2. We’ve all felt it before: that pang of guilt after buying something that might
have cost just a little too much. And as consumers, it probably happens to us
more often than many of us would like. We make decision with our sights set
only on the near future, disregarding long-term consequence. We buy thinking
about today with disregard for tomorrow. Myopia, the technical term for it,
gets thrown around by marketers and behavioral economists alike.
3. Ever wonder what might happen if
you never had those moments of
impulse purchase? Can consumers
be so concerned with the future that
they lose focus on the day-to-day?
Surely, with a resurgence of frugality
following the Great Recession, the jump
in consumer saving and the (somewhat
negligible) decline in consumerism,
there is a segment of our population
who aren’t spending.
4. Turns out I’m not the only person with this thought: a team of business school
professors at Harvard and Columbia have conducted research that that suggests saver’s
remorse exists in conjunction. And what they found is that in cases of buyer’s remorse
is that “People feel guilty about hedonism right afterwards. But as time passes the guilt
dissipates. At some point, there is a reversal and what builds up is a wistful feeling of
missing out on life’s pleasures."
5. They statistically proved that self-control made people
feel worse in the long run than shortsighted, spur-of-
the-moment purchases. In an experiment, consumers
were asked to make a purchase while thinking about
their distant future. They ended up spending more
significantly money and bought more indulgences (like
jewelry or vacations). Without this prompting, they
bought practical—and boring–goods, like socks. The
end result? Buyer’s remorse led consumers to be more
virtuous, while spender’s remorse led to extravagance.
6. By requiring consumers to think
about their future, researchers
were able to indirectly frame a
purchase decision and make
consumers spend, not save. Sound
counter intuitive? Maybe. But
you don’t think that you’re last
dying breath would be wishing
you hadn’t purchased those 300
Starbucks coffees instead of
planning for retirement.
7. What does this mean for marketers? Does it make our
job easier? Not exactly. I’m still wondering whether
Saver’s Remorse is just a knee-jerk reaction to changes
in spending that are happening because of our down
economy. Everyone’s so used to spending that the idea
that they won’t (or can’t) makes consumers feel like
they’re missing out. If saving habits continue, it’s likely
we’ll just see Saver’s Remorse become less significant,
and that idea that you are “missing out" by not buying
the newest, biggest TV might start to dissipate.
8. What does this mean for marketers? Does it make our
job easier? Not exactly. I’m still wondering whether
Saver’s Remorse is just a knee-jerk reaction to changes
in spending that are happening because of our down
economy. Everyone’s so used to spending that the idea
that they won’t (or can’t) makes consumers feel like
they’re missing out. If saving habits continue, it’s likely
we’ll just see Saver’s Remorse become less significant,
and that idea that you are “missing out" by not buying
the newest, biggest TV might start to dissipate.
What do you think?
