Marketing: Impulse Buying

Do the things at the checkout counter cause you to make impulse purchases? Impulse buying is a very successful form of marketing. An impulse purchase or impulse buying is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service, made just before a purchase. One who tends to make such purchases is referred to as an impulse purchaser or impulse buyer. Research findings suggest that emotions and feelings play a decisive role in purchasing, triggered by seeing the product or upon exposure to a well crafted promotional message.

 Impulse purchases account for a significant chunk of the consumer spending pie. According to a study by Marketing Support, Inc. and Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, about one-third of all consumers make a sizeable impulse buy every week, with a median purchase of $30.

What Do Consumers Want?

Note: Adapted from "What do customers REALLY want? The Top 5 most important things revealed!", 30 May 2014," by Coreen Merryweather, 2014. (Linkedin)                 


1. Simply put, consumers want more "bang for their buck!" There's always a feeling of satisfaction when a customer feels as if they are getting a deal, an abundance of a product/service for less, great quality, etc.

2. Exceptional customer service is crucial to any business and it helps you attract and retain quality customers. Ultimately, consumers are willing to pay more for a better experience.

3. In order to keep your customers coming back over the long term, you have to do it right: "the almighty customer" should trump "the almighty dollar." Customers appreciate receiving their products on time. In doing so, it shows a company's reliability to do just what it says it will do.

4. Quality (self explanatory, right!)

5. Coreen Merryweather stated, "We want websites to be easy to navigate; products to be easy to access; for it to be easy to contact an organization. In our increasingly automated and mobile enabled world, we crave simplicity - organizations who make it difficult to interact, will ultimately lose out..."

Benefits of a Prototype

Better quality system delivered	Sometimes a developer may not fully understand what the end user is expecting. Prototyping enables any misunderstandings to be identified and sorted out early on in the process.
Identify problems early on	A working system is available early on in the process. The user can identify possible improvements which can be made before the system is completed.
End user involvement	The end user feels more involved in the development of the system and will 'buy' into it.
Fulfil user requirements	A system which has been through prototyping will generally have an improved design quality and will be far closer to what the user needs.
Cost savings	It is far less expensive to rectify problems with the system in the early stages of development than towards the end of the project.
Training	The prototype can eventually be used to help train staff while the real system is still being fully developed

Writing Journals

                                                         

There are many uses for journals: tracking your finances, doodling/drawings, managing your health, mapping your long-term goals, keeping a list of movies you'd like to see, jotting down ideas, keeping a daily record of one new thing you've learned, remembering favorite quotes, and so on.

I received my first journal when I was in the fifth grade. I would write about my experiences for that day, poems I've written, and kept a list of toys I wanted for Christmas or my birthday. As I got older, I started keeping a record of my ideas, movies I wanted to watch, my favorite quotes, etc.

In doing so, my writing improved tremendously. Also, it has become a good source to refer to when I want to revisit some of the ideas that I've had, some that are quite good. It has been very helpful and beneficial for me to keep a journal especially since I've dabbled into the entrepreneurial field. Anytime I have good ideas or insights, I write it in my journal.

Try keeping a journal. Your daily writing practice can help organize your thoughts and ideas, and in turn make you feel more emotionally and physically balanced.

Do you have a specialized topic you'd like to keep tabs on? Is there something in the news you'd like to follow? Are you interested in what blogs say about something? Would you like to follow a political candidate or celebrity?

If so, you need to set up a Google Alert. Google will send you an email when there are new results for your search, so you can keep up-to-date without constantly running searches for the same words.

Uses for Google Alerts

I currently use Google Alerts to stay informed about TV shows and movies I love to watch, politics, my favorite sports teams, world news and more.

Google Alerts is a great feature for work-related topics and job hunting. If you're unemployed or just looking for a better job, you can use all the help you can get. Google Alerts lets you search for job openings and have results delivered right to your inbox.

How to set up a Google Alert?

Navigate to the Google News page, and click on the news alerts link. Next, you define the topic, by setting any number of keywords and phrases that retrieved items need to have, the type of news you want, how often you want it, and the email address you'd like to receive these alerts at

Once your Google account is verified, you will have access to Google's news tracker. The Google Alert starts to work almost immediately once it has been set up. You should start seeing information in your email inbox on whatever time basis you've designated.

What if I want to stop the Google Alert?

If you want to stop following a Google Alert, simply navigate back to the Google Alerts page, find the feed/topic you're following, and click the trashcan icon.

Google Alerts: an easy way to find and follow topics you're interested in

In summary, Google Alerts are an easy way to quickly follow any topic you might be interested in. They're easy to set up, easy to maintain, and very versatile.