There are many different and, oftentimes, seemingly controversial theories of human behavior in psychology. However, those controversies can be reconciled because all these theories are based on a variety of subjective factors of human being.
Many statements that form psychological theories have found application in marketing and advertising. Moreover, they largely stimulate the development of these fields of human activity and important business components.
D. Kelly has become a founder of the theory of cognitive development of human personality, which not only had immense influence on marketing, but has become the ground for its further development. According this theory every person is a scientist and explorer of his/her surrounding world. People make suggestions about things around them and try to find out the true state of things.
Every person is focused on the future rather than on the past, and the present is viewed only as a bridge to the future. People direct their efforts at reducing the vagueness of the future, to fulfilling their desires and realizing future plans.
However, every person has particular individual expectations, psychological motives and ways of perception of the surrounding world and interaction with it. Kelly makes a statement that there are no things in this world that different people would not have different rational ideas and opinions about.
Kelly's theory, developed in the 50s of the last century, was ahead of its time. It became very popular in the 70s and was often applied ever since.
In our days, people's strife for individualism is growing ever greater. Many people independently and intentionally develop their own unique life styles and systems of values. For advertisers this tendency results in the necessity to become more customer oriented and develop more personal ways of approaching consumers. Creating and designing ads we have to address them no to masses, but rather to narrow segments of target market customers taking into consideration their personal motives and preferences.
To do that advertisers have to put themselves into customers' shoes and start evaluating products and advertisements from their point of view. The process of promoting new products on the market is very complicated and expensive; however, if people are unwilling to buy or at least consider buying your products it becomes an impossible task to accomplish.
Perhaps, the most scaled failure of 20th century was a Ford's car Edsel. The manufacturers have not done a good study of the market development tendencies and future demand for such cars. They have convinced themselves that this car will be given a warm welcome by customers. However, it turned out to be a failure. Ford company has spent 9 years and 250 millions of dollars on it only to find out that it failed. Even though the car was stuffed with all possible kinds of new equipment and design novelties, consumers mocked it and preferred to buy cars of the same class from other brands, those that were designed in more modest and more conservative style.
To escape such failures, manufacturers have to study their target markets more diligently. They need to research customers' motives and needs as well as market future development tendencies, and psychology provides key knowledge for that.