INTRODUCTION
HOW TO USE
The Twelfth Edition of Michael R. Solomon’s Consumer Behavior has a complete set of
supplemental learning and teaching aids. The Instructor’s Manual plays a central role in
organizing this package. This manual has been designed so the instructor can plan
lectures, demonstrations, discussions, visual presentations, Internet exercises, and written
assignments in a coordinated and efficient manner. All 14 chapters of the textbook have
been carefully reviewed in order to develop the most logical and helpful manual for you,
the instructor. Primary features of the Instructor’s Manual are described below.
SUGGESTED SYLLABI
Two sample syllabi are provided to help professors schedule their term. One is based on a
quarter schedule and the other on a semester schedule.
PROFESSORS ON THE GO!
The Instructor’s Manual has a section entitled Professors on the Go! This section was
created with the busy professor in mind. It serves to bring key material upfront in the
manual, where an instructor who is short on time can take a quick look and find the
chapter objectives and related activities and exercises that he or she can incorporate into
the lecture, without having to page through all the material provided for each chapter.
The material in the Professors on the Go! section is categorized by individual objectives
for each chapter to facilitate teaching by these objectives.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
Objectives are listed clearly at the beginning of each chapter of the Instructor’s Manual.
These objectives should be the focus as lesson plans are created. Chapter objectives are
also matched to the review, application, and discussion questions; the cases; the Nielsen
Nuggets; the additional support questions and the eLabs.
COURSE LEVEL AND AACSB LEARNING OUTCOMES
The review, application, and discussion questions; the cases; the Nielsen Nuggets; the
additional support questions and the eLabs are also labeled with the course level learning
outcomes and the AACSB learning outcomes they support.
Course level outcomes are numbered as follows:
1. Define consumer behavior and describe its influence on marketing practices
2. Discuss why and how consumer research is conducted
3. Describe the factors influencing whether or not consumers detect and attend to
sensory marketing stimuli
4. Summarize the major theories of learning and describe their marketing applications
5. Describe the factors influencing consumers’ recall of product information
6. Explain the influence of the needs and cultural values of consumers
7. Describe the relationship between a consumer’s self-concept and consumer behavior
8. Explain the relevance of the major theories of personality to consumer behavior
9. Discuss the techniques marketers use to change consumers’ attitudes
10. Describe the stages of consumer decision making
11. Discuss the influence of groups and word-of-mouth (WOM) communication
12. Describe the effects of changing family structures on family decision making
13. Describe the influence of social class and economics class on consumer behavior
14. Explain how membership in ethnic, religious, and racial subcultures influences
consumer behavior
15. Explain how marketers can best appeal to members of different age subcultures
16. Describe the relationship between modern-day rituals and consumption
17. Explain why and how marketers must adapt marketing strategies to the global
marketplace
AACSB learning outcomes are labeled. Included are the following:
1. Written and oral communication
2. Ethical understanding and reasoning
3. Analytical Thinking
4. Information Technology
5. Diverse and multicultural work environment
6. Reflective Thinking
7. Applications of Knowledge
8. Interpersonal Relations and Teamwork
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Each chapter of the textbook is summarized in the Chapter Summary. This section
provides the instructor with a condensed version of the information included in the
chapter.
This material is consistent with the Chapter Summary material found at the end of each
chapter in the text. This overview of the chapter material is especially helpful in planning
chapter sequence presentation and any desired chapter combinations. In addition, this
section may help the instructor plan introductory lecture remarks.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
This section is the core of the Instructor’s Manual. This teaching outline is a thorough
outline (specifically tied to the actual phrases and definitions used in the textbook) of the
material included in the text chapters. This outline includes major and minor headings
from the textbook. The instructor will notice special information sections that appear
periodically in the body of the outline. This material is indicated with bold type and
bold italics. The purpose of these information blocks is to indicate to the instructor
where key material appears in the textbook and when to use teaching aids. It is
recommended that the instructor carefully review the Chapter Outline before preparing a
chapter lecture. This review will help in coordinating the learning activities that are
available with the textbook. Remember that this Chapter Outline is a condensed
summary of the text material; therefore, it is wise to use it along with the Test Item File
when planning, developing, and constructing examinations or quizzes.
Lastly, the instructor will find it useful to use the Discussion Opportunity text boxes that
periodically appear in the Chapter Outline to aid discussion of the pertinent issues. The
suggestions in these boxes are designed to prompt students to discuss the concepts that
are being taught, as well as to provide examples that are not found in the textbook. Since
this material does not appear in the textbook, it must be given to students firsthand. In
most instances, the questions can be answered with a minimum of preparation and
thought. These discussion opportunities are one of many discussion/activity-oriented
features of this Instructor’s Manual and textbook designed to provide instructors with
flexible options for making lessons interactive.
