Tis the Season to be Stressful

I don't know if it is because I'm a procrastinator or if I don't like the crowds of people shopping, but I always seem to do my shopping last minute and online. This is the worst way to do it because of a number of reasons. First off, by the time Christmas rolls around, places are running out of stock, so you may not get exactly what you wanted to. Also you are going to pay more for whatever the gift is, with overnighting and shipping costs. Then there is the problem of making sure that nobody intercepts their own gift before I get do, which can be a task with a little brother around. And even if you do manage to receive all the packages without incident, then you have to get them to a safe location to wrap. And once you finally have that you can put it under the tree. I'm not really sure why I do this to myself every year but I do. I guess it's just my nature. But I wish I could break the habit. This season is far too stressful as it is without last minute gift shopping. Well there is always next year to start I guess. Maybe I'll make that my New Years resolution.

All I Need For Christmas Is......

Well for most people it’s that time of the year when people spend their money on other people for gifts. As much as I want to spend money on other people for presents, I’m probably not going to spend that much this year. The only individuals who will be receiving gifts from me are my intermediate family. I have a whole shopping list of things I want for myself such as another pair of Jordans, and I don’t think that my parents or brothers will get them for me. With that said, the Retro 11 “Cool Greys” come out on December 23 and I will be the first one in line to purchase these. Not only will I purchase one pair but I will get a total of three pair if things work out on my side.  You’re probably wondering why I will purchase three pairs of shoes that cost $187.35 after tax, and the only two answers I have for you is that it is one of my favorite shoes of all time and because they are selling for $400 dollars on most websites. $400 is a lot of money, so my idea is to sell one of my pair and hope to get at least $400 for them. If that’s the case that means I will make my money back and still have two pairs to sit on.  Good decision/ bad decision? Either way my mind is about 90% set on purchasing all three pair.

Christmas

Christmas time is the time for joys, excitement, love, kindheartedness, and peace. But to me with Christmas coming to me brings a lot of headaches and pains. This is because for the most part I am a good gift giver but when it comes to my dad year after year it never fails I never know what to buy him. My dad is the kind of person who if he wants something he will most likely go out and buy it for himself. So when it comes to buying him Christmas gifts I never know what to get him because if he wants it he will buy it and if I get him a gift he does not want he will not hesitate to return it. So when I go into the stores looking for gifts for him I never know what to get him and then that just brings frustration because he is very difficult to shop for. The last 2 years I have though found out what gifts to buy him for Christmas and that would be Anderson Raven attire from our bookstore. Freshman and Sophomore year I have bought him a golf polo and a hat, and each year he has liked those. But now I am to the point where I kind of want to try and get him something else like not from the bookstore and see if he likes it. I have been doing my research and my dad is a big bike rider and he pretty much has it all except for a cordless air compressor to pump up his tires when it gets flat. He is always getting flat tires and is always having to use the foot pump to pump it up and that takes a lot of work sometimes, but with him having this it will eliminate all that effort that he has to put into it. This is the gift that I want to get him and there is no way that he can take it back because it is the perfect gift for him!

Social Influences

After our class lecture over Chapter 16, I realized my Christmas list says a lot about me. I looked over my list and realized that a few of my wish list items were based on social influences. I have magazine subscriptions (I know real exciting, right?) on my list that I really want. These subscriptions can be related to an aspirational reference group. The subscriptions are to magazines related to my future career – the person I aspire to be. I also asked for items that my peers have currently. I asked for a new hair straightener. One of my roommates expressed how much she likes her hair straightener, and for this reason, I asked for the same brand. My peers also influenced me with the books I asked for as well as the new boots I hope to receive. Even though I do not enjoy writing out a Christmas list for family members, I found this year’s list to be a useful tool. The list helped me realize that the items I consume are closely related to my social influences and reference groups.

(Picture courtesy of: Google Images)

Gift Giving

Christmas most definitely has to be my favorite holiday. I enjoy everything about Christmas. One thing I particularly enjoy is gift giving. This year I am ecstatic about one special gift my dad, brother, and I are giving my mom. We have known for quite a while that we wanted to give her a laptop for Christmas. Even though we knew this, we still had to go through the gestation stage of gift giving. We had to think of the emotions that surrounded the gift (our love and support), the nature of the gift (she has desperately needed a laptop for a period of time), the value of the gift (definitely beyond the monetary value), and the amount of time spent searching for the gift. We researched several computers trying to decide exactly which one would fit her purposes the best. We also researched prices (in store and online). We then decided to purchase the laptop from Best Buy online.

