In an increasingly fluid & rapidly changing international market place, organisations need to be able to gain an effective understanding of the current & future needs of the market place & behavioural factors that influence them.

Organisations need to be able to swiftly, cost effectively & accurately assess their customers' needs to assist their strategists & marketing planners in effective decision making on what markets to target & what products/services to offer to them.

By developing an understanding of the core issues of consumer behaviour (an understanding of how consumer psychological processes interact with both social and situational influences to shape consumer perceptions, decision making processes and behaviour) and how through marketing research, these behaviours can be studied, understood & learned from, students will develop an understanding of the importance of these topics, how to apply them in a commercial environment & their place within the broader marketing & strategic planning framework.