Reciprocity Principle

There’s a strong link connecting marketing and psychology. In order to build proper connections with customers and prospects, marketers must understand how people behave and what motivates them to make purchasing decisions. Most consumer behavior scientists and economists agree that people do not make decisions in a vacuum.

There are many psychological factors that influence consumer behavior. Four of the most important factors are motivation, perception, learning, and the consumer's belief system.

Marketing psychologists study consumers and how different factors such as age, education, personal habits, personal beliefs, and others factors, lead consumers to make purchasing decisions.

Psychographics is the qualitative methodology of studying consumers based on psychological characteristics and traits. These include values, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices. The goal of psychographics is to understand peoples' emotions and values so that a business can market more effectively.

The four types of market segmentation include: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral.

Behavioral characteristics in marketing include a customer's age, gender, income, location, and occupation. These characteristics frequently correlate to behavioral data and the aggregated data can often be used to derive certain conclusions about other segmentation data.