list is complete, each student should select two of the
items on the list and locate an advertisement for each of the selected products. The
two advertisements then served as the medium for a short analysis paper. For the
paper, the analysis of the each advertisement is broken down into three sections.
First, students have to identify between four and six consumer behavior concepts
used in the advertisements. Second, students are asked to identify and explain the
demographic and psychographic segments to whom the ad was designed to appeal.
Finally, students explain whether or not they fit into the identified target market.
Benefits to the Student
The consumption journals allow students to immediately begin to understand the
relevance of studying consumer behavior. Additionally, it allows them to apply their
own experience to the material presented in class lectures. In all three parts of the
assignment, students use consumer behavior theory and principles to justify their
points. This exercise allows students to demonstrate an understanding of
segmentation, motivation, personality, psychographics, learning, attitudes and
reference group influence. Perhaps most importantly journals can move students
from a passive state of learning to participatory learning.
Conclusion
A class exercise which integrates class material with students' lives, increases their
interest in learning the core concepts. This increased interest is highly desirable and
the use consumption journals provides this advantage.

Via the journal entries, the ten product list and the advertisement analysis, students
learn about their personal consumption habits. This self-discovery is an exploration
of the social and psychological factors that influenced their consumption behavior
and how their behavior could be generalized to others. Thus, although the
instructor's investment in developing this exercise is considerable, students' return is
well worth the effort!

Consumer Behavior

Analyze Purchase:

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