One day remains until your salary or wages reflect in your bank account as a result of your work for the month or the week. You’re excited about your income that will be paid tomorrow for you’ve been planning the entire week/month as to what bills need to be paid as well as a few items that you want to purchase. Your buddies and you have been liaising all month about having a little get-together as a means of relaxation for the hard work performed. All of you agreed on who will bring what and so forth at a reasonable cost. The following day, on your off day, after you paid your bills and enjoyed the get-together, you immediately check your bank balance. This is where impulse purchasing begins!
You decide to head to the mall to do some window shopping regardless of the confidence you now have thanks to the density of your wallet. The more frequent you browse through numerous shops, the weaker your willpower becomes to not spend any money. A dollar or two here and a dollar or twelve there. At the end of your window shopping day, regret becomes your best friend. Your lovely bank balance this morning has now sadly been admitted to the ICU. Impulse purchasing, in my opinion, is extremely dangerous which can be detrimental to your physical and mental well-being without you realizing it. Impulse buying is influenced by many factors of which only four are discussed below. I call it the FACE analysis.
FOMO
You are probably wondering what FOMO means. Well, it’s as simple as it reads - Fear Of Missing Out. A family member, a friend, or your colleague just bought the top-of-the-range 6-burner gas grill. It has all the bells and whistles that allow grilling to be made simple. Your friend turns on the gas by pushing the igniter embedded in the main control panel. While you’re witnessing this marvel, jealousy hits you harder than Thor’s hammer. You immediately start creating scenarios and images of yourself with this grill at your place entertaining your guests or cooking for your family. Questions about the product and the pricing are thrown by you to your friend. After receiving all the wonderful answers from your friend, you start making plans and sums in your head to get your hands on this piece of technological brilliance.
The following day, after an evening well spent, the only thing on your mind is the gas grill. Sadly, you've come back to reality where you know you're not able to afford it at the moment. You may have the cash available but not the affordability. This is when you start thinking irrational to make the forced purchase based on emotion and the fear of missing out. FOMO buying can swallow a huge chunk of your money because of your hastiness instead of saving or making a credit purchase. Your impatience will ultimately compel you to borrow money from the bank or a loan shark to survive for the month or the week. Furthermore, FOMO buying can become addictive as a drug - it won't be easy to cure.
Advertising
Businesses and entrepreneurs pump millions of dollars into their advertising schemes and programs. Their marketing teams are continuously researching different ways of advertising that will yield great results and returns. Marketing professionals have become exceptionally clever as to how they go about advertising. Their main aim is to make the consumer brainwash themselves into making a purchase. The approach these ads are created is to persuade the customer that they must need the product. If a $5 item is advertised as a promotion - "was $10, now $5", you are more than likely to buy it because you were brainwashed into thinking that's a wonderful price at 50% off. On the other hand, if the same $5 item is advertised as - "get 10% discount if you buy two", you will hesitate in your decision. This is the moment when you inform the teller that you're just going to run to the ATM to withdraw money to buy the item or you ask the teller what time the store closes because you'll come back later. You never end up going back to the store.
Marketing teams have used advertising to tell a short story to indoctrinate the viewer with a product or service that they don’t need. It’s like watching superman - you tend to picture yourself like superman, smashing the buildings and flying wherever you want to go in the universe. While you’re watching TV with your family, a video ad about this amazing family van is displayed for a few seconds. This brief moment is enough for you to cave into the advertisement that is now messing around with your thoughts. A few days later, after conversing with your partner, you decide that enough is enough. Suddenly, your current vehicle is not good nor spacious enough for your family - a thought that never popped into your head after watching the ad. You start making arrangements with the bank and the car dealership to get your hands on this wonderful family van that you never needed.
Brilliant advertising will, unfortunately, lead to impulse purchasing but, this is excellent for businesses to boost their revenue.
Confidence
Confidence - one of the most discussed and researched topics in every aspect of life. Every decision we make is based on our confidence - be it the strength or the lack thereof. The latter can hinder your progress in life when a specific task or project needs to be completed in a specified timeframe. We sometimes refer to this as procrastination. On the other hand, reaching a level of great confidence does not occur overnight. It’s a process that requires rational thinking and the construction of sheer willpower. Great confidence cannot be measured but it can be seen. However, too much confidence can lead to arrogance, such as impulse purchasing.
Money makes the world go round but it also gives birth to irrational thinking and decision making. As soon as your salary or wages reflects in your bank account, confidence joins the party too. The first thing you do is to visit the mall with a smile on your face and money in your pocket. In my opinion, confidently exchanging a $100 bill for a good or a service is not entirely fueled by your bank account, but by the confidence that is placed in the bill. A $100 bill, which is a piece of paper, is worthless. Of course, the cashier won’t accept a blank piece of paper as a form of payment. However, the print, serial number, and art of the bill give you the confidence to tender it as a form of payment. Hence, the confidence you place in the bill makes it valuable.
Your spending confidence is determined by the balance in your bank account. As soon as it runs dry, thanks to your irrational thinking and temporary confidence, you begin to doubt yourself and regret follows thereafter. On the next payday, your impeccable confidence is back again. Living and thinking in this repetitive way will ultimately lock you in this vicious cycle that will be difficult to break free from. Hence, too much confidence is arrogance.
Emotion
I consider this category as one of the most dangerous aspects of this discussion. Emotional impulse purchasing is caused by the fear of missing out, advertising and confidence. Emotion completes the FACE analysis. Regardless of how strong your willpower is, a slight drop in it will allow your heart to temporarily take over to make an impulse purchase and a ludicrous decision. For many years, I was also a victim of FACE. As soon as I got paid, my bank account would already be depleted by the middle of the month. I lived in a vicious confidence cycle which was difficult for me to break free from. Eventually, when I needed money for an emergency that came about, I was unable to attend to it. Fortunately, the outcome was a success thanks to a good Samaritan. This act of kindness allowed me to break free from the cycle.
Emotional purchasing can also be turned into a good personality trait. This is merely when you want to give back to the less fortunate or to purchase something for someone who can't afford it, without the expectation of a return. To make an impulse purchase for the good of someone else will, inevitably, bring you more fortune in life. A kind heart is a rich heart! But, beware of your kindness not being taken for granted. This may break you emotionally. Personally, if I know a friend, colleague, or family member who needs a helping hand, I would try my utmost to stick mine out first. With this being said, the FACE of impulse buying can be widely studied and branched into several subcategories. If you’re are suffering from this, the first step to combat this is to weigh the pros and cons of a purchase you intend on making.
Subsequent to viewing the wonderful advertisement and developing FOMO, think rationally and not emotionally before you place your confidence in the $100 bill.
Comments