Ged Carroll

Category: consumer behaviour | 消費者行為 | 소비자 행동

Consumer behaviour is central to my role as an account planner and about how I look at the world.

Being from an Irish household growing up in the North West of England, everything was alien. I felt that I was interloping observer who was eternally curious.

The same traits stand today, I just get paid for them. Consumer behaviour and its interactions with the environment and societal structures are fascinating to me.

The hive mind of Wikipedia defines it as

‘the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services.’

It is considered to consist of how the consumer’s emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940–1950s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, marketing and economics (especially behavioural economics or nudge theory as its often known).

I tend to store a mix of third party insights and links to research papers here. If you were to read one thing on this blog about consumer behaviour, I would recommend this post I wrote on generations. This points out different ways that consumer behaviour can be misattributed, missed or misinterpreted.

Often the devil is in the context, which goes back to the wide ranging nature of this blog hinted at by the ‘renaissance’ in renaissance chambara. Back then I knew that I needed to have wide interests but hadn’t worked on defining the ‘why’ of having spread such a wide net in terms of subject matter.

  • Omake + more news

    Omake

    Omake trends: Elle Japon x American Apparel – gives away headband with magazines. Omake pronounced ‘O-ma-ke’ means incentive. They have become a monthly magazine giveaway, particularly for fashion publications like Elle Japon. There is also a second series of magazines called eMook. An e-Mook is a brand lookbook for a season. People often bought them for the product give-away, A Bathing Ape popularised this idea outside Japan and their e-Mooks are sought after. People buy e-Mooks for the giveaway item rather than the content. Increasingly that seems to be the case with Omake as well.

    China

    FT.com / Comment / Analysis – China: Futuristic yet fruitful – interesting overview of the Shanghai expo

    Consumer behaviour

    Retailers Look to Profit From Last Century’s Styles – NYTimes.com – when you can’t trust the banks, the government, businesses and authority figures what can you trust? The past.

    Culture

    YouTube – chelskifl’s Channel – the seminal Pump up the Volume documentary which has interviews with the heroes I looked up to as a house DJ. Check out part three for the HotMix5 stuff. The WBMX sets of HotMix5 blew me away and fired me up to want to DJ house music

    Design

    Innovative Mayor Sam Adams Builds a Cleaner Portland | Fast Company – interesting use of mobile so that the public an report rubbish etc

    Nokia’s designs on Apple | FT.com – interview with Marko Ahtisaari. On privacy: “The industrial logic of every single social network is that those terms of service will be renegotiated very quickly.” On interface design “All the touchscreen interfaces are very immersive. You have to put your head down. What Nokia is very good at is designing for mobile use: one-handed, in the pocket. Giving people the ability to have their head up again is critical to how we evolve user interfaces.” No comments on why the N900 and N97 are the worst of both worlds – bring back the Communicator form factor

    Ethics

    Did Microsoft Hire Consumer Watchdog to Attack Google? | Techrights – really really stupid, surprised Frank X Shaw wouldn’t stomp on this practice if it turns out to be true

    Anti-piracy enforcers claiming to represent Microsoft used to shut down dissident media in former USSR – Boing Boing – quick denials in place otherwise this could have been a Yahoo! moment for Microsoft’s corporate reputation

    FMCG

    FDA Calls Marlboro Out on Creative Marketing of “Light” Cigarettes | Fast Company – I think the FDA is a bit out of whack here, although I can see where they are coming from in terms of trying to flatten the light message, for regular smokers the cigarette will be the same, same length, taste the same.

    Japan

    Big in Japan: Millions ‘Mumble’ on Twitter – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com – more unique users than Mixi

    Tokyo fishermen update seafood e-commerce site from their boats – Boing Boing – not surprising given that the Japanese invented JIT and lean manufacturing processes that they would extend it when the technology came available to their fishing industry

    Wired 9.09: My Own Private Tokyo – William Gibson on Tokyo

    Is it a good idea to kick those Downfall spoofs off YouTube? Perhaps not | Technology | guardian.co.uk – ironically exposes rights owners to legal issues

    Media

    France, the U.K. Take Steps Against Digital Piracy – WSJ.com

    Luxury

    Luxury market starts to evolve in China – hyperinflation for luxury lifestyles

    Online

    Yahoo wants to do what Facebook did, only slower – as the FT said: sounds familiar and unambitious

    Retailing

    FT.com / Companies / Retail – Gome reappoints ousted Bain directors – its like a tele-novella

    Security

    UK MPs call for ID cards and surveillance, but demand privacy for themselves – Boing Boing – looks like the Digital Economy Act has brought a whole pile of tech politics out of the bag

  • Data that matters

    Data that matters has impermanence – One thing that springs up periodically is how older electronic data becomes harder to access.

    Apple font pack disk from the mid 90s

    Whether its floppy disks that are no longer readable or optical disks which have become corroded through chemical reaction over time electronic data is generally impermanent.

