Function or Appearance?

As consumers we have many choices to make. One purchase that I currently made that required several decisions was deciding which and how many pairs of tennis shoes to purchase. I have had the same pair of Adidas tennis shoes for several years. I love these shoes. I particularly like the pink (but not too pink) color of them. They are extremely comfortable and great for standing long periods of time. These shoes have served as great “everyday” shoes. Even with having these great shoes, I realized that I had a problem: I needed new tennis shoes.

My actual state was that I only had one pair of tennis shoes. The ideal state would be to have a pair of “everyday” tennis shoes as well as a pair of work out shoes and then a pair of softball/pitching shoes. This ideal state would require me to purchase two more pairs of tennis shoes to have a total of three pairs, provided I keep my old pair. The problem with this would be that I would want new shoes to have for everyday and then purchase a pair to work out in keeping the old for pitching (since I go through this pair the quickest); however, even this poses a problem. The problem with keeping my old pair as a pitching shoe would be unsafe since they are not functional for this purpose – not very supportive.

So, the ultimate decision had to be made last weekend as I went to shop. Being realistic, I knew that purchasing two new pairs was not in my budget quite yet. I used the decision making process and finally purchased a pair of Brooks. Brooks are known for working out/running. Starting Insanity the week after I purchased these I am extremely thankful I went this route and purchased a quality tennis shoe for exercising. I now have two pairs of tennis shoes hoping to purchase a third soon for pitching. The function of these tennis shoes is clear to me and has worked out great. My purchase and decision making has served me well so far and I hope to continue to be satisfied.

Forgetting Even the Grocery List

I am ashamed to even admit this lame fact: At the age of 20 years old, I need a grocery list. I find it disturbing that at this young age I cannot remember the few items on my grocery list for a week at a time. As I run out of the necessities (i.e. bread, milk, cereal, and shampoo) I always attempt to instantly jot the note down on my “handy dandy little note cards” as I like to call them. Without these little note cards I would forget so many things in my life; however, there is a problem with these life savers. The problem: I sometimes even forget to grab the note card as I head out the door in a rush to the grocery store.

So, as I am on my way I try to remember the items I jotted down. Even though this often results in retrieval failure, I can retrieve a few items typically. The way I try to retrieve information is by thinking through the processes of my everyday routine. I try to think about my breakfast – do I have milk? Acknowledging milk usually reminds me of cereal or orange juice. In my mind, I consider these items to have strong trace strengths. I continue through this process until I can retrieve the information I believe I had on my list. Once in the store, I can usually recognize the remaining items, or so I believe. Seeing bananas typically jogs my memory that I was out of bananas and apples. My memory is jogged throughout the store until finally I have a cart full. I then arrive at the checkout and return home to find my list posted on the refrigerator. The list will pose items that will then be transferred to a new list and the process unfailingly begins again.

High Risk Purchasing

One of my most recent purchases was a desktop computer. I was saving up for one all summer and being careful to keep money back every paycheck for it. I had set a budget of around five to six hundred dollars in order to get the one that would satisfy what I wanted and needed for school. The whole summer I looked at magazines and different computer magazines wishing I could get the best one and soon realizing I was a poor college student.

Looking backing on this, the situation at hand was high risk. I was using the Compensatory model: (Product) Attribute-based Decision. The definition of this from Chapter 10 is when brands are compared by attribute, two brands at a time. Looking back I used this by comparing E-machines and HP computers. Don't think I was not thinking about a Mac either, because I would love to have one! Simply didn't even put any thought into the brand of computer because they are too expensive! I was looking for a reliable computer that runs smooth and will last. The main differentiator was price because I don't have much room to budge on that aspect. I reasoned with myself by saying that HP was too expensive and and I could still get great performance from the E-machine that was more affordable. I still had the specs I was looking for and the relief that it wasn't going to blow up a week later because of the high reviews and feedback that I read. It also came with a one year warranty which is always nice to have just in case.

So three months later here I am typing this blog with it and running other programs as well. It runs extremely smooth and I am hoping to acquire Pro Tools 8 to record music here soon too! I am happy with my purchase and I think I will get many great years with this desktop.

