| BLOG 7: FREEBIE! |
QUEEN OF COUPONS
For years, I have prided myself on being a super saver shopper. I use coupons like crazy. Don’t believe me? I buy an entertainment book every year (a book that costs around $20-$30 that has over 500 coupons in the local Austin area), I snip and look for coupons in the weekly newspaper, I even look for coupons and promotion codes online when I buy clothes from my favorite websites. Yes, I get some good deals and save a whole lot of money by using promotions and coupons...but my boyfriend (Tim) recently pointed out that I actually end up spending more money than saving! Wait a second...this can’t be happening, right? I am using coupons to SAVE MONEY! How could the reverse be happening? I didn’t believe him so we decided to test his theory out in a couple of experiments. Turns out that I’m not the queen of coupons...but a SUCKER for coupons!
FLASHIER IS BETTER
First, we drove to Barton Square Mall, he told me to shop like I normally would, and told me to be prepared to answer some of his questions about my decisions before making a final purchasing decision. After hitting up three stores and seeing nothing worthy enough to pay for...I walked into the Bath & Body Works store. In case you are unfamiliar with Bath & Body works...it is a little shop that sells fragrant filled products such as lotions, candles, perfume, air fresheners, soaps, hand sanitizers, face washes, shampoo, etc.
So, I saw a sign with a great deal going on that I had to jump on! It was a big and BLOOD RED sign for hand soaps that read “Buy 5 for $15!”. I immediately put three hand soap containers in my little shopping bag. He asked me, “Why are you buying 5 hand soaps? You still have 3 of those exact ones at home. Why the number 5 instead of 1 or 2?” I responded back with, “It’s a good deal! 5 for $15 is really good. Why can’t I just get it?” He then said, “You’re not getting a deal at all! You’re getting ripped off! It’s 3 dollars each with or without the sign.”
Holy Toledo! He wasn’t lying! I turned the soap upside down and saw the hand soap was priced at $3 each. How could a huge sign in BLOOD RED make me think that I was getting a deal? The sign had me skipping over the price tags without a doubt in my mind that the deal was a for sure thing. This exercise had me thinking about the clip that Professor Walls showed us in class about how a woman shopper’s brain had more brain wave activity when she was exposed to in store promotions and big promotional saving signs. I obviously got a little too happy Jacky and was highly motivated by the big and flashy signs. I ended up putting down the soaps and left the store making ZERO purchases.
ODD-EVEN PRICING
Afterwards, we went into a clothing store called BCBG. I shopped around for a little bit and found a beautiful dress in the sale section. Learning from my mistakes from Bath & Body works...I made sure to look at the price tag. It was priced at $98.95! Yes, a dress under 100 bucks at BCBG...how much luckier could I get? I told Tim that I was buying the dress and that Debbie Downer tells me, “Wait a second...how much does that dress cost?” I happily tell him, “It’s only $98.95. It’s under $100! A dress under 100 bucks at BCBG is a big deal, Tim.” He then says, “Are you kidding? That’s almost 100 bucks. You’re not even thinking about that. It is literally $1.05 away from being $100. I can go out and find $1.05 on the streets right now. That is not enough of a difference for you to even say that it’s worth buying. You haven’t even thought about tax either!”
He was exactly right! The dress was pretty much $100! How could I not see that? I then remembered in my Marketing 337 Principles class that odd-even pricing gives this illusion that consumers are getting a deal for every dollar. It has been said that having a price a few cents lower than an even number is more physically attractive to a customer’s eye because he/she will perceive that they did not have to spend a greater amount for their products. It was completely true. I felt that something priced at such an “odd” number was justifiable enough for me to pay for it and argue my way into a purchase. It wasn’t until I stepped back and realized what I was doing that I saved myself $100!
THOSE DEVILS ONLINE!!!
After two of my potential purchases turned out to be a bad reality check...I decided to just leave the mall and call it a day. I went home and felt like I wasted the whole day and my gas money going to the mall. Feeling extremely frugal at this point...I decided to just shop online and use internet coupon codes to ensure that I would be getting a GREAT deal. I went onto urbanoutfitters.com and shopped around for an hour or so. After searching the whole site and finding a couple of items I liked I decided to pay and confirm my “shopping basket.” The grand total equaled $88.06. I then checked a couple of internet websites to search for coupons. I found two coupons that tickled my fancy. One that said, “Save 10% on your whole order” and “spend $125 and get free shipping.” I used the 10% off coupon first and saved a couple of bucks, but wait a tick...I could save an addition amount of money from shipping if I just spent a couple more dollars to reach the $125 minimum mark. This was no problem, right? All I had to do was look online for one more item that I liked to reach my goal.
After spending another hour online searching for one more item...Tim walked into the room. He looks over at me and asks, “You’re still shopping online? What’s taking you so long?” I respond back with, “I can get free shipping if I just spend like....30 more dollars.” I’m just trying to find one item that I like that equals that amount.” He then starts laughing hysterically and tells me, “Look at the money you’re wasting! You could just pay the $7 for shipping instead of paying $30 more dollars for another item! You’re obviously struggling to even find another item! Why pay and spend $30 on something that you don’t even really truly like when you could just spend the $7 bucks? AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! He was right on the money on this...how could I be sucked into these marketing tactics? I AM SUPPOSED TO BE A MARKETING MAJOR FOR GOD’S SAKES!
I’M A SUCKER
Obviously, I am a sucker for coupons. I study and hear about these tactics all the time in my classes. I think that I am above these tricks but I’m really not. These marketers are much cleverer than I thought. They have managed to fool me using flashy signs that try to get you to buy bulk, using odd pricing to make their merchandise appear cheaper, and online coupons to get you to add more to your shopping cart. I have experienced firsthand the clever marketing used by retail stores to get people to buy more and more products. Geez...I can’t wait to trick other people into spending massive amounts of their own money! |
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Tina - First of all, is this a real story? I just have to ask. Now, this is a really cute blog and certainly makes a lot of good points. Very fun to read. At Walmart, we knew that just putting things in a bin in the middle of the aisle, even at the regular price, would entice people to buy a lot more (same for endcaps and any big displays - the bigger the better). The techniques have become even trickier over time. My mother is another one who thinks she is saving so much money when she is actually spending more money (e.g., using coupons to buy things that she would never normally buy without the coupon). Fun stuff...
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Name: Tina Bui
Major: Marketing
and Communication Studies
Email: tina.u.bui@gmail.com
Birthday: January 29th, 1988
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posted by
TunabeREAL at 
Tina - First of all, is this a real story? I just have to ask. Now, this is a really cute blog and certainly makes a lot of good points. Very fun to read. At Walmart, we knew that just putting things in a bin in the middle of the aisle, even at the regular price, would entice people to buy a lot more (same for endcaps and any big displays - the bigger the better). The techniques have become even trickier over time. My mother is another one who thinks she is saving so much money when she is actually spending more money (e.g., using coupons to buy things that she would never normally buy without the coupon). Fun stuff...