Beats

        This Black Friday I had my eye set on a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. The pair I wanted is normally $200 and that is not a price I am willing to pay when the headphones that came with my iPhone work fine. I talked to some different people and found out that they rarely go on sale. For the Black Friday occasion, at Meijer, they were going to be 10% making them $179 and then you receive a $50 coupon for store credit. Since I like to get my groceries at Meijer, I was basically getting the headphones for $129. My mom, who is a major influencer to me, convinced me that it is an amazing price for a new pair. Friday morning, I ventured out with one of my extended family members, my cousin, to the Fort Wayne Meijer. We made our way through the crowds and got to the electronics department just in time to be informed that they had already sold out of the Beats. I was pretty upset and didn't want to walk away empty handed so I bought Rihanna's new CD. I now know that this is compensatory consumption. After I took a short nap, I had to head back to campus to make it to my basketball practice. On the way back, I felt the urge to stop by the Anderson Meijer. I thought that since Anderson's townspeople are generally lower class than in Fort Wayne, there would be a chance they still had a pair left. Turns out I was right! I am now the proud owner of Beats with no post-decision regret in sight, I love them!

Monthly Membership

As a college student, I am not always enthusiastic about “memberships.” The main reason being that the price often outweighs the benefits. As a visual designer, however, I understand than in order to standout in my career I need to develop both my conceptual and technical skills. Consequently, I recently decided to join Lynda.com and pay the $25 monthly membership fee. This site offers a virtual video library of over 1,200 educational, how-to videos. In addition, it gives nonmembers the option to make a one-time purchase for the DVD version of a particular tutorial.  In my case, I often chose to obtain the DVD than actually commit to a membership.

Around mid September I received an email from Lynda.com offering a 7-day trial with access to the complete training library. Since I had several of the DVDs, I generated a hypothesis about the quality of this offer, that it must be useful and convenient. Then, I sought exposure to evidence to confirm my hypothesis by queuing all kinds of tutorials. The obvious step was to watch the videos whose topics ranged from business, web development, photography, etc. In actuality, I was in the process of encoding the evidence to assess if this membership would be useful and convenient.  After the seven days I integrated the evidence with my existing knowledge about Lynda.com. Since I really enjoyed the flexibility and quality, I concluded that the membership fee would also be worth it. This is my third month as a member, and fortunately I have not experienced post-decision dissonance. 
This experienced allowed me to be more motivated to learn; and the information I acquired will be more vivid and therefore easier to remember in the future. 

Only for an Xbox...

Last year, my brother and I thought it would be a great idea to go Black Friday shopping.  We had one goal: obtaining an Xbox 360 with a Kinect.  On our way to go shopping, I already had a felt endowment toward the Xbox, and knew we would be able to purchase one, not knowing what I was actually getting myself in to.  However, when we got to the store, it was a totally different story.  There were people in line for hours, waiting outside in the cold to buy different electronics for a great price.  During this time of waiting, I weighed the good attributes from the bad, and decided this would be a great purchase.  When we finally got up to the counter to buy our item, it was $100 more than expected!  However, we still bought the Xbox due to social influences, and I have had post-decision regret ever since.  My brother, though, had post-decision dissonance for a while, but now he doesn't think anything of it.  I was very dissatisfied with the whole experience, and my expectations were higher than they should have been.  The moral of the story is to never go Black Friday shopping with just one goal in mind because it might not turn out exactly as planned.

