Values and purchase decision...

“If we believe our overall values drive our behaviour, then we should be concentrating on the important, underlying motives that drive consumers to make product or service choices rather than simply product attributes” (Ries & Trout 1982)

In terms of marketing, values impact greatly on the purchase decision of more highly involved products such as a car or new mobile phone (relative to age and egocentricity). An interesting concept to consider is if we always act upon our values when making a purchase decision. Kahle (1983) created a list of values including; sense of fulfillment, security and self respect. A value particularly important to me is a sense of accomplishment, this can be reflected through my purchase decision, as i often seek the best offer to feel that my money has gone to a suitable place.





Significant events that have taken in a person's life can also affect their values; for example the 9/11 attacks or the death of Princess Diana. However, significant personal life events can also affect a person's values; for example, if they had been involved in a severe car crash- on buying a car they would be looking for a safe vehicle rather than one that fulfilled their ego.







There are a few scientific tests such as the VALS test which is used as a marketing and consulting tool that helps businesses develop better strategies. On taking this test i came out as the ''Achiever'' being my dominant approach to life which is supported by ''Experiencer'' being the emphasis to my dominant approach. According to the VALS webpage (2009), an achiever ''favors established, prestige products and services that demonstrate success to their peers. Because of their busy lives, they are often interested in a variety of time-saving devices". Therefore, i am more likely to purchase something with a reputable brand which gives the impression of success to others. If i was not a student this would probably be true, but at the moment due to available finance i am more likely to stick to high street brands such as Primark and New Look.



Another motivation involved in purchase decision is that consumers have certain terminal values (such as self-fulfillment) which are achieved through a series of decisions made from weighing up the alternatives. Laddering techniques means that there can be a link found between product functionality and desired end states (often a value). For example, i bought a new phone, because i needed one, because it was getting old and looked old, it was an old model so was no longer cool, so i wanted to look better infront of my peers by having a new and reputable phone. With this is mind, in terms of marketing strategy, if a company produced a phone which was packaged beautifully and advertised as the ''next best thing'' i would be more likely to buy it as it would appeal to my ego, as my terminal value (looking ''cool'') would be seen to be fulfilled.

Gift Giving...

When giving a gift, is it always an involved decision? Do we put complete thought into our gifts or just buy for necessity and an easy purchase? In order to measure consumer involvement Laurent & Kapferer (1985) propose that it will be affected by four components:

1. Importance and risk. (FTPEPS: Finance, time, performance, ego, physical and social)

2. Probability of making a bad purchase.

3. Pleasure value of product category.

4. Sign value of product category (what do other people think of it and what it stands for; i.e. brand recognition).

According to Laurent and Kapferer's average involvement scores for various products a gift often given (champagne) has a high importance of perceived risk and a high probability of making an erroneous choice. Therefore, if buying champagne as a gift it would be a highly involved product as it entails many considerations. This is similar to products such as clothes and perfume (often given as gifts), suggesting that products often chosen as gifts have a high purchase involvement from the gift-giver.

In the current financial climate when giving gifts it is often value that will dominate purchase decision. There are many factors that can drive the value of the product; it's functionality, what is symbolises (often through branding and labels that are shown to be reputable) and their fun factor. For example, for Christmas 2008 I asked for a crumb-pet (a small novelty hoover)- this product was both functional (for desk use) and had a fun factor as it was in the shape of a pig which sucked crumbs through its nose.

Danzinger (2004) takes a different approach to gift- giving and suggests that gift-giving emotionally connects the giver and the receiver, therefore creating emotional shopping where the goal is to achieve a special feeling by giving a gift that communicates a message. This addresses that gift selection is from the right side of the brain (emotional), however, where we purchase from (store-selection) is left dominated (rational). This impacts upon marketing as it will be the experience that we have in the store that counts whilst making our purchase. For example, Ho-Ho Silver in Taunton, Somerset puts all jewelery in expensive looking gift boxes which are then gift-wrapped and put in an expensive-looking carrier bag; this saves personal time as the present is wrapped and the expensive looking box and bag allude to an expensive and worthwhile product. If marketers could concentrate on the extras offered by a store and markert the product along with these then many more consumers could be attracted.

The effect of good and bad gift giving:

Memory & Nostalgia...

Memories can effect a buyer's decision influencing the ''information search'' and ''evaluation of alternative'' stages in Kotler's buyer decision process. In terms of fast and frugal heuristics (making quick decisions when there is a lot of choice- Williams 2001) we use our memory as one source from which we can search for information that we can use for as choice criteria such as taking your last purchase decision in mind when looking at a similar situation. However, there are other sources from which buyer decision is influenced such as; recognising the brand and going for that one over the unfamiliar, recognising attractive labelling and advertising and assessing the options in order of percieved importance of criteria (each products unique selling point).

In terms of marketing objectives memory can be an effective tool in manipulating the buyer's mind; Britt (1955) describes this as "Every time an advertisement or commercial appears, the objective is to have the reader or viewer learn something …. and remember what he learned", in other words "to get the brand into the evoked set" (Ruth Hickmott).

As well as heuristics and memory; nostalgia cann also influence the buyer decision process. For example, music can trigger memories - therefore, a product aimed to a certian age range could be accompanied by a hit of that era consequently causing nostalgia for the intended audience. If a marketer can evoke feeling of happiness through nostalgic stimuli, there will be postive links toward the product. The advert itself can also be nostalgic: for example, the follwing Marks & Spencer advert is black and white with old fashioned music and adopting the style of an old movie.

In order to test the effects of nostalgia i showed my mum a youtube ad of Level 42 (a band dearly loved by herself in her late 20's). After hearing the music and watching the pop video she began talking extensively of her past and appeared positive and cheerful; she relayed stories of the dodgy fashion of the 80's and the old cars that she used to drive. This therefore showed positive links towards her past and if this could be linked to a product it would definately influence buyer decision.