Читать книгу Secrets of Advertising to Gen Y Consumers - Aiden Livingston - Страница 17

Gen Y doesn’t find the process of researching products tedious or exhausting, in fact, I think we can’t help but be this way. I have made snap decisions before when I was at a shop and I felt pressured to buy a product immediately by either a one-day sale, or perhaps it was the last in stock. However, the first thing I do when I get home is begin my normal research process, even after I have already made my purchase, just to make sure it was a good decision. More to the point, I want to make sure it was the “best” decision. For example, I recently bought a digital camera to replace the one that had been stolen on my travels. I had not yet done any research but I was in the mall and the siren’s call of the display Guitar Hero video game was beckoning me in to Best Buy. After a rousing round of “Free Bird,” I decided to take a gander at thecameras.

Now I had been quite happy with my previous camera and had it not been for a sticky-fingered thief, I would have been more than content to use it for another year or so. However, since I was going to have to make a new purchase, why not try to find something even better, and a super slim Casio seemed to be the perfect candidate. As luck would have it, the camera was on sale and it was the last one in the manly black finish. Were I not to buy it now I could be stuck with the red model, which bordered too closely to pink for my taste. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I could purchase this camera that seemingly filled all my purposes, or I could go home and research it to make sure it was the best choice and potentially go back to the store later only to be stuck with the camera color that would test the security of my masculinity. The prospect of being stuck with a fuchsia-colored camera proved too terrifying to risk, so I bought the last black one.

The first thing I did when I got home was consult the online reviews and guides. I was gutted by what I discovered. Although the camera fit all my needs, and the highly reduced price made it a compelling deal, it was not, in fact, the “best” camera I could have bought. Perhaps most insulting was that it was not quite as good as the camera it was replacing. I still find myself looking at pictures that were taken by my old camera with a certain longing that one usually reserves for lost loves. Even though the camera adequately filled all my purposes, which are pretty minimal, I still had buyer’s remorse because I could have bought an even better camera had I taken the time to research ahead of time like I normally would.

Gen Y consumers view information gathering and analyzing as an essential part of the purchasing process.