Why Marketers Study Consumer Behavior and Why is it Difficult?

Marketing does not occur in a vacuum. Consumers are a big part of the process, and the ultimate success of any marketing campaign is contingent upon its ability to resonate with living breathing human beings. The better that markers can understand these individuals and what motivates them to purchase products, the more successful we will be overall. In addition, it’s important to consider the role that competition plays in marketing. The more viable options consumers have, the harder marketers must work to understand their decision-making process in order to better satisfy these consumers than competitors will.

However, this could be a very difficult undertaking. Many refer to consumer behavior as a moving target. Once marketers understand a group of consumers, consumers change. They could change based upon a number of factors such as:

• new technology disrupting the market
• sharing of new culture and changes of cultural values between generations; and
• introduction of additional competitors

These are just a few examples of why examining consumer behavior can be difficult. For example, we could examine groups of consumers in a particular generation, such as generation Z, which many of you may be a member of. And we may find that Z consumers in the United States behave in a completely different way than they do in other countries. That means we’ve learned it is not necessarily generalizable to the population at large within that group of consumers.

We also need to consider the fact that individuals change over time. As they get older, they may behave differently as they gain new experiences and have perhaps developed more skill when it comes to shopping and finding good value. Therefore, even an individual is not consistent over a number of years.

So why do we examine consumer behavior if it can be so confounding and it changes so quickly? Recall earlier in the lesson when we talked about understanding the motives of consumers. Remember, it isn’t so much studying the behavior of individuals but trying to ascertain the meaning and motives behind it that drives the behavior. If we understand what is important to these consumers and what drives their behavior, we have a sustainable competitive advantage over companies that do not share this understanding. And this is why we study consumer behavior!