Recently, Cubic’s two social media interns Stephanee Rice and Meggie Clemens got inspired for a taste of marketing research.  In a quest for new ideas and projects, our astute interns finally landing on consumer behavior, specifically the science of shopping. This new found enthusiasm based on consumer behavior is sparked by the work of Paco Underhill, who is known for “Call of the Mall, and Why We Buy.”

Two stores gave Stephanee and Meggie permission to observe their customer’s shopping behavior as part of their internship and school project.  We would like to sincerely thank Gap and Banana Republic in Utica Square for allowing our interns to carry out their research, and will be receiving copies of our findings.

Last Friday, July 16, Stephanee and Meggie ventured out into the wild to partake on a little marketing research by observing shoppers and their behavior.   The mission: to set out and observe shopping behaviors to see what makes people tick while giving our interns some invaluable insight while answering the age old question, “How do people shop?” Various factors and shopping behaviors were measured from a random selection of shoppers, including: gender, casually touching items (both folded and hanging), intently touching items (both folded and hanging), holding items up to body, trying on item, and buying item.   Our interns were very excited to embark on this venture and learned the basic steps of stealth observing.

We look forward to post another blog soon about the findings from their research, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, please tell us what you think about consumer behavior or other types of marketing research.