    I lost a substantial amount of the posts on this blog two years ago when the server I used over at Yahoo! Small Business hosting went into meltdown 90 per cent of my blogging output between December 2006 and January 2008 disappeared. I managed to recover 10 per cent of the content from the Google cache of my blog.

    However it isn’t only digital artifacts that are at risk. I was going through bags of old papers and found my old P60s some of which could no longer be read since they were printed on thermal paper and my first payslip which was barely readable.

    my first proper pay slip

    This was from my first full-time job cleaning and repairing equipment that was rented out to building contractors including lawn mowers, concrete mixers and Makita power drills.

    You can also see paper go yellow from the acid used in its manufacture as well as fade from the carbon paper print.

    I had obviously put it away to keep it for posterity, but I decided to keep it in the cloud as I figure that it might last longer that way now. Though your guess is as good as mine. The thermal paper and Flickr’s business model are both tough things to fathom how robust they will be.

    The problem with this is often the data we don’t want to keep stays like embarrassing pictures on Facebook or a drunken rant on a Usenet forum, whereas the stuff we want to keep too often fades away. So how do we get better at looking after electronic data that matters? More online and internet related posts here.

  • The sale tag

    The sale tag is like manna from heaven for my Mum. She loves a bargain and looks forward to sales at her local stores.

    Like many people she suspects that some stores may put in special stock that they have shipped in to sell especially at this time amongst items that have just not sold.

    Allied Carpets was often the butt of jokes for its never-ending sales, but thought of as the exception rather than the norm.

    Sale basket in Shenzhen

    A friend here in Shenzhen got this basket from a market here. The markets are usually full of production overruns and samples. I managed to pick up a couple of genuine North Face Basecamp duffle bags for 30 percent less than UK retail.

    What I found interesting about this particular item was that it had a UK sale tag attached.It reads £29.99  £19.99 SALE.

    My initial reaction was how can it be reduced if it hasn’t even reached the shopfloor yet? It was an interesting proof-point of how retailers play customers as chumps. By all means enjoy bargain hunting but don’t believe the SALE tag hype. From what my friend told me about the production overrun market; the retailer in question (Woolworths) seemed to have vastly overestimated British consumer demand for rattan laundry baskets.

    My friend had the basket for a few years. I was writing this post almost a year to the day after Woolworths Group had gone into administration, closing its stores across the UK. More retailing related content here.

  • Countdown on the traffic lights

    Visiting a different country gives you a chance to notice the small everyday things that might be different to your own country. A case in point for me was the countdown on traffic lights in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

    When I reflected on the countdown on the traffic lights, I started to think about the concept of time and traffic congestion.

    Chinese driving culture

    Time in traffic congestion is not wasted time. Waiting at a traffic lights is a time for catching up on reading, making phone calls, sending text messages or returning emails. Its the sign of hustle for a non-stop operation. Shenzhen is the Chinese dream and the people here aren’t going to waste a minute if they can be hustling for an extra yuan or two.

    Hands-free kits are the exception rather than the norm. I was in a car where a driver fished out assorted Nokia handsets out of pockets in traffic congestion to answer calls and phone other people. Business was conducted on the go.

    I presume the countdown on the traffic lights was to try and prevent road accidents. Chinese drivers have adapted their practices that would drive your average British traffic police officer.  To better use this dead time that would be otherwise wasted. Drivers use the countdown on the traffic lights; as way of optimising their time reading, making phone calls, texting or eating. Once the lights are green, drivers are told how much time they have to get across the junction. More China related content here.

  • The electric scooter

    One of the first things that I noticed about the Shenzhen streets was the prevalence of the electric scooter. They are ridden by young people and old people. They’re used for delivery services, commuting to and from work and going to the buy the groceries.

    They aren’t slick looking Tron light bike type conveyances, or Something worthy of Shotaro Kaneda’s bike that would fit into the Neo Tokyo-like streets of central Shenzhen. Instead the electric scooter looks like an emaciated Honda Cub. It all comes across a bit half-arsed.

    Electric scooter, originally uploaded by renaissancechambara.

    They represent the cheapest form of powered transport in urban China.

    These are probably the scariest things that you are likely to encounter in China, short of being invited to drink tea with the authorities. They are fast enough to be dangerous, but slow enough to be annoying for other road users. They make no sound, not even the rushing of tires on road surface.

    The riders tend to have little skill and view fellow road users as potential targets. They are also not ridden only ridden on the road, but on the pavements and pedestrians have to be constantly in a high state of vigilance watching out for errant electric scooter riders. This being China, no fucks are given. If you wipe out on the pavement, they’ll just ride on. They’re absurdly dangerous.

    Finally, given that most of China’s electricity supply comes from coal fired power stations; and your scooter will last a few years at best – their green credentials are somewhat lacking. More design related content here.