Biology and consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour is the study of the motivations surrounding a purchase of a product or service. It has been linked to the field of psychology, sociology and economics in attempts to analyse when, why, where and how people purchase in the way that they do. However, little literature has considered the link between our consumption behaviour and the basics of our being, our biology. Segmentation by biological driven demographics such as sex and age are already popular and pervasive in marketing. As more knowledge and research is known, targeting based on a consumers biology is of growing interest and use to marketers.As human machines being made up of cells controlled by our brain to influence aspects of our behaviour, there must be some influence of biology on our consumer behaviour and how we purchase as well. The nature versus nurture debate is at the core of how much biology influences these buying decisions, because it argues the extent to which biological factors influence what we do, and how much is reflected through environmental factors. Neuromarketing is of interest to marketers in measuring the reaction of stimulus to marketing. Even though we know there is a reaction, the question of why we consume the way we do still lingers, but it is a step in the right direction. Biology helps to understand consumer behaviour as it influences consumption and aids in the measurement of it.Lawson and Wooliscroft (2004) drew the link between human nature and the marketing concept, not explicitly biology, where they considered the contrasting views of Hobbes and Rousseau on mankind. Hobbes believed man had a self-serving nature whereas Rousseau was more forgiving towards the nature of man, suggesting them to be noble and dignified. Hobbes saw the need for a governing intermediary to control this selfish nature which provided a basis for the exchange theory, and also links to Mcgregor’s Theory of X and Y, relevant to management literature. He also considered cooperation and competition, relevant to game theory as an explanation of man’s motives and can be used for understanding the exercising of power in marketing channels. Pinker outlines why the nature debate has been suppressed by the nurture debate in his book The Blank Slate.