"Mylo Xyloto" Purchasoto

On Monday I was driving back from Indianapolis after meeting my parents for dinner and on the radio was the band Coldplay conducting an interview about their new album. I own all of their albums so far and love the band, so instead of switching to a station with music playing I stopped and listened to the interview, enjoying listening to them talk about the new album and its release. As soon as I got back, I went and bought Coldplay’s new album, Mylo Xyloto, on iTunes. What caused this immediate impulse purchase?

Throughout our text we discuss the decision making process and how it affects our purchase habits. When I bought the new Coldplay album, the first thing I noticed was that I had a problem. The interview I heard created a new ideal state in which I had and could listen to the Coldplay CD. On the radio they were playing Coldplay’s older songs and one of their new songs, but this sample created a problem for me that Coldplay released a new album and I needed to listen to it.

I then began to internally search for information about the product and for solutions. I searched internally and considered the couple songs I had already heard from the album and compared them to past Coldplay songs. I even searched externally asking a friend of mine who also loves Coldplay if he liked the new album or not. This decision was mainly low effort, so I did not search very long and quickly moved on to evaluating my alternatives.

I remembered a couple other bands I enjoyed that had come out with new CD’s as well and weighed my past experiences and listening pleasure among them. This was mostly affective based as I thought about my emotional feeling after listening to the CD. I also evaluated my alternatives in purchase. From my evoked set, I considered getting the physical CD from Wal-Mart, digitally download from iTunes, or illegally download the album. The most convenient and cheapest choices were online, so I narrowed down my selections. I chose iTunes because I support Coldplay and love their music, so I wanted to support them with my money instead of “stealing” the music.

I then made my purchase decision and bought the album on iTunes. I listened to the whole album as soon as it finished downloading and have listened to it numerous times in the past two days. As I moved onto my post-decision evaluation, I posted on my Facebook my liking toward the new Coldplay CD and found I had other friends who felt the same way. This reinforced my purchase decision and made me feel even better about my decision. The CD was great and that small purchase was just one example of how we use the decision making process in our purchasing habits every single day.