Problem:
By understanding your own behavior, you can begin to understand the psychology behind consumer behavior. The objective of this Portfolio is for you to:
Develop an understanding of the factors motivating your purchases
Develop an understanding of the consequences of your purchases, and
Reassess and potentially change your purchasing patterns.
This requires you to maintain a journal of your personal consumer behavior patterns over three separate seven-day periods. It is highly recommended that you begin working on this as early in the term as possible so that you have sufficient time for gathering and assessing all the required information.
There are two parts to this Portfolio:
Journal of your personal consumer behavior patterns
Response analyzing three key products that you noted in your journal, drawing connections to the theories and ideas you learned in this course.
Consumer Behavior Journal (3-4 pages)
Over three one-week periods, you will keep a diary of your purchasing activity. Very simply, this will include listing the products, the time, and the location where you made the purchase. You'll do this on a daily basis over each of the three one-week periods. The effort is to capture specific products and/or brands in your consumer behavior patterns, and to those ends you can ignore most fresh produce (a head of lettuce, unless the brand is known,e.g., Dole bananas). Please do not collect data for 21 disparate days. We're trying to find patterns in your behavior. The optimum collection period is 21 straight days. Next best can be three separate seven-day-straight periods.
At the end of each seven-day period (seven consecutive days), you will identify three products you seem to "consume" most regularly or consistently. Thinking back on that week, answer the following questions in your journal for each product:
Why did you select that product over a competing brand or product?
What advantages or disadvantages resulted from purchasing that product over other choices? Was it convenient, for example, or did you have to go out of your way because of desire? Was it on sale? Was it a [perceived] quality matter?
Articulate your satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the product and/or the purchase experience.
Discuss your intent to continue that purchase (or note if you decided to change your purchase pattern and why).
At the end of the three weeks, choose three key products. You should cover the following assessment for each of the three products:
Discuss the one major psychological factor or processes (e.g., peer pressure, learned behavior, general advertising, subliminal messages, image, convenience, price, etc.) that contributed most to your pattern of consumption. Be sure to discuss at least one different process for each of the three products.
Provide a summary of the psychological process that you're describing. This summary should demonstrate that you understand what the process involves, how it works, how it influences consumer behavior in general, and how it is relevant to your purchasing pattern.
Be sure to clearly describe both the psychological process and its application to your specific purchase pattern. Give specific reasons why you think it was that process that was most influential for that product.
Include at least three outside sources that support your discussion.