The purpose of the assignment is to get you to think about the psychology of consumer behavior by applying it to your own life. The theories or concepts that you apply are basically up to your own perception of your own behavior. However, these must be theories grounded in the text and classroom discussion (i.e. I don’t want off the wall theories like aliens made you buy Tide rather than Cheer). The journal will have three goals: understanding the influences behind your purchases, understanding the consequences of your purchases, and giving you a chance to reassess and change your purchase patterns.
The method is as follows:
1.
For a FOUR (4) WEEK period, you must keep a diary of the products you purchase. This is simply a listing of the products, when, and where you made the purchase. Do this on a daily basis.
2.
At the end of each week, look for 3 products you seem to “consume” most regularly or consistently, then think back on that week and analyze:
a.
why you bought that product over another
b.
what advantages or disadvantages resulted from purchasing that product over others
c.
your satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the purchase
d.
your intent to continue that purchase (or note if you decided to change your purchase pattern & why)
3. At the end of the four weeks, choose 3 key products and consider the one major psychological factor or process for each separate product (e.g. peer pressure, learning, subliminal messages etc.) that contributed most to your consumption pattern (i.e. one different process for each of the 3 products).Make sure to be specific to both the psychological processes and its application to your specific purchase pattern. Identify specific reasons for why you think it was that process that was most influential on that product.