BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH Customers leave traces of their purchasing behavior in store
scanning data, catalog purchases, and customer databases. Marketers can learn much by analyzing
these data. Actual purchases reflect consumers’ preferences and often are more reliable than
statements they offer to market researchers. For example, grocery shopping data show that highincome
people don’t necessarily buy the more expensive brands, contrary to what they might state in
interviews; and many low-income people buy some expensive brands. And as Chapter 3 described,
there is a wealth of online data to collect from consumers. Clearly, American Airlines can learn many
useful things about its passengers by analyzing ticket purchase records and online behavior.