You have been accepted onto a Future Leaders Development Programme (FLDP) within a large organisation. It is a yearlong programme and involves developing and presenting specific projects to other programme delegates; all the projects are viewed by the CEO. The delegates come from across the organisation and you are the sole representative from the Marketing Department. This is an excellent opportunity for ambitious staff to make an impression on senior managers and leaders. In the past graduates from the programme have been promoted within the company. The introductory session of the programme is personally led and overseen by the CEO. The company is currently successful but is going through a period of intense change. There are new competitors entering the market, whilst new technologies are changing both production capabilities and consumer preferences. All the work from the FLDP should be retained in a personal file which will be reviewed at the end of the programme.

Task 3 Understand the role of customer behaviour in marketing strategies.

Your next task is to prepare a section of an information file to be used by future participants in the FLDP. You are responsible for the section on Strategic Marketing; the finished section will be reviewed by the CEO.

The information file should:

• analyse the role of marketing research process and its relationship to consumer behaviour
• explain the different types of consumers and their behaviour in B2B and B2C markets and factors underpinning customer loyalty.
• evaluate the role of relationship marketing in customer behaviour analysis.
• analyse the influences on and the psychology of consumer behaviour.