Brand (dis)Loyalty

Over the past few years, I have noticed a trend in my purchasing patterns that involves periods of intense brand loyalty followed by sudden impulsive changes for no apparent reason other than a desire for variety. This sort of behavior I first realized when I would purchase soft drinks. Growing up I was only a coke drinker. Always ordered coke at every meal, and would hit up the school pop machines as often as possible. One day however, I ordered a Pepsi for no apparent reason and have been drinking it ever since. Occasionally I will venture back to coke and I also enjoy Dr. Pepper but Pepsi is top dog. The next instance of flip-flopping that I noticed came when I was purchasing guitar strings. There are many different brands of guitar strings, all claiming to be number 1 or claiming to last longer and have crisper sound. For the first three years of my attempt at playing guitar, I would religiously buy Ernie Ball guitar strings because my favorite musician at the time (Slash) was sponsored by Ernie Ball. One day when I was going to buy strings, I decided to purchase a different brand. I had no reason to try another brand. None of the artists I looked up to used the other brand, and I don't remember seeing any advertisements that stood out to me. I think I simply just wanted a change. This phenomenon that I have sort of begun to realize has made me aware that sometimes consumers will just need change for the sake of change, and not because of any real reason or stimuli.

200 dollar spending

My last shopping adventure was about a month ago. Every year for my birthday, I get about two hundred dollars to buy whatever I am wanting. So my goal for this year was to get as much as I can under the spending limits. This year I was looking to change my wardrobe just a little but still try to keep my every day look. So I found myself in new stores that would not normal shop in. My mom and me made our way Indy and began by shopping.

                One we got to the mall, I first went to the stores I know. I walked in to finish line and began my shopping venter. I got some basketball shorts and cool t-shirt that I have been looking at for a while. The next shore I went to is very popular called HnM. This shore is very different for in stile and look form where I usly shop at. I had to use attribute processing to decide what to buy. I ended spending some good money on a new sweater and pants that would go alone with it.

                By the time I got out of the HnM my two hundred dollar was almost gone. So learn that upgrading my look and style is going to take time and more money. But I was very happy with what I got. My post-decision feeling was on the positive side. With a little more money and shopping adventure ill upgrade my wardrobe to where I want to be.

Black Friday

One of the better shopping experiences that I usually have is the one that takes place on Black Friday.  One of the main reasons is the free entertainment I get from mainly the women who rush into their stores to claim their purchases before anyone else.  Its actually turning into some sort of circus how these people act when it comes to these deals.  The way these people act are pretty ridiculous and most should be ashamed of themselves.  When it comes to most of the deals I can vouch for some of the people because the deals that they have usually only happen once a year.  I took a trip to bath and body works just to look at some of the deals they had on men fragrances.  Throughout the entire store they had good deals going on, and half the items were 50% off.  As soon as I got there, there was a long line and people were just anticipating the good deals.  As soon as they opened the door, the crowd rushed in and people started moving rapidly towards their items that they wanted.  On the side where the candles where, many people bought the candles with out even smelling them and I overheard one woman saying, "I don't even know what this smells like but I'm still getting it just because it's half off." I talked to another woman and she told me that she didn't need half of the things she bought but she still got them anyway because of the price that they were discounted too.  This showed me that sometimes consumers usually get things just because of the price being low and that they may not have a need for them now, but it will pay off later since the price would go back up to it's original after Black Friday.  I later asked the clerk about how many of the items bought on Black Friday were returned later the next day and she told me that they didn't really receive a high volume of returns.  With that I came to the conclusion that the prices can determine whether somebody purchases an item or not and it really doesn't matter if they need it or not.

Sometimes Ease beats Money

When stepping in the door for a home visit, after being away at school, my mom loves to treat me to a shopping trip. Obviously, without complaint, I take the gesture and run with it. However, shopping trips around Thanksgiving time are usually different. Everything is on sale, sales start late at night and go early in the morning, and oh, let's not forget, the crowds are enormous. This causes my mom to think about her plan of attack, which is not a normal one. My mom is so turned off by crowds, and dealing with people that she shops before the sales hit, to steer clear from the chaos. Her decision making steps go as follow:

1. The problem is crowds that I don't want to deal with, however I also could save money.

2. I could either go early and not save money, or just deal with the mess of the crowd.

3. Paying full price is okay; shoving, pushing and yelling my way through a crowd is unbearable to think about doing.

4. I'm paying full price, no doubt about it.

5. That was so worth it, after watching the videos that made the news and Internet.

My mom is probably very different than most, however when she feels at ease about shopping, she makes better decisions and is happier about her post decision evaluation. The reduced distractions and time pressure allows my mom to have a higher ability of motivation to consume the products she wants.  

