To Buy or Not to Buy

Boxing Day.

Tis the one day of the year where I, along with thousands of other people, go out and spend all of the money we got as gifts, the money that we may have saved over the year, or the money that we don't have.

This is the first year in 5 that I did not attend the Future Shop door crashing event by lining up at 530 in the morning in the cold for that one video game that I could just wait and buy later that day. This year, I had decided I spent more than enough money on my family and girlfriend so I could not really afford to go and spend another 300 dollars on myself.

I did still go out shopping that day, because what else would I do with my time during the holidays. I went with my girlfriend's brother so he could buy the Xbox One. I already have one, which I got at the midnight release last year after standing in line at Future Shop in the crisp November cold. The point here is that I had previous experience with the product so he came to me to find out whether or not he should actually get the Xbox. He previously had a PlayStation 3, and was considering the PS4. After talking to me, who was a bit biased as I've always gotten the Xbox products, he was convinced that the "Xbone" was the console for him.

After that, it was a matter of when to buy it. Being 17, he does not have much income for himself, and that made his christmas list very short and easy to come up with: money for a Xbox. Being around christmas I had suggested that he wait till boxing day and he maybe able to catch a good deal for a package, or maybe the console alone would be on a one day sale.

Turns out that the only "sale" on the Xbox One on boxing day was a refurbished console with the kinect (motion sensor) was $350. Since he had no use for the kinect, he decided to go with the best value, that is a brand new console and two games (roughly 40 dollars a piece) for $400.

Now that we've gone through the story about the xbox purchase, we see how an individual goes through the process of buying a new thing. My friend, as a consumer, was a problem solver. He specifically went through extended problem solving. He was provoked by his want for a new gaming console, and then went about his search to determine which is best. He talked to me, asked his other friends who had either the Xbox One or the PS4. He also determined whether or not he needed the kinect by finding out what kind of perks it added, and thought about if he was ever going to buy a game that required the kinect feature.

The process my friend went through really started with his problem recognition. In this situation, his problem around in the way of an ideal state opportunity. He sensed a difference in the way his gaming habits were, and the way he wanted his gaming habits to be.

Overall, being involved in a Consumer Behaviour course, and being able to watch all of my friends and family's buying habits, it's always interesting now to see them go through the steps, and which steps they skip, when buying something.

Shop. Sleep. Repeat.

Seems like the only thing everyone doing these days is shopping. With christmas now under a week away everyone has to make sure they haven't missed anyone, and make sure they have all of the necessary things to wraps gifts. Working at a Shoppers I keep seeing people buy a bunch of wrapping paper, bows, tags, and the biggest hit during the christmas season are the gift cards.

The amount of advertising that occurs during christmas is also incredible, and in my opinion, the way that it is done is very subtle. Playing christmas music I find is a unique way of advertising. Every store playing this music means that every time you walk into a place, you're reminded that you've got to get that gift for that random cousin you never see. With relation to consumer behaviour, overloading people with christmas music is a form of classical conditioning. This occurs when consumers learn associations between stimuli without complex processing. It's been found that consumers are essentially controlled by the music so they spend more:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9743137/Christmas-music-makes-us-spend-more.html.

Now this can related to how consumers learn and remember things. Playing christmas music to make us spend more can be seen as a classical conditioning practice, as we're not born knowing that christmas music means that it's christmas time, and therefore time to buy all the gifts. I find personally that I get frustrated by the music if it's played too early, because it's almost obvious that the business is trying to force me to get into the spirit of the holidays and buy a bunch of things 2 months early. By playing it early, it kind of relates to the repetition idea with regards to learning. If we hear christmas music 2 months of the year instead of just one, it kind of increases the amount we'll be wanting to shop because it gets us into the mood of christmas.

There is also a dark side to this type of thing, which I recently found out from a coworker. He does not celebrate christmas as his family practices a different religion, and he is trying to teach his kids why they don't get the gifts that they see advertised everywhere. He was telling me about how whenever he takes his kids out, especially when it's as early as November, and there is strictly christmas music playing everywhere, it can get overwhelming. Since his kids have lived in Canada their entire lives it gets hard because they have grown up learning that when December rolls around it's strictly christmas themed everything.


