D175: Consumer Behavior

D175 asks a simple question with complicated answers: why do people buy what they buy? It follows Marketing Management in WGU's BS Business Administration, Marketing major.

WGU's program guide describes the course as a study of buying behavior, consumer behavior theories and the consumer decision-making process. It draws on psychology, sociology, anthropology and economics to explain and predict what consumers do.

Students often know the theories but struggle to apply them. The competencies ask you to use consumer influences to develop marketing strategy for a specific target market.

What D175 Covers

Key Concepts Explained

The Consumer Decision Process

A common model has five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase behavior. Marketers ask where their customers hesitate and design tactics for that stage.

Internal Influences

Motivation theories such as Maslow's hierarchy explain which need a product meets. Perception explains why two people read the same advert differently. Learning explains how habits and brand loyalty form through repeated rewards.

External Influences

Reference groups set what feels normal, families share decisions on larger purchases, and culture shapes values, rituals and taboos. A strategy for a family car, for example, must address several decision makers, not one.

Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them

How Marketers Gain Consumer Insight

WGU's course description stresses an interdisciplinary perspective. Each discipline contributes a different lens:

Insight comes from research. Surveys measure attitudes across many people, interviews and focus groups explore reasons in depth, and observation shows what people actually do, which can differ from what they say. Purchase and website data reveal real behavior at scale.

A good insight is specific and actionable, for example: "first-time buyers abandon checkout when delivery costs appear late". It points directly to a marketing response.

Where Students Get Stuck

• Defining the target market too broadly. "Adults" is not a market; "parents of toddlers in suburban areas" is.
• Theory without application. Every theory you cite should change what the company does.
• Confusing internal and external. Culture and family are external; motivation and perception are internal.
• Ignoring post-purchase behavior. Satisfaction and cognitive dissonance affect repeat buying and reviews.

Where D175 Fits in the Program

In WGU's standard path, Consumer Behavior comes after Marketing Management and before Digital Marketing and Content Marketing. It adds the customer's point of view to the planning framework you built in D174.

The insights you develop here are reused later. Content Marketing depends on understanding audience needs, Brand Management relies on how consumers form associations, and the capstone asks you to make decisions about buyer behavior using data. Good D175 notes save time in every one of those courses.

Study Tips for D175

• Notice your own purchases for a week and map each to the decision stages.
• Build a two-column table of influences and the marketing tactics each suggests.
• Choose a target market you understand well; examples come more easily.
• Reuse your D174 marketing mix thinking: consumer insight should shape each P.

How We Help with D175

Send the task, rubric, the product or organization you are analyzing and any feedback received. A marketing writer prepares a custom analysis, helps you match theories to influences, or edits your draft so every recommendation is justified.

GradeEssays is independent of Western Governors University. Use our work as a study reference and submit your own assessment in line with WGU's academic integrity rules.