COMM6839

Consumer Behaviour & Audience Analysis

2023-24 2nd Term
School of Journalism and Communication
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Course Description

Getting to know the consumer is the key to success for any practitioners in the
advertising and marketing business. Great idea that impacts on the society and human
action is a result of a sharp strategic understanding on a relevant audience group and a
genuine appreciation of the consumer motivation, behavior and the relationship with
the brand, competition, and touch points.

This course aims at giving students rich food for thought. While it is not designed as a
consumer research 101, the materials, case studies and questions raised in the course
are intended to give students a strategic perspective of how to approach the
consumers. Not everyone will end up being a Strategic Planner in the agency or the
marketing team, but no one in the industry can afford not to have the ability to engage
the target audience and invite meaningful conversations. Without an almost
anthropological interest in human beings, there is no fun and result in the business.

Contact Information

Lecturer:
Name Wong Ka Fai, Mike (黃嘉輝)
Office Location: NAH 319(C)
Telephone: (852) 9030 9030
Email: mikekfwong@[Link]
Teaching Time & Thursday 6:30 pm – 9:15 pm
Venue: WMY 408, Wu Ho Man Yuen Building

1
Prerequisite

Interest in life and interest in people

Expected Learning Outcome

Students will be equipped with a multitude of perspective to understand and analyze

the consumer or the target audience. They will get a taste of the varying ways to look at
and understand the consumers, how to formulate a sharp Consumer Driven Strategy
and Brand Essence, and how pricing and value and even business innovation is
ultimately driven by the Consumer.

Students will be able to tackle Consumer Strategy with confidence and interest, and
have a genuine appreciation on the pivotal role the Consumer has in Business and
Commerce. They will be able to tackle a Consumer and Shopper study requirement
with strategic and creative vigor.

Assessment Scheme

Assessment Scheme Weight

Class Exercise & Participation 40%

Final Group Project 60%

Grade Descriptors

Grade Criteria / standard / different levels of attainment of the desired learning

outcomes
A Outstanding performance on all learning outcomes
A- Generally outstanding performance on all (or almost all) learning
outcomes.
B* Substantial performance on all learning outcomes, OR high
performance on some learning outcomes which compensates for less
satisfactory performance on others, resulting in overall substantial
performance.
C* Satisfactory performance on the majority of learning outcomes,
possibly with a few weaknesses.
D* Barely satisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes
F Unsatisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes, OR
failure to meet specified assessment requirements.
*Sub-division (i.e. B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+) would still be applied.

2
Learning Resources

FURTHER READING AND REFERENCE MATERIALS

Aaker, David A., 2014. Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles that drives Success. Morgan
James.
Ariely, Dan, 2008. Predictably Irrational, Harper Collins.
Ariely, Dan, 2009. Are We In Charge Of Our own Decisions? At TED Conference.
Bentley, Alex, Earls, Mark, & J.O’Brien, Michael, 2011, I’ll Have What She’s Having,
Mapping Social Behavior, MIT Press.
Demarchi, S and Hamilton, J, 2009, You Are What You Choose, Portfolio.
Diane leCompte, Jean J. Schensul, 2010. Designing and Conducting Ethnographic
Research, Rowman and Littlefield.
Earls, Mark, 2007. HERD. John Wiley And Sons.
Kahneman, Daniel, 2012. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Penguin.
Riesenbeck, Hajo & Perry, Jesko, 2009. Power Brands, Wiley.
Sharp, Byron, 2010. How Brands Grow. OUP.
Steel, Jon, 1998. Truth, Lies & Advertising. John Wilsey & Sons, Inc.
Van den Bergh, 2011. Joeri and Behrer, Mattias, “How cool brands stay hot: Branding
to Generation Y”, Kogan Page

3
Course Schedule

Meeting Topic

Jan 11
Meeting 1 Audience and Strategy. Does it matter anymore?

Strategy and Target

Do we still need Target Audience?
The strategic importance of having a Consumer
Driven Strategy.

Jan 18
Meeting 2 Understanding Purchase Decision

A discussion on how the simple yet useful

Consumer Buying Cycle is evolved to today’s
Consumer Decision Journey, and how an
understanding of the different components and
their relationship helps to develop interesting
ideas and creative executions that engage the
audience.

Jan 25
Meeting 3 Consumer Segmentation and Its Relevance

A discussion on the various ways in which the

Consumers are segmented and why it is
strategically important.
This session will also discuss a few case studies
on Consumer Segmentation based on Business
Potential, Consumer Brand Affiliation and
Bonding, Consumer Motivations and Affinity
Grouping

Feb 1
Meeting 4 Consumer Segmentation and Its Relevance
(Con’t)

Feb 8 Bringing the Consumer to Life for Effective

Meeting 5 Marketing Communication

What’s need for a strategic and stimulating

description of the Consumer?

4
 Case Study - Diageo’s Target Consumer
Understanding Tool

Case Study – System One Research’s

“Digividual” that capitalizes on big data and
programmed research robot

Feb 15 CNY Holiday (年初二)

Feb 22
Meeting 6 Consumer Driven Brand Development

This session discusses the alternative articulations

of the Brand Essence. It also deals with how
Brand Essence captures all the key consumer
brand relationship and how Desired Brand
Essence helps set strategic direction

Feb 29
Meeting 7 GROUP PRESENTATION

Bring your Consumer to Life

Mar 7
Meeting 8 Strategic Retail (I)

Shoppers versus Consumers

The Strategic Must Know for Commerce

Mar 14
Meeting 9 Strategic Retail (II)

Shoppers versus Consumers

The Strategic Must Know for Commerce

GROUP PRESENTATION

Briefing on Examination Group Project

Mar 21
Meeting 10 GROUP PRESENTATION

Consumer Driven Brand Essence

5
Mar 28 Understanding the Consumer Beyond Direct
Meeting 11 Research

What people do versus what they say they do?

Daniel Kahneman’s thesis on System 1 and

System 2 thinking and the implication on our
understanding of how Consumer Decisions are
made

April 4 Public Holiday (Ching Ming)

April 11 Consumer Driven Pricing Decision

Meeting 12
What are the key factors in deciding the pricing
of goods and services?

What role does the consumer play in the pricing

equation?

Consumer Trend Studies:

Looking into the Future

Trend studies play an important role to help

business and Marketers to determine strategic
opportunities. This session also discusses the
trend study on Consumer Experience and
Expectation

April 18 Final Group Project Presentation

Meeting 13

6
Feedback for evaluation

Students are welcome to give comments and feedback at any time during the class. Stop
by to talk to the instructor or teaching assistants. You can also send us emails.

References on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

Information regarding the academic honesty and plagiarism policy in the University is
located at [Link] . Some further advice is
given below.

Any assignment which shows evidence of plagiarism will be penalized severely.

Plagiarism is the copying of passages from other sources without proper citation or
attribution.

In the case of plagiarism, the minimum penalty for a first offence will be a single letter
grade reduction and the maximum penalty is failure on the assignment. For a second
offence, the minimum penalty will be a single letter grade reduction and the maximum
penalty is failure of the course.