Course Wrap-Up

Consumer Behavior is defined as "the study of the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires" (Solomon, pg. 7).My final post will be about a summary/reflection on what I learned in this course and what the major points included.

What I have realized is all the purchases consumers make are much more calculated then we let ourselves believe. We are influenced by our attitudes, lifestyles, environment, culture, peers, and personalities. Of course, I always knew that sometimes my purchases were influenced by these various factors. However, almost every single thing I buy is through a "nudge" of these various factors. 

All decisions have a reason and reasoning behind them. Some are just more prevalent than others. For example, I bought a new pair of skis recently and a lot of factors influenced that purchase. I also put a lot of time and effort into this purchase whereas I would with a different product. Such as my toothpaste, or shampoo. 

My environment, peers, and lifestyle definitely played a huge factor in my decision. Much more goes into purchase decisions than most people think. It is not just the price, location, and availability. We are all influenced by multiple factors. I think this is the main thing I learned from this course. 

Overall, I am happy we are required to take a course like this. Due to the fact that we receive a bachelors of science degree in business, we mainly focus on quantitative practices. We deal with hard numbers and facts and research. However, this course is also based on research but it is about the motives and reasoning behind purchases and decisions. This course touches upon how consumers act and I believe this will be very valuable information to use in correlation with the other classes I have taken thus far. 

Now, I am officially done with the Fall semester of 2013!! Time to celebrate :) And go back to having a normal life! Also, get to experience the Southern California weather I am used too. No more of this -15 degree weather......!!

Week 11- Consumer Behavior: College Students, Dead Week, and Finals

There is no environment even remotely similar to a college campus; especially during dead week and finals week. It is unlike anything in society. A time of extreme daze, stress, coffee consumption, and tiredness. So much work, group projects, studying, and writing papers consists during these two weeks. A time when sleeping on a desk, in the library is socially acceptable:

For most of us, its a time when we realize we actually haven't learned that much.... We are expected to learn 12 weeks of material and remember it all for a two hour exam. And most classes a passing grade is based solely on how well one performs on the final. I believe all typical consumer behavior concepts cannot be applied during dead week and finals week. For example, I feel like I completely loose my sense of self. The activities and rituals I normally do, are forgotten and left behind during dead week and finals week. I usually love my night time routine and sleep, but during these two weeks I skip most, if not all of these rituals. 

Personally, my dead week aka the week before finals is way more stressful than my finals week. This week I have to write this blog post, read a 250+ page book and take a quiz on it, study for and take two exams, finish a 15 page presentation, complete a 50 point project by Thursday that was only assigned on Sunday afternoon, create powerpoint slides for a 35 page business plan, attend meeting at BBC to get feedback on 35 pages business plan, revise and submit 35 page business plan, practice for two presentations, and give one of those presentations. That is just the week before finals.  

Lucky for me, all my finals are on one day: Monday. This day, I have three papers due, a 100 point exam, one 15 minute presentation, one mandatory "course wrap-up", and one blog post due. All. In. One. Day. 

This is such a stressful time period, they have therapy dogs everyday in the library. These two weeks will literally make or break my grade. If for some reason I do poorly on the items listed above, I will drop down a grade. Or if I don't do them at all, I probably wouldn't even pass the class. Regardless of the fact I have gotten A's on almost everything I have done the past 11 weeks. If that isn't stressful, I don't know what is. 

College is also like a subculture. A subculture is a "group whose members share beliefs and common experiences that set them apart from others" (Solomon, p. 484). No one can truly understand what we are going through besides our peers. Even people who have graduated college have a hard time relating because things are different now and we face different challenges than the generation before us did.

Overall, I hope finals go well for everyone and that 3 weeks during Christmas break is enough time to recover. I always say "I wish I could be bored" because in college there is literally no time to be bored. I hope once this semester is over, we can all go back to being normal consumers, at least until next semester. When it is time to engage in this strange consumer behavior phenomenon we call college. 

Week 10: Rituals

A ritual "is a set of multiple, symbolic behaviors that occurs in a fixed sequence and is repeated periodically" (Solomon, p. 533). For me, the first thought that comes to mind when thinking about rituals is exotic tribes and very religious people. Usually in a dark area, lit by a lot of candles and people in costumes chanting. However, consumers engage in rituals daily and these rituals tend to shape some of our consumption activities.

One example is one's "daily 'mental health' trip to Starbucks" (Solomon, p. 533). For me, my ritual is my nighttime skincare routine. This is known as grooming rituals. This ritual allows me to wind down from my crazy and busy days. Grooming rituals "cleanse us of impurities" (Solomon, p. 533). My nighttime skincare routine allows me to physically and mentally wash away all the stressful stuff from that day.

