A thought-provoking text that challenges readers to consider consumer behaviour in new and refreshing ways and reflect on routine behaviours that occupy so much of daily life – buying brands, patronising stores, watching adverts, making recommendations.

Robert East is emeritus professor at Kingston Business School, Kingston University London and adjunct professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of the University of South Australia. He trained as a social psychologist and is a postgraduate of London Business School. His research has mainly focused on word-of-mouth patterns where his new evidence has shown that some widely-held beliefs are mistaken. As a teacher of consumer behaviour, he has been keen to deliver knowledge that is useful to students while not over simplifying the subject.

Jaywant Singh is professor of marketing at Kingston Business School, Kingston University where he teaches consumer behaviour and research methods. He applies quantitative research methods to unravel how and why people buy goods and services, through the lenses of brand management, ethical consumption, status consumption, and service management. He has published in leading academic journals and he regularly presents his research at international conferences. In his teaching, he endeavours to deliver theoretically and empirically grounded research knowledge that has direct applications in marketing and business.

Malcolm Wright is professor of marketing at Massey University, New Zealand, and adjunct professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of the University of South Australia. He applies empirical principles to marketing problems and has made interrelated discoveries about brand loyalty, the use of probability scales, new product forecasting and optimizing the advertising budget. He has also published many articles critically examining the foundations of popular marketing knowledge.

Marc Vanhuele holds a PhD from UCLA and is professor of marketing at HEC Paris. As expert in consumer information processing, his research focuses on how consumers treat price information. A second field of research is how marketing managers can improve their decision making through better use of quantitative information on the consumer’s mind-set. His research has been published in the leading academic journals. He also works as consultant to consumer goods and market research companies.