Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This concise introduction presents a rigorous analysis of consumer choice from the perspective of consumer behavior analysis. Gordon Foxall provides a deeper understanding of what consumers actually buy and the nature of the utility that shapes and maintains patterns of consumption. Key features include: * a revolutionary new approach to understanding consumer behavior * a novel synthesis of behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and marketing science * a new model of consumer choice, the Behavioral Perspective Model, that is comprehensively supported by empirical research * addresses more extreme behaviors such as compulsive purchasing and addiction. Unique and authoritative, this work will prove a valuable resource for students and scholars of consumer behavior and marketing, social and behavioral science, micro-economics, economic psychology and behavioral economics. Marketing managers will also be interested in its approach to consumer research, with its innovative consequences for marketing management.