Monday, February 22, 2010

Thank God for the irrational consumer



How Customers Think, by author and Harvard Scholar Gerald Zaltman, a Harvard scholar says that only 5% of consumer purchasing behavior is based on rational thought processes, while the major part is due to subconscious motivation by means of design or other references to feelings or other basic instincts like fear or sex.

And what part do companies focus on? Thinking about how time agencies and advertising companies use in order to find yet another rational argument, picture or other piece of information to put into an ad or on a package makes one think.

A classic reference to this problem is the "what if Microsoft would redesign IPod"-movie:

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