Whenever you are out there looking for tips on how to buy a product over another you sometimes catch yourself aiming for the more expensive product. But what exactly tells you that this product is better than the cheaper one if not the subconscious revealing what was there previously recorded? Subconscious is that level of conscious that keeps experiences, perceptions, memories and feelings in its drawers and when the time has come it simply take them out to the surface. The right time in our case is represented by the moment when you reach to buy a specific product over another.

In this situation your hand involuntarily goes to grab a detergent which is more expensive than another brand simply because the power of subconscious has recognized this product from a specific commercial. This is a reaction that many marketers and advertisers rely on when making those commercials or placing their advertising all over the mass media and internet venues.

Most of the times the ‘how to buy’ behavior lies in its actions and decisions on this side of our consciousness. As much as you would want to deny this subtle manipulation you are subject to, this fact can not be scientifically and psychologically denied. You are willing to say that you are not manipulated by your subconscious because this one acts with such a speed that your conscious mind doesn’t even see it coming.

It simply denies any interference because you think that it was actually your consciousness to control your ‘how to buy’ behavior and nothing else. You have chosen that expensive product because you know that it is more efficient than the cheaper one. But what if it is the first time that you buy a more expensive product over a cheaper one, none of them being tested before?

In this case you will be tempted to say that the expensive product must be good and of a higher quality otherwise it wouldn’t be that expensive for nothing. But many of these products can be expensive for other reasons as well: for being manufactured by a famous brand, others because they contain rare ingredients and so on.

But as bottom line of this article, you should know that most of the decisions that we make when manifesting our ‘how to buy’ behavior are dictated by the power of subconscious whether we like to admit it or not.

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• The Subconscious power

Issues

Consumption is one of the basic forms of everyday life. The development of modern society has conditioned a heavily loaded environment of objects, signs and interactions based on market exchanges. The production of manufactured goods increased inflationary manner and services continue to grow and diversify. In this phenomenon, coupled accelerating the renewal of the available supply. Faced with this complex, market players, analysts and practitioners looking for landmarks as the stakes are high for both marketing practitioners and for consumer organizations. The first wish to influence the market while the latter hope to establish a power-cons. Companies must ensure their economic sustainability, but it can not be achieved without a thorough reflection on ethics. If one accepts that the study of the consumer and the buyer is able to provide companies a framework capable of increasing their economic performance, the same analytical framework is usable by advocacy organizations consumers to address certain abuses.

In practice, it is necessary to develop different readings to appreciate nuances in sufficient diversity and specific purchasing behavior and consumption.

The characterization of the behavior studied

To make it more effective analysis of consumer behavior or the buyer is essential to be able to better contextualize the first approach, or specify the behavior. In this sense, we can first analyze:
- The form of trade
- The characteristics of supply
- The situation in which the behavior unfolds

The study of purchase behavior can be relevant if one ignores the nature of the relationship and the form of trade. Some exchanges are transactional and punctuated in time, while others are more relational and unfold over time. Moreover, some exchanges are formally contracting, others are not. Decision-making and generally the whole buying process are affected. If firms, for an obvious concern loyalty, tend to move towards a relational marketing, they should also put into perspective a model for analyzing consumer behavior and buyer adapted to the shape of the relationship .

The purchase or consumption behavior is an activity that allows an object: the commercial offer. Normative manner, it is composed of products and services. Among the products, there are usually sustainable products consumables. The product is tangible, and the service is not. The coffee machine is undoubtedly a sustainable product, the baguette, a consumer and a haircut, a delivery service. Beyond the few pure types, there quickly that this classification is simplistic. The commercial offer is often complex because it combines both products and services intangible. Regardless of the types used, the analysis of consumer behavior and buyer needs to qualify the offer in detail. Depending on the nature of the offer, its characteristics, the purchaser or consumer mobilizes different skills and encourages more or less resources in the purchase or use. In this sense, it is useful to clarify the nature of the offer by distinguishing characteristics (components of the product, technical core of the service, etc..), The characteristics associated (brand image, packaging, etc.). which are the domain of the company, use and characteristics derived (perceptions and representations), which are the domain of the consumer.