Because it is virtually impossible to do everything that is included here in your course, a
good way to use this Chapter Outline is to highlight the portions of the outline you would
like to use in class, the questions you would like to pose, and the ancillary materials you
will need. This helps to make a class flow more smoothly.
End-of-Chapter Support Material
This section of the Instructor’s Manual supports features contained in the chapters of the
textbook itself, as well as material available to students at the end of each chapter.
SUMMARY OF SPECIAL FEATURE BOXES
Throughout each chapter of the text, there are special feature boxes. These include
Marketing Opportunity, Net Profit, CB As I See It, The Tangled Web, and Marketing
Pitfall. The material in these sections is very helpful in illustrating some of the key
concepts from the chapter. Thus, the instructor may wish to focus on selected special
features as a part of class material. This section lists all special feature boxes found in the
chapter and highlights their contents in brief.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
The review questions found at the end of each chapter in the textbook are designed
directly around material contained in the text. The Instructor’s Manual includes all the
questions and their answers, which, for the most part, are taken directly from the
textbook.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHALLENGE
These questions are meant to challenge the students’ understanding of chapter material
and to enable them to develop an ability to creatively use the chapter material to solve
problems. The questions may be used purely for discussion (if so, they might be assigned
in advance of the discussion), they can be given to selected students for in-class
presentation, they can be used as short essay questions on in-class quizzes or on formal
examinations, or they can be used by the students to enhance the chapter summary. It
should be noted that because of the nature of these questions, there is no “right” answer.
Thus, the responses that are provided are merely ideas for what students might come up
with, as well as directions for instructors to guide discussion.
These questions are given in two sections, Discussion and Application. Some of the
Discussion questions are designed to be presented to students in class. The Application
questions are designed to be given as more involved out-of-class assignments. The
textbook includes only the questions, while the Instructor’s Manual contains the
questions and comments/responses for each question. Note that proper placement of a
discussion question is up to the instructor; however, placement suggestions do appear in
the Chapter Outline section.
CASE STUDY TEACHING NOTES
This section is designed as a supplement for the cases found at the end of each chapter.
Included is a brief summary, proposed suggestions for presenting the case, and suggested
answers for the discussion questions.
Additional Support Material
The material found in the Additional Support Material section, including the eLabs, is
available only in the Instructor’s Manual. In this version of the Instructor’s Manual, there
are suggestions for things to look for in student projects where applicable. As with the
suggested responses to the Consumer Behavior Challenge questions, the notes that are
provided are ideas for what students might come up with or directions for instructors to
guide discussion, where applicable.
STUDENT PROJECTS
This section suggests several projects that may be assigned to the students for a specific
class or for several class periods (a term project). These projects may be assigned to
individuals (Individual Projects) or to groups (Group Projects). The instructor may
require that the material be analyzed in a written format or just as discussion motivators.
Instructors might consider assigning two or three students or a group of students to do
one or more of the Student Projects assignments for each class period. Ask the students to
be ready to give a short oral presentation on the assigned topic at the beginning of class.
This gets students more deeply involved in the class and gives them opportunities to work
on their oral skills. You might also ask them to turn in a short paper (one or two pages) so
they can also practice their writing skills. Many of these projects can be done on the
Internet (which also gives them practice with their research skills). If given proper credit,
the students will also see that they can earn extra points to help them over the rough spots
on exams.
Most instructors find that by having a few students bring in fresh ideas to each class, the
class becomes more enjoyable, engaging, and personalized. Remember that when
assignments are made with plenty of lead-time, students tend to do a better job. Because
this often presents a challenge in the first several class meetings, some of the early
chapter projects might be pushed back to the second week of class. The estimated
amount of time to complete the projects is noted.
eLABs
This section of the Additional Support Material section allows the instructor to explore
Consumer Behavior issues via the Internet. These projects may also be assigned to
individuals (Individual Assignments) or to groups (Group Assignments). These
assignments should be given in advance and then covered in class at the discretion of the
instructor. Because of the rapidly changing nature of the Internet, please confirm
beforehand that the URLs given are still active and that the material on the Web site is
relevant to the project given.
FINAL NOTE
The Solomon team wishes to thank you for adopting the Twelfth Edition of Consumer
Behavior and hopes this supplement will aid you in creating an exciting learning
experience for your students.