I was reading a paper published by Anat Keinan who is an assistant professor in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School. I find the following results interesting:
Good news for makers of $20,000 watches and other luxury goods and services. Recent
research from Harvard Business School professor Anat Keinan and a colleague suggest that we
often regret not indulging ourselves earlier in life. Key concepts include:
• People can be too farsighted, or hyperopic, leaving wistful regrets of missing out on life’s
pleasures when they look back at how they spent their time.
• It’s possible to motivate consumers to indulge themselves by simply asking them what they
think they will regret in 10 years.
• Marketers can convince consumers that buying their product is actually a farsighted behavior,
an investment in future memories.
The findings seem to suggest that we should give in to our buying impulses and they in turn will create good memories for us in future. Maybe we can tell our children and grandchildren about them.
But the million dollar question is, do any of us remember where we shopped 10 years ago and what caught our fancy but we didn’t buy?
If we follow Ms. Anat Keinan logic then it seems that Paris Hiltons, Victoria Beckhams, Lindsay Lohans all are creating big time pleasant memories for the future. That will seem strange to any logical thinking person. It means that Abhinav Bindra who has spent the last ten years of his life in a shooting range and did nothing except shooting, won’t have pleasant memories to reminiscence about? Or I know some persons who slogged like anything to pull out their families from lower middle class strata to upper middle class strata. Would they regret that in future?
Hi Alka, I so agree with you. Every single day we are being fooled into buying something that we ACTUALLY dont need…. As an aware consumer you must enlighten others. Im glad you chose to blog about it!
I guess this also depends a lot on a person’s attitude. Some people would even enjoy and remember a walk in a drizzle, others would not be pleased even when they get something they had longed for.
The advertising gains a lot from our education system where we create obedient students, who would be reprimanded to question established systems.
Hi,Alka-this is something I see nearly everyday,and never understand. From the poor to the rich, everyone’s out trying to buy status symbols. So, the poor worker earning barely 800 dirhams a month and having a family to support back home,has to buy a camera based cellphone in the first two months of his coming here,the middle-earning group needs to buy branded clothes,shoes,et al, in order to feel happy,and,the rich-well,for them,the sky’s the limit-change mobiles,cars,homes,…just to keep up with the Joneses. A sheer waste,but,then,that’s what shopping is all about,they say! I doubt that any of it would bring ‘pleasant memories’ in future..In fact,all my happy memories as of today,are of the times when I struggled to read/buy Enid Blytons,Richie Rich,etc…as also, the times when we used to go and see video at our neighbour’s, sometimes three movies at a stretch….so,I certanly feel-being able to afford something hi-fi is not the key to happy memories.
BTW,I’m still looking for the video you wanted…no luck!And,that’s surprising,coz the net has every video conceivable,available somewhere or the other.
Ritu, you are absolutely right about tacit marketing about buying anything. But kya Ritu, How are you? I wish you all the best.
Paradox, yours is an interesting viewpoint. I agree about the education system.
Amit, what a profound analysis you have done! Thank you. These type of research always make me suspicious and I wanted to know who funded this research?