consumer behaviour
Choosing accommodation can be a major decision in our lives, subject to many competing influences. Do I buy that 4 bedroom house that will take the next 30 years to pay off? Would I rent a 2 bedroom unit? Shall I share an apartment with my friends, or some strangers? Is the house in a safe suburb? Is it close to public transportation, shopping centres, childcare services, hospitals, gyms, cafes, or the university? Do I want this furniture? Is there mobile broadband coverage? €¦€¦ What is it that affects this decision and makes it different for each of us? This assignment requires you to look at the accommodation choices of 3 people €“ you can include yourself in this analysis if you wish.
Firstly, develop a list of 6 different accommodation options. Try to include some that aren’t options YOU would like to take but that you know appeal to other people. You might want to refer to real estate websites, newspaper classified ads, or campus message boards while developing this list. Be specific €“ renting a three bedroom ocean view apartment in Bondi in Sydney (rather than just saying renting an apartment in general); sharing a two bedroom townhouse with a TAFE student near the Brisbane CBD; buying a three bedroom bushland house under Mount Archer in Rockhampton. You may wish to include indicative renting/selling prices or pictures of the accommodation options you have chosen to include.
Develop a second list of at least 6 evaluative criteria (Chp 5 of your text) that people might consider when choosing their accommodation€“ for example, prices, distance from the university/workplace, accessibility to public transportation, safety/security, occupations/genders/ages of housemates etc. There are many possible reasons we choose the accommodation that we do.
Place these two lists in a decision matrix (example in textbook).
Show this decision matrix to 3 people (one can be yourself if you need).

Ask them to rank the evaluative criteria €“ how important is each criterion in determining THEIR choice of accommodation? (For example you might allocate 100 points in total to the evaluative criteria depending on the relative importance of each criterion).
Ask them to rate each accommodation option on your list against each of the criteria (for example, using a scale of 1 €“ 5, option one might score well on criterion one and get a 5 while it is poor on criterion two and gets a 1. The numbering you use is up to you.)
Using the compensatory decision rule calculate which accommodation option your respondent is most likely to choose based on the matrix. Is this the one they would have actually chosen? If there is a difference, please provide a brief explanation €“ for example, the matrix might suggest Adam is most likely to buy the bushland house in Rockhampton but in reality he chooses to share the townhouse in Brisbane. This can be explained by certain consumer behaviour theory.

Secondly, conduct an analysis of Personal Characteristics leading to accommodation choices.
Analyse the choices made by your respondents. Why are their rankings of evaluative criteria different? Why are their choices different?
Using the theoretical areas below, analyse and explain the behaviour of your respondents. Try to explain their choices AND the differences between them using theory from:

Demographics (age, gender, family situation, income, ethnicity etc)
Personality (choose a couple of traits that are apparent to you from knowing this person, you do not have to subject them to a personality test!)