Economic Theories Name Institution Question A. Marshall vs. Thorsten Veblen Views on Behavioral Economics Consumers’ decision to purchase a product in the market is contributed by a variety of reasons. Some customers purchase a commodity because it is satisfying their taste expectations and its price is friendly to their pockets. Other customers decide to buy a product because to is prestigious but not because of needs or satisfaction (Screpanti, and Zamagni, 2005). Marshall Keynes and Thorsten Veblen who are proponents of theories on behavioral economics had views on why consumers purchase certain products in the market. Marshall and Veblen had a psychological similarity in their idea as well as differences in their point of …show more content…
According to Veblen, leisure class consumption in the economy is motivated and influenced by a prestige seeking but not because of satisfaction factors or needs (Screpanti, and Zamagni, 2005). Veblen emphasized on varieties of reasons that would make people decide to purchase prestigious products such as cars, houses as well as fewer products ranging as low as clothes. Marshall argued that price in the industry determines the overall cost of the industry representative firm, in the long run, agreeing to the accumulated experience and production growth scale (Screpanti, and Zamagni, 2005). Comparatively, Veblen’s instinctive approach is different in that it holds that satisfaction of a conspicuous consumer comes from a successful display of status through a product. The acquisition of those goods in the society extensively controls the behavior of the consumer thus the acquisition becomes the driving force behind the behavior. Marshall’s view is dominated by the poor and middle class in the society who probably purchase basic goods that serve them for a longer period. The consumer in the case of Marshall does not engage in impulse buying and always has a plan for the product they want to buy. The consumer compares the price of the same product in the market thus choosing a product with a relative price contrary to Veblen’s point of view
Sociocultural: In the recent years, the desire to appear wealthy has attributed to the increased popularity in luxury products. Also, the desire for luxury goods was promoted by effective advertising and TV programming that promoted conspicuous consumption to middle-income consumers. Middle-income consumers also tend to “reward” themselves with luxury items.
From consumer’s perspective, the motivation of their purchasing high-end products is complicated. According to the report of Mintel (Academic.mintel.com, 2013), which showed that the reason why a large number of customs have purchased luxury merchandise in UK. There were 44 percent of female interviewees and 48 percent of male interviewees bought high-end goods due to the good quality. In addition, 31 percent of men and 18 percent of women consider the sophisticated technique
Life-style appeal; people want to believe they can live wealthy by spending on luxury goods when they really can’t afford it.(O)
Accompanying reasonability, the fact that expensive cars can be a status symbol does play a role in the consumers’ decision; however, people have bought expensive things to flaunt since currency has existed. “The only people who bought expensive cars for looks were wealthy adults. Most people bought
The overall sales of luxury goods in the year 2009 is expected to be more than US$150 billion and Asia contributes 10% to it. The concept of luxury is now not confined to only to Europe and US, the Asian subcontinent contributes majorly to it, with India and China as the newly emerging markets. Professor James Twitchell (2002) comments on the democratization of luxury and the changing consumer psychology These new customers for luxury are younger than clients of the old luxe used to be, they are far more numerous, they make their money far sooner, and they are far more flexible in financing and fickle in choice. They do not
Schor, a professor at Boston College, argues that we are living in “the cycle of work and spent” which motivates the people to “spend longer hours of work” in order to buy materialistic items based on their appearance to the world. She states the “competitive consumption has shifted out to the vast majority of the population” and “the media has a very pronounced bias towards showing upscaled or affluent consumption” (Schor). Schor highlights the kinds of “socially visible items become increasingly important as a part of a competitive consumer system.” And because of that, “the growth of the aspiration gap has led American
Social class is the position or ranking of people in society based on social stratification variables like income, occupation, type of residence, education and qualification that affect purchase pattern and buying behaviour. Social classes show distinct product and brand preferences, especially for goods considered as luxuries such as cars, furnishings and leisure activities like golf. For instance, wealth, power and prestige are popular factors frequently used in the estimation of social class. Social class influence can be used as a basis for segmenting markets, and may reflect the aspirations of consumers. (Schiffman, L., Bednall, D, O’Cass, A., Paladino, A., Ward, S. & Kanuk, L., 2008) Members within a social class share similar
This paper will cover the study of behavioral economics and its effect in consumer decision-making. The impact of human factors, importance of making rational decisions, and how all this ties into the economic market will be discussed in the report. This paper will include models, tables, and real world examples of a decision making process as it relates to behavioral economics and consumer buying process. The usefulness of the utility theory will be illustrated as an example pertaining to consumer behavior. The findings will show how consumer rational is
Within Veblen’s, The Theory of the Leisure Class, chapters 5 and 6 thoroughly explains the social norms of economic status / evolution of economics. Chapter 5, talks a great deal about who it is most common that people spend more money than they actually wanted to. However, this happens due to the want to be just like everyone else, so they buy branded items which typically cost more than off brand ones. Once people get in the habit of always spending more than they wanted it is harder to start budgeting.
Emulative consumption was described over 100 years ago by Thorstein Veblen in his Theory of the Leisure Class. In an unequal world life is a battle for respect
The social class a customer belongs to becomes a major source of his or her beliefs, values and behaviours. Family, friends and acquaintances become a primary source of learning values for individuals. For example, the attitude people have towards education is determined by the social class they belong to; since individuals from a lower class tend to give it less importance than individuals from the middle class. Similarly, people from the lower class look for immediate gratification and marketing appeals like “buy now, pay later” works immensely well with this class. One the other hand, middle class individuals usually believe they have to power to govern their own destiny through hard work. Attributes like morality and respectability are
As such, the result is that the members of every class spend their energies striving to meet an ideal. Then inevitably, they choose the option of taking part in emulative consumption in order to maintain their good name, as failing to participate will result in them falling behind. In conclusion, the leisure class sets the norm for all other classes and that is part of their power in capitalism and
Behavioural economics is the study of the effects that psychology has on the decision making of the economy. This tends to be the way that people think and feel when they are spending money on a certain good or service. The great economist Adam Smith was the first follower of this idea through his book “The theory of moral sentiments” which dates back to 1759. However, it took over 100 years to get a more clarified meaning of how big of a role the psychology of a buyer plays in economics. In behavioural economics there are seven basic principles which all contribute to the decision making process. Behavioural economics can explain how people will react to different situations such as times when there are no economic problems and times when
Once there is the decision to consume or purchase good s or services the common factor then becomes the need for that product which is at times evaluated based on attainability and price. In many situations if consumers are not motivated by the need to purchase then the possibility lies that they will not purchase. There may be different justifications that consumers internalize when making the decision to purchase a particular product at its given price. Different decisions supports the need to purchase a product such as