Marketing Professor Anne Hamby of the Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University is an expert on consumer behavior. Recently, she participated in a video interview about the holiday shopping season.
Marketing Professor Anne Hamby of the Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University is an expert on consumer behavior. Recently, she participated in a video interview about the holiday shopping season.
I could not agree more with the fact that holiday shopping is now very competition based at every level. For consumers its all about getting the best bang for their buck, they an all the stores are in competition to offer them a better deal to attack them to their store. Its also a competition between people receiving the gifts as they post everything on social media and the competition here is between who can get more likes. Overall the gift giving in recent years has increased tremendously and this has helped company profit more off to consumers expanding needs and wants.
I noticed this update on LinkedIn of our school’s official account during the halloween vacation. I think on the side of brands, consumers will be initiative in purchasing through product providers study and apply consumer behavior when perform marketing strategy.
I agree with her opinion that adding different stories or values to a product can be a really good marketing strategy when promoting the gift deal. Every time holiday season comes, different venders will use promotion strategy to attract consumer to buy it. For example, for Mother’s day, the promotion story will be bring warmness to your mom if vender want to sell some winter stuffs.
One good point that Professor Anne mentioned in her interview is ” story telling” behind the brands. ” Storytelling” is one of the main components of a content marketing approach.This concept made me rethink one of Dr. Evan’s blogs “What is the state of global fashion?”. I wrote some of the luxury brands in my comment under that blog talked about what should fashion brands( especially luxury ones) do under the unpleasant global economic environment. Now I’ve got more insights. As Professor Anne taught us in her consumer behavior class, “a brand is a matter of perception”. To enhance consumer’s perception to your brand, you can give your products and services an identity by capturing and sharing the stories they really are, you can also take your target audience on a journey they yearn to experience. Moreover, in order for consumers to form a personal connection with your brand, company stories must be authentic, creative and inspirational.
When Professor Hamby mentioned the notion that telling a story of the product gives a product more value, I completely agree. It is interesting to notice how simply a story can make a product more valuable in the eyes of a consumer, but it is a great strategy that marketers can use when trying to sell products. For example, comic book stores can tell the significance of a special edition comic by telling the story of its origins or emphasizing its importance to the comic book community, ultimately placing more value on the product.
I laughed a little when Prof. Hamby called holiday shopping a “competitive sport.” It’s the truth. Consumers are competing against each other for the goods and companies are competing against each other for sales.
For me personally, I’ll save up before the holiday shopping season begins so that I can take my time and find gifts for everywhere. And I plan out my shopping. I’ll buy certain things on Black Friday (some small brands will only have the big discounts on Black Friday/Cyber Monday vs. Macy’s that will have deals until Christmas). The rest of my shopping will be done over time at the bigger stores. I have fun with it but it can also stress me out a bit. So much stress is put on getting someone a good gift. There are so many people in my life that I want to get a good gift for. I always want to but my emotions into it. I think during this season I’m more pressured to find gifts for everyone, the discounts are just an extra.
Professor Hamby made a very good point on how gifts represent in our relationship with others, especially in the holiday season, everyone is struggling to get the perfect gifts for family and friends. Every year at this time, like Professor Hamby said in the interview, a “competitive sport” took place not only among consumers but also marketers. Marketers are increasingly creative on marketing strategies in order to interest consumers. Consumers who looking for a perfect gift will not only satisfy on getting good deals, they also want a meaningful and special present. I am so interested in the term “narrative persuasion”, a strategy that adds stories into gifts and makes a gift meaningful.
It is so interesting that simply attaching a story to a product can increase the perceived value of that product. It makes realize why I am willing to pay a higher price to the Noosa yogurt. Not just because it has a very good taste, but also it presents a lovely story with a cute animal picture on its lid to tell me its yogurt is craft from a supper-secret Aussie recipe, with milk from happy cows raised on a family-owned Colorado farm, which makes me feel happy too! This finding is very useful and can be a powerful marketing tool to make one product stand out.
