My obsession with Swatch

It’ s very difficult for me have a brand loyalty for clothes purchases, because I tend to change brands and styles very fast. I prefer to discover and try new brands before other people and also even if my satisfaction after consumption is high, I am unlikely to repeat this purchase in the future because I have little brand loyalty. 

However, if I look more carefully at my products I find that there is a brand where I have an important engagement. This is the Swatch! This brand reflects my identity and my personality, because these watches are very simple but fashionable. In the ladder of consumer loyalty proposed by Payne (1994)  I am not just a client for this company, but I am an advocate, because I tend to promote and influence others with my purchase. I like this brand also becasue the range of products available is very wide.

Today I bought another Swatch. I didn’t really plan this purchase (I think that I have more than 15 watches and I didn’t need another one!), and this is the first reason why I called this an impulse purchase. I decided to buy it only when I saw the watch in the window of the store. Again the display of the product was the greatest influence on my decision.  

Black Friday

Today, 28^th November, it’s “Black Friday”.

The term Black Friday is known to shoppers and retailers in the USA as both the day after the Thanksgiving holiday and as one of the busiest shopping days of the year (Thomas and Peters, 2011 pag.522). Basically it’s the day where a lot of shops (in-store shops and on-line shops) practice important discounts. I have never experienced this situation, because in Italy it’s not a tradition.

After my morning lecture I went with my friends to the Victoria centre and I realised that Topman store (one of my favourite store on Nottingham) followed to Black Friday. Obviously we entered.

The first things that struck me it was the Black and Red shirt. I love this kind of shirt, because on certain days it reflects my identity. The real price was £60 but today it was only £30 (50% of discount!). I bought it without thinking.

My impulsive behaviour came out with the second products, because the shirt was combined with a parka. I liked the colour and the design of the parka, but also I liked the combination with the shirt. The discount for this product is not really high, but combined with the student discount I paid £58 instead of £85.

The result: today I bought 2 products that I had not planned! This behaviour is very frequent for clothes purchases.

The best influences for this purchases were my personal identity (because I really liked the products and I’m satisfied for that purchases) and the external environment (because the display of the products influenced my decision and also because the price of the products today was very convenient).

Black Friday was a new and good shopping experience and I hope that this tradition will soon come to Italy! 

My second concert in the Capital FM Arena

After one month from my first concert in Nottingham, this week I attended the James Blunt concert. I bought the ticket on-line really at the last minute, because the concert was on Saturday and I bought this ticket on Thursday. Again I decided to buy the tickets on-line because it's the fastest and easiest method. 

But what influenced this purchase? Obviously the first motivation is that I like this singer and his songs. His songs sometimes reflect my personality and my mood so I could not skip this event. This is an example of individual influence.

The second influence is an example of social environment influences. Compared with the first concert, where I went alone, for this I went with my friend. I was influenced by my friend, because he loves James Blunt and his high motivation and high involvement influenced my behaviour and this purchase.

The third influence is linked to the Ed Sheeran concert. I was really satisfied with that performance and situation (not only for the concert, but also for the atmosphere in the Capital FM Arena), and I needed to repeat this emotion. When I'm satisfied with a purchase, especially a service purchases (such as concert, movie ticket, stadium ticket, hotels,…) I tend to repeat the same purchase in the future. I’m really influenced by the emotional experience. This is an example of when post-consumption satisfaction influences my next purchase.

The last but not the least influence is the promotion of this concert. In fact I saw the poster of James Blunt out of the Arena and in the city centre. This is an example of a mass communication methods. Is not the only way that this organization uses, indeed when there is a new event I receive an e-mail with the details. I think it’s a good idea to attract attention.

For those kind of purchases I'm not influenced by the price, because the emotion that I feel has more value than the price.

Again my expectations were respected and the desire to another concert grows!

Technological purchase

This week I spent part of my money on this product. It’s a speaker for the iPhone, Tablet or Laptop. Is so long since I have wanted this technological product but only now I have decided to buy it.

I was influenced by many different aspects, environmental and individual.