I'm Out of Toothpaste!

For my entire childhood I never realized what brand or special type of toothpaste I had used. Whatever tube of toothpaste that was lying on the bathroom counter when I went in to brush my teeth was the tube I would use. It wasn't until college that I realized that I had to buy my own toothpaste.
Last week I ran out of toothpaste and went to walmart to pick out a new tube. Because of the low amount of MAO, I processed my decision through the peripheral route. My evoked set of toothpaste brands consisted of Crest and Aquafresh. I also had one brand in my inept set, Colgate. I never enjoyed the taste of Colgate, so I already counted it out of my options. The decision-making model I used for this toothpaste decision was a noncompensatory model because negative information I previously had about two of the three brands led to my rejection of them from consideration. The reason I omitted Colgate from my consideration was because of the nasty taste. The reason I rejected Aquafresh from consideration was because I was less familiar with the brand than I was with Crest, and Crest offered more flavor options than Aquafresh.
My autobiographical memory also came into play when making my decision because I recognized that the past year or two I had been using strictly Crest toothpaste. No external search was necessary for this decision. The only thing I had to choose between now was which flavor of Crest toothpaste I should buy. The options were tartar control, cavity protection, teeth whitening, or citrus splash with Scope. I wasn't very opinionated at all about which flavor I wanted, so I just chose which box looked the most appealing. The orange box for the citrus splash flavor looked very refreshing and delicious, so I went with it, and I'm very pleased with my decision.

Choosing the Right Hat

Recently I went with my friend to buy her brother's birthday present. She wanted to buy him a hat. The first thing we had to decide is where we could go to buy it. We thought about going to FinishLine or MC Sports since these are the two sports stores I think of that are in Anderson. But, we ended up deciding on going to the AU bookstore since she could use her Raven dollars to buy the hat. We are all about saving money were we can (even though we aren't really saving that much money since we have already paid for our Raven dollars at the beginning of the year). Once we got to the bookstore there were a lot of hats to choose from. Did we want a black hat or an orange hat? Or maybe a white one? Should it say Anderson University or just AU? Or maybe it should just have a picture of a raven on the front. Also, did the brand matter? Should we get an Under Armor hat since that would be consider more cool by a guy that is turning 15? We narrowed our choices down to the Under Armor hats. But, we were not sure what size to get. She tried on the large and it fit snugly on her, so we decided to go with an extra large thinking that because he is a boy his head would be larger. Finally we ended up with an extra large, black, Under Armor hat with an AU insignia and an image of a raven on it. We made the right decision. His birthday was yesterday; he was very pleased that the hat was Under Armor, and it fit perfectly!

The Purchase of a New Hair Dryer

Recently, my hair dryer died. This was a problem. The first thing I did was find my roommate’s hair dryer. After using it for a few days I decided my roommate probably would not have appreciated me using it for forever so I decided it was time to buy a new one. I went to Wal-Mart, where I had purchased my last hair dryer, and started to consider their options. The attributes that mattered most to me were price, size, power, and quality.

First, I narrowed my options down to the three lowest priced hair dryers. The cheapest, $11, I immediately ruled out because it looked like a cheap, hotel hair dryer which from my experience has always had little power.

This left me with two options. The first was a Remington dryer for $14. The second was a Conair for $13. The Conair won on price. The second thing I looked at was the power. They were both 1875 watts, but the Remington had three heats and two speeds while the Conair only had two heats and two speeds. I’ve always had three heats so the Remington won on power. Next, both dyers were small and compact, but the Conair had a retractable cord. I decided that this didn’t matter and that the size attribute was tied. Lastly, I looked at quality. They both had ionic conditioning which was good, but the Remington’s box stated that it was a new eco-friendly dryer which used less energy. For me, this made the Remington a winner in quality.

Overall, the Remington hair dryer won on two attributes while the Conair only won on one attribute. I chose to buy the Remington. What I now know is that this is considered the additive difference model. I was comparing the two brands, one attribute at a time. I compared the important attributes, evaluated the differences, and then combined the information into an overall preference to make my final decision to buy the Remington hair dryer.