At the point when Professor Hamby specified the thought that recounting an account of the item gives an item more esteem, I totally concur. It is fascinating to notice how just a story can make an item more profitable according to a customer, however it is an incredible system that advertisers can utilize when attempting to offer items. Marketers use extensive strategies to make you think it’s the “perfect” gift and in essence our satisfying our needs!
As someone who is currently on the look-out for gifts for my friends and family members, I agree heavily with many of the points made by Professor Hamby. For instance, there is a clear difference between the kinds of products I would give to my parents than I would give to one of my close friends. This is due to the fact that, as stated in the video, the products given usually represent the relationship in some way. For a parent, the type of gifts I would think of giving is one that makes life easier for them or are aesthetically pleasing around the house, such as a mug or candles. Gifts for friends are usually more personal and symbolic, however, and I agree that attaching a story or memory to the gift only aids in increasing the value of the gift.
The gift marketing behavior is not only about marketing, but also concerns many other subjects such psychology. The gift giving behavior is very complex and relates to many other variables and behaviors. How to modeling this complex system is a big problem for many researchers. However, human is not just math. Even though we have many mature modeling techniques. it’s still very hard to measures one’s ideas and mental activities.
For a product to succeed in the 21st century, the company must look well beyond the physical nature of the product. Consumers are very emotional and seek a product that conveys the right emotion or message. So, during this Christmas season, companies are going to give a warm and cozy message of products to relate to the coldness of the snow and winter. However, during Valentines Day, a company will convey the ability to make the love of interest happy. A message is invaluable to the marketing of potential gifts, regardless of the season.
Personally, I am often influenced by recommendations from the media or certain bloggers or Youtubers on the choices of gifts. It’s a kind of imitation behavior that human beings have developed for ages. On the other hand, it has become a norm to give gifts on holidays. Therefore, people are used to exchange gifts on holidays on certain choices like gloves, beauty products or cashmere scarves.
Consumer behavior is so different. In China, from my observation, gift giving behavior is going down and people prefer give money instead of gifts. The reason behind this is because it is always not easy to pick a perfect gift. Also it is not easy to price match when you received a gift and it is your turn to give gift. So in China, they prefer easiest way to give money instead of give gift. On the contrary, in America, giving gift behavior is used in marketing strategy. Gift giving behavior is more popular in America. As a matter of fact, the Black Friday is created because of the gift giving culture.
I found it very interesting when Professor Hamby stated that when a company attaches a story to a product it adds to the product’s value. I’ve never realized this was the case. Back to the previous blog post, Patagonia did just that with their Black Friday sales. Since they were going to give 100 percent of their sales directly to grassroots nonprofits, consumers were willing to pay the price with a smile. Even if the consumers believed the items was priced highly, they were still willing to pay the amount because of the story behind it.
Last semester, I had the class consumer behavior. Professor Anne is so good and I learn a lot from that course. I highly agree that the point that consumers are very emotional and make a purchase decision with the product that conveys the right emotion message. When customers want to select the gifts for their friends or family, they are not rational to make decisions. Since the giving gift is an emotion connection, they will be more emotion preference when choosing the gift. While, in my home country China, it is totally different. People prefer to give money instead of giving the gift. Sometimes, the amount of the money means how much the giver care about the receiver and a way to measure love.
The idea of telling a story is something I completely agree with. By telling a story with a gift people feel as if it is more personal and are more inclined to pay more for it. The idea that something has a new meaning behind it other than it being something you just thought the person would like does more for the consumer. For example, I’m buying my stepdad a moose mug because it’s part of his favorite christmas movie. And that was the first christmas movie he watched with me and my family. I’m willing to go out of my way and pay a little more for this because there is a story behind it.
Attaching stories to products is a good marketing strategy to increase the values of the products. Many companies apply it in their commercials. For example, Chipotle’s commercial shows the story to audiences about where they get their ingredients.The story shows that all their ingredients are from the organic farm. After watching this commercial, consumers might be willing to pay more money for Chipotle’s foods because the foods in Chipotle seem much healthier than other restaurants.
