Past Experience is the No. 1 Influencer when Buying

Consumers Cite Past Experience is the No. 1 Influencer when Buying

This article says;

In a survey by GfK Roper Consulting, 83% of adults cited past experience with a brand as the most important factor in their purchase decisions. Quality and price -- issues often promoted in advertising -- ranked second and third. Personal recommendations came in fourth, highlighting the importance of word of mouth. 

Very interesting.  Maybe when companies advertise they should consider creating ways to gain experience with customers, for example a sales promotion would get people to buy right now and if the experience is good they will hopefully purchase more of the item.

Williston: The Town the Recession Forgot

Williston, ND is an oil-boom town where advances in technology have allowed companies to access oil two miles below the surface.  With this increase it has also increased the need for workers and the result is a 3.5% unemployment rate in September.  People from across the country who are unemployed have left their homes in search for a well paying job in Williston.

This article talks about the men who are living in tents for weeks because there are no places to live and no homes to buy.  It is a modern day gold-rush town.  The locals do not like the influx of people and with it has brought crime and prostitution.  One lady who came to the area in search of work explains this place as "this place sucks.  There is no place to live.  All the restaurants are always crowed and the locals are rude.  They blame all the outsiders, which I don't blame them [for].  I'd blame us, too.  But we need jobs, too.  There are no jobs anywhere else."

Williston: The Town the Recession Forgot

Coca-Cola tray from 1934

This picture on the Advertising Museum website is of a Coco-Cola tray from 1934.  On the tray is a picture of a young couple who are dressed in swim clothes (I think), drinking Coco-Cola and having a good time.  Coca-Cola is trying to appeal to a certain demographic, which are young couples probably 25-35 who are middle class.

Even as early as the 1930s there were companies identifying their target consumers and trying to put their products into their lives.  This shows how important it is to identify who your consumer is.

Decision Making

Sometimes I have a hard time making a decision.  I believe the reason is because I am afraid of making a bad choice and having buyers remorse.  There are many alternatives in the market today and even though I do like having alternatives, it does become overwhelming.

For example, at the start of every ski season I have certain items that I could really use and should buy.  However it is hard for me to buy items online and that is the most cost effective way to do so.  The result is I usually don't buy it.  So because of that I have had the same goggles for 6-7 years and the same snow pants for 6-7 years and lot of handy downs.

It seems that at the beginning of the season and throughout I recognize I have a problem, especially when my bottom gets wet because my pants are no longer water proof and I can't see anything out of my goggles because they are scratched.  I do an information search and then I can never move on to the evaluation of the alternatives.  Sometimes it is easier for me if I have purchase momentum because then I will actually buy something that I need.  If I don't then I probably won't buy it.

New Puppy

This is Tippy, my new puppy.  She is nine weeks old and came from a ranch south of Billings.  Tippy is an American Farm Collie and was named the "drama queen" of the liter.  

As we train her, it reminds me of what we are talking about in class about culture.  We have been enculturating and training her into our family.  Some examples of how we are doing this is we take her for walks around our house.  This gets her used to the smells of our house and also teaches her to stick around.  We also cuddle with her which helps us to bond together.  By bonding she will learn that we are her family and be more likely to listen to us.  If she is bad we lock her outside of our bedroom, which represents shunning her from the pack.  Horses do this as well and when we do it she realizes she has done something wrong and will hopefully not do it again.

This shows that even animals have cultures and that we can enculurate them into our families.  Have a culture helps everyone to get along and to show respect to each other.

Market Research

Right now in market research we have administered surveys and are now entering data into SPSS.  One of the questions on our survey asked if people owned labtops, desktops, cellphone or smartphone, and tablet.  I started to notice that everyone has a labtop and a cell phone.  I have not finished entering all the data but I will keep everyone updated with my findings.

What does this mean for consumer behavior? I think it shows where our future is headed.  If the majority of the students have labtops then why don't we use them more in education.  At work we live on our computers because that is what puts food on our tables and a roof over our heads.  At school, grade and university, we barely touch upon it.