The laptop has just arrived so now it is time for the presentation. Even though we are not going to give her the gift quite yet we are going to wrap the gift and place it among the other gifts under the tree. To be completely honest the presentation of this gift is probably going to be one of the highlights of my Christmas knowing that we are making her job easier. Even though the reformation stage applies in many situations I do not think this will be the case in this situation. I do not believe my mom will reevaluate our relationship based solely on this gift or determine to reciprocate based on the gift. I am truly excited for Christmas morning to see her open her new laptop.

The Process of Buying Wedding Rings

There are very few material things that I actually believe to be very special. However, one of my belongings that I believe to be special is my engagement ring, because it was a gift to me from my fiancé and a huge memory laden object. More importantly, it is special because it is a sign of the love and commitment that we share.

Looking back on the process it took to purchase our rings, it was drastically different. This past summer, my fiancé, Austin, surprised me and took me ring shopping. The process was completely overwhelming, because I knew absolutely nothing about rings or the hundreds of styles and options you could choose from. There were many that I liked, and after much deliberation I was able to narrow down my options. We traveled to many different jewelers and spent a large amount of time searching.

This is the completely opposite of the ring shopping experience I had with Austin. I took him to Kay’s Jewelers a few weeks ago to take a look at rings. My intentions were purely to figure out what styles he liked and about how much it was going to cost me. Of course, the ring section for men is drastically, and I mean drastically, smaller then it is for women. We sat down and the lady that helped us pulled out rings for him to try on. He would put one on and immediately be able to say yes or no. After a short time, Austin had it narrowed down to one ring in the store and another ring we found in a magazine. I personally liked the ring in the store better which was more expensive then the ring that was in the magazine. We decided to order in the ring in the magazine and come back later to make our final decision. Last week, the ring came in, so we made another trip to take a look at it. He decided to go with the ring that we had ordered in that I did not like as much but was cheaper. I was in awe of how fast he made a decision. We went to the counter, swiped my card, and carried the ring out of the store. It was a piece of cake.

What I learned from this experience is that there is a huge difference between genders in looking into wedding rings. It’s amazing how there is such a difference between the amount of options and prices for women and men. Lastly, it also shows that when you are buying gifts for another person there is a bit of give and take. The ring he chose for himself would not have been my first choice; however, I purchased the ring he liked best which is what really matters. Plus, it didn’t hurt that it was cheaper for me, even though I was willing to pay more. All in all, I am happy that he is satisfied with his decision, and I am glad I didn’t have to go through what he did in order to purchase a ring.

Changes in the Music Industry

It is interesting how music itself changes over time, but in regards to this class I'm looking at how the music industry has changed. After the invention of Napster several years ago, the way most people look at and acquire music has changed drastically. The music has almost eliminated the musician, and it has turned into record sales. WAIT! Record sales??? That is what people said over a decade ago, but now artists have find ways to make money and be noticed. This is because of albums getting leaked to websites that allow users to download the music to their compute. It has changed the way I view music. I don't have to save up money to get a CD, I have to decide if I want to wait for the album to download to my computer.

So for smaller musicians I have noticed they have done different things to make money. Ticket and merchandise prices have gone up. I am worried that my generation, the generation of "I have to have what I want right now" will ruin how music is done. I hope that albums will still be bought and I hope that prices of concerts will not keep most people at home staring at their computer. There is a culture that comes along with concerts and live music. If people continue to stay at home and not support the artist that they are listening to, it could kill the way music is. It sucks because I find myself not actually supporting the artists that I love.

First College Purchase

Well Jon Maxwell's post reminded of something that I talked to my younger sister about over Thanksgiving break. My sister is a senior in high school and she has been looking at buying a laptop computer. For most people I would suggest a Macbook (the main reason is because I love Apple) because Apple products tend to be a better choice. Although for people who do not know about specifications like memory or hard drive, probably do not need to spend a lot on a computer. Since Apple are more expensive than PCs I suggested to get a middle of the road PC. For someone like my sister a computer with decent RAM, hard drive, and other built in features is a good choice. She was hesitant about buying a Macbook because it is almost double the cost of PCs. I told her that people buy Macbooks because of the quality and it is said that most viruses do not affect Apple computers.

