Beneath the surface: The hidden world of individual buying behaviour

This paper from TNS in South Africa looks at the disconnect between the respondent-level and aggregate-level behaviour of consumers in market research.

Beneath the surface: The hidden world of individual buying behaviour

Kyle Findlay,Constantin Michael and Jan HofmeyrTNS, South Africa

Introduction

"…many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving"-Anton van Leeuwenhoek, 16931)

Branded markets lead dual lives, and many marketers only focus on one of these lives. For decades, the business world has focused on aggregate-level measures that describe its markets in familiar and reassuring ways. But, aggregate-level constancy belies the chaos2)that lurks just beneath the surface at the respondent level.

Much, although not all, of the business world tends to focus mostly on...

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