Unit information: Understanding Customers, Consumers and Markets in 2020/21

Unit name	Understanding Customers, Consumers and Markets
Unit code	EFIMM0058
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. David M Evans
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Management - Business School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

Understanding customers, consumers and markets is an essential part of the marketing process and function. This core unit equips students with the knowledge and skills to analyse markets and recognise the range of actors within them. It encourages students to distinguish between the concepts of customers and consumers, evaluate a range of approaches to consumption, and explore the different ways in which ‘markets’ can be defined and understood. The unit will draw on a range of disciplines from psychology and economics, through neuroscience and STS (Science and Technology Studies), to sociology and anthropology. Students are encouraged to explore actors’ motivations when entering a market and to analyse the factors that frame the encounter between supply and demand. They analyse the different ways consumers behave across a range of contexts, within and beyond markets. Students are then required to reflect critically on the relationships between markets, marketing and consumption.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students will be able to:

ILO 01: Consider and distinguish between a range of approaches to the concepts of customers, consumers and markets.

ILO 2: Analyse a given market environment and appraise the range of factors that might affect the behaviour of actors within it.

ILO 3: Demonstrate an appreciation of how an understanding of customers, consumers and markets contribute to effective marketing practice.

ILO 4: Critically assess the ethical issues associated with marketing practice, its role in the organization of markets, and its influence on the behaviour of consumers and customers.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions including lectures, tutorials, drop-in sessions, discussion boards and other online learning opportunities

Assessment Information

Single invidual assessment incorporating learning portflio & a piece of reflective writing, c. 3000 words (100%). Formative assessment to take many forms including feedback on 1 draft portfolio entry (500 words)

Reading and References

The core text for this unit is:

• Szmigin, I. & Piacentini, M. 2018. Consumer Behaviour (2nd Edition), Oxford University Press, Oxford.

In addition, it is suggested that students read around the subject and may choose to draw from a range of texts including (but not limited to) the following:

Academic Textbooks

• Araujo, L. Finch, J. & Kjellberg, H. (Eds.). (2010). Reconnecting marketing to markets, Oxford University Press, Oxford
• Arnould, E.J. &Thompson, C.J. (Eds.) 2018 Consumer Culture Theory, Sage, London.
• East, R., Singh, J., Wright, M. &Vanhuele, M. (2017), Consumer behaviour: applications in marketing, 3rd edn, SAGE, Los Angeles.
• Ellis, N., Jack, G., Higgins, M., & Fitchett, J. (2010). Marketing: A critical textbook. Sage Publications.
• Foxall, G.R. (2015), Consumer behaviour: a practical guide, Routledge, London.
• Solomon, M.R., Bamossy, G.J., Askegaard, S. & Hogg, M.K. 2016, Consumer behaviour: a European perspective, Sixth edn, Pearson, Harlow, England.

Academic and Practitioner Journals

• Consumption, Markets and Culture
• Journal of Consumer Behaviour
• Journal of Consumer Culture
• European Journal of Marketing
• Journal of Marketing Management
• Marketing Theory
• Harvard Business Review
• The Economist
• Marketing Campaign
• CHARISMA (http://www.charisma-network.net)

Other news media

• Discover Society (https://discoversociety.org)
• The BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk)
• Any/all broadsheet newspapers