Consumer Behavior

Concept and nature of consumer behavior. Differences between consumer buying andorganizational buying. Application of consumer behavior knowledge in business decisions, marketing management, social marketing, and public policy decisions.Consumer rights and movement.

Consumer buying decision processes in high-involvement and low-involvement purchases. Problem/Need recognition: Types of problem recognition, results of problem recognition, problem recognition under low involvement conditions. Marketing implications of problem recognition: measuring problem recognition, activating problem recognition, and utilizing problem recognition information .

Concept of information search. Types of consumer search activities: pre-purchase search, ongoing search, internal search, external search. The information evaluation process: evaluation criteria, alternatives available, alternative characteristics. Sources of consumer information. Information search on the internet. Marketing implications of the information search process.

Consumer’s choice: rational choice, affective choice, attribute-based choice, attitude- based choice. Criteria for Evaluation and its measurement. Decision rules for attribute-based choices: conjunctive and disjunctive decision rules, elimination-by- aspects decision rule, lexicographic decision rule, compensatory decision rule. Marketing strategies in evaluation and choice.

Post purchase evaluation: consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, consumer complaint behavior, .Post purchases dissonance: reasons and remedies. Product disposition: Disposition methods and marketing strategies.

Consumer Motivations: Nature and role of consumer motives. Consumer learning :concept of learning and principal elements of learning. Consumer perception: nature and process of perception. Personality: nature and types of consumer personality, consumer personality, and brand personality. Consumer attitude: concept and characteristics of attitude, sources of attitude development.

Reference group influences: nature and degree of influences, marketing strategiesbased on reference group influences. Family influences: structure of household, family decision-making role, and family lifecycle.

Characteristics of culture. Social class influence in consumer behavior. Social classesin Nepal and their consumption behavior. Cultural and sub-cultural influences. Characteristics of culture. Cultural and sub-cultural influences. Nepalese core culturalvalues and adopted cultural values and their implications in consumer behavior.