Consumer Theonomics for Purchasing Decisions

There are three major elements that I often observe in consumer (personal) buying patterns

• Attraction to the sound bite
• Emotion-based reasoning (an oxymoron, if there was one!!)
• Short-term memory

The sound bite is an extremely effective tool in most personal buying decisions. A great sound bite is one that creates need-awareness in the prospective customer to check out the product or service. Emotion based reasoning is where the product appeals to our senses and then we engineer our thinking process to enable us to create a reason that we find perfectly acceptable under the circumstances, that then allows us to justify the purchase of the product or service. Short term memory is when where the attractive sound bite combined with emotion based reasoning allows us to forget any history of either personal lessons in impulse based purchases, or allows us to conveniently overlook the fact that we may either a. have a similar product that we have not used, or b. that we do not really need this product/service at this time. In either case, after we have acquired the product or service, we then return to emotion based reasoning to justify our purchase decision. The sound bite connects to the emotion based reasoning, and short term memory ensures the consummation of the purchasing decision.

One could argue that there is a common thread to all these three elements and that is the obvious paucity of depth of thought, and the centrality of the emotional comfort of self, in the decision making process surrounding the purchase/acquisition.

Are we pre-wired to think a certain way, or is it something that can be cultivated either through commission or omission. An example of cultivation by commission is where an environmentalist might develop a discipline by which he or she creates a matrix to guide the purchasing decision making process. In doing so, the discipline becomes ingrained into their psychic DNA and process of decision making tends to support that which is also supportive of environmental sustenance. An easy example is one where an orthodox Muslim or a Jew easily rejects food choices that contain pork. An example of cultivation by omission is one where a purchaser may continuously learn to ignore the signals of financial (or other) detriment caused by impulsive buying decisions. If one would care to think back a while, one could remember the time when a certain impulse buying spree resulted in the lack of funds for groceries to feed the family. Yet the thought of discipline is so mentally and emotionally painful, that the path of least resistance is to continue impulse buying, irrespective of the consequences.

A large part of this depends on whether we are living purely for the present, or if we live with some notion of future in mind? If the present is all that matters, then all of the three elements mentioned at the beginning of this piece is very appropriate. An added complexity is whether we live for the present, but also feel responsible for others. If the notion of future is to be considered within the purchasing decision making process, the sole consideration of the present becomes insufficient.

Taking this a step further, how would one define “the future” and how would one consider that definition in the decision making process. (Please realize that there may be exceptions to every rule – even a planned, methodical, future oriented man may give way to his impulses and buy his wife some roses, when overcome by a deep sense of love for his wife.) Is the future considered that which is until the end of life? Or would the “future” encompass something that is passed on after life on earth, either in the form of a legacy or in the form of after life? Regarding legacy, could someone consider life to finish upon death and still desire to eave a legacy? If so, what prompts such a thought and the associated decisions?

One’s notion of the future is a part of the overall purchasing decision making pattern of every individual? My question is: Is there a theonomic perspective of the future and how does that perspective affect economic choices?