P. James Drake August 08, 2002
BUAD 340B
Principles of Marketing
The Importance of Market Research
Understanding consumer buying behavior entails marketing, relationships, and consumer behavior. Consumer behavior comprises all the consumer decisions and activities connected with the choosing, buying, using and disposing of goods and services. Marketers must pay very close attention to consumer behavior that occurs before the purchase and after the particular product has been used. Studying consumer habits is one of the steps in marketing search and analysis. In addition to other basic principles of consumer buying habits, marketers also need to study the decision and actions of real people. Until recent history the study of consumer behavior was focused on generalized consumer decisions, however this did not address the habits of individual buyers and users. By companies not having the correct or necessary information bad business decisions occurred, leading to companies not making marketing decisions without knowing specific details about their customers. Today marketers can collect and analyze data about consumer behavior, one individual at a time; this is the relationship approach to marketing.