HYDERABAD, April 18: Noted educationist and psychologist Prof Dr R.A Shah said on Friday that industry must keep an eye on consumers’ needs and the marketing people must have interaction with consumers to sell a product.

He said in his lecture on “Role of Psychology on Consumers’ Behaviour”, under Dr N.B. Daudpota Memorial Lecture organised by the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration of the University of Sindh that the graduates of business administration should conduct research for the promotion of various products and study of new market trends.

Dr. Shah, who is also a former vice-chancellor of the Sindh University, said that representatives of industry and organisations must be well behaved, innovators and creators and respond to the varying needs of customers.

He said that psychology was a study of behavioural and mental process as well as a science of mind and thinking, attitudes, belief and learning were its key branches. Choice of a product was always influenced by the personality of consumer and customer, he said.

For the marketing people to sell a product it was necessary to understand market needs as the customers’ needs were always different and the graduates of business and commerce must keep themselves abreast of them, he stressed.

He said that it was fundamental that people dealing in market must have the abilities of self assessment and self concept and the self concept was the most important.

He said that personality and self concept were related to consumer behaviour. The personality was 40 per cent shaped by heredity and 60 per cent by environment.

Dr. Shah highlighted personality structure saying that ego and superego related to pleasure, reality principles and moral principles. Needs, wants and desires, education and experience would be useful in the development of market strategies, he said.

He said that there were many fields for the MBA graduates and new avenues could be opened by conducting research. He appreciated the students who took keen interest in learning and said that he had visited many universities of the USA and taught there and he felt as if he was teaching in a university of USA while delivering lectures in Sindh University.

The dean of Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration Dr. Anwar Ali Shah praised the founder of the institute Prof N.B. Daudpota and said that Prof. Daudpota spent 20 years of his life for the institute.

He said that the faculty was regularly organising lectures in memory of the learned teacher to highlight his services. Personality possessed an important place in the promotion of products and marketing, he said.

Prof Ferozuddin Kazi, director of the institute, Prof Hafiz Manzoor Ahmed Shaikh, senior faculty member of the institute and others also expressed their views.

Dr Shah delivered two separate lectures to morning and evening students of the institute. The lectures were also attended by teachers and students of different institutes and departments of the university.