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moneysense.ca, 5/01/06
The Quantum Theory of Shopping
The Ottawa Citizen ran a very interesting story today on the factors that drive our shopping impulses. Unity Marketing, a Pennsylvania marketing consultancy summarizes the shopping impulse as:
P = (N + F + A) E², where
P = Propensity to buy a product
N = Need for the product
F = Desirable features for the product
A = Affordability of the product
E = the emotion guiding the decision
According to the equation, the emotion behind the decision to buy is much more important than other factors. From personal experience, I can buy the claim that emotion trumps everything else in shopping (for example, we buy things that we don’t really need) but I think boiling down something as complex as an impulse to buy into a neat little equation is just silly.
moneysense.ca, 5/01/06
I would replace A (affordability) with A (credit on hand), whether that credit be real cash, money in a bank account, or credit on a credit card. Also, I would have A out in front, multiplying everything. If A is 0, according to their equation, P can still be a positive number, which makes no sense. If A is 0, the propensity to buy a product should be 0.
Anyways, my propensity to buy a product is proportional to A. I’ve now reduced A significantly, by no longer using credit cards at all, and my “propensity to buy a product” has gone down big time as well.
Dave: Great point. I was going to illustrate your point by using my propensity to buy a Ferrari (P = 0). I think it has great features (F > 0) and I certainly think it is a hot car (E really big!). Doesn’t quite add up, right?
Moral: The equations discovered by marketers is likely to give mathematicians a heart attack!
Let’s face it – people who are not good at math loving using equations that look complex to simplify abstract comments. ERTW.
Its basically meaningless as an equation. How could someone quantify these factors?? Its no more scientific or useful than the silly recipes for things such as “how to have a happy family”…1 cup of love, 1 tsp of hugs, etc etc.
They would have been much better off if they just said these are the factors that they believe affect P, and forget about the equation.