Impulse buying has fascinated me for quite some time now. It is quite peculiar that most of the website and research around this topic highlights the negative impacts on consumers and none or very few people highlight how the impulse buying strategy actually can be exploited by businesses boosting their bottom-line.
Promoting impulse buying behaviour
The business implications are fairly obvious. If businesses wish to promote impulse buying, they should create an environment where consumers can be relieved of their negative perceptions of impulse. Businesses should stress the relative rationality of impulse buying in their advertising efforts. Similarly, they should stress the non-economic rewards of impulse buying.
Additionally, businesses can make the environment more complex, further straining consumers’ abilities to process information accurately. Such techniques as stocking more merchandise, creating stimulating atmospherics, and increasing information may be useful to stimulate impulse buying. Businesses have to make impulse purchasing more risk-free, through convenient return policies, or increase enablers such as credit and store hours. Importantly, this model also offers options for consumers to control their buying impulses, if they choose to, or feel better about their impulse buying, by relieving their negative evaluations of impulse.
Continue reading »
Buying motives often overlap. Suppose you just purchased a new jacket. What was your dominant motive in making that purchase? Maybe you bought the jacket for comfort; you expect it to keep you warm. You might have bought it simply because it has a style or label that you’re proud to wear or show your friends.
Maybe you bought it because the colour makes your eyes look bluer, or it makes you look taller and thinner, or in some way it makes you feel good about yourself — it gives you emotional satisfaction. Maybe you bought the jacket for all three reasons merged together: It’s comfortable, you’re proud to own it, and it makes you feel good about yourself.
As a salesperson you might think that people buy your product or service because of the reasons you give them. On the contrary, people buy not because of your reasons, not your company’s reasons but for their very own reasons.
These reasons may not seem sensible, logical or even intelligent to us but they seem that way to the prospect.
Broadly speaking we can categorise buying motives into Rational and Emotional reasons.
Continue reading »
