Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was recommended to me after I became absolutely obsessed with grocery shopping in Santiago, Chile. I think it was the hunt, or maybe just that I had a ton of time, but I went grocery shopping pretty much every day while I lived in Santiago. I found the assortment of foods fascinating and the way they were packaged (mayo in a bag!?) even more-so. I'm also, in general, a very tactile shopper so I was interested in what he'd have to say about that.My expectation was that this book would be about the psychology of buying. And, in a way, it is. But despite the title, the book is more about the seller side, about what store owners can do to make people buy more things. Perhaps a book entirely about why people consume would be boring because it would all boil down to not having enough love, but I think that this book could have explored that angle more.Another shortcoming is his analysis of online shopping. He knows that people react this way (he says so in the book) but when Underhill says that online shopping will never overtake retail, I think that he isn't fully aware of the power of technology. I, for one, have been converted to buying my shoes almost exclusively from Zappos. Convenience is king.What Underhill does go into depth about is why some stores make you want to buy everything (ummm Target, anyone?) and other stores make you run away screaming (for me, Wal-Mart is a great example). Some of it is fairly basic and general, but other bits are unexpected. I especially enjoyed the way he went into detail on how they gather this information. It's like spy work, but much more data collection!I also liked the international angle near the end of the book. He reminded me of why shopping was so fascinating in Chile: it's just. plain. different. I would definitely recommend this book because after reading it you will never enter a store and look at it the same way.Favorite bits:"butt-brush effect....Shoppers would approach it, stop, and shop until they were bumped once or twice by people heading into or out of the store. After a few such jostles, most of the shoppers would move out of the way, abandoning their search for neckwear." -pg.11"In some stores buyers spend three or four times as much time as nonbuyers." -pg.32"more than 60 percent of what we buy wasn't on our list." -pg.47"Almost no one goes to work empty-handed nowadays. When you think about it, it's a rare moment in the modern American's life when both hands are completely free." -pg.51"61 percent o the total time someone spends looking at a menu board is done after they've ordered." -pg.68"Here's another fact about how people move (in retails environments but also everywhere else): They invariably walk toward the right. You don't notice this unless you're looking for it, but it's true–when people enter a store they head rightward. Not a sharp turn, mind you; more like a drift." -pg.78"Planograms, the maps of which products are stocked where on a shelf, are determined with this in mind: If you're stocking cookies, for instance, the most popular brand goes dead center–at the bull's eye–and the brand you're trying to build goes just to the right of it." -pg.80"A chair says: we care. Given the chance, people will buy from people who care." -pg.91"During a series of recent studies, though, we noticed something odd: Around 10 percent of drive-thru customers would get their food and then park right there in the lot and eat in their cars. Curiously, the drivers who did this tended to be in newer cars than the restaurants' average customers." -pg.95"Eighty-six percent of women look at price tags when they shop. Only 72 percent of men do." -pg.104"Smart retailers should pay attention. All aspects of business are going to have to anticipate how men's and women's social roles are changing, and the future is going to belong to whoever gets there first. A good general rule: Take any category where women now predominate and figure out how to make it appealing to men without alienating women." -pg.112"Perhaps the easiest solution would be for women to register their sizes at clothing stores of their liking, then just point their men in the right direction." -pg.114"What makes women such heroic shoppers? The nature-over-nurture types posit that the prehistoric role of women as homebound gatherers of roots, nuts and berries rather than roaming hunters of woolly mammoths proves a biological inclination toward skillful shopping.""The promise of technology is always that it will make our lives easier and more efficient. Women are the ones who demand that it fulfill its promise." -pg.133"By 2025, anything smaller than thirteen-point type will be a form of commercial suicide. Even today, as our vision begins to blur, using nine-point type qualifies as a self-destructive tendency." -pg.140"Any technology that's located on the floor of a store, and that's accessible to kids, has to be build to combat standards–as if it were headed to Kabul or Bagdad." -pg.160"Even if we didn't need to buy things, we'd need to get out and touch and taste them once in a while." -pg.178
This was an interesting book for the first couple chapters. I was fascinated by the premise: stores nowadays function as their own advertisement and can affect whether and how much shoppers buy through the judicious placement of signage, merchandise, and staff; however, it's hard to determine what ought to be moved without thorough study of current "traffic patterns" and even then adjustments don't always have their intended effect because "the obvious is not always apparent." Take the "butt-brush effect," for example -- people don't like to hang round a display, no matter how tempting the contents, if they are bumped from behind by through traffic. Therefore, placing a big table of discounts right by the door is not necessarily a good idea; people get jostled out of interest before they can decide what to buy.After that the book started bogging down in minutiae, and sometimes took on the feel of a bad YA novel, including present tense storytelling. I couldn't see the point being driven at and skimmed the rest of the book, stopping now and then on interesting tidbits like stroller-pushers being effectively barred from many store shelves by the prohibitive narrowness of the aisles. The only other chapter I cared enough about to read mostly through was 18, "The Self-Exam."In short, I thought the basic point was pretty well summarized up front and the rest was rabbit chasing; I couldn't see the forest (if there was one) for the trees. I recommend reading the first few chapters and then (if your attention drifts) skip over to 18 and close the book. The in-between information doesn't readily distill itself into any basic principles, something you could take away from the book, so I don't think you'd be missing much.
