In marketing, consumer behavior is the study of how - and why - individuals and groups make purchasing decisions. These are the fundamental questions of the field of market research, as these important insights can drive business decisions into what products and services to sell as well as the best ways to sell them. And, while these questions aren’t new, researchers today have new tools to gain valuable insights into consumer behavior.
The migration of so much of our buying behavior to online platforms, from product research to comparison shopping to purchase and post-purchase reviewing, has created vast amounts of information for data analysis. Sophisticated customer analytics can harness this data to describe consumer shopping habits in great detail - and, when combined with regression analysis and other statistical techniques, predictive analytics can be created to forecast and influence future purchasing decisions.
The field of behavioral economics has also revolutionized the study of consumer behavior. This relatively new discipline combines economics with psychological insights into cognitive biases to better understand economic behaviors ranging from the decisions of individuals to global investment patterns. The emerging subfield of consumer neuroscience focuses on explaining buying behavior, creating opportunities for so-called neuromarketing approaches that leverage these insights to create more effective branding and advertising.