The consumer behavior prospect theory states that loss has more influence than gain, and that consumers have a stronger reaction to price increases than decreases, but it is the opposite for my mom. She feels that although she is at a loss for the amount of money she is spending that she could be saving, she is saving her sanity in the long run, and that to her is a gain that not even money can stop her from keeping. Which concludes my story in proving, that sometimes ease beats money.

UN-satisfied Satisficer

     A few weeks ago a friend of mine started searching for a new t.v.. He researched every possible option while keeping 3 key attributes in mind; 42" ,cheap, and name-brand. He started out searching for name-brand models such as Samsung and LG, but quickly realized they were out of his range financially. After becoming impatient he satisficed. He found an off-brand model that was 42" at a cheap price to satisfy his obvious two most basic needs for a television. 

     He returned home and immediately set up his new television as quickly as possible. After getting everything put together, he was overcome with post-decision regret. The television was not as clear as a brand-name one would be. There was even a problem with the screen being discolored after the first touch of the "on" button. 

     He immediately realized that the brand name option would have been a better choice. The extra money paid to get a high quality television would have been worth it. The picture would have been better and the television itself would most likely have not been broken before taken out of the box. 

     Later on that week he had complained to the manufacturer via email and hasn't heard from them since. He did however get his money back from the television at the store that it was bought from and purchased a new Samsung 42" television for larger price. This decision turned out to be much better for him and hopefully continues in the long-run. 

Brand Loyalty

In writing this blog post, I decided to examine my own brand loyalty behaviors. As I examined the different brands that I associate myself strongly with, I began to detect a distinct correlation between brand loyalty and MAO. For items I purchase that require low MAO, such as groceries, I have few specific preferences. However, I found that heightened brand loyalty occurred among products related to my hobbies and interests. Several of those products are associated with high MAO, such as musical instruments.

As a music business student with a focus in the music products industry, I spend a significant amount of time researching different brands and their offerings. Over time, I have begun to develop brand loyalty in certain categories, and multibrand loyalty in others. I am an ardent supporter of Ernie Ball Music Man guitars and basses. I own several of their instruments and am proud to wear a branded t-shirt that exhibits my brand loyalty to the world. When it comes to accessories, such as strings, I consider myself multibrand loyal. I have generally been loyal to different string brands for different types of instruments, even if a brand manufactures strings for multiple types of instruments. For example, I prefer Ernie Ball strings for electric guitars, Elixir strings for acoustic guitars, and DR strings for bass guitars.

This is just one example of brand loyalty in my life. There are many other products that I would consider myself loyal to in various segments of my purchasing behavior. What are some of your preferences?

The Pefect Pair

In the past few months I have been on the hunt for the pefect pair of riding boots for this winter season. Every store I walk into and every website I am on I have been checking to see if they have the pair of boots that will grab my eye and be the perfect fit. Unfortunately, every place I have looked I have had no such luck finding them.

Going into the search I had some negativity bias. The past few pairs of boots I have owned from a particular brand have been very uncomfortable and not durable at all. This has taken that brand off of my possibilities list and kept me from even considering them. This brand is a part of my inept set and although I do not want to purchase that specific brand, I still use them as an information source and comparison tool. Because I have had some bad boots in past it has helped me know what attributes I am looking for. Throughout my searching experience I have been making judgments on which boots I like and don't like based on cost-benefit analysis type of thought pattern. I consider a variety of attributes when looking at different brands of boots such as style, price, comfort, and quality. By considering all the attributes, I am able to add up all the things like about them as well as what I do not like and see if positives outweigh the negatives. In this purchasing decision, without even realizing it, I have been using a Compensatory brand model called the Multi-Attribute model.

