Foundations of Consumer Behaviour Analysis

This essay reviews the course of consumer behaviour analysis, a research programme that employs the findings and principles of behavioural research toelucidate consumer behaviour and marketing management. Although attempts have been made from time to time to integrate a behaviour analytic perspective intomarketing research, the tendency has been to concentrate on the potential contribution of operant psychology to managerial practice rather than to examine the potential of behaviourism to provide a theoretical basis for marketing and consumer research. Moreover, concentration on research with animal subjects has severelylimited the relevance of behaviour analysis to marketing. The essay therefore pursues three themes: (1) to explicate recent developments in behaviour analysis, such as the analysis of verbal behaviour; (2) to take account of work by behaviour analysts on economic choice and to apply its lessons to understanding consumer behaviour and marketing action in naturally occurring environments; (3) to establish the requirements of an interpretive approach to consumer behaviour and marketing which is not limited to an experimental analysis of choice.