First, I need this product because I live with 8 other students and each of them has one similar product, therefore this speaker is necessary to listen to music or to watch movies in my accommodation.

Second, my brother likes music and I think that he likes this product. When I go back home I can share this with him (or this speaker can became a gift for him).

The JBL brand influences my decision, because I have already another product of this company and I’m satisfied with this. With the technological products I tend to be a loyal customer, because I give more importance to past experience when I decide between a new brand or a brand already known.

The last influence, but I think it was the most important, was the price. I paid "only" £49 for this product, but it was on sale because two weeks ago the price was £99. When I saw this promotion I could not resist, because the value of the product was high but the price was halved. I saw the product in the window on Saturday, and I bought it on Sunday! My decision making was very simplified.

After one week I was very satisfied with this speaker and the JBL brand value increases. I would recommend this product to my friends that they too could be affected by my purchase.

Ed Sheeran concert ticket & T-shirt

I bought this ticket just two weeks ago, because when I went to the ticket office at the start of September the operator told me that the Ed Sheeran concert was sold-out. However I needed this ticket because I really like this singer and also because my friend recommended him. I started to look on the web site (3 or 4 times for week) and finally I found this ticket.

My personal involvement in this purchase was very high for different reasons. First, I considered that product important because I think that I have only this chance to see Ed Sheeran live (in the country where I’m living now). Second, I think that the consequences of a `failure to purchase` it would be negative.

In this purchase I was influenced by the environmental inputs because I knew that there was the concert only when I saw the advertisement on official the Capital Fm Arena Facebook page. Also I was influenced by my friend who told me that an Ed Sheeran concert is amazing.

My decision making became really complete after the concert, because enthusiastic for the Ed Sheeran performance, I bought the official t-shirt. According to John C. Mowen (1988), this is an example of impulse purchase related to Experiential perspective, because I bought this t-shirt to remember this moment and I bought it only at the end of the concert.  

Post-consumption evaluation was very positive, and I think this will influence my next ticket purchase. 

Food purchases

Usually I do my food shopping on Sunday morning, because I have most time and also because I like to eat different food at Sunday lunch.

During the week I write in my shopping diary what I need to buy. I think that is really important to organize the purchases and also to avoid buying unnecessary things (without this diary it would be possible to forget certain products!).

When I buy food products I see the price and the date when it’s better to consume this food. I realise that I’m very influenced by offers such as “2x1”, when it’s possible to buy 2 products and pay only for 1 (it’s the same for “3x2”). I think that promotion is very attractive specially for the students. Important it’s also the “half price” products where for that week you can pay only half of the original price.

For certain products I’m very influenced by the origin of the product. For example for the “pasta”, the Italian flag in the packaging influences my decision. I think that the flag influences a lot of people, because the tradition and the origin of this product is connected to Italy.  It’s the same when I decide to buy sauce for my pasta.

For the food purchases I go to Aldi, because it's cheap, it's near to my house and it's open until 10pm. Sometimes I like go to Tesco when it’s possible to find different brands and different kinds of products. 

Impulse purchases at Primark

Primark is one of the most famous shops in Nottingham and in the UK. I think it's most loved by students because is cheap but the products are fashionable! Primark's strategy is to create a need in customers when they are in the store.

The first impression when you come in a Primark store is chaos. There is whatever you want but the products are not well organized. Often the store is full of people and finding the right product requires more time than expected. I think this is Primark's strategy, because while you find a product that you need it's possible to see other products that catch your attention.

For example, when I went to Primark to buy a gym bag I didn't need the gloves and the t-shirt (shown in this picture) before entering but I saw them in the shop and I bought them. My involvement in this purchase was very low, because I didn't evaluate the different alternative or more information about the product: I just bought!

According to John C. Mowen, (1988) this is an example of Experiential Perspective, in particular it was an impulse purchase.

In that case for the gloves I'm affected by an accelerator impulse (Bayley and Nancarrow, 1988) because now (October) I don't need gloves but I know that in December  I would have to buy them.