The thought really is worth the most

Consumers put a ton of thought into purchasing for others, perhaps more so than they do when purchasing for themselves. There are multiple things to consider when purchasing for someone else such as your own relationship with them, the time you've known them, how you know them, what their interests are and personality is like, what the occasion is for the gift giving, and so on. Not only is there several aspects about your relationship to consider when buying someone a gift, you must also consider the potential risks involved.

In class there were many different outcomes discussed in regard to getting someone a gift such as an epiphany where the individual receiving the gift views it as a turning point in the relationship. This could be viewed negatively or positively depending on what the gift was and how it was perceived. In turn, this can cause a lot of anxiety for the gifter when making their decision in what to buy for another. However, the thought of finding someone the perfect gift can be just as exciting on the other end of the spectrum.

With the holiday season quickly approaching I've had to think long and hard about the gifts in which I am buying for those close to me. My roommates and I do a Secret Santa gift exchange, and this was by far the easiest and most fun gift to purchase. This ties in to class discussion around the achievement and satisfaction one gets out of buying for another. Since my roommate and I have such similar personalities and interests it was super easy for me to shop for her!

On the other hand I also had to buy for someone whom I'm not particularly close with, yet her opinion of me greatly matters. This particular gift was for my significant other's mom, so a fair amount of thought went into it. This is where the anxiety and stress of gift giving ties in. It wasn't necessarily an epiphany moment I was looking towards with her gift, more of an affirmation as I already am confident she thinks positively of me. Because of her role in my life it is important the gift is remains fairly conservative yet still show that I know her well enough. With this I decided to head to Bath and Body works for their candle collection as well as Chapters for a book. The candle was a more general purchase, however the book was something I knew she would like. Her and I always chat about what we're reading and what we have really enjoyed before, and this particular book was something I had read in the past was something I remembered her saying she was quite interested as well.

The gifts!

She ended up loving the gift I got her and thus gaining the affirmation of our current relationship!

How I have the biggest role in what I buy

Lifestyle and personality are important topics we touched on in class recently, discussing how who you are is used and manipulated by marketers to influence your purchasing. Many brands and product lines are well aware of where their largest target market lies, and thus try to appeal to such groups by replicating their personalities and lifestyles in their own advertisements.

Shortly after discussing this topic, I started to take note of how true this really is in virtually any advertisement or marketing effort. A particular example of this being true with a product I purchased, was Carleton's Ski and Board club organizing the annual Tremblant trip 'Snow Butter'. Although the organizers and advertisers of this event aren't marketing students or business professionals at all, they were right in line with targeting their audience through their consumers' lifestyles. 

Had this been a simple advertisement for a weekend ski trip at Tremblant with Carleton, I probably would not have been interested and not have spent my money on it. However, the executives of this Carleton University club amped up the trip so much, in so many ways it really got me excited to go and sign up. The students advertising this event knew exactly what group would want to go to this trip and exactly how to get us there. They posted videos of previous years at Snow Butter, gave loose agendas of how time would be spent, talked about all the night life and parties that go on after the skiing or boarding, and generally got a large crowd excited about something many of us knew little about. 

This particular Tremblant Snow Butter trip could be classified as a consumption constellation, which is a set of products used by consumers to define, communication and perform social roles. (SWD, p.168) How this trip can be classified as a consumption constellation is it gives those who purchase their trip the opportunity to show others who they are. The particular social role given from this trip is the "laid back" individual or "partier". It not only reflects on the consumer's lifestyle choices (skiing/snowboarding, partying) but their personality traits too. 

The trip advertisers replicated the personalities and lifestyles of those they had suspected would have interest, and incorporated it into the publication of the event. They used Facebook to post about the event, which could also be a cue of them coinciding with our lifestyles. 

Circular Motivation

My motivation has become a complex, circular force.What has motivated me to buy, has now been motivated by my purchase. Confused? Let me explain.

In September, after a summer of seeing several of my friends completing obstacle courses, triathlons and half marathons I decided to create my own goal of running a half marathon for the next summer. In creating this goal I recognized my need of new running gear. Although I already have appropriate running and training attire, I believed getting new, attractive sports apparel would better motivate me to actually train for this goal, as well as achieve it.

Couple of the items I purchased                       

After making the purchase of several items including shoes, shirts and shoes, exampled above, and spending quite a bit of money, I felt there was no backing out of this goal now. The actual purchase of these products had increased my overall motivational strength, by now making me more willing to expend my energy to attain my goal. Just as I had predicted, I became much more motivated to workout and train for my half marathon.

This is relevant to what was discussed in class recently about why we buy in terms of motivation. We discussed two main theories of motivation in consumer consumption; 1) Drive Theory, 2) Expectancy Theory. Drive theory is related to an inner biological need, something that is rooted into us. Hunger for example would be an excellent example of drive theory motivation. This is not something we control, it is simply something that happens to all of us. Thus, our hunger drives us to purchase food. Expectancy theory however, is behaviours pulled by expectations of achieving desirable outcomes rather than pushed from within. My goal would be a perfect example of expectancy theory. 

With my goal, I have expected that with the purchase of new running apparel I will train harder and more frequently, with an end result of running a half marathon. This is not a biological need, it is something I have consciously created for myself. 

When really choosing my goal of what I wanted to do in terms of fitness (I knew it would be something fitness related) I considered several options. Perhaps a full marathon or the Tough Mudder obstacle course. However I thought more about what was discussed in class and remembered SMART goal setting. The 'R' is what stood out to me for the marathon, should I really be running a full marathon before even attempting a half marathon? So I decided to choose the option of a simple half marathon. Then I focused on the 's', was it specific? Fairly so, but I added a few details such as which specific event. I chose the Scotiabank half marathon. Was it measurable? Yep! Realistic? I believe with training, yes this goal can be achieved. Lastly, is the goal time-bound? This as well was checked off my list. The Scotiabank half marathon in Ottawa occurs around the same time every year in May, so beginning my goal in September gave me 8 months of training. 

