Posts tagged ‘Shopping’
Consumer Psychology: why do we buy things?
A few weeks, I decided to go shopping at my local shopping centre. I took a couple of friends, and the aim was merely to kill time and have a browse around. To my surprise, I found myself walking back with a brand new book, an x-box 360 game, a milkshake I didn’t really want and a new CD. Considering I went just to look, what influenced me to spend over £50 on things I didn’t need – or simply didn’t even want? This is the nature of Consumer Psychology. It studies the impact of marketing and a number of factors on whether people do or do not buy items.
The principle aim of this field is to help firms and businesses improve their marketing strategies. This is achieved by an understanding of how the environment may influence an individual to purchase items, but also consumer behaviour and influences from other factors (friends, family, media, signs, subliminal messaging and much more).
Belch and Belch define Consumer Psychology as: “the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires”.
So what does influence us to buy things?
