✅ [Your Task] You will be interviewing your selected AI Consumer Persona to better understand cultural, psychological, and personal influences on consumer behaviour. These AI Consumer Personas are powered by GenAI and responds as a real person. Your role is to explore their preferences, decision-making habits, and brand attitudes by asking open-ended questions.

✅ [Learning Outcomes] After completing this activity, you should be able to:

• Identify how personal, cultural, and psychological factors influence consumer behaviour
• Apply consumer behaviour theory to interpret interview responses
• Reflect critically on the differences between local and global consumers
• Analyse real-time consumer responses using a persona model
• Critically ask questions related to SDGs

✅ [Interview] Ask them at least 6–8 questions from the suggested list (or your own). At least one of the questions must be related to a SDG:

• What are your favourite brands and why?
• How often do you shop online?
• Do influencers affect what you buy?
• Are you loyal to any particular brand?
• What role does sustainability play in your choices?
• How does your culture affect how you shop?

✅ [Analyse] Analyse their answers using one or more consumer behaviour theories. Submit your reflection in the discussion in myTIMeS.

1️⃣ [Discussion] Post your analysis and reflection in the discussion in myTIMeS:

• Which of their answers surprised you the most, and why?
• What theory of consumer behaviour best explains their shopping habits?
• Would a Malaysian Gen Z consumer like you answer the same way? Why or why not?
• How did this AI-based interview enhance your understanding of real-world buying behaviour?

2️⃣ [Advanced Discussion] Post your analysis and reflection in the discussion in myTIMeS:

• Which part of the persona’s behaviour or thinking challenged your assumptions, and why?
• Which two consumer behaviour theories best explain their decision-making patterns? Support with examples from your chat.
• How do culture, digital access, or economic background influence their buying behaviour?
• How is this persona different from another one you didn’t interview? What does this reveal about market segmentation?
• What marketing strategy would you recommend to global brands targeting this persona? Be specific.
• How do their personality traits (e.g., emotional, cautious, loyal, spontaneous) interact with external influences like media or peers?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of using an AI-based persona for studying real-world consumer behaviour?
• If this persona moved to Malaysia, how would their shopping habits change? Why?

After interviewing the AI chatbot personas, complete the persona map by filling in each of the surrounding bubbles with insights gathered from your conversation.

🔹 Use the template provided together with the list of topics.
🔹 Each bubble represents a key area of consumer behaviour.
🔹 Use specific examples or quotes from the interview where possible.
🔹 Focus on capturing their personality, motivations, and consumer habits.

Objective:
To better understand their shopping mindset, decision-making processes, and digital engagement by analysing her as a real-world consumer through the lens of marketing and behavioural theory.

Tips:

• Keep your responses concise but insightful.
• Think critically – what patterns or behaviours stand out?
• How do her answers reflect trends among Gen Z consumers?

✅ [Activity] Product Design Challenge: Create a Product for Your Persona

Now that you’ve interviewed your assigned AI-powered global consumer persona, it’s time to design a product or service that is specifically tailored to them.

Your task is to use what you’ve learned about their lifestyle, behaviour, culture, values, and shopping habits to create something they would genuinely want to buy. This activity will test your ability to apply consumer behaviour theory, persona-driven thinking, and design empathy — just like real marketers and product developers do.

You may work individually or in pairs.

📝 Instructions:

Submit your response in a single document or slide deck, addressing each section below clearly:

1. Name Your Persona
State the name, age, and country of the persona you interviewed (e.g., Ana Beatriz Silva, 19, Brazil).

2. Key Persona Insights
Summarise 4–5 key things you learned from your interview that influence how this persona shops or makes decisions. Focus on:

• Shopping platforms they prefer

• Social media and influence patterns

• Values (e.g., sustainability, speed, emotion, function)

• Impulse vs planned behaviour

• Price sensitivity or brand loyalty

3. Design Your Product or Service
Create a unique, realistic product or service tailored to your persona. Include the following:

• Product/Service Name
  Come up with a name that would appeal to your persona’s personality and culture.

• Type/Category
  What kind of product/service is it? (e.g., skincare item, mobile app, sneaker brand, digital planner, subscription box, virtual café experience)

• Main Features or Functions
  List 3–5 key features that would excite or satisfy the persona. Think about what matters to them.

• Price Range
  Provide an estimated price range in the persona’s local currency, based on what they can afford and are willing to pay.

• Sales Channel(s)
  Where will this be sold or accessed? Online? In a physical shop? Through WhatsApp?

• Packaging & Design Style
  Describe the visual style, colours, or cultural design elements that would attract your persona.

• Optional Add-Ons or Variants
  Are there multiple versions, bundles, or customisations?