What do You think about Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping (2000)?
Dit boek richt zich vrijwel volledig op instore marketing en instore onderzoek. Paco Underhill heeft meer dan 20 jaar onderzoek gedaan naar het gedrag van winkelbezoekers. Met dit boek doet hij veel van zijn onderzoeksresultaten uit de doeken. Hij geeft o.a. antwoord op de vraag: Hoe reageren mensen op bepaalde set-ups in winkels, en hoe zijn deze te optimaliseren?Je leert o.a. over de ‘Butt-brush factor’ en de ‘Decompression zone’.Persoonlijk:Jullie begrijpen waarom ik het boek interessant vind, ik houd van shoppen en marketing. Niet alleen voor mij en mede shoppers is dit een intrigerend boek. Voor iedere marketeer, winkelmedewerker -en eigenaar is dit een boek vol tips en aandachtspunten. Veel van de pointers zijn tevens te integreren in het analyseren van je Google Analytics resultaten.Het meest interessante aan dit boek is voor mij onderdeel 4 – The Dynamics of Shopping. Hier wordt dieper ingegaan op de beweegredenen van kopers. Een product kan nog zo goed worden ‘geplaatst’… Als een consument geen meerwaarde ziet in het product, dan wordt het niet gekocht. Hoe overtuig je een consument om klant te worden?"See me, Feel me, Touch me, Buy me."Verandering:Een paar key issues in de huidige consumentenmarkt worden aangekaart. Alhoewel in de laatste vijf jaar ook veel nieuwe issues zijn opgedoken… Tijdens het lezen van dit boek realiseerde ik mij hoe snel markten kunnen veranderen. Vooral door veranderende economieën en door technologie."We are dangerously over -retailed- too much is for sale, through too many outlets. The economy even at its strongest can’t keep up with retailing’s growth. Judging from birthrates, we’re generating stores a lot faster than we’re producing new shoppers."Het boek spreekt ook over positieve veranderingen, zoals het groeiende belang van klantgerichtheid. Vijf jaar na publicatie van dit boek is duidelijk merkbaar dat klantgerichtheid daadwerkelijk een belangrijkere rol heeft ingenomen in de economie. Steeds meer bedrijven gebruiken het in hun marketingstrategie.Kritiek:Mijn grootste minpunt bij dit boek is de arrogante houding van de schrijver. Hij hamert in mijn opinie teveel op hoe goed zijn bedrijf is, en dat goedkopere of technische diensten niet voldoen “you get what you pay for”. Met zulke slecht onderbouwde uitspraken krijg je van mij geen credit. Zijn arrogante toon in het boek biedt gewoonweg geen meerwaarde. Hij mag dan wel een geëerd persoon zijn in zijn werkveld, het maakt anderen niet minder gekwalificeerd.Ook wordt erg gegeneraliseerd. Mannen houden niet van winkelen en vrouwen zijn shopaholics. De schrijver is niet genuanceerd, maar weet hier wel een punt mee te maken. Verder richt het boek zich volledig op de Noord-Amerikaanse consument. Culturele verschillen zul je dan ook zelf boven tafel moeten halen.Favoriete tip:"Mirrors slow shoppers in their tracks, a very good thing for whatever merchandise happens to be in the vicinity."De belangrijkste tip die ik uit het boek haal is tevens een logische: laat ‘proefklanten’ los in je winkel en laat hen volledig vrij in de beoordeling van jouw paleisje. Of loop zelf een weekje mee en noteer alles wat je opvalt. Van type klant + aankoop, tot hun gedrag buiten de winkel.In short:Don’t focus on selling your products, focus on helping consumers to buy.Dit boek vind ik een aanrader. Het verhaal zit verpakt in een dikke laag arrogantie, maar het is zeker waard om daar doorheen te prikken. De man weet waar hij het over heeft.
—Anna
As a consumer, this book frightens me; every display, every sign, every detail in a store is designed to part me from my money. I'm pretty aware of that, but the details in this book will frighten you.For librarians, this book has a vital message: marketing (and thinking about marketing) is everything. We have something to sell, even if we don't make a profit. The author, from a science-sales point of view, thinks that books should have age ranges; that's scary to me, but understandable from a sales angle. He also discusses the "face out" difference between bookstores and libraries. One key point he brings out is that most shoppers are REPEAT shoppers, and therefore a new audience has discrete boundaries. I think libraries need to think about this when trying to increase statistics. Maybe bringing in 3% more patrons isn't the goal...maybe increasing circulation to new and old patrons is. The 2000 edition is dated already. "Personal stereo" made me giggle...no mention of ipod and hardly a mention of Apple, never mind Mac. The chapter on online sales is laughable...like reading a sci-fi novel from the 1800's. It's very good...read it! Your eyes will open, but your stomach will turn.
—Jen
Paco Underhill (with a name like that, how could you go wrong?) takes the tools that he learned as an anthropologist and in the 70's started applying them to the largest tribe in America: consumers and shoppers. It turns out that retailers are willing to pay a lot of money to find out how many towels shoppers will handle before they purchase a set, how many feet from the entrance of a store a display should be placed for maximum exposure, etc. Is Underhill a sell-out? Possibly, but the scales are tipped back in the favor of the little guy by the publication of this book. Well done.
—Mark
