Representing users to producers is the subject of this paper — the essential yet, outside of marketing practice, most overlooked aspect of marketing. It requires basic science that breaks new ground. As appropriate conceptualizations become available, chances improve that the producer’s question: What shall we produce? will be answered more efficiently than heretofore. Consumer researchers are invited to create the behavioral science that marketing needs.

This paper proposes bases for considering influence to be aimed at affecting peripheral or fundamental elements, a task that requires analysis of the nature of action and of persuasive assignments. Three kinds of persuasive task are discussed in light of a general model of action, as is use of the terms, peripheral and fundamental, to characterize behavioral elements.