Psychology: The Surprising Reasons We Buy What We Buy | Newsweek Voices - Wray Herbert

Posted By: CentralCalLPHA @ 07/06/2008 12:22:50 AM

Comment: Like another article I read via this site, the message is an important one and a currently relevant one. The bottom line is not readily visible in the introduction of the article which almost had me dismiss the entirety of the article. I believe that the consumer is 100% responsible to critically think through purchases if budget is really tight. However, personal values enter the equation when making meaningful purchases keeping the cost in mind and researching the other choices. Personal values shape one's spending patterns as does other choices in other areas in their life.

Posted By: Roberts1010 @ 07/05/2008 7:21:17 PM

Comment: I agree with kramarclan, I don't like this newsweek site, or the other articles I have tried to read..the damn add keeps taking away from the reading experience so much I find it very irritating..The last article I read I almost sent them a complaing email, maybe some of should try that....that is the most irritating thing to do on a site to interfere with reading their articles, I question their marketing wisdom.....So, I closed the frame to a small size and almost completely got rid of her moving hands...I could still see a small part of the movement, so I put a piece of post card over it and then was able to read the article without the interruption...

Posted By: ZephyrDragon @ 07/02/2008 3:10:36 PM

Comment: I recently had some dental work done and was quite upset at the bill - $200.00, after insurance.
A week later my 12yr old cat became very ill but I had no qualms about laying out an initial $500.00 to the vet.
The bill eventually reached $800.00 after some additional tests and the decision to euthanize my pet
rather than subject her to any more tests or continue to watch her waste away. I would have gladly
spent double that (had it been economically possible for me to do so) to make her well. :-(

And no, I am not looking for another cat!!

Posted By: kramarclan@hotmail.com @ 07/02/2008 10:45:23 AM

Comment: A case in point. I could hardly stand to read this interesting article while that lady was running that white card or whatever up and down her face. In fact, it distracted me so much that I copied and pasted the article to a Word document to calm my soul a bit. She was *still there* but at least she had put her hands down.
What is "most familiar" to each of us, and why?

Posted By: kramarclan@hotmail.com @ 07/02/2008 10:42:54 AM

Comment: A case in point. I could hardly stand to read this interesting article while that lady was running that white card or whatever up and down her face. In fact, it distracted me so much that I copied and pasted the article to a Word document to calm my soul a bit. She was *still there* but at least she had put her hands down.
What is "most familiar" to each of us, and why?

w

Posted By: kramarclan@hotmail.com @ 07/02/2008 10:41:53 AM

Comment: A case in point. I could hardly stand to read this interesting article while that lady was running that white card or whatever up and down her face. In fact, it distracted me so much that I copied and pasted the article to a Word document to calm my soul a bit. She was *still there* but at least she had put her hands down.
What is "most familiar" to each of us, and why?

w

Posted By: hannahsister @ 07/02/2008 6:50:00 AM

Comment: Thanks for an interesting article. It would be interesting, also, to know why some people are "savers" and some are "spenders", and what factors may cause a switch from one type to the other. Apparently, the current generation is heavily "spenders", while previous generations may have been more heavily loaded toward "savers"--or is that true? The question becomes important considering that the decline of the dollar, which means rise of the price of oil, might have been moderated by higher levels of savings in America. Ergo, our 'consumer nation' may be an as yet unrecognized major factor in the 'wrong direction' that troubles so many of us. One obvious answer to why we save so little may be TV commercials. Another factor may be the migration from rural to urban patterns of living. Do many of us use people depicted in TV ads as our models to try to find worth and belonging in the urban culture, by buying what they have? What kinds of values and buffers can set and keep safe spending limits even in the face of a spend, spend society?

Posted By: jon7800 @ 07/01/2008 8:27:21 PM

Comment: Precisely the reason casinos use chips. It's a lot easier to part with 4 green $25 dollar chips than it is 5 crisp 20 dollar bills, or 8 or 12 or 16....etc.

Posted By: HPATB4M @ 07/01/2008 3:44:28 PM

Comment: Great information. But I have no way to apply this to marketing my product to other countries and other cultures. The "economic world" mentioned is much bigger than just the US consuemers.