For serious customer relationship–building marketers, unlocking the key to the buying decision would be something like finding the goose that lays the golden egg. Trouble is, the goose of consumer behavior is an elusive and changeable bird. Staying on top of what motivates discretionary buys, says Pamela N. Danziger, a leading customer relationship consultant, means getting inside the head of your fast–moving customer.

To take the pulse of today’s consumers, Danziger conducted her own extensive research. Through surveys, interviews, and focus groups with a variety of buyers, she has uncovered significant consumer marketing trends across a range of product categories. Her findings are detailed in her new book, Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior. Here are some of the takeaways:

It’s all about the buying experience. The item purchased is no longer the shopper’s main motivator. All retailers need to create strategic communication tools around a signature experience.

Reach out and touch someone. The shopping experience should be emotional — consumers want to be touched. “Emotion is at the foundation of people buying things they don’t need,” Danziger explains.

Cocooning is so over. The stay–at–home and feather–the–nest trends that dominated consumer culture for two decades have been supplanted by an era of “connecting.” Since people want to forge relationships, marketers should be thinking about shopping experiences that make connections with consumers and build customer loyalty.

Grease the skids. Emotions may bring customers in the door, but rational justifiers clinch the sale by supplying “permission” to buy. Danziger has identified 14 distinct “justifiers,” from the mundane to the elaborate, that give customers good reasons to buy.

It’s show time! Consumers want a shopping experience that’s entertaining and mentally stimulating. Plan to provide it.

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