Mapping psychological & sociological influences on individual decision making and brand choices

Abstract

Understanding and responding to the quintessential customer is the only way marketers will survive high density competition in the market place. Giving the consumer what he needs, when he needs it and where he needs it is the key to smart marketing. Providing consumer solutions in turn require marketers to know their target consumers' psyche and the sociological influences that bear down on them. This research study uses multiple qualitative tools like personality tests, perception tests, in depth interviews and projective techniques to understand the psyche, social cultural environment and the decision making framework of an individual research subject. The subject chosen for the single individual case study was a student at an MBA program in the metropolitan city of Bangalore. He is in his mid-20s looking to move on to a corporate job after the completion of graduate business program. The research primarily focussed on understanding the influences his social circumstances and his personal psyche had on consumption decision making.