A Materialized Holiday

Today, there is so much pressure about buying the right gift that parents are setting their children up for disappointment. Children love the aspect of looking through catalogs or online and creating a massive wish list to give to their parents and Santa Claus! By parents giving into these wishes and getting children everything on their wish list, children expect the same thing to happen every year making the holiday season more and more materialistic.

Christmas in Canada has grown to be such a materialistic holiday. Children (for the most part) are solely focused on presents and what will be under the tree on Christmas morning. Adults are more focused on the "giving" part of Christmas and create so much debt over the holidays buying unnecessary presents for the people in their lives. Every individual has a different purchasing behaviour and will respond to the concept of gift giving in different ways, some behaviours will create a positive effects while others will have a negative effect.



After thinking about the holidays and the tradition of gift giving, I asked myself - why do people give gifts in the first place? More importantly, how does gift giving drive my consumer behavior? For many, gift giving expresses a sense of gratitude but parents are going overboard with gifts that presents become the focal point of the holidays.

Another aspect that contributes to the materialistic aspect of Christmas and gift giving is advertisements. Whether it be on TV, the newspaper, the radio or magazines, advertising is telling people what they need to buy and influencing their purchasing behavior. Every year, there tends to be one toy that every child must have. This sense of need is created by advertising and these advertisement affect both children and adults by creating the perception that a particular toy is so important and must be found under the Christmas tree.  I remember when the Tickle-Me Elmo was the must have gift of the season and parents would do absolutely anything to get their hands on this gift so that their children were not disappointed on Christmas. This gift was meant for young children so the advertisement was aimed at the parents. Through proper advertising techniques, parents believed that they had to get this toy for their child or else would feel a sense of disappointment. I know that still to this day, the method and timing of an advertisement can greatly influence my decision or desire to purchase a product.

In my opinion, parents need to start teaching their children the main meaning of Christmas and demonstrate that it is not all about the presents under the tree. Yes sure, gift giving has become a very large part of the holiday season but consumer behaviour is driving this need to buy and give gifts. Today's young generation doesn't seem to care about anything other than gifts and have become increasingly greedy. As good as it may feel to be able to give these gifts during the holidays, families need to teach children that gifts are not everything if we want to keep the roots of the holiday season grounded in society.

Should Price Influence Everything?

For the majority of my life, I have always been an Apple user. Mac computers have always been my automatic go to when purchasing a laptop or essentially any computer. When my MacBook Pro died after five years, I couldn't afford another one at the time so I chose to buy a PC instead. Everyone told me it would be fine and that I would save a lot of money but in reality, I knew I still wanted another MacBook.


Despite my gut feeling, I bought a PC because it was half the price of and still had all the programs I needed for school. As I began to maneuver through Windows 8, I tried to convince myself that this new computer was best for me and was all I needed. After a mere year and half, the hard drive and motherboard stopped working. Since the warranty was up, I could either pay to have it fixed or once again, purchase a new computer. This is where the components of individual decision making come into play.

Considering the importance of purchasing a new computer, I had to decipher whether or not it was worth getting my old one fixed or if a new computer would satisfy my needs. Due to the cost of purchasing a new MacBook Pro, extended problem solving was needed to make the purchase. Unlike going to the store to buy milk and eggs that are a routine purchase, I had only ever bough two other computers in my lifetime and needed to ultimately weigh all my options.

The next day, I went to a Future Shop where I could compare both a PC and a MacBook side by side to look at the difference and decide whether or not I really needed a new computer or if it was simply an excuse to buy a MacBook instead. I also needed to figure out how much exactly it would cost to have my old computer repaired to throw it into the mix of options. At this point, I had to decide whether I wanted to get another PC, go back to a MacBook or have my old PC repaired.

I quickly learnt that I could buy a new PC for cheaper than I could get my old one repaired so I was able to eliminate that option. For a few days after, I weaved between my two viable options trying to persuade myself that buying another MacBook was worth the cost. Because I had recognized a clear problem from the beginning and also realized that I was seriously leaning to one side, I forced myself to really think about this purchase, because at this point in my life, it is a big purchase.

Through a combination of internal and external searching, I finally landed on the decision I should have made a year and a half earlier. The question is - why couldn't I have simply Just done this earlier and saved myself the money that i saw as "down the drain"? Looking back on this, I did not realize the subconscious level of research I did or why I did it. The more and more I think about it I realize I put sao much time and effort into the decision purchase because its was sucha huge and important purchase for me at the time. There could have been even more in depth research if this purchase was even double the price but I know what I need to do in order to satisfy my consumer needs and purchasing behavior.

When you are shopping for a major purchase, do you let the cost of the item make your decision for you?

 

From now on, for major purchases, I will make sure I use an extended problem solving technique weighing all components as opposed to simply buying the cheaper option because cheaper isn't necessarily better! When there is something that you really want, it might be worth spending a little extra to make sure you are satisfied with your purchase!!