Meaning and Definition of CB

Consumer behaviour is a very rapidly growing application-oriented discipline of study. This subject is of a practical nature where you can take examples from the real world when we learn this subject. The recent change and advancement in the digital communication are also playing a vital role in the  consumer behaviour.
The subject is not just relevant to how a person buys a product or uses a service but it is  very dynamic, complex and multi-dimentional process. It reflects the totality of consumers' decisions with respect to acquisition, consumption or use and disposal activities.
Consumer behaviour can be defined as "The behavior that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs" (Leon G. Schiffman and Leslie Lazar Kanuk, "Consumer Behaviour" 2007)
Consumer behaviour focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money,effort) on consumption related items. That includes what they buy, why they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it, how they evaluate it after the purchase, the impact of such evaluations on future purchases and how they dispose of it. So in Consumer Behaviour we not only learn what is the behaviour of the consumer when he buys it but also before the consumption, during the consumption and after the consumption.

Difference between Consumer and customer:A consumer is anyone who typically engages in any one or all of the activities mentioned in the definition. Traditionally, consumers have been defined very strictly in terms of economic goods and services wherein a monetary exchange is involved. This concept, over a period of time, has been broadened. Some scholars also include goods and services where a monetary transaction is not involved and thus the users of the services of voluntary organisations are also thought of as consumers. This means that organisations such as UNICEF, CRY, or political groups can view their public as "consumers".