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Consumer behavior is the study of how people choose which products to buy. Marketers study consumer behavior to understand what influences purchasing decisions. Psychological, personal, and social factors all shape what people put in their carts. Understanding consumer behavior improves campaign targeting and timing.

Understanding consumer behavior is essential. Consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. In other words, customers want companies to understand their behavior.

This post explores expert strategies for understanding and influencing customers.

Table of Contents

• What is consumer behavior?
• The Theory of Consumer Behavior
• Consumer Behavior Theories
• Marketing Experts Reveal Consumer Behavior Strategies
• Frequently Asked Questions About Consumer Behavior

What is consumer behavior?

Consumer behavior explains how people make purchasing decisions. Marketers use consumer behavior to understand buyer motivations. Teams can then predict purchase patterns and position products more effectively.

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The Theory of Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is the study of how people spend their money. This is typically studied by so we can better understand how personal taste and income shape the economy. However, marketers also use this information to market their products.

To study consumer behavior and learn more about your buyer persona, consider the answers to these questions:

• How do your customers feel about certain brands or products?
• Why do they select one product over another?
• What’s their research process like?
• Do they prefer to shop online?
• How important are reviews to their purchasing decisions?

Ultimately, the goal is to understand why consumers make the decisions they do so you can better market to them.

To fully understand consumer behavior, consider these factors that go into making a purchase:

Psychological

When people buy something, their mental headspace and mindset play a large factor. Ultimately, their perception, attitude, and background influence their final purchase.

Personal

Personal identification factors like age, financial background, culture, interests, and hobbies also play a role in a purchasing decision.

Social

Customers consider other people’s thoughts and opinions before buying a product. They think, “What do my family and friends think of this product?” and, “How are the reviews?” Sometimes, they’ll consider these elements without even thinking about it.

Consumer behavior as a emerged in the 1940s and 50s when marketing shifted away from relying on economics and instead focused on other disciplines like psychology and sociology. This lead to the development of an array of theories that analyze consumer behavior.

Consumer Behavior Theories

There are five main schools of thought regarding consumer behavior:

1. Psychoanalytic Theory

This theory states that consumers make purchasing decisions based on their feelings, hopes, aspirations, and fears. For example, if someone aspires to be a singer they’re likely to purchase voice lessons or music recording software.

2. Veblenian Social-Psychological Theory

This model asserts that humans are social creatures and make purchases based on societal and cultural norms. For example, as gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options are becoming more prevalent in society, consumers are becoming more likely to purchase those options from restaurants.

3. Reasoned Action Theory

This is the theory that consumers make purchases when they expect a specific result. That’s why marketers need to associate a positive result with purchasing their product. For example, marketers for a personal trainer associate overall health and weight loss with their workout program.

4. Maslow’s Motivation-Need Theory

Maslow, a psychologist in the 1950s, created a needs-based hierarchy that explains why people make purchases. The hierarchy asserts that people buy things to fulfill needs: psychological (survival), safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. For example, people buy alarm systems for their homes because they value and need safety.

5. Hawkins Stern Impulse Buying Theory

Although there are many reasons people buy things, sometimes very little thought goes into it. Impulse purchases occur when people buy products based on external stimuli. For example, if people see a candy bar in the checkout line, they might purchase it just because it’s there.

For all these theories, creating a buyer persona will help you better understand your customer’s motivations.

So, how can you influence consumer behavior in your marketing campaigns? Let’s consult the experts.

Marketing Experts Reveal Consumer Behavior Strategies

In this section, we’ve gathered some consumer behavior strategies from expert marketers across various industries. Take a look at their tips to improve the impact of your next marketing campaign.

1. New to predicting consumer behavior? Think about the holidays

For retailers, predicting consumer behavior can be as easy as understanding how the holidays impact purchasing decisions. While not all industries can use holidays as a predictor, especially B2B companies, seasonality can impact most industries.

Think about when companies spend the most money. Is it the first quarter or the fourth quarter? When do people invest? These questions can help predict consumer behavior for B2B companies that can’t necessarily rely on the same predictors for B2C companies.

An executive strategy advisor at Cherry Advisory, Dave Cherry predicting consumer behavior.

He says, “The insights gained by knowing what a customer is going to do with accuracy is exponentially more valuable than knowing what they previously did (transactional data) or their demographic profiles.”

With this in mind, if marketers can accurately predict consumer behavior, they’ll see great success in their marketing campaigns.

Cherry says, “Using data from Prosper Insights, frequently publishes their outlook on total spend (e.g., Mother’s Day spending is expected to increase by x% this year) as well as category spend (e.g., flowers are predicted to be up y% and candy down z%). Many retailers can predict category/department, and sometimes choice level sales across their chain accurately.”