• Ethical or Cultural Considerations
  How does this product respect their values (e.g., halal, cruelty-free, eco-conscious, inclusive)?

• Loyalty or Engagement Strategy
  How will you keep this customer coming back? (e.g., reward program, app notifications, community features, referral codes)

4. Justification: Why It Fits
Write 1–2 paragraphs explaining why this product fits your persona’s behaviour and values. Refer to:

• Specific quotes or moments from your chatbot interview

• Relevant consumer behaviour concepts (e.g., emotional triggers, reference groups, perceived value, shopping involvement)

5. Branding & Marketing Approach
Briefly describe how you would brand and promote this product to appeal to the persona:

• Tone of voice (fun, premium, minimalist, etc.)

• Promotion platforms (TikTok, YouTube, email, influencers, Dcard, etc.)

• Tagline or slogan (optional)

6. Include a Visual (Optional but Encouraged)
You may include a sketch, mockup, or description of what the product looks like. Use Canva, PowerPoint, Google Slides, or AI image tools — or draw by hand and scan.

🎯 Learning Goals:

• Apply consumer behaviour theory to real-world personas

• Develop empathy-driven marketing thinking

• Strengthen skills in segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP)

• Practice branding and product design strategies with cultural sensitivity

Click here to visit: The ShopQuest Mall

🧠 Activity: Personify Yourself – Build Your Consumer Persona

Welcome to Personify Yourself, a self-discovery activity where you will design your own AI consumer persona based on your preferences, behaviours, values, and lifestyle. This persona will help you better understand your own role as a consumer and allow us to generate a custom AI version of you to be used in simulations and reflective learning.

✅ What You’ll Need to Do:

1. Complete the Google Form by answering the questions honestly and reflectively.

2. Upload a clear photo of yourself – this will be used to generate your AI persona’s visual appearance.

3. Your persona data will be transformed into a chatbot prompt, and a profile card will be generated.

4. You’ll later interact with your AI version, and reflect on how you shop, think, and behave as a consumer.

Be as detailed as possible. This is not about making the “ideal” consumer—it’s about making an authentic version of you as seen through a consumer behaviour lens.

Create your persona here: CREATE

🌏 The ExpanSEA Challenge

🧠 Activity Overview

In this challenge, you will act as a marketing consultant for a Malaysian brand that is planning to expand into another Southeast Asian market. Your mission: craft a smart, localised entry strategy by leveraging real-time insights from your AI consumer persona interview.

This activity combines consumer behaviour theory with cross-cultural analysis and strategic thinking, and pushes you to turn persona data into real-world marketing recommendations.

✅ Your Task

1. Choose a Malaysian brand you believe has regional potential (e.g., Tealive, FashionValet, Mamee, BookXcess, dUCk, Inside Scoop, etc.).

2. Select one Southeast Asian country as your expansion target (e.g., Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, etc.).

3. Interview a target-market consumer using the AI Consumer Persona Chatbot provided in class. Choose a persona from your selected country. You must:

   • Ask at least 6 open-ended questions

   • Explore their preferences, cultural values, digital behaviour, and shopping habits

   • Include at least one SDG-related question

4. Use the persona’s responses as your primary insight source, and combine it with consumer behaviour theories to analyse:

   • How different are their preferences compared to Malaysian consumers?

   • What cultural, psychological, or personal factors matter to them?

   • What triggers trust and purchase intention in their market?

5. Based on your findings, propose a localisation strategy for the brand. Cover:

   • Product: Any adaptations needed?

   • Price: Will perception of value differ?

   • Place: How should it be sold?

   • Promotion: What tone, platforms, or messages would resonate?

📦 What You’ll Submit

Your final deliverable may be in any of the following formats:

• Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation

• One-page strategic infographic

• Short pitch video (2–4 minutes)

Must include:

• Brief background of the Malaysian brand

• Snapshot/profile of the AI consumer persona you interviewed

• Key insights from the interview, tied to at least 2 consumer behaviour theories

• Comparison with Malaysian consumer trends

• Your 4P localisation strategy

• Reflection on how using the AI persona chatbot deepened your understanding of cross-cultural marketing

🎯 Learning Outcomes

By completing this activity, you will:

• Apply consumer behaviour theories to real-world expansion strategy

• Develop cross-cultural awareness within ASEAN markets

• Use chatbot-enabled personas to extract and interpret market-specific insights

• Design marketing decisions based on actual consumer behaviour data

• Reflect critically on how digital tools like AI can support market research

💡 Tips for Success

• Ask probing, open-ended questions when using the chatbot to simulate a real interview.

• Link answers to consumer behaviour theories like:

  • Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

  • Perception & Motivation theory

  • Reference Groups & Social Influence

• Make clear how this persona’s answers influence your proposed strategy—not just what they said, but why it matters.