Consumer Research: Evolution of Consumer Research

Consumer Research
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Consumer Research
While exploring different markets, businesses need to research to gain insight into various aspects of the market. One of the major researches that businesses conduct is consumer research. Consumer research involves identifying the needs, preferences, motivation, attitudes, and purchasing behavior of targeted buyers (Peighambari, Sattari, Kordestani, & Oghazi, 2016). It offers a deep perspective on consumers and allows businesses to be customer-oriented. Consumer research has evolved over the years to become one of the most insightful concepts in marketing. The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer research by discussing its evolution as well as its importance to businesses and the field of marketing.
Evolution of Consumer Research
The concept of consumer research dates back to the late 1950s when the need to understand the experiences, needs, and thoughts of consumers was recognized as a necessary recipe for successful marketing (Malter et al., 2020). This marked the shift to a more integrative approach to marketing where both the marketing decisions of marketers and purchasing decisions of consumers were put into consideration, especially in the field of academic marketing.
By the 1960's the concept of consumer research had grown and was characterized by the development of various consumer behavior models. One of the models includes John Howard's model, which conceptualized how inputs of information informed consumer cognition and how cognition affected consumer's preference, thus promoting the purchase of a product and, ultimately, consumer satisfaction with the product (Malter et al., 2020). Others included the multi-attribute attitude model. In 1969, the Association of Consumer Research (ACR) was established, and part of its mandate was to share marketing research based on information generated from consumers (Malter et al., 2020). This was done through an annual conference. Today, the ACR achieves its mandate not only by holding numerous conferences but also by reviewing and publishing consumer research articles (ACR). During this era, the buyer was considered a rational, computer-like decision-maker who processed information at their disposal to make purchasing decisions.
In the late 1980s, this view of buyer rationality in decision-making through computer-like information processing was challenged through behavioral economics and experiential view (Malter et al., 2020). On the one hand, behavioral economics introduced the need to understand the financial decision-making among buyers and how it influenced their purchasing behaviors. On the other hand, the experiential view changed how consumers were viewed. Rather than viewing them as objects, the experiential view considered them beings whose decisions were informed by their pleasant/ unpleasant experiences (King, 2015). As a result, by the end of this era, consumer research shifted from viewing buyers as rational objects to viewing them as irrational beings whose consumption behavior was influenced by their experiences.
Today, consumer research has advanced drastically, thanks to technological advancements. Marketers have access to large amounts of secondary consumer data. Con...