# Consumerology: The Truth about Consumers and the Psychology of Shopping

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/consumerology-the-truth-about-consumers-and-the-psychology-of-shopping/
- Published: 2010-10-12T13:27:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Market research is a myth. Philip Graves, a leading expert 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 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.

![Cover of Consumer.ology plus the text quote 'Consumer.ology has been named by 
Amazon UK as one of their top ten best business books of 2010!"](https://wfay6x.
infiniteuploads.cloud/2021/12/consumerology-top-ten-amazon-2010.jpg)

Top 10 best business book on Amazon UK

## Reviews

“Consumer.ology is a rich digest of insights on consumer psychology. It should be
essential reading for marketers and general managers, and carefully hidden away 
from anyone whose livelihood depends on market research.”
“… will send a shiver 
down the spine of the research industry…”**Alan Giles**, Chairman, Fat Face and 
Associate Fellow Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

“I had the pleasure of reading this book while travelling to the EMAC annual conference
last month. It wasn’t hard to keep the pages turning. This is a well-researched,
lucidly written book that will force the market research industry to address some
fairly troubling questions about what it does and how it does it. By implication,
the academic research ‘business’ is in the firing line too, given that empirical
data is often collected using the same techniques.”
**Katie Delahaye Paine **(The
Measurement Standard)

More from [philipgraves.net](https://www.philipgraves.net/).