How I Made an Unnecessary Purchase?

Modern Consumerism

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

In this digital era, information has become available, and marketers have attracted more people than ever. And last week, I fell into such a market campaign trap. Of course, the marketer should not be blamed for my purchase. However, as a student from a business background, I have some insight and tricks going on marketer's mind. from my marketing 101 course, I remember one quote particularly which Peter Drucker said

"The aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary."

So, I think the marketer responsible for the ad campaign and the retailer from whom I made the purchase had achieved his goal. Let's not talk about how genius the marketer was and start talking about how my experience went and I made an unimportant purchase.

Day 1:

Day1 is the day I witnessed the flayer, and it caught my attention right away. Initially, it wasn't my plan to go with the promotion and stick to my old gadget. However, the promotion was two-fold - one was I could trade in my old gadget for a considerable ( compared to the age of the gadget) amount of cash discount, and second was the new device I was going to trade in with was also on discount. Thus, I was getting two discounts on a device.

I would not like to brand myself as a shopaholic, but I am an information-holic. And, maybe that's why the experience was excruciating for me. After a brief analysis, I went to the retailer and presented my old gadget for inspection. My device was like a brand new one as I always take care of my devices as much as possible. But the inspector rejected my device because the charger was not from the manufacturer stating other factors are well suited for the promotion. As I have said earlier, I am information-holic, I investigated all the pages of flayers and read their terms and conditions several times. I did not find a single clause regarding such dismissal. Furthermore, there was a shortage of stocks.

The refusal made me furious. I tried to make sense to the inspector of such irrationality as there are no clauses regarding it. But he was adamant on his view and continued to hold firm his previous position. I left the store furious. And, Because of such interaction, somehow, my desire to hold on to the device became firm.

Day 3:

On day 3, I tried to revaluate my position but was unable to do so. I further investigated the clauses and came back to my original notion where there are no such clauses.

However, the rage was still inside me. I tried to determine whether it would be a good idea to make the purchase to clear my thoughts. But my old device was very much aged. It was almost 6 to 7 years old. No matter from which perspective I tried to evaluate, the pros outweigh the cons. I tried to follow the three C techniques - Consumption, Creativity, Communication. Whether the new device would enhance my consumption or creativity, or communication. It passed the first and third tests. So, the result was 2 for 1.

After much inner conflict, I planned to go to another retail center and got assessed my device. And, I went to another retail store and checked my device for trade-in. The supervisor accepted my device this time, but I think my fate was not in my favor. The device I wanted to purchase was stocked out. This increased my want for this materialistic good by ten folds.

Day 4:

At this point, I was raged because my device was declared untradeable on the first day and craving for a new device when I heard my notion was, indeed, correct, and I could trade in my old device but could not complete my transaction because it was out of stock.

I didn't know why but I was really really upset for not making a purchase. I did not know because initially, I was not so much focused on buying a new device. At first, I thought let's try, but at day 4, I thought I must have this. I was thinking so much about the gadget that I constantly checked the vendor's website. I remember that I had 4hours of sleep that night. I watched almost 20 YouTube videos to find something that might induce me not to buy this device and reject my choice.

Day 6:

Only 1 day left of the promotion. If they haven't stock that day, I would be unable to avail such promotion. From the morning, I was checking the vendor's website. And out of the blue in the noon, I saw some new stock have been added to some stores very far away from my location. As you have already understood by now, nothing could stop me from going there.

So, I went there at noon, and by that time, the availability decreased to limited availability. It was frustrating. For some reason, devices are selling like hotcakes. After going there, I gave my old gadget for checking, and after an hour of intense check up the new supervisor approved my trade-in. And for another hour, I finally got my new device on my hand and completed my purchase.

So, this is my last week's story. I may have exaggerated by saying that I had experienced an excruciating event last week. But It was really a bad experience for me. being a subject of modern marketing It felt terrible. However, last week I have also finished the book "The Art of Thinking Clearly" by Rolf Dobelli. And, from the book I pointed out I have been suffering from the following biases and errors:

1. Illusion Control

2. Paradox of Choice

3. Endowment Effect

4. Scarcity Error

5. Action bias

A further visit to this story will arrive next week stating how these errors and biases have affected me.