1. Marketing is a category of actions that include all of the efforts a company or individual makes to convince consumers and potential consumers of the value a product or service holds for them so that the consumer will purchase the product or service. It is all about product promotion. Marketing has a heavy research component to it, because marketers have to understand who their target market is and what their values, beliefs, and attitudes are. It is these components that marketers must address and convince in their marketing efforts. Consumer behavior is related to marketing in that it constitutes the study of the values, beliefs, and attitudes of an individual or groups that a company seeks to convince of a product’s value. This takes into account demographics and backgrounds to determine what a consumer is most likely to do in a purchase situation. Often, the study of consumer behavior views the consumers’ decision making processes within the framework of psychological, sociological, and economic disciplines. Each of these plays a role in the consumers’ choices, so they are considered in the consumer behavior research process.
Consumer behavior can be applied to my life experiences because my daily actions with regard to my purchases exemplify consumer behavior and the need for marketing. Every day I make decisions about what I want to purchase based on my attitudes and beliefs about a brand, my financial position, and the value a purchase will or will not bring to me. Thus, my daily actions can be considered consumer behavior.
2. Human behavior and consumer behavior are both categories describing individuals’ and groups’ actions and how larger forces like beliefs and values affect them. However, where human behavior examines humans’ decision making process and how it is influenced by values, morals, and attitudes derived from how a person is raised and by socialization into culture, consumer