Mathematical Models of Individual Buyer Behavior

Several grand models of buyer choice behavior exist, differing in their relative emphasis on economic, social, and psychological factors. Some of the partial or incompatible theorizing can be cleared up through efforts to develop and compare mathematical formulations of the different assertions about buyer behavior. This paper deals with the problem of explaining how the purchasers of consumer staples make brand choices through time. The author contrasts seven models of increasing complexity, the last one involving all the previous considerations of brand loyalty, stochastic factors, the influence of the last brand purchased, learning, competitive brand features, competitive brand promotion, and word-of-mouth influence. He concludes that model complexity is necessary both to provide a norm for exposing the omissions of simpler models and as a requirement for the eventual development of useful and realistic market simulators.