Finally, the situation is a parameter that characterizes the permanent activity of the individual. At any time it is exposed to many stimuli. On the point of sale, the buyer is driven by the business environment; front of the television, consumers are regularly exposed to advertising stimuli. In everyday life, the individual is the center of a diverse network of relationships that is explicitly the source of information, such as when consumers share the benefits and disadvantages of products they buy or implicitly, when the individual observes other dogs in their behaviors, lifestyles and consumer choices. The situation is similar for the consumer who is struggling with a manual to operate a device or get a benefit from a vending machine somewhat complex. Under these conditions a better account of the situation that develops the behavior studied can only improve the analysis.

The different levels of reading

Actors

The first level of play for the actors. It is essential to be able to describe the individuals involved in purchasing behavior or consumption activity. From this perspective, it is first to describe the socio-cultural environment in which the individual is inserted. The cultural, social and family are sources of influence that can not be neglected. The individual builds his life trajectory from a legacy constantly updated, which we will call social and cultural assets and at least partially determines its values, lifestyle and consequently some of his choices consumption. Depending on its position on its path of life, the individual may be called from many socio-demographic variables such as its socio-economic group, its position in the family life cycle. In describing the actors on the basis of their current situation, we are also able to assess their resources. These are not limited to financial resources and also include time as well as various psychological resources. Finally, this will detail the influence of psychosocial mechanisms, to understand how participation in social groups affects preferences or choices of consumption.

This first level of play allows players to place socially, to understand their logic of consumption and their major budgetary decisions. If such tests are comprehensive in nature, above all, they also offer the possibility of qualifying players according to the behaviors they develop, they assume roles or skills they mobilize. They are in fact the foundation of any approach to segmentation is now indispensable for understanding the purchasing behavior and consumption.

The skills of the players

The second level relates to the reading skills of the players. It allows you to put into perspective the process information which directly or indirectly in the decision-making. Individuals draw information in their environment and to do so, they mobilize the perceptual processes through which the extracted information and become intelligible and may be interpreted to be the basis for the decision or assessment. We can then better appreciate how the ads are run and in general all business information used by the individual (packaging, word of mouth, etc.). And so explain the discrepancies between the message that company intends to broadcast and what is actually understood by the recipient. When the information is interpreted, they can optionally be stored to be used later. Understanding these mechanisms is especially important to identify the impact of different strategies of advertising exposure, but also to assess how information is structured in memory. According to the organization of knowledge in memory, information is more or less easily exploited and can affect the process of decision making. Finally, it will be necessary to detail the process of decision making, since the mechanisms used to the dynamic motivational in a debate. These mechanisms are very diverse and are sometimes affected through significant. The advantage of this approach is to understand the formation of the decision, the ability of supply to meet the motivations of the buyer or the consumer but also how to exploit the information in the decision process. A quality investigation on these points can first assess the weight of the supply characteristics in decision-making, adapting or segment accordingly. It also helps manage the information to be made available to stakeholders and to organize the presentation of arguments in order to facilitate and guide the evaluation or decision making.

The final level of reading is to understand the behavior of reference. It will be necessary to distinguish between buying behavior and consumption and to situate the decision unit. In addition, it will extend the analysis to the notion of access to supply is a prerequisite to purchasing behavior and the notion of satisfaction resulting from a consumption experience or purchase. The distinction between purchasing behavior and consumption is crucial because the individual do not necessarily mean two roles. The individual may for example be the consumer of the product, without having participated in the process of decision making. This distinction is not purely formal. Indeed according to the role assumed by the individual, it will have to mobilize resources and different skills. The buyer must manage access to the offer but also the actual buying behavior, ie the transaction. It is not necessarily responsible for the decision and, in this case, the deliberation on the choice of a product or brand does not concern him. However, it must have the skills and resources that enable it to select and identify a point of sale program to access and adapt to the commercial interface. The consumer is itself facing a different problem. It must for example have the skills to use the product or operating instructions for use, but also assess how the offer meets their needs and brings satisfaction. Such cases highlight the need to clearly define the behaviors that are of interest, to appreciate the specificities to identify skills that must be mobilized. This allows to reason indirectly how to structure the business relationship and be able to amend it.

