BrownSuga’s Sweet Spot: Squash it!

It’s amazing when you find out you are just like everyone else. I love to believe I’m unique, that I don’t follow the status quo. Statistics aren’t ever about me. Then someone sits you in front of what I call the “Reality Mirror” and you see yourself in a different light.

A couple of years ago, I attempted the start of my MBA in marketing (college is not for me, although for those thinking of it a master’s is much more interesting than bachelor’s degrees). One of our projects dealt with impulse buying. Of course during the class, my rose colored glasses were on and I thought I was immune to impulse buying but later when I began doing research on starting a business the topic crept back up.

Impulse buying is exactly as it sounds, anything you, the consumer, buy strictly on impulse. Imagine you are traveling on a road trip and you stop at a gas station. You stop solely to get something to drink. Nine times out of ten you have to travel to the back of the gas station in order to get that drink, causing you to walk by all the snacks. They do that for a reason. A large number of people will impulsively buy a snack even though they don’t really want it.

Also next time you at any cash register look around and see how many little knick knacks are around to buy. Retailers are taught from day one to take advantage of impulse buyers. We use colors, lighting and the four P’s of marketing (product, placement, packaging and price) all to get impulse buyers to spend more money. And just to make you aware, WE ALL DO IT!

So my advice, SQUASH IT! I was just on a site where I had to start up membership, of course at a cost. The second the payment went through, I was offered 4 one-time only offers at drastically low prices. I actually started reading them. Then I SQUASHED IT! I had to tell myself, it’s a waste of money and that I didn’t need anything they were offering me. I had already spent what I planned on spending.

Now you can be the type of person who enjoys impulse buying and if so, go right ahead and buy your little heart out. But if you think you’re immune pay attention to what you buy in a week. Oh, and if you go to Wal-Mart and walk out with 20 more items than you went in to get then you are a victim of the impulse buy.

You know as I write this, I’m thinking I hope none of my customers are reading this, cause I make a great deal of money off of impulse buyers. *looks to the side* Rock * looks to the other side* hard place.