he aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers’ needs and wants. The field of consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. Understanding consumer behavior is never simple, because cus- tomers may say one thing but do another. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivations, and they may respond to influences and change their minds at the lastminute.Still, all marketers can profit from understanding how and why consumers buy. For example, Whirlpool’s staff anthropologists go into people’s homes, observe how they use appliances, and talk with household members. Whirlpool has found that in busy families, women are not the only ones doing the laundry. Knowing this, the com- pany’s engineers developed color-coded washer and dryer controls to make it easier for kids and men to pitch in.1In fact, not understanding your customer’s motivations, needs, and preferences can lead to major mistakes. This is what happened when Kodak introduced its Advanta camera—a costly bust. The company proudly touted it as a high-tech product, but the marketplace was dominated by middle-aged baby-boomers. In midlife, fancy new tech- nology generally loses its appeal, and simplicity begins to edge out complexity in con- sumer preferences, so Advanta sales did not skyrocket.Such examples show why successful marketers use both rigorous scientific proce- dures and more intuitive methods to study customers and uncover clues for develop- ing new products, product features, prices, channels, messages, and other marketing-
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