By: Samantha Bielawski
The kind of consumer that I am typically is a bargain shopper, especially when it comes to groceries. I usually look for the buy one get one every chance I can. I also like to look at clearance sections for most of my shopping to see what deals I can find. One of my favorite stores of all time so happens to be Buggy Busters, which is where store rejects go to be sold for up to 60% off. I prefer to shop online for certain products that I am uncertain about mainly so I can look at the reviews and figure out if it is worth getting or spending the money on. I have walked away from a lot of products due to them having a large majority of bad reviews. Depending on what I am looking for quality can be a big thing for me when I am shopping for things such as sports equipment. I do realize cheaper is not always better especially when I have had cheap equipment fail on me. When it comes to brand loyalty I am mainly loyal to the brands that have benefited me the most. All these brands mainly happen to be equine brands such as Ariat and Charles Owen. But these loyalties only come into play after years of experiences with multiple brands.
When it comes to influencing my buying decisions things can be dependent on what I am buying. For example if I am grocery shopping I typically go the off brand route to get the better deals. The only times I cannot buy off brand is when the pickier eaters of the household are not fans of the off brand cereal. When it comes to my sports equipment though I am much pickier about. This is due to safety and overall fit. One of my biggest sales points is when a company stands behind their product. Chares Owen has a warranty on their helmets and protective wear if you were to damage their product within a certain time frame of purchasing the product. Also I like how they market their products doing their job. One of their social media posts was about an Olympic rider who’s head got stepped on when they fell off while competing. The rider was uninjured from this incident because the helmet did its job.
When it comes to the final purchasing decision it all comes down to “do I really need this”. I rarely splurge and when I do it is for my birthday and holidays. I typically buy most things such as clothes and equipment as absolutely needed. I also tend to look at cheaper alternatives when it comes to clothing and my work clothes. For example, instead of buying breeches, a pair of good quality full seat breeches are around $100, a $20 pair of yoga pants does the same job for when I am riding at home for the same amount of time. Another example is my helmets. I typically keep three riding helmets on rotation. I have my everyday helmet that I wear that was previously my show helmet. Then I have my skull cap that is typically used for cross country, more protection for higher speeds. When my everyday helmet hits the ground from a major fall I replace it with my show helmet and get a new show helmet. Usually I am able to hang on to an everyday helmet for 2-3 years. If I do not have a major fall for an extended period of time as soon as the helmet is older than 5 years I replace it. As it can be seen my final purchasing decisions are whether I really need the product and whether a product is going to last me a long period of time.
When I am making a decision on a purchase the marketing research that I do is starting off by looking at what the company says about the product. I look at if a product checks off all my boxes before looking deeper into the item. If I find a product that I like and am interested in I look into the reviews and the dates of the reviews. I prefer recent reviews on products but will take older ones if there is not a lot offered. The reasoning I have for recent reviews is because products can change, having a different formula than it previously had for example. Finally, I try to make a limit rule. When comparing multiple products find three and make my decision from there. My issue is there are way too many choices to choose from usually and it can make shopping rather overwhelming for me. By limiting things to three I am less overwhelmed and usually feel better about my purchasing decision.
Finally, when it comes to post-purchase if it is something that I want and have been looking into for a while I am equivalent to a child on Christmas. These types of purchases are planned to be a onetime buy or something that will last me 10-20 years. When it comes to my everyday purchases such as groceries I am usually relieved to get it over with. To give you an idea how much I do not like to go grocery shopping I normally buy enough groceries to last my household 2 weeks and don’t go to the store unless it is absolutely needed.
Sam Bielawski 