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Notes
Example: To assume that affect and cognition always cause behavior and ignore the
impact of the environment underestimates the dynamic nature of consumption processes.
Similarly, to assume that the environment controls behavior without consideration of affect and
cognition also gives an incomplete description. The development of marketing strategies should
include an analysis of all three elements, their relationships, and the direction of causal change
at particular times.

Secondly, any of the three elements may be the starting point for consumer analysis. Although
we think that marketing strategists should start with an analysis of the specific overt behaviors
consumers must perform to achieve marketing objectives, useful analyses could start with affect
and cognition by researching what consumers think and feel about such things as the various
brands of a product. Alternatively, the analysis could start with consumers’ environments by
examining changes in their worlds that could change their affect, cognition, and behavior.
However, regardless of the starting point, all three elements and their relationships should be
analyzed.
Thirdly, because this view is dynamic, it recognizes that consumers can continuously change.
Although some consumers may change little during a particular time period, others may change
their affect, cognition, behavior, and environments frequently. Thus, keeping abreast of
consumers involves continuous research to detect changes that could influence marketing
strategies.

Fourthly, although our example focused on a single consumer, consumer analysis can be applied
at several levels. It can be used to analyze not only a single consumer but also groups of
consumers that make up a target market—a larger group of consumers made up of all the
purchasers of a product in an industry—or an entire society. Because marketing strategies can be
applied at all of these levels, this approach is useful for all types of marketing issues.
Finally, this framework for analyzing consumers highlights the importance of consumer research
and analysis in developing marketing strategies. As shown in Figure 7.3, consumer research and
analysis should be key activities for developing marketing strategies. Consumer research includes
many types of studies, such as test marketing, advertising pretests, sales promotion effects,
analysis of sales and market share data, pricing experiments, traffic and shopping patterns,
surveys, and many others.

Figure 7.3: Role of Consumer Research and Analysis in Marketing Strategy

Consumer research

and analysis

Consumers: Affect and Marketing
cognition Behaviors strategy
Environments development

Marketing strategy

implementation

Source: http://answers.mheducation.com/marketing/consumer-behavior/consumer-analysis

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