She will use her computer for general internet use, word processing, and photo and music storage. Essentially she need a smart phone, which is fine. I think it is a good choice in her case to get something besides an Apple, but I would not be opposed if she bought an Apple. I just do not think it is necessary for her needs.

Shower Gel

So when it comes to buying shower gel I do not know about anybody else but for me it is not anything that is an easy process. I usually prefer to get some kind of axe shower get but as of lately I have been getting a little adventurous with my shower gel. When it comes time to buy shower get I know that it is never going to be an easy process because there are so many different types of shower get like axe, old spice, and adidas to name a few. I do have a favorite shower gel that I like to buy which is axe Dark Temptation, it smells so good and I like how I feel nice and smooth after I am done showering. But even though it is my favorite I like change and I like buying new products so sometimes I will go to the store see the Dark Temptation but not get it because I want something new just because I can. My criteria for choosing shower gel is not very exhausting at all, it is picked on how good it smells. So yes for the most part this works out for me but then sometimes it does not. Like last year I remember I bought a kind of shower gel I do not remember what it was called but I do remember that it smelled good, but after using it I would get hives. So I made sure that after I was done with that bottle never to use it again. As of late I bought this shower gel called Fever by axe and once again it was not something that I would buy again. Whenever I use it I would always feel like it was scrubbing off my first layer of skin because of whatever was in the gel. So even though I like trying new shower gels I might just continue to buy the Dark Temptation and call it a day because that is one that I know I can trust.

Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts

Until just recently in my 20 year old life, I haven’t been much of a coffee drinker. Then I came to college where some people live on coffee and I figured I’d try to see if I liked it. After I figured out that coffee can actually be tasty if I added some things to it, I began drinking coffee on a daily basis. Coffee from Mocha Joe’s was what I usually went with, and now it’s more with Café Ole. But my favorite coffee is a hazelnut coffee with cream and sugar from Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s the best. Not only is this coffee good, but it’s fairly inexpensive. I can buy two coffees from Dunkin’ Donuts for less than the price of one from Starbucks. Which leads me to my next point…

It seems as though so many people are diehard fans of Starbucks coffee, like it’s the only good coffee on the earth. I’ve tried hazelnut coffee with cream and sugar at Starbucks and it made me want to sort of vomit. I will admit that I have tried the seasonal drinks from Starbucks like the pumpkin spice latte and the peppermint mocha, and I loved them both. The downside of those drinks is the cost. They’re more expensive than I’m willing to pay for usually. I did, however, purchase a peppermint mocha on Sunday for my birthday because that was the only way I could justify paying almost $5 for a small hot beverage.

I'll stick with Dunkin' Donuts coffee on a regular basis and Starbucks coffee on rare occasions.

One Hair Gel to Rule Them All

I go through hair products like no one’s business. Sometimes I feel like I’ve tried every product there is to see how well it will treat my hair. I feel like if I buy a new hair product, whether it be something to straighten my hair or to hold the curl, I’ll find something that will be magical enough to fix any hair problem that I may ever run into. Well, I have yet to find that perfect product, but I have found something close to it. For almost a year now, I’ve been using Herbal Essences spray gel. I began using it when I decided to experiment with my mom’s hair products, which included this Herbal Essences spray gel. After I used it, I loved it. It does what I want to my hair, it’s easy to use, it smells ridiculously good, and the slim shape of the bottle along with its dark teal color is attractive as well.

I have become brand loyal to this specific type of hair gel. I can usually count on WalMart to have the gel. So, when I’m out of spray hair gel, I go to the aisle with all the hair products, and I know exactly what to look for: a slim, teal colored bottle amongst the other Herbal Essences products. If I don’t see the product after looking more than several times, I may become a little upset that it’s not there, but I don’t look for another hair gel product. I’d rather not risk wasting money on a product that may be less than what I expect with the Herbal Essences.

Special Possessions and their Cultural Significance...

Each semester, the International Student Association (ISA) at Anderson University hosts the International Dinner, a night when students from around the world prepare dishes from back home and share them with people from the Anderson community and surrounding areas. Not only only is there food to be shared, skits, dances, songs, poems, and fashion shows add to the cultural experience. For the fashion show, students are encouraged to wear traditional dress that is a representation of their culture. As for the preparation of food/ dishes, students make trips to stores that they have identified to carry ethnic food items. In all these instances, there are cultural principles and emblematic functions (geographic & ethnic symbolism) that are present.

