Week 3 EOC: How I Buy Stuff

“A lifestyle is a mode of living, as identified by a person’s activities, interests, and opinions.” (MKTG, Lamb, pg. 76)

As far as how I make my purchases, every product has a different buying process. I tend to not follow trends but sometimes my interest happens to be parallel with what’s “hot.” I’m not your typical female consumer. I buy what fits me as a person. For example sometimes buy Complex Magazine, it’s a men’s magazine but they give good information on sneakers. Now does this mean I want to be a guy, No. It just means I’m not into heels and things like that. I guess you can say that I buy to fit my lifestyle.

My lifestyle is urban, Hip-Hop, and mobile. Because of this there are certain things that I will buy and not buy. With the Hip-Hop side certain things I buy to fit this is Music, which is mostly Rap and R&B. As far as Urban it’s clothing. Most of the clothes I buy for everyday wear are jeans, t-shirts, and exclusive sneakers. I buy business attire solely because I have to so that I can go to things such as an interview. I try to research a product if necessary. I feel that if I am giving you my money I want to know that you appreciate me as a customer. Sometimes I may hear of a brand I normally buy as being racist. In this case I would do my own research and then come to a conclusion on if I would continue to support it or not.

Now there are brands that cater to a certain lifestyle of their consumers so basically I just look to see which on caters to mine.

Me as the Consumer EOC Week 2

I consider myself to be in the Hip-Hop demographic. My income is not that high so I buy according to what I can reuse or have for a long period of time. This also makes me a very picky customer, but once a brand makes me happy I am loyal to it. For example I am a diehard sneaker fan. It is part of my lifestyle. I don’t just but sneakers to walk around in, I buy them because it’s a part of my culture. I spend a lot of time figuring out what shoes to buy. Like I said before my income is very little so I only buy once maybe twice a year. When I am buying shoes the quality as well as style is very important to me. They need to be stylish enough so that I wear them for more than a few months and stable enough so they can last until I bought the next pair. I remember I use to be very loyal to the Nike brand, I was going on a trip and I bought these White on White Air Max. They were beautiful, I took them home packed them and went on my three day trip. By the third day the sole of my left foot was coming off. I called the store and told them I was bringing them back for an exchange. I went back and exchanged them for a pair of Adidas Shelltoe Superstars, white with silver stripes.


Now the story about the Air Max was 10 years ago. I still buy Adidas and I still have those shelltoes. You see a consumer like me will pay top bucks for what they consider a top product. I just don’t have the money right now to waste on a shoe that will tear up in three days. I do understand that Nike is still a good brand but I can’t afford to give second chances so you only have one shot. Shoes aren’t the only thing I buy carefully. It’s everything that I put value on or eat. I only buy certain brands if they work I stay with them if they don’t I find one that does. As being part of the Hip-Hop Culture I buy clothes with styles that aren’t afraid to be different. Hip-Hop is about expression, the more products that give me the options the better.

A Quality Customer Experience

Last week I decided that I would buy a new digital camera. Now I have been seeing those Coolpix commercials every time I would turn on the television, and by the fifth time I was looking in the paper to see where I could find one. I saw that Best Buy had a few models on sale so I decided to go and check them out. As I was looking at the cameras they had I saw the one I wanted it was its latest model and it had all the cool things that I didn’t understand but felt that I needed it.

A worker came up to me and asked if he could assist me. I told him all he had to do was get me this red Coolpix and I will be on my way. The worker said he would do that for me but asked if he could show me another camera before I made my purchase. I agreed and he brought me a Kodak that looked like the Coolpix but it was almost $100 cheaper. When I saw that I asked him what’s wrong with the Kodak since he was trying to get rid of it. He then told me that although the Coolpix was “Cool” the pictures were horrible. He even went a step further and compared the two online so I could see for myself. He was right, the Kodak was a better camera for me and that was the camera I left the store with.

The moral of this story is, “don’t buy the name…. buy the product.” Going into the store I wasn’t looking for a product good for me. I was looking for the Nikon camera cause I just thought that Nikon could do no wrong. The worker helped me see that Nikon didn’t do too hot with this one. Now every time I go to Best Buy I will be asking for Dustin because I know he won’t sell me anything with low quality.