Consumer behavior concepts and applications

Marking Class Of Consumer Behavior

One of my most cherished possessions is a fountain pen that I inherited from my grandfather. My grandfather had this fountain pen even when he was a child and he even used it when he was fighting in world war two and writing letters back home. It is a sturdy silver fountain pen and it still writes exceedingly well. One just needs to be careful about how one holds it and keeping the filter fresh. One of the sensory elements of the possession is that it has ridges on the edge that my grandfather said it got when he would drop it while he was flying in an airplane during the war: the plane was outfitted with a particular type of metal which would make it scratch the softer metal of the pen very easily.

The pen changes my mood in that I feel more focused when I hold it in my hand. I also strongly feel the presence of my grandfather when I hold it in my hand, and that is something which is extremely comforting to me. When I have it on me, or when I'm writing with it, I generally become more aware of the words that I use and how my words impact other people. When I'm in shopping malls and comparable places, and I have the pen on me, I'm generally more aware of how well made or poorly made an object is. This pen is so sturdy, it's been in my family for years and is something that I deeply value and which is incredibly important to me. Moreover, to me it's a demonstration of the inherent better quality and workmanship of items made decades ago. The pen was made in the 1920s and was given to my father when he was born, as a gift that he was intended to "grow into" and so that he would have it all his life. No one in the family expected that we would be passing it down from generation to generation.

One of my most striking memories that this item possesses is the day that my grandfather gave it to me. He was slowly dying and he felt that the end was near, so he asked to speak to me alone in his hospital room. He handed me the pen with shaking hands and explained that when he was just a little older than me, he used that pen when he was off at war. He told me that he was never quite sure if he would make it back from the war, and he was delighted that he could pass the pen along to a grandchild.

It seems as though there is more and more interest in vintage pens as time goes on. I was reading an article about a business owner in Los Angeles who restores vintage pens. As the owner explains, "Maybe they'll accidentally drop it and get the pen point or the nib out of alignment, or it's badly bent, I can straighten those nibs if they're not too badly bent and realign them and get them back into working order" (Valdez, 2013). This owner can also improve a new writing tool with the boxes and boxes of vintage pen parts that he owns. It seems as though today, there is more and more of an interest in being able to improve vintage pens and to be able to hold on to such well made items. In this sense, the pen represents the solidity of times past, and how in the past people valued things that would last. Possessions were not as disposable as they seem to be today. There seems to be a strong mentality attached to items made in the early to mid 20th century that they had to be built to last, whereas now that mentality just doesn't exist as much. As one inventor explains, " An enormous amount of the energy we use [industrially] is locked up in "embodied energy." It's trapped, or embodied, in the materials our stuff is made of. It's the energy that we use to mine materials and process them into products. While we can choose materials that have less embodied energy for any given product, it's much better to choose objects that last two or three, or preferably 10 times, longer. As I see the climate change and carbon dioxide problem, it is one way of figuring out how to live the best quality of life while using much less energy. Heirloom products are one way to make a significant contribution. It probably means you will end up owning less junk, your life will be less cluttered, and your stuff will be more beautiful and serve you with more joy" (Good, 2012). Thus, one cannot underestimate the things that one surrounds oneself with. It becomes more and more important to surround oneself with items that are able to bring one a strong amount of joy, and which are able to foster intensive feelings of excitement and calm. More and more people are finding that when they purchase well-made items which last them much, much longer, they are able to experience a considerable amount more joy.