All I Wanted Was A Snowboard..

Now that snow has finally decided that it wants to stay on ground or longer than a few days, I thought it was time to start my search for this years "perfect" snowboard. So, I grabbed my computer and went to my two favorite online board shops, ProBoard Shop and The House. After clicking around on 2017's Women's Snowboard selections for awhile, I decided that I would have to save up way more money than I had assumed I would. Feeling a sense of sadness and defeat, I logged into my Facebook account and began scrolling through the news stream looking for any small distraction to get my mind off of my money problems.

Then, as I was scrolling around I began to notice advertisements on the lower right corner of the webpage. These ads were for the The House; one of the two online business websites I had just been clicking around on a mere fifteen minutes ago! Confused, I clicked on the first ad and saw that it literally led me directly to the 2017 Women's Snowboard section of The House website. I mean, I had heard of direct marketing tactics that could track where you were online and then display ads pertaining to that on other websites, but I had never actually witnessed it happening to me. 

Once I fully realized that this was actually a clever marketing tactic, I started to question how well it actually worked on me. For instance, I did actively re-click on an ad for a website that I had just been on, and seen all that it had to offer. On the other hand, my second visit to the website still didn't result in any purchases. So, what may The House have gained from this ad placement? 

Well, I believe that it is utilizing this form of direct marketing to increase its brand awareness and customer loyalty among consumers. The reason that I think this relates to the fact that, though I didn't end up making any purchases, I still clearly remember the ad and what company it was for. This in turn, reveals that by having a second interaction with The House I now can recognize its brand as well as its products. Also, showing me an ad that illustrated its current promotions, has given me greater incentive to return to its website when I have the finances to afford a new snowboard. Overall, The House's use of direct marketing has provided me with a greater incite towards the ways that businesses can utilize ad placements to influence consumer behaviors.

Wait, Why Did I Really Buy This?

As I, as a college student, have learned, having a reusable water bottle is an essential of survival in your early 20's. Not only is it for convenience, but it is also the most cost effective way to stay hydrated. 

So, this being said, last week my water bottle of three years finally bit the dust. Thinking that I would just go quickly buy a new one, I headed down to REI. It wasn't until I entered the water bottle section that I realized this purchasing decision was going to be harder than I thought. In order to try and educate myself before making the tough decision, I started googling what each different product offered. As I was looking through my searches, I noticed that Hydro Flask had several five star ratings. Each of the ratings noted the thermal features of the water bottle and how impressively they worked. So, of course, I made the executive decision to listen to random strangers reviews and buy a $45.00 water bottle.

After buying the water bottle I began to wonder about how I was so easily swayed to purchase a product by random opinions of people that I didn't even know. This thought led to me ponder if I had fallen victim to the herding heuristic, discussed within the book Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sustein. If this was the case, it would indicate that I chose the Hydro Flask over the numerous other water bottles because I subconsciously felt that I needed it to share the opinions of the reviews I had read. After thinking about this my whole drive home from REI, I realized that there was a significant chance that, without reading those reviews, I would have chosen a different water bottle. 

The realization I've had from this shopping experience has allowed me to see the influences others can have on consumers', such as myself's, buying behaviors. I still am currently in shock that I fell into this heuristic without even being aware of it! All in all, this has showed me that product reviews, whether on a company's website or on a random blog, can sway other consumers' purchasing decisions vastly.

Location & Consumers

Within the last four years I have had the opportunity to live in numerous locations, two of which were Minnesota and Montana. Having this personal experience of living in different geographic locations has sparked my interest in the ways that consumers purchasing decisions and behaviors differ based on where they live. When I moved to Montana from Minnesota I didn't expect to feel the culture shock that I did. I now see that the shock that I experienced was directly linked to the difference in consumer culture and behavior between the two states. The greatest difference that I noticed was the difference in outdoor wear preferences.

Now, both Minnesota and Montana are outdoorsy states that face a severely cold weather for majority of the year, except the three short months of summer. So when I was packing up my things to move to Bozeman my Freshmen year I figured I could just throw all of my outdoor wear, clothes, and shoes in my car with no need to shop for anything new. For the most part I was right, the things I brought fit the weather seasons perfectly, but what I didn't take into play was how the social environments differed from place to place. By social environment I am referring to the fact that because Bozeman's outdoor style is mountain based, it differ greatly from Minnesota's lake based style. For example, I had never, ever, heard of Chaco's until coming to Bozeman. When I first heard people on my dorm floor talking about them I simply asked, "what are Chaco's?" It's safe to say that every single one of them looked at me like I was a complete idiot or mentally insane. To embarrassed to ask them again, I decided to retreat to my dorm room and Google it. Once I saw that what they were referring to was an odd looking pair of sandals, I realized that Montanans style may not be as similar to Minnesotans as I had thought.

