Consumer Behavior, Research, Economics, Marketing, Linguistics, Laboratory Medicine 

Although consumers have a strong vision of "the good life," they wrestle with the problem of how best to express that vision in material terms through what they want to buy. How do consumers choose the brands they buy? What circumstances lead consumers to make their purchases--habit, weighing the pros versus the cons, pure liking or simple whim? Why People Buy provides an original approach to understanding and studying the consumer--it details a way of identifying the goals, wants, beliefs and choices currently motivating consumers. O'Shaughnessy discusses many situations from the point of view of the marketing manager seeking to attract new users, retain customers, increase business or convert from rivals. He argues that the consumer's choice criteria never involve more than six categories of reason, which he explains at length. - from Amzon