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Q. Researchers believe that the field of consumer behavior should be a pure

rather than an applied, science. That is , research issues should be framed in
term of their scientific interest rather than their applicability to immediate
marketing problems. Do you agree ? Elucidate.
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1.Introduction

Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities
associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services, including the consumer's
emotional, mental and behavioral responses that precede or follow these activities.

Consumer behavior emerged in the 1940s and 50s as a distinct sub discipline in the marketing
area. Consumer behavior is an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from
psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, marketing and
economics, especially behavioral economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and
preferences affect buying behavior.

Characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, personality lifestyles and

behavioral variables such as usage rates, usage occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to
provide referrals, in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption are all investigated
in formal studies of consumer behavior.

The study of consumer behavior also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from groups
such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general. The study of consumer
behavior is concerned with all aspects of purchasing behavior – from pre-purchase activities
through to post-purchase consumption, evaluation and disposal activities.

It is also concerned with all persons involved, either directly or indirectly, in purchasing
decisions and consumption activities including brand-influencers and opinion leaders. Research
has shown that consumer behavior is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field. However,
new research methods such as ethnography and consumer neuroscience are shedding new light
on how consumers make decisions.

2.Origins of consumer behavior

In the 1940s and 50's, marketing was dominated by the so-called classical schools of thought
which were highly descriptive and relied heavily on case study approaches with only occasional
use of interview methods. At the end of the 1950s, two important reports criticized marketing for
its lack of methodological rigor, especially the failure to adopt mathematically-oriented
behavioral science research methods.

The stage was set for marketing to become more inter-disciplinary by adopting a consumer-
behaviorist perspective. From the 1950s, marketing began to shift is reliance away from
economics and towards other disciplines, notably the behavioral sciences, including sociology,
anthropology and clinical psychology.

This resulted in a new emphasis on the customer as a unit of analysis. As a result, new
substantive knowledge was added to the marketing discipline – including such ideas as opinion
leadership, reference groups and brand loyalty. Market segmentation, especially demographic
segmentation based on socioeconomic status (SES) index and household life-cycle, also became
fashionable. With the addition of consumer behavior, the marketing discipline exhibited
increasing scientific sophistication with respect to theory development and testing procedures.
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In its early years, consumer behavior was heavily influenced by motivation research, which had
increased the understanding of customers, and had been used extensively by consultants in the
advertising industry and also within the discipline of psychology in the 1920s, '30s and '40s. By
the 1950s, marketing began to adopt techniques used by motivation researchers including depth
interviews, projective techniques, thematic apperception tests and a range of qualitative and
quantitative research methods.

More recently, scholars have added a new set of tools including: ethnography, photo-elicitation
techniques and phenomenological interviewing. Today, consumer behavior (or CB as it is
affectionately known) is regarded as an important sub-discipline within marketing and is
included as a unit of study in almost all undergraduate marketing programs.

3.Definition and explanation

Consumer behavior entails "all activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods
and services, including the consumer's emotional, mental and behavioral responses that precede
or follow these activities."The term, consumer can refer to individual consumers as well as
organizational consumers, and more specifically, "an end user, and not necessarily a purchaser,
in the distribution chain of a good or service." Consumer behavior is concerned with: purchase
activities: the purchase of goods or services; how consumers acquire products and services, and
all the activities leading up to a purchase decision, including information search, evaluating
goods and services and payment methods including the purchase experience use or consumption
activities: concerns the who, where, when and how of consumption and the usage experience,
including the symbolic associations and the way that goods are distributed within families or
consumption units disposal activities: concerns the way that consumers dispose of products
and packaging; may also include reselling activities such as eBay and second-hand markets
Consumer responses may be: emotional (or affective) responses: refer to emotions such as
feelings or moods, mental (or cognitive) responses: refer to the consumer's thought processes,
their behavioral (or cognitive) responses: refer to the consumer's observable responses in relation
to the purchase and disposal of goods or services.

As a field of study, consumer behavior is an applied social science. Consumer behavior analysis
is the "use of behavior principles, usually gained experimentally, to interpret human economic
consumption." As a discipline, consumer behavior stands at the intersection of economic
psychology and marketing science.

4.Consumer behavior should be a pure rather than an applied, science:

Pure and Applied science

pure science is the discipline of science that focuses on theories of science and predictions that
help understand the world better. pure science is more akin in laboratories.
Applied science is the discipline of science that utilizes scientific information to develop
practical solutions. Applied science is more similar to technology and engineering.
while there may be slight differences between applied and pure sciences, the two disciplines are
used interdependently. information gathered in pure sciences is helpful in applied sciences.
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The world needs scientists now more than ever. With technological inventions and developments
being made every year, scientists are required to provide essential information that could help
improve the new inventions. The knowledge of scientists is applicable in virtually limitless
fields.
5.Research issues should be framed in term of their scientific interest rather
than their applicability to immediate marketing problem.

Basic research which is normally intended for exploration and testing of general theories, ideas
and questions is by curiosity or interest in a scientific question. That lays down the geared
towards to solving specific practical problems or resolution of a particular question rather then
generating knowledge and enriching the existing knowledge. Basic research is development or
contribution to the theory where the findings are used directly or immediately .whereas, finding
of applied research are immediately applied by the decision maker based on their feasibility and
sustainability.
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Conclusion

The study of consumer behavior also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from groups
such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general. The study of consumer
behavior is concerned with all aspects of purchasing behavior – from pre-purchase activities
through to post-purchase consumption, evaluation and disposal activities.

Applied science is more similar to technology and engineering.

while there may be slight differences between applied and pure sciences, the two disciplines are
used interdependently.
whereas, finding of applied research are immediately applied by the decision maker based on
their feasibility and sustainability.
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Reference
• Solomon Micheal (2006), Consumer Behaviour Pearson Education, Third edition,
• Philip Kotler (2010), Marketing Management, Pearson Eucation
• S.L. Gupta (2007), Consumer Behavior Sultan Chand & Sons, New Delhi