As the semester comes to an end, I decided to write a blog about the top ten things I've learned about consumers and their behavior through my Senior year at MSU, or at the the top ten ideas that stimulated my interest the most.
There is always been a debate does the market drive the consumer or does the consumer drive the market. The majority of the time, I feel consumers drive the market; people buy things that they need. In class today we were talking about whether minimalist running is a fad or here to stay. While we all agree barefoot running is a fad, minimalist running is here to stay. Big name brands like Nike started designing minimalist shoes following consumer wants.
To contradict my first point, consumers who drive the market can be easily tricked. Consumers are extremely simple minded when it comes to persuasion of purchase decisions pushing favor at times into the markets hands. When the bread machine was first introduced by Williams-Sonoma people did not buy it, but when a different "higher end" model of the bread machine was introduced the original and lower price bread machine flew off the shelves. The idea running through people's minds is well if I were to buy a bread machine I would like the cheaper and smaller version. This tricks the consumer into thinking they need a product because there are two options to chose from. This is called the decoy effect for anyone interested in learning marketing terms (Ariely 14-16).
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