Abstract:

The purpose of my paper is to discuss certain research, with which I have recently been concerned, into housewife shopping patterns in Great Britain. By shopping patterns, I mean the number and types of shops which the housewife uses to buy different products, the frequency of her shopping trips, the way in which she selects products inside the shop, and so on. It seems to me. that this is a very important aspect of consumer behaviour which has been neglected by market research in the past. It. is, important because it is the focal point of the selling operation and a great deal of market research is concerned with the selling of consumer products. I shall describe two research techniques which I have found to be of value in the investigation of housewife shopping patterns: the ’observation study' and the 'concentration study'. I would like to describe the development, methods and applications of these techniques by taking three specific marketing problems with which I have been concerned.