Future me (in male form)

To participate in this event requires the purchase of a ticket, which proves how a simple goal can motivate multiple purchases. Not only was I buying running gear, and a ticket for this event, I was also purchasing sports drinks and good meals. Thus, again showing my point that motivation is a circular force in purchasing. 

Loyalty to my team

In class we got on the topic of consumer loyalty to brands, and why we become and remain loyal to certain brands and products over time. My initial thought was, "how weird is it that people can be loyal to a brand in the same way they may be to actual human beings." After pondering this thought I realized it's done in the same way: people sell themselves to others (in a non-monetary way), just as brands sell their products to consumers. Both brands and people will display their best characteristics along with what traits they believe to be the most beneficial for you. People become loyal to those brands and individuals in which they deem valuable or important. Typically, there is either a product being sold, or an individual selling him or herself to gain a person's loyalty, however when it comes to teams there is a combination of the two being performed.

In order for a team to gain loyal fans and customers to purchase their fan attire or tickets to their game, not only should they produce the entertainment of a good game with their talents, but also be considered likeable. People tend to support those with similar values and overall viewed as doing more good to society than bad. Thus, it is important for sports teams to sell both what they are doing as well as who they are. Although this proves to be true with most products, when it comes to sport team loyalty, one of the most important factor was what you were born into, oddly similar to religion. In my specific scenario this would be in terms of the wonderful game of hockey.

Unfortunately I was born into a family of Toronto Maple Leafs fans, thus my fate was early on to be consistently let down by a bunch of boys in blue. Despite their lack of triumph over the years, I have stayed loyal and cheered them on even during their roughest of blows. When looking at what makes a consumer loyal, there are several check points this team has made for me with the exception of one. Beginning with what they do well in gaining my loyalty is who they are as a team. The Toronto Maple Leafs do not have much negative press associated with them, and actually do awesome things for the community! Recently the players of the Leafs took their annual visit to Sick Kids Hospital where they go to meet their youngest, ill fans, and give them a memory to last a lifetime. Not only do they go in and meet the children, they also interact with them by challenging them in games and having real conversations. This is something that makes them stand out to me, proving they're real people who really care.

Few of the players at the hospital

Now to the part of where they don't exactly meet expectations in building and gaining consumer loyalty. Their performance. Now, they may not be the worst team in the league, but for how large their fan base is the price of tickets to their games, you would typically expect a much better team. Perhaps a team that has won the cup sliiiiightly more recently than 1967? So why does this team continue to have so much loyalty? Why do we continue to purchase and wear their merchandise? Why do we still go to their games and cheer them on? It's because this is what we have known for so many years. We are loyal because we believe one day they will pull through for us. After years of cheering for a specific team it would be much more difficult to go and pick an entirely new team, who has the potential of letting us down as well, than to just keep cheering for the same we've loved for so long.

leaf game October 11th 2014

Friend and I decked out in Leaf gear (during a losing game)

Organizations are the teachers of the market

Recently my older brother moved into a new, unfurnished apartment with absolutely no  furniture of his own. Of course, him being a 23 year old, broke male student, meant him leaving behind any expectations of quality or appearance of such items. For the most part he picked up odds and ends from those parting with old furniture sets, with the exception of one item he would not settle on- a mattress.

Everyone has their own preconceived notations of what is acceptable and what is not, and with this situation, him and I definitely voiced differences. I urged him to consider taking an old one from Kijiji, or off an old friend of mine, however despite his unruly bedroom and bathroom, he felt this did not meet his sanitation requirements. So, we went mattress shopping. 

This is where the teaching of big name stores and organizations takes a huge role. Once purchasing a previously owned mattress was ruled out we had to consider where we should go to purchase a mattress. The first to come to both of our minds? Sleep Country Canada. Yep, the "Sleep Country Canada, why buy a mattress anywhere else?" jingle being repeatedly played through our television sets and car radios as children and to this day had actually held an effect on us. Sleep Country has engrained their jingle into many people's minds and reminded us over and over that there is no need to look anywhere else. Although this is what they had taught us, we still knew there were other options available.

This is where we finally acknowledged our total evoked set; Sears, Ikea, the Brick. These were the stores in which we were certain sold mattresses. We figured that mattresses couldn't vary too much, and the store virtually only selling mattresses may be the best bet (Sleep Country) as they were likely to have a wider range of prices and styles. Knowing Sleep Country was specifically aimed at mattress sales and had a wide variety was also taught to us by this company through their TV marketing. I can recollect countless Sleep Country commercials with an attractive woman boasting about some new type of mattress with some new technology and some other new, unnecessary feature.

yep, that's the one!  

Sleep Country uses a brand ambassador, this woman shown above, as the only individual to really be focused on within their advertisements. Although it's likely that most of the viewers are not familiar with who this woman is or why she is always featured in Sleep Country commercials, they will be able to recognize her and associate her with the store. She is actually Christine Magee, the President of Sleep Country Canada, and has won awards for the top business woman of the year in Canada. For those consumers who are familiar with her presence in the company, this can also be considered as the company teaching you a thing or two about Sleep Country.Thus, in conjunction with their catchy, over played jingle, Sleep Country had taught us that this is where we will be purchasing the mattress from, of course without us being aware they had done so. 

But of course, they were right. We ended up buying a mattress from Sleep Country within 20 minutes of arriving at the store. Sleep Country uses tactics such as memory and repetition in the use of their jingle and TV advertisements featuring numerous products and a familiar, recognizable face.