I didn't really realize this was a ritual until reading more into this subject. These rituals tend to "reaffirm the value their culture places on personal beauty and the quest for eternal youth" (Solomon, p. 536). I don't feel that I enjoy or perform my nighttime skincare routine because my culture places a high value on beauty. I do it for myself as a way to relax and cleanse myself from a long day. If I'm unable to do this ritual one night I feel different and my skin isn't the same. 

The brands I use are also very important to my ritual. Without these products my ritual just wouldn't be the same. I'm very loyal to the products I use. However, I do like to try new things but I always compare them to my current products and don't change them unless they are amazing and better than my other ones. 

So these rituals really influence my consumption activities and contribute to who I am :)

Week 9: Subcultures

A subculture is defined as "a group whose members share beliefs and common experiences that set them apart from others" (Solomon, p. 484). A subculture can include ones age or place of residence. One subculture that immediately comes to my mind is the residences of Isla Vista, California in Santa Barbara County and students of University of California at Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College. This area is hard to understand if you have never been and experienced it to its fullest.

I have never fully lived here but I've spend days and weeks here at a time staying at friends houses and got pretty familiar with the subculture that Isla Vista offers. From all of the people I've met here, they all have the same beliefs, party and have fun. I always joke and can't understand how anyone can graduate from UCSB. School seems to be the last thing on their minds, and it's kind of contagious.

Everyone seems to share the same attitude of having as much fun as possible, and just being carefree. It's almost impossible not to when you live on DP-ocean side. Del Playa is a street filled with off-campus student housing, where students (or their parents) are willing to pay $800-$1200 on rent per month to live in a house with 8 other people and share a bedroom with 2 others. But it's worth it if you are living on Del Playa, and your backyard is literally the Pacific Ocean. However, most backyards are fenced in or have a porch cause there are some pretty steep cliffs that people have fallen off and have gotten seriously injured.

Here is a few of my friends backyard and view:

The views are gorgeous, and you can see the dangerous cliffs I was talking about! This city and more specifically the street Del Playa sets this group apart and anyone who has lived here. It's hard to fully understand the culture of Isla Vista until you truly got to live it. But everyone who lives here all have a bond and experiences that set them apart. A few of these include: Halloween, snappa, Floatopia, Freebirds, burning coaches, songs written about them, and skunks.

Floatopia is a time everyone brings out their floaty devices and heads to the beach and floats in the ocean. Way different than the floats we do out here. However, police intervention has slowed down this tradition by shutting down the beaches that weekend. Yet students still take to the streets.

Del playa is also famous for their Halloween. Wikipedia says "the first large, street-filled Halloween in Isla Vista actually occurred in 1962" and "by the early 1980s, word of mouth spread and students from schools all over California began to converge on Isla Vista for Halloween" it now claims about 40,000 people come out for Halloween here.

Next, burning coaches also seem to be apart of this subculture. I've seen is numerous times. I assume it's because the coaches are so trashed after the students four years there isn't really anything else you can do with them.

This flyer was posted at UCSB. 

Anyways, Freebirds is a popular burrito place and skunks are everywhere in Isla Vista, you are considered lucky if you have never had an encounter. I think this area is a perfect example of a subculture that I have experienced. 

Week 8: Healthy Flavored Halloween Treats

I found this video on this link and just had to share. I thought it was hilarious and appropriate for this time of the year. We all know most kids will say anything that comes to their mind with no filter. Anyone remember that show "Kids Say the Darndest Things" hosted by Bill Cosby? Once again, I think this video would also fit perfectly on that show as well.

So this whole semester we have been talking about consumer behavior and why we buy the things we do, why we act the way we do, and basically our consumption patterns and how it all relates to our ideal and actual sense of self, lifestyles, and values. However, I don't think kids fit the model of most of our arguments through out the semester.

You'd have a hard time getting adults or teenagers to be this open and candid. Most would be afraid of coming off rude. In the book Nudge, they talk about how other people and their opinions influence us and our choices/answers. I can't remember the specific example they used, but it was a similar focus-group situation and one person out of the group was specifically there to say the opposite of what everyone else was saying or say an answer that was obviously incorrect.

This person was very confident and convincing with his or her answers. Eventually, others if not all of the group began to agree and change their answers/opinions to ones that were obviously incorrect. However, they did not want to go against the norm or draw attention to themselves.

If they were to replace this situation with adults instead of children and had one person in the study say all of the treats were fabulous and tasted so good. I'm sure at least a few other people would be nudged to agree with them. Or they might be more polite and discrete about there lack of satisfaction with these healthy tasting treats.

This whole video is a commercial for Crest and Oral-B. At the end it says "there is nothing more horrifying than Halloween without candy"and then the slogan pictured above. I think this is a very clever marketing strategy.

I'm not a parent, but now a days it seems as if parents are much more concerned with their children eating healthy and organic then mine ever were when I was younger. It seems as if parents do not want their kids eating a lot of candy and instead try to find healthy alternatives for candy (which is impossible, obviously). This commercial was instead targeted toward parents. It shows them what a Halloween without candy would look like and then gives them something to do to help the problem of so their children eating so much candy. And lets be honest, nobody wants a Halloween without candy. So Crest and Oral-B have stepped in and attempted to make parents relax.

