Most marketing research relies on assessing conscious reactions to consumer behavior , whether to advertisements, commercials, through surveys and focus groups, etc. It also often relies on evidence that the message was heeded by evaluating the content of the advertisement.
But market researchers often make erroneous assumptions when taking this approach. One assumption is that different types of consumers can and will honestly say how they feel and behave toward a product or service. Another assumption is that if the advertisement has been given due attention and processed consciously, then the advertisement will be effective.
The problem is that no matter how well research is done, it often cannot successfully predict consumer behavior. For example, political focus groups and polls invariably find that voters hate negative ads. But then it becomes clear that attack ads and negative campaigns work.
I invite you to read: Market research and consumer behavior .
Unconscious processes in consumer behavior
The answer is that research into conscious processes captures only latvia phone number one part of decision making, and probably not the most important part. Cognitive science, neuroscience, and psychological science have demonstrated this for over twenty years, but marketers are just beginning to act on these findings.
A key insight is that much (but not all) of our mental functioning is unconscious. So asking people what they think, how they feel, and what they remember provides incomplete answers that do not help us understand consumer behavior. We need to know what is happening outside of our conscious awareness, too.
What do we know about these unconscious processes? We seem to know two things very clearly.
First, the mind, like the brain, is organized in terms of networks of associations. What this means is that our thought processes do not follow a logical, linear path; instead, they are organized in terms of how they are associatively connected.
The second thing we know is that at our core we are emotional beings and our first reaction to any stimulus is emotional. Emotion overrides rationality.
Another insight provided by science concerns the relationship between conscious and unconscious processes, as well as what types of consumer behavior each predicts.
Conscious and unconscious processes need not agree. In fact, they are independent of each other. They can agree or disagree. Both are important. So, what purpose does understanding consumer behavior serve ?
Conscious processes predict behavior in the immediate situation, when we are thinking about what we should do now.
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