Professor Hamby’s theories here are spot on. Linking people’s emotions with corresponding stories is a brilliant marketing tactic. This is commonly utilized by many different firms for many different occasions. For example, advertising stories are typically seasonal and relative to upcoming holidays and events. Considering that gift giving involves peoples emotions, it is therefore important that businesses are able to play a part in enhancing the gift of giving for the consumers. It is also smart in regards to generating revenue because people are more inclined to purchase items that have a sentimental appeal, even if the product is pricey.
I never really thought of it like that but holiday gift giving has turned into a competition! You always feel the need or pressure to buy the perfect gift for your loved one’s (great marketing trick). I do agree with Professor Hamby that when you’re giving a gift it tells a story!
I took Professor Hamby’s Consumer Behavior class the first semester, where I obtained abundant knowledge. I highly agree with Pr. Hamby’s view. Taking advantage of holidays to launch some promotion campaigns is useful and effective because marketers can link consumers’ emotions to the the stories corresponding to the atmosphere of holidays.
Consumers are driving by emotion, so if marketers attach a story to the product, it will increase the perceived value to the product, and then increase customers’ willingness to pay. It reminds me of an advertising of Godiva in 2015, called”It’s more than just chocolate,” Godiva tries to convey an emotional message to customers about love, share and thankful to the family by telling a story that a little girl redesign the Godiva as a sweet gift for her parents in Christmas.It’s full of warm and appeals audience to celebrate the Christmas with our loved ones by giving them handmade presents (Godiva). Also, the texts in the ad are also impressive.Like” It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” “It isn’t the size of the gift that matters but the size of the heart that gives it” and “May no gift be too small to give, not too simple to receive, which is wrapped in thoughtfulness, and tied with love.”All the sentences are meaningful and thought-provoking. The gift can be treated as the expression of the mind; the intention is the most precious than the gift itself. So I think if the product with a heart-touching story, consumers would like to be more willing to buy it.
I am totally agree with the professor Hamby. In nowadays society people become more smart on gift giving. Using lots of deals info to decide buying a really expensive gift for someone important to him/her in a really good deal. In the gift giving process, it also involved psychology. Attaching a story to a certain product can really change the way people perceive the value.
I do believe that throughout the years gift giving has become exaggerated. It’s more about what a person wants/likes and at what cost you can get it in order for them to be happy. We tailor so many different gifts to the people in our lives that it becomes a constant battle for competing businesses. These businesses usually create deals for consumes in order to attract as many sales as possible. This (discounted products) is also a big factor in what we choose to buy.
One thing that struck me the most about what she said was that when you attach a story to a product, a consumer is willing to pay more for it. For my closest friends, I often buy things that when they will look at this gift they will think about me and a memory we shared together. If I personally see a product in a store and it makes me think about a memory I have with someone, the chances are high that I will buy it. Having a story is one of the biggest factors for me when buying a gift and I will definitely pay more for something that has history, whether that is a personal memory for me or has its own story behind it.
I agree with Professor Hamby mentioned. Being an avid shopper is a competitive sport because people always want the best they can get for the cheapest possible price and will do anything to get it. Waiting in long lines for hours on end and fighting with other shoppers, to name a few. Everything is about competition because everyone wants the same thing and especially when it is in style. I recently bought Adidas Superstar shoes and it was easily one of the hardest things I had to do; I couldn’t find them anywhere. By the time I found them, they were barely in style anymore, which at the time was annoying but now I find it funny.
I think society as definitely made holiday shopping a sport and almost a competitive ritual. You always want to get the right gifts for the right people but companies and businesses know this and I felt that this year more than others, more and more gifts were on sale and not just 20% off up to 50% off without the enormous amount of coupons. Businesses know that we consumers want to give and they’re trying to make it as easy as possible for us to spend our money. Hamby’s point that attaching a story to an object is also very interesting.i completely agree that even I would be willing to pay more if there was an intriguing story behind a product I was about to purchase. Maybe this is also why people spend so much more money and buy so many more products while they’re away on vacation because that purchase will remind them where thy were and with whom they were with int hat special memory.