Wedding Dress Shopping

This coming summer I will be getting married! I was extremely excited to start the process of finding a wedding dress so I made an appointment with Daivd’s Bridal. Before the appointment, I started my information search. I looked through their website, picked out dresses that I liked, and created a wish list of dresses that I wanted to try on. Once I got to my appointment, my consultant would be able to pull up my list and pick out the dresses for me to try on. The only ones I considered were dresses that fit into my budget I had set. I knew that if I tried on a dress above my budget, I would probably end up loving it and wanting to buy it anyways. I started to make a judgment between these two attributes. If it is more expensive, it will probably be a nicer dress. If it is less expensive, it will probably be dull and boring.

Finally, the day came for my appointment. In order to not be tempted to spend too much money, I would look at the price tag before even trying a dress on. If it was above my budget, I wouldn’t even look at it. I began trying on the dresses that I had picked out and started to figure out what styles looked good on me. Once I had found the style I liked best, my consultant began bringing me dresses that I might also like. The first one I tried on was amazing. After staring in the mirror a bit and getting the onlookers approval, I decided to look at the price tag. Of course, it was over my budget. I was right, I thought. It was my favorite dress so far, but it was too expensive.

Nonetheless, I tried several other dresses on that I loved as well that were in my budget. There was nothing dull or boring about them. I began to realize that I can still find a beautiful dress even if it is less expensive. I had created an illusory correlation between the two attributes.

I never bought a dress that day but was happy to have a better idea of the kind of dress I would like to buy. Upon looking further into their website and catalog, I have found dresses that are the style I like and in my budget that I will hopefully be able to try on when I return to the store. Hopefully, on my next trip I will be able to find the “one”. Until then, I’ll have to remember that a higher price tag doesn’t always mean its better.

Buying my First Car

I still remember my personal experience of buying my first car. I had been working at Kroger for about 2 months and decided that I was tired of driving my brother’s old car that was a 1986 chevy camero, and the car on quitting on me. The car that I wanted to get was a 1996 chevy monte carlo.
At the time my sister’s boyfriend worked at a dealership selling cars, so I ended up buy the car through him. I still remember test driving it. I was an amazing car.There was leather seats, power locks, power windows, cruise control, and keyless entry. I remember thinking to myself that I wasn’t happy that it was red, and I would have preferred if it had a sunroof. I wasn’t a fan of the color red at the time but all the other luxuries of the car out weighted the color and sunroof. After the test drive my brother and me went to see my dad at his workplace, and we told him about the car and that I wanted to get it.
My dad went to the dealership to lower the price of the car. They wanted $9,999 and my dad talked them down to $6,999. I remember going to the bank to put the down payment on the car, and driving it for the first time after I bought it.
When I first bought the car it had 69,000 miles on it and eight years later it is very close to 150,000 miles. The only bad thing about my car is when it needs something fixed. The car parts are very pricey, but other then that it has been a very good car to me. Buying my first car will always be a personal experience that will be part of my consumer behavior.

Trying not to go in Bookstores

When I am in a store or shopping I use the cognitive response model very often. When I go to a bookstore the most common cognitive response I have is support argument. I always go into a bookstore to just look around but I usually end up buying at least one thing. The last time I went I told myself that I wasn’t going to buy anything. I ended up leaving with a magazine and a book.

When I was looking at the two items I told myself I wasn’t going to get it, but my inner thoughts took over. My thoughts of support argument were if you don’t get this you will not be able to find anymore. Of course I probably could have found it online, but it didn’t work.

I tried so hard not to get the book, but the book was one that I use to have when I was younger and was also a special anniversary. Since it was anniversary book it came with sketches of the drawings in the book, and it also came with some of the papers that the author sent to the publisher for the story line. At first I hated that I decided to buy the book and magazine because I was low on money, but since then I have been able to read the book and use the magazine for inspiration for some of my artwork. The price was worth paying for the supportive arguments of the product.

What's shopping ever hurt?

