Market research is a myth. Philip Graves, one of the world's leading experts in consumer behaviour, reveals why the findings obtained from most market research are completely unreliable. Whether it is company executives seeking to define their corporate strategy or politicians wanting to understand the electorate, the idea that questions answered on a questionnaire or discussed in a focus group can provide useful insights on which to base business decisions is the cause of product failures, political blunders and wasted billions.Consumer.ology exposes some of the most expensive examples of research-driven thinking clouding judgement, experience and evidence – from New Coke to General Motors, from Mattel to the Millennium Dome – and instances of success through ignoring market research, such as Baileys and Dr Who. It also shows organisations the tools they should be using if they want to understand their customers.Using his unique AFECT approach, a set of five criteria to evaluate the reliability of any consumer insight, Graves asserts that it's time for a fresh approach that embraces this new understanding of human behaviour. Along the way, he reveals why the current practice of market research is a false science, why we often don't buy what we say we will, and how to understand consumers better than they do themselves. After reading Consumer.ology business leaders and politicians will never look at market research in the same way again.

市场调查是个神话。菲利普格雷夫斯，世界领先的消费者行为专家之一，揭示了为什么从大多数市场研究中获得的结果是完全不可靠的。无论是公司高管寻求确定其公司战略，还是政客想要了解选民，通过问卷调查或在焦点小组中讨论问题的想法都可以提供有用的见解，作为业务决策的基础，是产品失败的原因，政治上的失误和浪费了数十亿美元。消费者学揭示了一些最昂贵的研究驱动思维的例子，这些例子模糊了判断、经验和证据——从新可口可乐到通用汽车，从美泰到千禧穹顶——以及一些因忽视市场研究而获得成功的例子，如贝利和Who博士。它还向组织展示了如果他们想了解他们的客户，他们应该使用的工具。利用他独特的AFECT方法，一组五个标准来评估任何消费者洞察的可靠性，格雷夫斯断言，是时候采用一种新的方法来包括这种对人类行为的新理解了。在这一过程中，他揭示了为什么目前的市场研究实践是一门错误的科学，为什么我们经常不买我们所说的我们会买的东西，以及如何更好地了解消费者而不是他们自己。在阅读了《消费者学》之后，商界领袖和政客们再也不会以同样的方式看待市场研究了。