The players and their qualification

The first level of reading, based on the qualifications of the actors, is to address comprehensively the logic of consumption. The concept of active socio-cultural in that allows to assess the consistency of the trajectory of life of the individual, but also how organized lifestyle. This relative inertia should not obscure the fact that consumption practices tend to diversify. Bernard Dubois and rightly speaks of consumers “chameleon” who are developing radically different behaviors depending on the situation in which they are located. In other words, the consumer may, for example visiting a fast food on occasion, focus occasionally a large table, while enjoying the traditional cuisine with meals home. If there has been a decline in the explanatory power of traditional socio-demographic variables, they can however be neglected. They still offer at present a reading grid which reveals many interesting differences in consumer choices, particularly explained by income level. In practice, the real question is not to question the relevance of socio-demographic variables in describing the purchasing behavior. Rather, what are the variables or combinations of variables that are most able to explain purchasing behavior or consumption in a given situation. If for certain professional category is a relevant variable, for others the situation in the family life cycle, ethnicity or cultural heritage will be better indicators to assess the differences in consumption. In addition to the ability of variables involved in the definition of assets to explain some socio-cultural differences in consumption practices, it is also necessary to analyze a dynamic social environment to understand its impact on choices consumption and their role in building the identity of the individual

The skills of the players

The issues associated with the analysis skills of the players are different and more directly involved in the implementation of operational marketing activities. Taking into account the process of perception can definitely improve the quality of corporate communication. This covers areas as diverse as advertising and promotional activities, design of packaging, marking points of sale, catalog design distance selling or setting up websites. In the background, it is to accept the idea that information available is not necessarily perceived and understood even less. The issues associated with the memory and knowledge acquisition strategies relate more exposure in the implementation of communication activities, as well as the contents of messages. If certain forms of knowledge acquisition are passive in nature and can not easily be optimized, while others may be. From this perspective, a better understanding of how knowledge acquisition and organization in memory is crucial to provide the necessary information to stakeholders in decision-making and the use of the product or service. Finally understanding the decision process allows a segmentation of the expectations and consequently a more refined of the commercial offer. In addition, the analysis of the deliberative activity can also manage a sales pitch, taking into account the cognitive biases and emotional factors that affect the decision process.

Behavior

The last reading level devoted to the analysis of purchasing behavior and consumption helps to contextualize the behavioral activity and its consequences. The acquisition of a product is not mechanically determined by the purchasing decision. Before that, the individual must go to the offer. But this phase is likely to affect the outcome of the buying decision. An available supply is not necessarily an accessible and offers accessible is not necessarily in good conditions. By analyzing the conditions of accessibility, the company has the opportunity to possibly access. The analysis of consumer behavior is the same logic. Indeed, it is necessary to place temporally by the decision on the purchase itself, but also to understand the situational or environmental conditions that may affect the completion of the transaction. The activity of consumption must also be specified with sufficient nuances. Consumption may be a response to a purely functional needs, but it can also be characterized from the experience behavioral, intellectual or emotional it provides. The consumption activity, whatever its form, necessarily gives rise to a response in terms of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. To the extent that it is likely to affect the reiteration of buying behavior, it is legitimate that the company gives it an important priority. In general, the detailed analysis of behaviors involved in the consumption activity or purchase can differentiate the roles of actors and therefore the skills or resources they incur.

Conclusions

The analysis of purchasing behavior and consumption is complex. The points discussed in this book underscore the importance of developing investigations in all shades. This requires accepting the existence of different levels of interpretation: the qualification of players, they develop specific behaviors and skills necessary for their implementation. Each responds to different challenges, both in regard to the study of consumer behavior in regard to the implementation of operational marketing activities.