I like to shop, A LOT. When I was in middle school I used to think it was uncool to say that I loved going to the mall. I don't know why that would be considered uncool by my peers because on any given Friday night at Hamilton Town Center you can find approximately one million teenage kids hanging out. Now, I will gladly claim my love for shopping, and on any given Friday night you can probably find me at Hamilton Town Center also.

So, this Friday a couple of my friends and I went down to the mall each for different reasons. One of my friends had a coupon to Victoria's Secret for a "Free Panty, October 12-November 1, 2010." Talk about getting you into their store. And as soon as that coupon expires you know there will be another one in the mail. Fortunately she did not fall into their trap of buying more while she was in there, she walked away only with a free panty.

I was going to Hamilton for Zumiez. Zumiez, a store I didn't even know existed a year and a half ago is now one of my favorite stores. I would generally say Zumiez isn't really my type, I mean they make or fix or whatever they do to skateboards in the back of the store. I can't ride a skateboard to save my life. And they sell incense...and I do NOT do incense. But, their clothes, I can do that. I had done pre-shopping online Thursday night and was ready to buy; you should know before I go on that I have already gotten three sweatshirts and two shirts from this is store in the past month. After this trip to the store I walked away only with two shirts and was quite sadden when they did not have one of the sweatshirts I wanted in the right color.

Now I feel like I should have a disclaimer because I know money doesn't grow on trees, and I don't go buying new clothes everyday of my life, actually I'd rather by shoes. Now if you'll excuse me, Zumiez has free shipping all weekend, and I need see if I can find that sweatshirt I wanted.

New Laces..Fo cleats??

The other day during rugby practice, my left cleat's shoe laces were torn completely off. Looking back on the practice..i still have no idea how it even happened but i told myself come saturday morning i was going to fix this little problem. Saturday morning (aka 12 t0 1) comes and i head to MC sports wanting to make this quick and easy. I walk into the store, continue to the back where the shoes are, and see an entire wall of shoe laces. Not a wall of shoes....just laces. I quickly narrowed my search to ones that were missing flowers and rainbow kisses on them as id like to keep my pride on the field. My cleats are red and black so i continued to narrow the laces by color as well, narrowing to three types of laces: flat black laces, red oval laces, and black round laces. The oval was a little bright for my liking and the flat ones i knew would tear easily when making cuts and in rucks. I recognized the black round laces as something similar to what i already had and tested the strength by pulling them hard. I found a pair of similar shoes on the shelf and put the laces up to see if they would fit and what they looked like. I eventually ended up picking the black round laces and they look studly if i do say so myself. I also bought orange and black athletic tap and pre-wrap...whos ready for some rugby?

I Need a Coat for the Winter!

The start of each academic calendar year brings with it new International Students to the AU campus. One of the things that is identified is that not all International Students have experienced extremely cold winters with minus degree weather or even seen snow before. The International Student Association therefore, schedules a trip each year to take the new students shopping for new coats. As always, there is a wide range of suggestions of places to go to shop. The criteria for selecting a location include: availability of a wide range of clothing (coats), cheap prices, distance from campus, among others. Location plays a huge role as it entails whether or not the store is in a mall or not, if there are any places to eat other than the food court, and the general safety of the area. One of the names of places to go that usually comes up is Burlington Coat Factory. Earlier this fall, I saw an advertisement on T.V about Burlington Coat Factory highlighting the wide variety of clothing articles as well as its massive price discounts. The ad used both visual (showing the clothing articles and the discounts) as well as verbal (announcer relaying the information) to appeal to consumers. Burlington Coat Factory, particularly the one located at Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis has several aspects that make it appealing when deciding where to shop. It is conveniently located near the heart of Indianapolis, with a wide variety of fast food as well ethnic and fine cuisine restaurants. It has a wide range of clothing that includes mens and women's, as well as as baby clothing items and very affordable and competitive prices. The store is adequately decorated and lit, adding to the visual appeal, and there is soft music playing in the overheard speakers, enhancing the general mood and atmosphere of the store.

Where Should I Eat Tonight?

