This is a fascinating video on how a spaghetti study has led to the millions of food choices we have today.
Pay attention, heck fast forward to the 6:20 mark, and see how a Harvard Genius revolutionized the food industry. Notice how when you go to buy Ranch Dressing you are confronted with 600 different options? Its because of the guy talked about in this video.
Dealing with people's consumption and buying habits is an absolute blast. It is true that people don't really know what the hell they want. You have to be able to gather data and read between the lines. People don't know what they don't know at the end of the day.
It also touches on classic business stupidity. You see it with big companies but unfortunately it is the doom of many many smaller companies. They work so hard on their product, service, or business with assumptions they just don't know to be true. I remember in my serving days people have all these little quirks with how they like their food but they always think "their way is the normal way" which is fine if what you think of as a medium steak is medium rare we can throw it back on the grill but when you make those conclusions without knowledge in business it can be bad.
The way things are presented changes everything. Stuff that seems really simple like price anchoring. If I want to sell a 7 dollar burger it could be a challenge. Someone walks in and looks at a 7 dollar burger and says JFC no way. But it is my target I need people to buy this. So I put a 10 dollar burger on. People go JFC a 10 dollar burger no way...lets get the 7 dollar one. Not as big a deal. Bam I make the transaction I need and every now and then someone does want a 10 dollar burger. Money in the till.
Stuff like this is interesting as hell