Overview

Effective marketing requires an understanding of consumers. Furthermore, uncovering the motivations, desires, habits and anxieties of consumers is the starting point in providing innovative products and services.

The study of consumer behavior has existed for more than 50 years. How consumers think, what drives them to purchase one product over another, which consumers are the target demographic – these (and more) are topics you need to consider when creating and marketing products. Consumer researchers have long used principles of psychology to study consumer behavior, but understanding the psychology of the consumer mind is not enough. Carrying out quality research on consumer behavior requires that you also understand: What method(s) should you use? What demographic should you target? When should you put different methodologies into practice? How can you use current technology to improve consumer research?