Irrespective of the operational issues underlying the study of consumer behavior and buyer, many questions loom about the future of the consumer society, ethics, business practices and the weight of political decisions on the structuring markets. In counterpoint, the question of the identity of the individual mirror consumption foreshadows an upheaval of the field investigations. These questions could ultimately see the study of consumer behavior and buyer to operate on new frontiers of research at the margin of economic anthropology.

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• purchase behavior guide

While public schools are subsidized by the state, private schools receive their funding through tuition, donations, private grants, and fund raising events.  Thus, private schools are cheaper than you think.

According to the Cato Institute, “Statistics from the Education Department show that the average private elementary school tuition in America is less than $2,500.  The average tuition for all private schools, elementary and secondary, is $3,116 or less than half of the cost per pupil in the average public school, $6,857.”

Although there are private schools that cost more than usual, this is restricted to the most well-known schools.  For example, in one state, a highly acclaimed private school can cost as much as $13,000 a year – but this is the exception.  Private schools around the country may average between $2,300 and $3,500.

In fact, most families can send their kids to private school for about $2,000 a year or less.  The Cato Institute’s research reveals that, “The average private school cost is significantly less than the amount spent for each student in public schools.  A voucher or tax credit worth the same amount spent per student in public schools would easily give parents access to the bulk of private schools available in their communities.  With more parents able to afford private schools, new schools would open to accommodate the increased number of students.”

One example is in the state of Florida, where there have been over 350 new private schools built to accommodate students utilizing several programs offering programs to make it even more affordable to attend.  In Milwaukee and other states, there has been an influx of private donations to offset the cost of attending private schools.

Surveys have indicated that in those states that offer programs allowing for school choice, private schools offer an alternative to the public school system which, as we know, has not produced significant test scores over the last several years.

This, above all, has been the catalyst that has driven more students to private schools than ever before.  The general consensus is that most public schools which are subsidized by Federal and State governments have not produced the kind of results that were anticipated through the “No Child Left Behind” Program.

Therefore, families do have a choice to send their children to private schools using vouchers or other programs that would afford their children a quality education.  Since this is the foundation upon which families choose the best available school in their state, private schools offer a higher quality of education that is both affordable and accessible.

answer:
Frankly, endowment policies are hardly the answer for anyone. The big sell will have you believe that they are great for education planning (it’s that “forced savings” sales talk again), but be wary. Remember that an endowment is simply an ordinary life insurance policy that you pay off in a fixed period, usually 15 or 20 years. Even if you start a 20-year endowment when the first squall comes from the cradle, you won’t have cash-in-hand at the start of college. It’s an expensive way to save, too, because interest rates are among the lowest there are, and premiums are comparatively high. Endowment policies also give scanty life insurance protection.

If you still resort to insurance “forced savings”, it makes sense to add an “endorsement” to your policy for a small additional charge. Then, if you die or become too disabled to work, the cash value won’t be lost. You won’t have to pay any more premiums, but your beneficiary will still collect when the policy comes due.

answer:
You are lucky to have this kind of choice, and wise to consider both of these schools. Many parents forget that state and city colleges, supported by their own tax money, offer good educational facilities. In fact, some of the tax-supported institutions are superior, ranking among the finest in the land. Yet their tuition is generally reasonable for residents of the state or city in which they are located. A few of these colleges are even free.

Your own decision, of course, must depend both on your finances and on your daughter’s personality and desires. If your child can. and will, stay at home while attending a nearby college, so much the better for your pocketbook. You will save all the costs of room and board, which are a big slice of the educational bill. You will also save on travel expenses.

As to your daughter’s attitude, will she feel cheated of campus life if she stays home ? Or can she be persuaded to postpone savoring her independence in order to reduce your financial problems? If the latter is true, she’ll probably be delighted to go to the neighboring junior college.

Has she settled on a future job? Is it a vocation that doesn’t require four years of college? A two-year school can provide an excellent education for the student who has chosen a vocation. At the same time, it can also be a stepping stone into a four-year college if his or her plans change.

Whatever decision you make, it will be a happier one if you can all talk it over and agree among you as a family.