Students are required to provide a detailed report addressing the following:

• A brief description of the company you work for, including the target market, key challenges the business faces and areas for future growth.
• Develop a profile of retail consumer behavior in relation to the company in which you are employed. This profile should include (but is not limited to):
• The characteristics of consumers.
• The nature and structure of consumer attitudes, and how attitudes influence consumer behavior using examples.
• The decision-making process undertaken by consumers when purchasing various items from your company
• Discuss the reasons consumers go shopping using one of the following frameworks and using examples from your experience.

Tauber (1972)

West & Black (1985)

Arnold & Reynolds (2003)

Samli (1989)

• Discuss which groups (family, reference groups, social class, culture) influence a consumer’s behavior and how your company leverages the power of group influence.
• The involvement construct and how it relates to consumers when purchasing from your company.
• How cognitive dissonance affects the company and what strategies the company uses to counteract this
• What relational constructs are important for a consumer when buying from your company and how does the company attempt to promote these?
• Discuss the different stages in the family life cycle, and in this context explain how a families requirements for your companies’ product(s) changes through this life cycle.
• Students should provide a brief overview of the marketing communications that are currently used to reach the company’s target market and if these are most appropriate based on the buyer behavior profile developed. Recommendations should also be made where necessary.