In our [the class] discussion of symbolic consumer behavior, we touched on the topic of special possessions and symbolic consumer behavior and looked at some of the characteristics. Special possessions are not necessarily sold at market value, have few or no substitutes, not always used for original purpose, evoke powerful emotions, and also may be frequently personified. In instances where students have prepared dishes, or adorned traditional dress, it has been a representation of their culture and holds special meaning for them as they fulfill the emblematic, role adoption, connectedness, and/ or expressive functions.

Because these students represent a particular target market, marketers will have a greater impact by understanding the role that culture plays in influencing consumer behavior.

Word Of Mouth...

I was not extremely surprised as we discussed the topic of Word of Mouth (WoM) as having a strong influence on how consumers process information; I have often relied on WoM regarding several purchases I've made. Recently, I found myself surfing the internet on a particular online site looking to make a purchase of headphones. The current headphones had seen better days and it was time to get a new pair. I found a pair that I really liked and immediately found myself navigating to the reviews by people that had previously purchased the pair in question. As I read through the reviews, I could literally feel my hopes go down the drain. Most of the reviews had little to nothing positive to say about the product. I was disappointed as I had had high hopes for the headphones.

It's interesting as I look back on this particular episode and realize just how much WoM, in this case, eWoM had an impact on my purchase decision. I ended up looking for and purchasing another pair of headphones that had positive reviews (WoM).

A New GM

For those of you who have seen the new GM commercial, i just have to say it blew me away. I’m one of those weird people who actually enjoy commercials during the breaks of my shows. Since both of my parents (and most of my family) work for State Farm Insurance, i spent most of my time remembering Geico, All State, and Progressive commercials when I was younger just trying to make the talk around the dinner table interesting. I love seeing new commercials and campaigns whether their funny, heartfelt, or creative. However, it has been a long time since i have seen a commercial, especially a car commercial, like the newest one for GM.

For those who haven’t seen it. The commercial is based around different events in American history where people have failed or fallen down. The images of the challenger shuttle, our beloved hero Popeye helplessly sinking in water, Evil Kenevil, the Dewey vs. Truman boxing match, and of course how could we forget...Animal House all falling or in despair somehow. Then the commercial cuts to the people getting up and standing ready to fight again. Evil Kenevil gets up from his crash, Dewey gets up and wins the boxing match, Popeye eats some spinach and becomes strong again, the Animal House guys choose to fight and not give up, and a rocket ship shoots successfully into space. The commercial ends with a black screen first reading the words "We All Fall Down", and then "Thank You For Helping Us Get Back Up"...GM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr94zStsk8E

The commercial is amazing in my opinion and it combats the problem that some Americans had with the GM brand taking a hand out...because that’s not what men...or Americans do. GM confronted this head on and showed throughout our history we have had heroes and events fail, but what makes us great is our ability to rise up and become better and stronger from it. I think this heartfelt commercial will help GMs brand reputation and strength, as well as their sales down the line as many people will see them as a company trying to get back to their greatness they once had before.

Two Cents Won't Break the Bank

I get emails from about five companies telling me when they are having deals. I feel like they have been non-stop lately because of Christmas coming up. After the first couple, I have started deleting them. But, I got an awesome email from Sephora (the makeup company) last week. Sephora sent me a $15 dollar gift card. They said spend this on whatever you want; now I probably got it because I have spent so much money there in the past, but hey if they are giving me a free $15, I am going to spend it.

So, Saturday night my friends and I went down to the Castleton mall to shop. I had never been there before, but it gets so much hype I was expecting it to be so phenomenal. It did not live up to my expectations, and I think I will just stick to going to Hamilton Square which is much closer and nicer in my opinion.

Anyway, I was very motivated to use my $15 coupon. Once at Sephora I of course had to look at everything, but did not want to spend more than $15 because I didn't want to pay anything out of my own pocket. Luckily this was a small Sephora, inside a JC Penny, so it did not take that long to browse the whole store. I finally selected a product that cost $14 dollars. This was perfect because with tax I knew I would be right at $15. The woman at the checkout completed the transaction and said I owed two cents. Okay, no big deal. I paid the two cents and went on my way, but as I walked away I looked at the receipt and it said $14.98. The woman had made me pay two cents, when really I shouldn't have paid anything. At this point, my motivation was very low to go back and get my two cents, had it been two dollars I maybe would have, but I thought two cents isn't going to break the bank.