When trying to decide where to eat dinner in Anderson, Indiana, there are an abundance of choices nearby. Scatterfield Road is littered with restaurants. It offers your typical fast food joints, buffets, sub shops, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, American, and everything else in between. How in the world is one supposed to decide where to eat?
Luckily, right before I went out to dinner with my girlfriend, I was watching t.v. and a commercial came on advertising Applebee's new deal called the "2 for $20". This meal includes one appetizer and two entrees for only $20. This deal's target market is geared directly at couples or those going out on a dinner date to Applebee's. It attempts to save the man some money by keeping the meal for two from going over $20. Also, many men can count on their woman not eating much or any of the appetizer, thus giving him more food for his money.
The foods they advertised in the commercial appeared to be very delicious. They showed a wide range of foods such as grilled chicken marinated in some special spices, a juicy steak, a loaded bacon cheeseburger, and a huge bowl of chicken pasta. The voice of the commercial added a smooth touch, giving the commercial both visual and verbal appeal. The ad left my mouth salivating and my taste buds tingling. I noticed that the commercial was also positioned at a time in the evening right before most families eat dinner, 5:20 p.m.
I immediately recommended Applebee's to my date, and she accepted my offer. We didn't end up choosing the "2 for $20" deal on the menu, but Applebee's successfully reeled in their target market by bringing us into their restaurant. The food was just as scrumptious as the commercial had portrayed, and we left satisfied customers.

Late Night Wal-Mart run

Last night I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some body soap and some other things i needed. As i walked into the soap isle, I was bombarded with all the options i had. I looked at the different bottles, brands that i knew, and lastly smelled a few that looked good to choose.

Visual Effect: I narrowed down my options by bottle design and color, looking for both a strong masculine scent and a subtle lingering smell.

Brand Recognition: I narrowed down further to brands that i knew or had used before (brand trust)
*One bottle made it past this stage that i had never used before, its bottle was gray and had a swooping look to it that attracted my eye.

Product Evaluation: I took the last few and smelled their contents. I chose from the one that smelled the best or that gave off the effect that i wanted.

What I learned?
To make the best decision possible, I should have smelled all of the soaps individually and made my decision based from that. Instead, a time factor was initiated and i knew i had to limit my options by narrowing them down. To do this, I looked first at the bottles that caught my eye. then I looked at the brands that i recognized and lessened it down further. With a smaller group to work with, the final decision was based on scent alone. The scent that was chosen satisfied both my wants and needs for my personal smell and the aroma i wanted to project to others.

Who knew that laziness could inspire the birth of a shopaholic.

I hate doing laundry.

I especially hated doing laundry when living in a dorm. It was during this time that i became something of a clothing collector, or as my mom so loving nicknamed me, "a clothes horse".

I found that the more clothes, specifically jeans and hoodies, I owned, the longer I could go without doing laundry and that really fueled my clothes buying craze.

I always assuaged my cognitive dissonance (aka buyers regret to normal people), however, by telling myself that when I had my own place with my own laundry-doing utensils, that I would stop my incessant buying habits and settle down to a few comfy, well-worn and loved jeans and a few basic hoodies.

I have now been living with my own personal laundry and dryer for the better part of six months, and unfortunately, my jeans count is at 15 and my hoodies at 21, and its not stopping. Just last week I bought a pair of jeans, totally on impulse. Well, I felt i needed them at the time. I was about to go on an unexpected date night to indy with my girlfriend and i was wearing shorts. When I left for her house, it was warm, and when we left to go to Indy, i could see my breath. So, she came up with the great idea to go buy a pair of jeans and then return them the next day after using them. Now, a simple 20 dollar pair of jeans would have sufficed, but no, I went to my favorite store and bought the middle-upper level pair of jeans for 45.99. And of course, fell in love with them and never returned them.

The worst part is, is that five days later, I was experiencing some buyers regret but I ripped all the tags off and intentionally threw away the receipt the night I bought the jeans to prevent my future self from returning the jeans.

Will I ever learn? Or will I just continue to fall victim to the ever captivating advertising machine. I guess only time will tell, but until then, I love myself some new jeans.