My suggestion is every college student and eventually every student is required to have and or is provided a tablet and access to discounted e-textbooks.  The sooner we use and get comfortable with computers and technology the faster we can give back to our community and world.  Maybe the next facebook will be started by a 15 yr old instead of a 21 year old.  Maybe the next person to make a huge medical advancement will be 21 instead of 30.  We need to push the limit so we don't fall behind and I say this because I'm grown up in this time and feel it.  If we don't teach our children as much as we can we are not going to have the America we know today.

"Spend Shift"

I found this article, How U.S. Consumers Are Steering the 'Spend Shift', by John Gerzeman from AdAge on how consumers have shifted their spending habits in turn of the 2008 recession.  According to Gerzeman, 55% of the American population are part of this movement and are going back to the "Great Depression" values of "self-reliance, thrift, faith, creativity, hard work and community."  


This is very interesting because I feel like I am part of this movement.  The article mentions that people now view spending as a form of power and treat each purchase as a "vote".  Personally I feel that I am just scared of the future.  I'm uncertain of what will happen and feel that I must prepare for the worst.  This may make it seem like I am paranoid but I would rather be prepared than not if the worst were to happen.

Prizm > Young Urban Renters

On Nielsen, MyBestSegments you can type in your zip code and it will segment the towns population by similar traits and demographics.  Specifically in Bozeman there is a group called Young Urban Renters and it represents people under 35 who rent homes and are at the bottom of the income level.  It is really funny the stuff they say this group does and their traits.  Some examples are; young, single, and ethnically diverse,  use check cashing services, have renter's insurance, buy hip-hop music, and read Babytalk magazine.  If you have any free time check out the website.

Baby plays with IPAD

This is pretty amazing.  This video shows a baby using an iPad for the first time and it's like she's used it for years.  This is a perfect example of how effective Steve Jobs was in creating simple technology that everyone could use.  The iPad is so simple a baby can use it.  However, I wonder how much this baby watched others use the iPad before she was able to use it.  I did YouTube some other videos about babies using the iPad and found that many two year olds can navigate through different applications.

This makes me wonder what will be the implications of a children using this technology at such a young age will be.  Before we know it children may start getting cell phones at 5 years old when they start going to school.  Or what if one day they develop a chip that they put in you and it allows you to talk with people, use the internet, and pay for goods.  That is kind of scary.

buy.ology

This video is from The Today show and interviews the writer of buy.ology, a book about how marketers use consumer behavior to sell more products.

Simple little ways that companies position a good to sell more of it.  One thing I took away from it is that people love discounts.  They will always buy more if they feel they are getting a good discount.

To Buy or Not to Buy?

Today I came even closer to buying a new computer than I have over the past two months... but I couldn't do it.  The text Consumer Behavior says that "people may delay gratification (pg130)" and that is exactly what is happening to me.

I have waited and waited and today I stopped by the bookstore to ask more questions about my future new computer.  I've known what model I've wanted for a while but had to double check.  Thankfully they were out of stock so I will be able to wait a couple more weeks before I can have one in my hands.

So I wonder why do I do this? Why do I even need a computer? Why don't I just buy it?  Everyone asks themselves many questions to justify buying.  Justifications helps us buy items we may not have bought otherwise.  Everyone does it.

I'll keep you updated about the possible purchase.

Cameron Lord recently moved to Big Sky from Texas and is experiencing the basics of having to commute to Bozeman for reasonably priced groceries.  Check out his article "New Guy in Town" written in The Big Sky Weekly.

In May 2009, I moved to Big Sky and am currently on my fourth semester commuting to MSU.  One of the best parts of driving to Bozeman five days a week is being able to go food shopping.  This is something I tend to do every day after class just because I can.

Over the past two winters I've taken the spring semester off and really learned the Big Sky way of food shopping; stocking up in the fall, living off frozen meat and canned vegetables during the winter and not driving the canyon until the end of the ski season.

My other job this summer was Distribution Director at Outlaw Partners.  Here are our websites.  Check them out and let me know what you think.

Outlaw Partners             Explore Big Sky

First Day of Blog

Today I just started my First Blog. Exciting!! Here is a picture of one of the jobs I worked this summer.