Why We Shop? It is Different from Why we Buy?
Sometimes when evaluating consumer behavior companies fail to distinguish the separate activities of shopping, buying, and consuming. But in the field of consumer behavior it is well recognized that by the vary nature of them being three separate activities that there are actually different motivations behind each of them. Not only are they separate activities, but, activities which can be performed at different times. They can be performed individually, together at one moment in time, or separated by days, weeks, or even months or years.
People shop for Personal and Social Reasons
People shop for personal and social reasons often times having nothing to do with the product itself. This is the conclusion that Edward M. Tauber, a professor of marketing in the School of Business at USC, reached in the early 1970's. He concluded in his study that the most obvious answer for why people shop, "because they need to purchase something",the most simple of assumptions, "can be a most deceptive one". He states that this conclusion "reflects a marketing myopia", a "product orientation", not a customer-centric orientation. It simply concludes that the shopping motive is a simple function of the buying process. This explanation provides an only partial, insufficient basis for behavioural explanations for why we shop. We have all "window shopped" at some point.
Are Tauber's Conclusions still valid today in a society gone digital?
Setting out to test Tauber's earlier conclusions, Little & Company, a digital agency conducted there own study in 2012. The objective of this study was to determine if Tauber's conclusions were still valid in a society gone digital, were consumers sometimes research products, compare products, read an expert review, and buy a product in a single sitting.
They determined that while many of the base motivations from Tauber's study still held, that the expectations of how those motivations were met had changed somewhat dramatically.
Expanding on Tauber's work, they determined that there were at least six different personas:
Inspiration Seekers
Shopping Socialites
Treasure Hunters
Brand Worshippers
Pampered Guests
Self-Expessionists
defining Why do People Shop? As a shopper, you will generally fall into at least one of these personae. However, that is not to say that you won't find one or more of these personae to hold true depending upon the industry or category in question.
In future posts, I'll be looking at how different brands target the wants and needs of these specific personas.