This semester students on several MSc programs did the Consumer Behaviour seminar taught by the professor Li Hua, PhD in Consumer Behaviour Psychology. For Msc students this seminar was the perfect opportunity to understand the psychology behind marketing by exploring the importance of consumers’ desires and attitudes for the development of marketing strategies.

The main objectives of the seminar were to understand how to apply knowledge of consumer behaviour to marketing, the research methods available, as well as understanding different consumers’ perceptions.

Professor Hua started by providing students with an explanation of the main psychological theories applied in communication, from the traditional black box model to the Gestalt theory of perception.

Afterwards, Hua gave students the practical application of every theory and topic reviewed.
For instance, for the first session of the seminar, Professor Hua challenged students to identify customer segmentation in several TV commercials.  The outcome for students was better understanding of the importance of consumer segmentation in the development of advertising.

In order to understand consumers’ attitudes, another activity consisted of analysing the consumer decision making process when buying different products. Students placed themselves in the consumer’s mind throughout the purchasing process related to different products.

Other interesting topics that attracted students’ attention were: the explanation of the roots and impact of subliminal perception, an analysis of human memory processes, types of selective perception, and the impact of size and colour in advertising.

The session closed with an explanation of the research methods used by marketers in consumer behaviour studies. Hua gave examples of companies applying different research methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews and projective techniques. Projective techniques are used, for example, to help identify potential associations between brand images and the emotions they may provoke. In advertising, projective tests are used to evaluate responses to advertisements.

Prof. Hua also presented an explanation of research results evaluation. This last activity allowed students to understand the statistical approaches used for consumer behaviour studies.

This seminar provided students with an understanding of consumer reactions to different marketing stimuli as well as the practical application of this knowledge with the use of real cases for illustration and analysis.