The role of the behavioral sciences in future marketing

While some exaggerated claims have been advanced as to the importance and contribution of the behavioral sciences-psychology, sociology, biology and anthropology-on scientific marketing, there is little doubt that these sciences will be called upon more often in the years to come to aid marketing to attain a more professional and scientific status. This will be especially true of the techniques used in these social sciences, including the techniques of depth interviewing.
These social sciences, which study man, his motivation, his actions, his thinking, and his reactions, can be a great help to marketing. But there is always the danger that too great reliance may be placed on such find¬ings to make generalizations which may or may not apply in the actual market.
Marketing research is moving steadily forward in the development of new techniques, many of which are borrowed from these social or behavioral sciences. But despite much talk, the use of motivational research in marketing is still quite restricted. There are many important marketing people who do not believe it is possible to establish accurately what motivates people to buy. They point to such well-known facts as the important changes between what people say they intend to buy and what they actually do buy. Intention to buy correlates only about 35 per cent with actual purchases.
Critics of motivational research also point to the repeated studies concerning so-called impulse buying which indicate that, in some commodities, unplanned or impulse buying runs to 50 per cent and higher. Is it possible to determine what motivated such purchases? Mass displays in the store, reminder advertising, a new package, prettier color combinations, the recommendation of a friend, sudden impulse at the point of purchase, and many other motivations are known to enter into the picture. If consumers themselves do not know what caused them to buy, is it possible through behavioral science studies to determine such causes?
Marketing in the future will, without doubt, borrow much from other sciences in its steady march towards the application of scientific management principles to the marketing function. It is perhaps too early to tell which of these social sciences will contribute the most -psychology, sociology, anthropology, or economics. But there is a growing realization that interdisciplinary activity will result in greatly improved marketing in the future.
Certainly no careful student of marketing can afford to disregard the possibilities of help from such al¬lied sciences. It is apparent that industrial and agricultural productivity is far ahead of consumption and demand-creating productivity. Marketing (demand creating and demand satisfying) must grow up to the level of production if we are to establish a balance between production and consumption. Without this balance, we are doomed to recurring ups and downs in the business cycle.
In a nation whose declared national policy is full employment, we must study carefully all the elements that make for employment (production, consumption, consumer demand, consumer needs, consumer action and reaction, purchasing habits, etc.) in addition to shifts in population and in purchasing power. Much of this is the result of psychological factors rather than economic. In marketing we must study these factors, understand them, and be prepared to interpret them correctly. To this extent, a greater borrowing from psychology is no doubt essential and inevitable.