These different styles are a product of the brands that associate themselves within a given social environment, based on geographic location. Now, I am sure that there are Minnesotans that have heard of Chaco sandals before, but being that I grew up close to the Minneapolis area I had never actually been exposed to them. What I mean by this is that because Chaco prides itself on being a sandal that can handle nearly all outdoor activities, it has no reason advertise greatly within city areas. Therefore, it aims its advertising efforts towards outdoor communities, where consumers are looking for the versatile sandal that it offers. 

Beer at McDonalds?

When a business decides to go global, there are hundreds of factors it must consider to ensure it's success. One major factor it must focus on is adapting to consumer preferences and behaviors in each new location. While I was studying abroad in Seville, Spain, I had the opportunity to experience how McDonalds adapted its products to fit the Spanish consumer culture and behavior.

McDonalds in the U.S. has a menu that contains burgers, fries, shakes, soda-pop, and numerous other basic "American" foods. So, the first time I craved "American" food while I was abroad, my friends and I set out to find one of the few McDonalds in the area. As we were ordering our food off of the full Spanish menu, one word on the list of beverages jumped out at me. It was the word "cerveza," and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Spanish language cerveza means beer. Yup, you read that right, they were serving beer in the McDonalds! Now, being that I had never experienced a McDonalds like this, I instantly became the "Typical American" that Europeans see and low-key hate by freaking out, taking a Snap Chat of the menu, and then taking a selfie with the beer I that ordered.

Once my initial excitement wore off, I began to wonder: Why didn't McDonalds in the U.S. jump on the opportunity to sell beer like Spain had?

It wasn't until I started learning about consumer behavior that I found the answer to my own question. This answer relates to the adaptations, such as legality differences, that a business must make to successfully enter into a new market. The rationale McDonalds used to decide to include beer on the menu in Spain goes further than just the different legality procedures for alcohol between the two countries. In fact, it relates to how beer in Spain is a casual social drink that is consumed at nearly all hours of the day, especially with meals, by majority of the population. In order to become a part of the Spanish culture, without fully losing its brand identity, McDonalds maintained majority of its American menu and then added the beer to accommodate the Spanish social culture.

By experiencing this all first-hand I have become even more interested in the impacts of consumer behavior studies and findings. More specifically I am fascinated by how savvy businesses, such as McDonalds, in the U.S. are able to alter their products accordingly to fit cultures in other locations.

Are You Being Nudged?

Within the past couple weeks I have been reading Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, and today my class dove into and explored the topics that the authors discussed in the book. From my classes exploration I have began to see the ways in which everyone's decisions are swayed in certain directions due to their surroundings. 

Now this isn't to say that we don't actually have real control over our decisions. If you want to recycle that plastic water bottle, because you're saving the Earth one bottle at a time, go on ahead. I just want to make a point as to how the ways you carry out those decisions may in fact be due to a nudge. 

Around the campus of Montana State University there are 4 trash receptacles lined up for students to use along with regular garbage cans. The 4 receptacles each have a specialized lid made only to fit a certain type of trash: paper, plastic, cans, and landfill. It is also not stated anywhere that students are required to use these to separate their trash. 


So from the above information I want to explain the reason I think that students decide to use the 4 specialized receptacles over the regular garbage cans. I know that we all first think the simple, "I'm ecofriendly," response is the explanation, but I would like to argue that it may go deeper than that. 

I think that the true reason is: People follow people, and generally don't want to negatively stand out in a crowd. 

For example, say I was eating a sandwich, that I packed in a plastic bag, and a Redbull, while I was on the way to school. Then when I got to school I was running late and needed to throw my plastic bag and Redbull can away fast. Even though it would take more time and I am running late, I would feel obligated to throw the Redbull in the can receptacle and the plastic bag in the plastic one. The reason I would feel obligated to do so resides in the fact that I wouldn't want to negatively stand out to the students around me by tossing them both in the landfill trashcan. 

This mindset is based on the concept of herd mentality, that Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein discussed in Nudge, depicts that people are easily influenced by those around them. This in turn reveals that the reasons students may be taking extra time to sort out their trash most likely goes deeper than their, "I'm eco-friendly," explanation.