Overall, christmas time is a great time to be with your family, have fun with friends, but when it comes to the business practices in that time, there should be some sort of limit set so that people can enjoy their time more and reduce the conditioned feeling that the only thing reason christmas is here is to spend money and exchange gifts. This does link to the gift giving post I made previously, which again, could be seen as a conditioned action for consumers because it's not really in our nature to celebrate christmas by spending money and buying gifts. But I guess that's just the way the world works now.

It's Christmas Time

So I started my christmas shopping last week...Well, I tried to start my christmas shopping by going out and looking at potential gifts for my family. The early part of the shopping is always the hardest part because even if the person you're buying for has given you a list of things they want, I fell as though you're still tempted to buy things that are not on the list so it seems like you put some extra thought into buying the gifts.

Thinking about gifts in this way relates back to the idea of gift buying outcomes. The goal of buying people gifts is to obtain an epiphany outcome or affirmation outcome. Both are outcomes I would see as acceptable because then nobody is upset or disappointed about what they got. The epiphany occurs when a gifts works to help the relationship turn a corner and hopefully for the best. The affirmation just maintains the standing the relationship is already in, which for me would be acceptable because it still means that the person getting the gift is pleased with what they received.

It's the first christmas with the new girlfriend and I've noticed myself not wanting to buy things because of the high risk of her not liking what I get. Another thing I've noticed, and this relates to the "dark side" of gifts, and that is feeling like I have to match her spending. I had noticed in previous year that a lot of the gifts I bought were "better" if they were more expensive, and people would like it more because I had spent more. Even though I feel like the more useful and thought about gifts, regardless of monetary value, are the best ones.

With Christmas coming faster than I would like, I think that this Christmas season will result in some last minute gift buying. There's also many questions with regards to who I'm buying gifts for. Do I buy my girlfriend's parents gifts, or do I wait to see if they get me anything..or should it even matter if they get me anything.

Found it kind of funny while talking with a guy from work about christmas. His family never does much, and it's just a small gift exchange and then dinner. But his thoughts can bring in a new point of view about gift exchanges, and it's how you're kind of being forced to trade money with people in the form of objects that may or may not be needed or appreciated.

We Were Young

As an individual who's life revolves around having music in my ears at all times, I come across songs that are terrible and songs that I fall completely in love with. One such song, which could be considered the "title track" for this blog post, wasn't love at first sight. At first it was just another song in my podcast...then, given the correct setting, a nice sunset in the woods during a summer get away with friends, this song became my favourite.

Now just for clarification, I have a kind of scale for songs..each one can be categorized into a class (just like the top 40 countdown with Ryan Seacrest, number 1 is the best){Each link is a personal example of the categories}.

1- Songs that play a large part in your life; could come from the lyrics really hitting home with you, or it's a song that was playing at a special time in your life..like in the woods with friends, or at a wedding (you never get tired of these songs, and could have hundreds of plays in your iTunes library).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxNnnR4XCyk

2- Songs you play 50 times in a week and stop...but then jam out to a month or two later when you hear it played and then begins another week of 50 plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmaFPvdyUYo&index=8&list=WL

3- Songs that you enjoy whenever they play, but you don't go out of your way to put them on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

4- Songs that you find annoying, but will put up with them, and catch yourself tapping your foot while they're on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4iX5D9Z64

5- Songs that you find absolutely terrible, and make a point to change the radio station, or leave the room if it's on. (no song preview here because it would involve me listening to a category 5 song)

Now that I've broken down these categories, I can move towards the point. Each song I listen to is immediately placed into category 2-5 (it takes some work for a song to be in my number 1). Although, about a month after my first listen, if it was not placed in 5, the songs are probably not in the original category. This is mainly because I've have some time to listen more, and like fine wine, I find music gets better with age. For example some of the tunes I'll listen to all the time come from bands like The Rolling Stones, or Steve Miller Band.

The song I'll talk about now was categorized as a 3. It was nothing special at the first listen. If someone played it, I probably wouldn't recognize it, but would listen to it all the same. However, given the correct place it really got me hooked, thus advancing it to a category 2 song. After a week though, and probably about 75 plays later (most in the company of some of my best friends, doing splendid summer activities) I found myself categorizing this song as a 1.