Just as I was beginning to lose hope, yesterday I walked into a store with amazing holiday sales and as I glanced towards the shoe section, there they sat. They were the last pair in the store and just so happened to be my size. I considered all the attributes and realized that the positives far exceeded any negatives. I purchased the boots as happy as I could be. After months of hunting, I had finally found my perfect boots! Since my purchase, I cannot stop telling people how much I love the brand. My level of satisfaction is causing lots of positive word of mouth that may at one point affect another person's judgment of the brand  and cause them to buy a pair themselves.

An Eastbay Purchase

A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to upgrade my wardrobe and I began cyber shopping. I began browsing many websites looking for the perfect pair of shorts to fullfill my needs when I came across a pair on Eastbay.com. Like every person does, I zoomed in on the picture to make sure I liked the colors and design. The picture showed that they were one toned (black) and I was happy with the look of the shorts. I then put them in my shopping cart, purchased them and began to wait for there arrival.

A week later my shorts had arrived and I ripped the box open like a little kid on Christmas. Once I pulled the shorts out of its packaging I was not pleased. The shorts were two toned, with black in the front and gray in the back. This caused me to have post-decision regret because I should not have made my decision online, but in the store where I could have seen them first hand. I then went back on Eastbays website and looked at the exact same shorts in different colors and they were all two toned besides the one pair I picked.

This made me very frustrated and I was not happy with what I had bought and it made me think if I need to physically hold and touch products before I buy them. This is and example of how online shopping and being in the store are completly diferent . If I would have had physically held the shorts I would have saw that they were two toned and not one toned like I wanted. Since this purchase I have not made an online puchase of clothing.

Cyber Monday.

As I was sitting in my living room Monday, legs crossed, Post-its out, pen and credit card ready, I began my searching.  After only a few short hours I was completed, yet I still had this yearning to continue shopping.  When the day was over I realized that I had actually bought more than what I wanted to (buying something for each person on my list and then some).  I kept trying to justify my reason for buy a Beatles guitar case for my cousin when she already has a guitar case, or buying the complete series of Sanford and Son for my father.

Now that it has been a few days and I'm receiving emails that my products have shipped, I find myself with mixed feelings about my purchases; pondering whether I am experiencing post-decision dissonance or in post-decision regret.  I ask myself:  'Am I happy with what I bought?  Should I have bought something else (or nothing at all)? Do I need to physically hold and touch the product before I buy it?'

Shopping online verses shopping in a store both have completely different ways of consuming.  For example, you can physically hold the product in store and you have to guess if the product will work for you online.  What I have learned from this experience is that we, as consumers, cannot base all of our shopping on just medium like I did here - we have to get out of our comfort zones at times and consume new ways.  As future marketers, we need to be aware of how the consumers are shopping and try to innovate new ways for them to consume products.  And maybe, that is having a Black Friday and Cyber Monday or it could be something that no one has thought of yet.

Never Forever 21

This fall Forever 21 opened a new store in Greenwood Park Mall. There was a lot of hype when news came that the store would be opening. Forever 21 took up two existing spaces in the mall making the store to be one of the largest in the mall. Along with everyone else, I got excited for the new store and was counting down the days till it opened. Fresh new styles being brought to the Greenwood mall and I was more than ready to do some shopping.

