Why do we shop??

I was in my Consumer Behaviour class and we had a discussion over why do consumer spend or save money. There were some interesting themes going around explaining the intricate consuming behaviour of customers. The biggest question was why consumers spend money. Interestingly some of the points why consumer spends were

1.Basic needs

The best example could be going to grocery store. Everyone has to spend money for buying basic stuff that can help them in running the regular life.

2.To escape from the reality

It was majorly true when consumer have enough money to spend on something which can take away them from real world and its problems. This could be true when someone goes to Disney Land to touch the childhood feelings or when someone buys an expansive watch after a breakup. What about the going to theatre watching movies, buying a new jacket or eating an ice-cream? It falls in this category although the line between emotional and functional benefits is very thin.

3.To maintain the social status

Well that could be true for everyone. I bought one pair of good shoes just to wear in parties. Was it impulse shopping? No, it was planned but for my social status because I don’t want to feel ashamed walking inside a club wearing rugged shoes. Same is true for someone who buys expansive beer just to be a part of his friends circle even when he likes some other brand.

4. Future Saving

Hmm...this was interesting. I never thought of spending money to save money in future. Well the promotional offers are targeted to those customers who shop just to save money in future. For an example consumers save money whole year to spend on boxing day. So saving money is also spending money in some or the other way. It is just a matter of balancing act.

5.Forced Shopping

I could not find a better title for this option but present shopping behaviour is also influenced by the marketers’ strategies. Marketers launch a product in the market and try to fit the product in the mind of consumer saying there is a need for this product in your life. For example, room freshener is not all a necessity but people have started to believe that it is one of the necessary product in day to day life.

Please add in comments if you have more ideas as I wrote what I could remember from my class. Well this was just about spending money. We talked a lot about saving money and what are the coping mechanism for saving money. I will talk about coping mechanism in next blog. Happy Reading.