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.