Although I really like house music, I grew up on more rock and metal music. After I became hooked with this song, We Were Young by DVBBS, it wasn't the classic huge drop that involves all the bass that had me hooked, it was actually the breakdown in the middle of the song. I found it took me back to all of my old favourites that involved a lot more rhythm and not just pounding into the speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rRO3uOzvY#t=01m38s

Let's get down to the important stuff now. How does my love for music, and all the subtle music promotion, relate to consumer behaviour? Well, when it comes down to it, music is a sensation. You listen to it, and for some people it's just a huge experience. As I discussed with the DVBBS song my initial sensation was that it was not going to be a very special song. But once I had taken the time to think about it, my perception of the song was much different. I was able to put it into the category I thought was appropriate after about 75 plays.

Overall, staying with the music theory, it's an interesting "phenomenon" that occurs when you first hear a song and that sensation makes you react like this:

But then you hear it in a more suitable environment, and you're perception changes, causing you to react more like this:

And at the end of the entire thing, in my experience, and you've ended up falling in love with the song..you end up getting very excited every time the song plays.

Overall, there are many different possible situations that we can go through that change our opinions on certain things. This is important for marketers and businesses to keep in mind because they have to make sure their customers are being put in the correct situation to allow for the individual to be satisfied with their experience, and in turn this results in the company being more successful.

The Introduction

The first post on a new blog is always going to be the most difficult to create. You have to make sure you get your point across, but do it in a way that doesn't make it sound like you're trying to coax people into doing something they don't want to do, which for online personalities is just gaining a "follower".

Come to think of it, starting up a blog is kind of like creating a brand new product for a company. In both cases there is time and effort spent trying to make it perfect to roll out so that anyone who sees what you've created is not completely dissatisfied and never wants to deal with your ideas (or products) again.

Creating ideas online that people will actually be interested in can be extremely difficult and some people give up because they start to think it's impossible to get a spot in people's main network of sites/blogs/youtube accounts/twitter profiles that they follow. I've personally noticed that I have specific people I follow on twitter, youtube, twitch, or Facebook and going out and searching for more profiles to follow is just a hassle now. I've gotten so used to these people pumping out content for my own enjoyment that at times I've forgotten that these people have their own lives to deal with. Although there are times when I've got nothing better to do with my time and get annoyed because the people I follow aren't posting anything.

But being a lazy consumer, the effort it takes to go back and watch a new individual's videos is just too much sometimes and I end up dealing with the wait by watching old content. That way when they come back online with new stuff it makes me super excited to watch all of it.

My experience with the more "classic" products is about the same. And the idea of consumer behaviour is evident in both product cases. As I sit here typing this on my MacBook Pro, sending the odd message out on my iPhone, listening to music with my Skull Candy headphones it's just a perfect example about how products and brands surround people's lives. It seems like no matter what you do now there is a brand you're supporting. Buying brands now can be an ordeal if you don't know what you're doing. Purchasing a new phone can have three paths before you actually swipe, insert or tap your card (Is it Visa? MasterCard? Amex? Interact? Or "old-fashioned" cash?). First, you can be lazy like me, and get the brand you know... for example "I'll take an iPhone 6"...Or you can change it up because of a bad experience and get the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha, because bigger is always better..even if the phone doesn't fit into normal pants pockets. Then there is the other way to buy a phone, which is a being a new entrant into the market. In the case of mobile phone markets now this individual would be about 80 years old or somewhere close to 12. Hopefully there would be some research to find out what kind of phone is the best, but with something as popular as a cell phone taking a friend or family member's word for what's the best is the most likely path of information gathering.

There's a process to go through to buy a phone. There's a process to buy anything now. And comparing back to my original topic of online personalities, as a brand you have to grab the attention of people and make sure you don't screw it up too much, or insult people so they keep coming back. Seems fairly simple of a task...mind you there's a lot of people out there you've got to impress, and no matter who you are, or what company you are (see Apple, Microsoft) there's always going to be "haters", that no matter how good your stuff is, will say it's terrible.

Overall, we're all consumers, and we each try to make sure the choices we make are our own, and not forced on us. But buying a brand, just because it's that brand, is not always an individual choice, and is just the result of being a "lazy" consumer.