There are two assumptions in business that I think deserve closer examination.
1. Economic logic
We often assume that if we reduce the price, more people will buy the product. Yet price alone has surprisingly limited predictive power when it comes to consumer behaviour. People do not always make decisions according to the rational economic models we apply to them.

2. Conventional market research
We ask customers what they want and assume they will be able to tell us. The challenge is that much of what influences our behaviour happens beneath conscious awareness. We may feel something before we have thought about it, and we may act on something we could never clearly explain.

Consumer behaviour can therefore be meta-rational, in other words, behaviour that may make sense within a person's emotional, social or psychological context, even when it appears irrational from a purely economic perspective. Someone might even say, “I would never pay more for that,” while choosing the more expensive option when the moment comes. We see documented examples of consumers paying premiums for products because of factors such as perceived quality, status, identity, trust, scarcity or emotional connection. Perhaps the things that influence consumer behaviour most are sometimes the things that remain out of sight, even from the consumer themselves.