Holidays especially ones like Halloween alter our consumption behavior as well. Never would it be ok to eat our own weight in candy and dress up as Miley Cyrus banging on neighbors doors demanding candy. But on Halloween this is expected. Thanksgiving is like this as well. In my family, we do not eat anything all day before eating Thanksgiving dinner 3 or 4 times that evening. Holidays change our consumption patterns and what we would normally view as ridiculous behavior is expected on these days.

So overall, I wanted to share this video because I thought it was so funny and cute. Especially the part when Adrianna announces "I threw up" and the focus-group leader says " You threw up? Ok" so nonchalantly and unconcerned. However, this video and holidays in general relate to consumer behavior overall.

Week 7: Ghostery and Consumer Behavior

So the other day in my market research class with Omar, he told us about this amazing browser tool/software called Ghostery. This tool allows you to see all of the advertisers, and trackers that are watching what you do, and collecting data on the websites you browse. For example, one day I was looking up a particular type of hot tea (ginger peach green tea), and the next day I had ads for tea companies on my internet browsers sidebar and whatnot. Ghostery allows you to block those ads and advertisers. Here is the link for Ghostery if you want to download it: Ghostery.

I downloaded ghostery and I didn't realize how many companies are actually on each website I go on. I knew there had to be a few but some sites had 30-40 hits! I am able to block these advertisers which makes me feel like I have a bit more privacy but I was shocked to see numbers like that. I don't think as consumers we really realize how much companies are watching us and tracking our purchases and other ways to advertise to us.

For me, when I see the ads on the side of my browser specifically targeted to me and products I was searching the other day, I have mixed feelings about it. I understand its more logical and cost effective for companies to advertise to consumers who are in the market for their products. However, I also find it kinda creepy and annoying to have those ads right there. Like, if I want to buy the tea, I will. I will go to there website and buy the tea, I don't want/need a constant reminder flashing in my face when I'm trying to get my homework done.

Above is a little video explaining what ghostery does even more. I like that it allows you to choose what companies you allow to "watch" you. And that it also informs you about those companies and how that data might be used. As a marketing student, I know some of this information can be extremely helpful for those companies, as well as benefit my eventually. So I like that ghostery adds a little about each company so you can decide if you want to block them or not.

This type of product reminds me of something the authors of Nudge would advocate for. It gives people a choice to block advertisers and trackers, and educates you about them. Compared to the other two alternatives of doing nothing, or installing software that blocks all ads/companies in general. Ghostery allows you to make an educated decision.

I feel as consumers, we may alter our browsing/online purchasing behavior if we really knew all of the people tracking us. This may lead to incorrect data, so ghostery may actually be helping these companies record more accurate data because people are more secure in what they are sharing and how it will be used.

I know when I worked at 24 Hour Fitness, customers had to scan their finger to check in too the club. Some customers refused to have their finger scanned cause they were afraid we would save their prints and send it to the government or FBI. However, this was not true and the technology we had didn't allow for that anyways. It only saved various points of ones print. I think this can be applied to online browsing privacy as well. People want to know that the data a company is collecting will not be used against them.

Week 6 Post: Minimalism/Purest

Today in class we talked about the concept of minimalism that seems to be very popular recently. In class today we specifically focused on the "finger" shoes, or bow hunting which seems to be much more difficult, and pure. 

I feel like we are resorting to these types of products to be more connected to ones self, and to be more aware of our bodies, health, and surroundings. One example includes segmented sleep where someone will sleep for four hours and then wake for one hour and then sleep again for four more hours. Before modern electricity this sleep cycle was very popular. It seems as if consumers are engaging in non-consumption by going back to more pure or primitive ways. Another example of a minimalist type of product is any Apple products. Steve Jobs designed his products to be simple. This could be one of reasons his designs are so popular.

Life is usually pretty complex, so I think anytime consumers have the ability to be more pure in their purchases, they take that opportunity. As a consumer, I have noticed that health has becoming a very popular lifestyle. Lifestyle is a, "pattern of consumption that reflects a person's choices of how to spend her time or money" (Solomon p. 469). The minimalist shoe represents a certain lifestyle. When I see someone wearing the particular shoe pictured above, I assume they are healthy, an avid/experienced runner, conscious about their body, and maybe earthy.

The products we buy really contribute to the lifestyle we lead and the beliefs/values we relate too. As we stated in class, the minimalist shoe probably isn't just a fad like any trends from the 80's, which makes it become apart of a lifestyle. This lifestyle may even create over consumption as well. Because these types of shoes require you to own more than one pair of running shoes, at least for a while anyways. My point is, is that something that is considered minimalist is actually causing over consumption. I find that kind of interesting.