2. Take the time to measure consumer behavior

The best way to understand consumer behavior is to build a clear measurement plan. From there, experimentation, segmentation, and cohort analysis can help identify what actually influences consumer behavior and how specific experiences affect outcomes. To measure consumer behavior:

• Define analytics strategy.
• Map across the customer journey.
• Set business-critical goals and metrics.
• Use tracking to measure those behaviors consistently.

As a former senior marketing manager at 黑料吃瓜网 Alex Birkett uses these strategies firsthand. While he notes that measurement is valuable, how information is collected may be even more important.

He says, “The worst way to predict consumer behavior is by asking consumers directly what they’re going to do or what they think; are generally different than stated preferences, and consumers are normally quite bad at articulating what they actually want and will do.”

Birkett notes that qualitative data can be great for experimentation, ideation, and discovering pain points. But, “It’s very bad for diagnosis, causality, or telling you how to fix that pain point.”

Controlled experiments reveal which factors influence consumer behavior. Marketing teams use to identify what changes customer actions and what improves conversion.

3. Understand how user experience connects with consumer behavior

Engaging with customers helps teams understand their decisions. There are several ways to capture why customers engage with a brand. The right approach depends on the setup and where the audience interacts with a company, such as:

• Surveys.
• Social media conversations.
• Customer interviews.
• Nurture emails that invite feedback.

These touch points often focus on the user behavior. As a marketing manager at 黑料吃瓜网 Dayne Topkin is an expert at understanding how UX shapes the customer experience.

Topkin adds, “You would be surprised at how willing users are to chat with you and share their experiences. These sessions should only last between 15 and 20 minutes, and you should come prepared with specific questions to ask. We use Zoom for these user interviews/sessions, and I’ve gained a ton of insight from these.”

Topkin notes that teams should have specific questions written down to ask during these sessions. Additionally, teams need to think about scalability.

“A lot of organizations struggle with this because their methods are too grandiose and aren’t scalable in the long run. Automate as much as you can as well — surveys, form fields, workflows, etc.,” Topkin says.

4. Ask the right questions

As a marketing teacher, Friesner . To study consumer behavior, Friesner says marketers should focus on a few core questions:

• Are you delivering value and customer satisfaction?
• Are you targeting the right customers effectively?
• How do customers view your product compared with competitors?
• What is your competitive advantage?
• How can you improve your products and services?

If you keep these things in mind, you should begin to understand how to market your product or service to your customers.

5. Bake consumer behavior into your strategy

Knowing how customers make decisions is integral to any brand’s marketing strategy. Campaigns can then be tailored to specific user personas and target how they actually buy.

Lars Perner is an assistant professor of clinical marketing at .

He says, “The most obvious application of consumer behavior is for marketing strategy—i.e., for making better marketing campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon.”

Additionally, teams can apply their knowledge of consumer behavior in social marketing. Social marketing involves getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling something. This comes down to the social factor of purchasing something. Consumers consider cultural norms and think about how other people view them.

Want to learn more about analyzing consumer behavior? Check out our beginner’s guide.

Frequently Asked Questions About Consumer Behavior

What is consumer behavior?

Consumer behavior is the study of how people choose, buy, use, and respond to products or services. It helps marketers understand what influences purchasing decisions at every stage of a sale.

Why is consumer behavior important in marketing?

Consumer behavior matters in marketing because it helps teams understand why people buy, what influences their decisions, and how to position products more effectively. When marketers understand customer motivations, they can create campaigns that feel more relevant and convert better.

What are the four types of consumer behavior?

The four common types of consumer behavior are complex buying, dissonance-reducing buying, habitual buying, and variety-seeking buying. These categories help marketers understand how much they perceive differences between options.

What are the four factors of consumer behavior?

The four main factors of consumer behavior are psychological, personal, social, and cultural influences. Together, these factors shape how people evaluate products and make purchasing decisions.

What are the 4 Ps of consumer behavior?

The 4 Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. In consumer behavior, they influence how people perceive value and discover options.

How has digital technology changed consumer behavior?

Digital technology has made consumer behavior more research-driven and personalized. People now compare options online. Buyers turn to social proof and increasingly expect relevant experiences across channels before making a purchase.

Getting Started

Understanding consumer behavior isn’t easy, but marketers can turn these insights into stronger campaigns. 黑料吃瓜网 helps marketing teams organize customer data and track behavior across touchpoints. Knowing what customers do allows teams to apply those insights. The result is a more personal customer experience that actually ends in purchases.

Free Market Research Kit

5 Research and Planning Templates + a Free Guide on How to Use Them in Your Market Research

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Survey Template
• Focus Group Template
• And More!

Download Now

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