Business concepts and applications

¶ … Buy

The saying, "Humans are creatures of habit" can be seen repeatedly whenever going to buy anything from a head of lettuce to an automobile. This fact, stresses Paco Underhill in his book, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, is what keeps successful marketers and merchants in business and also what keeps one store looking so much like the next. Underhill is a marketing guru who helps stores and restaurants and other establishments know how to best sell their products.

Underhill's book is divided into four sections: The first part introduces selling as a new science, or something that is proven to be a fact. The second section looks at the mechanics of shopping. That is, how the layout of space, other people in the store and signs impact -- or fail to impact -- the shoppers. The third part looks at the specific demographics, or how gender and age affect buyers. Lastly, Underhill's book reflects on the psychological undercurrents of shopping. How consumers can be manipulated by the placement of merchandise, packaging, and similar merchandise features.

Since it is a new science, Underhill has the opportunity -- and gladly takes it -- to come up with new terminology. For example, the "butt brush" effect, which the researchers "stumbled upon almost accidentally" (17-18), was discovered when filming the men's tie section at Bloomingdale's. Humans do not like to be bumped from behind, so will do whatever they can to prevent it. These ties had such a low volume of sales because they were located by the door, and the potential buyers had a high risk of being "butt brushed" while looking at them. When the shoppers were burned a couple of times, it was not worth looking at the ties any more.

All people who are fascinated by human behavior would enjoy the research and statistics in this book -- as long as they were able to refrain from feeling paranoid or that "Big Brother" was controlling everyone's buying habits. The information about the gender differences, for example, is of considerable interest -- similar to the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, but taking place in the shopping mall. As Underhill states, "Men and women differ in just about every other way, so why shouldn't they shop differently, too?" (98). Women, for example, walk at a relaxed pace and carefully examine the merchandise. Men, on the other hand, "seem like loose canons" and move much faster through the aisles and do not ask where anything is (similar to not asking directions when driving). If a man cannot find what he is looking for, he will go around the store twice and then head out. Meanwhile, 86% of women check price tags and only 72% of men do.

Underhill's science, unlike that of physics, is continually changing, because it is based on humans who are continually evolving, or revolving. Because women now are working long hours and have less time to shop, for example, their shopping routine is changing. Instead of a lengthy weekly trip to the supermarket, the woman runs into the convenience store at 9:00pm or later when discovering there is no milk for Johnny's breakfast. Better yet, for items at the shopping mall, she can just go online -- it cuts buying time down from two hours to two minutes. Women, in other words, are becoming "more manly" with their buying habits. Yet, some things continue to be the same -- women (when they have the time) still enjoy shopping with their friends. it's more of a social event some times than a buying one.