The day came when the store opened and I walked in highly motivated to buy some clothes. I was in the store a good hour checking things out and browsing around. I had a few things in my hands when I came upon an outfit that I thought was really cute. I put together an outfit layering it with a shirt and sweater, when I noticed the sweater they had on the rack was not my size. So of course like a typical consumer, I looked on the mannequin and noticed that the sweater on the mannequin was my size. I proceeded to take it off when I was approached by  a store employee who asked me if  I needed help. I politely explained to her that I wanted the sweater off the mannequin because it was my size. She asked me to wait while she went and got a manager. I stood there puzzled wandering why she could not just take it down for me. A manager walked into the store from back and told me that store policy I could not take anything off the mannequins. I'm pretty sure I was standing there with the dumbest look on my face as I started to become an irate costumer. Here I am trying to shop and buy their product and they are telling me I cannot take the sweater that is my size off the mannequin.  Do they not care if they sell their clothes? I did not understand why they would not let me have it. Why put the smallest sizes on all the mannequins and leave a few out on the floor leaving a few sizes left to choose from? It just did not make sense to me. Any other store I have ever been into is more than willing to let me take whatever products I need off the mannequin if I do not see my size on the stores floor. I proceed to explain to the manger I thought it was completely stupid she would not sell me the product I wanted. I should not be begging to buy their clothes, shouldn't they be trying to sell me  their clothes? I set all my stuff down that was in my hand and walked out.

The situation sounds silly but as a consumer I think at some point stores should meet the consumers needs like they are suppose too. Since this incident I have told everyone I know how dissatisfied I was with Forever 21. I have spread negative word of mouth to my friends and even told friends who work in other stores in the mall. Employees of other stores agree that Forever 21's policy to leave all clothes on the mannequins will hurt sales. Forever 21 is a good store but with policies like that, as a consumer they made me feel like they did not care about me. They were not willing to give me what I wanted and it was over something so small, a sweater!

Xbox Live Family Pack

Xbox Live

Last year, I had purchased a family pack on Xbox Live with a few of college friends. This plan included four passes of a 1-year subscription of Xbox Live and it was on sale for $99. Considering our finances of being a college students, the four of us decided to split the cost of this package deal. This was a low effort decision for me to make with my friends, because I have been brand loyal to Microsoft, the brand that created Xbox, for about five years now. I would consider myself a heavy user of Xbox Live, because I not only use my Xbox 360 for gaming I also use it because of the Netflix application that is also available through Xbox Live. Things were going great until the end of the 1-year subscription was over, and we all had to gain primacy over our accounts for our on use again and that is where my attitude slightly changed. The reason for this is because when I tried to get my account back it would not allow me to do so. I called the Xbox Live support phone number and spoke on the phone with a representative about my situation and I had spoke to them about how I had used their service for a long time and this was the first major problem I had with them. Then the representative had said something that stuck out to and he had said loud and clear that they have been having on going problems with the family pack. This immediately made my mind go into buyer remorse for the purchase I had made. He continued to tell me that I would have to go back into my account get all of my information and then he could remove me off of the family plan, but he had told me there would be no guarantees that this process would work because of recent update to the system. So I proceeded to tell him my information, but it was no use and in order for me to continue to use my account I had to have my friend unlock it then I could use it and that was a process in itself. So after speaking on the phone for about twenty minutes I gave up, I decided to delete my old account with all of my friends and achievements that I had accumulated over the years and decided to start all over from scratch. I have learned my lesson when it comes to purchasing things with Xbox Live and now I will use high effort with my purchases from now on. Even though this has occurred I will still use their product, because I still have fun with it and I'm not going let an account completely diminish my use of this product.        

Dell Ruins/Saves the Day

A couple of years ago a friend of mine, who is my wife now and part of my nuclear family, purchased a Dell computer during her first year of college. Because of what she had heard about Dell computers, she had high expectations of the computer. When she received the computer she was not as impressed with the computer as she thought she would be based on the positive word of mouth she had received from other friends who owned Dell computers. Because of this dissatisfaction she had for the computer she immediately felt post-decision regret on purchasing the computer. After having the computer for a couple of months the hard drive crashed on it. She was very upset and contacted Dell about the problem and they immediately sent her a new hard drive for her computer. Not long after she was able to get the hard drive replaced, the hinge on her computer screen broke and it was no longer functional. She was so frustrated at what was going on with her new computer and a company that was supposed to make good products. Once again, she contacted Dell, this time with more complaints and told them her problem and without hesitation she was sent a new computer of whatever model, make, and color she wanted. Dell showed they had a strong customer service and really cared about their customers.