Gift Giving.

High and Low Involvement

Buyer involvement with purchasing decisions can vary depending on the need nd want of the product. It will also differ if the product is an every day nesessity or a bigger buying decision. For example with Kotler's buyer decision process you can determine the change in high or low involvement products. See the example below:
Low High

Routine Impulse Regular Irregular (small) Irregular (large)

When it comes to products like milk and bread is a need product that you would buy weekly or even sometimes daily and therefore it would be a low involvement product for the reason that you would automatically choose the item where as an irregular product would be high involvement because it could be a house or car. This would mean that you would have to analyse all of the options of the product and maybe look at other brands if it was a car.

Measuring Involvement
Laurent & Kapferer (1985) argue that a consumer’s level of
involvement will be affected by four components:
1. importance & risk
2. probability of making a bad purchase
3. pleasure value of product category
4. sign value of product category

Gift Giving
Pamela Danziger(2004)
Gift shopping is the ultimate in 'emotional consumerism', since gift giving is all about emotionally connecting giver and recipient. Whenever consumer shopping behaviour is driven by emotion, the shopper's goal is to buy a thing to achieve a special feeling, enhance an emotional experience or deepen an emotional reaction. In other words, the gift itself is the means to an end to strengthen the emotional connection between individuals. The challenge for retailers and marketers is how to enhance the 'gifting' experience.The business of gifting for both retailer and marketer hinges on this.

Store choice for gifts is controlled by the left brain, but gift selection is right-brain dominated.
Givers use different criteria when choosing a store to shop for a gift and what to buy once they are there. They select the store based on rational, left-brain factors, such as where they will find the best prices, while they select the gift primarily on emotional, right-brain factors

How are gifts selected?
1. What would the recipient want?
2. What would i like to give them?
3. What occasion is the gift for?
4. How much is the budget?

Many retail stores try to maximise the gift giving process by including added extras for example the option for gift wrapping for example La Senza have luxury bags with scented beads and most jewellery stores will give free gift wrapping not only does this mean the shopper has less to worry about it will also be advertising for those gift receiver and those who see the product.

Nostalgia

nos·tal·gi·a
n.
1. A bittersweet longing for things, persons, or situations of the past.
2. The condition of being homesick; homesickness.

The smell of your mum's perfume or that special song that reminds you of a significant event. Even if you may not have any specific memories or things that instantly remind you of a time in your life. A random smell or outing may just trigger one of those nostalgic moments.
Within marketing companies are always looking to create that nostalgic affect, which may lead to an impulse buy or a bigger brand loyalty.

Nostalgia is linked with memory and how we remember certain things and how and where they are stored within the brain. There are triggers that can immediately refresh memories whether it be of a certain time in your life or even jsut a brand. An example of this would be where a company would use the same type of music and it is therefore linked to that company. For example the McDonalds slogan 'Im Lovin It' whenever that plays you are reminded of the brand. Companies use this as a marketing tool not only to create the feeling of nostalgia for their target audience but to also create a memorable link between the brand and a type of music or feeling.


A typical nostalgic feeling brought upon by an advert of a brand is the Christmas Coca-Cola adverts which always start from around the beginning of december. All of my friends will say that they know it is the start of christmas when that is played on tv. It brings together memories from where they have grown up with the advert, and it almost feels a part of christmas for me http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jAeqQwY1xdE

Nostalgia has been described as a bitter-sweet emotion, where the past is viewed with both sadness and longing.” (Solomon, 2000)

When it comes to nostalgia all of the five senses can be linked to those special moments important in someones life.
*Music or sound can act as a trigger http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_r6b3XD8srM
Whole Again, Atomic Kitten is one song that i always remember from my time at Lord Williams's Secondary school going to netball matches in the minibus with all my close friends. Since then everytime it plays we all start to sing together, it is something that we can all relate to as a time in our lives.
The Spice Girls were also a huge part of my life growing up from the music to films.
*Images . These can be things with fashion for example the iconic trend of the jelly shoes!
*Smells. My mums perfume- Jean Paul Gaultier Classic. There are also many different types of food smells that remind me of certain times or places.