Hook, Line, and Sinker

It amazes me to see just how much marketing affects our everyday actions. From deciding between choosing which alternative brands or stores to purchase from, to the different factors which affect the consumer decision process.

Here’s a quick example, in everyday language terms:

Today, I had a sudden craving to eat fries.  As I headed to the food court with a friend, I ran through a list of fast-food places to grab fries: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, or New York Fries. Immediately, I crossed off Wendy’s and Burger King due to unsatisfying past experiences eating there. So, I was left with McDonald’s or New York Fries.

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At that point, I really just wanted to eat something and was about to head to McDonald’s since it was cheaper, but as I passed by New York Fries, one of their promotions caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks. They were advertising one of their new products, butter chicken poutine! “A bit odd,” I thought, “but I wonder how that tastes like?”. As I stood there reading their menu, the woman at the cash register greeted me hello with a big smile. Taken by such a friendly person, then and there I decided to buy fries from, well, New York Fries.

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Now in marketing terms:

I had a need, and I had to satisfy it (and fast!). Going through my retrieval set, which were the stores I could purchase fries from that I could bring from memory, I focused only on my evoked set, which were the subset of stores which I would consider buying fries from.

The promotion at New York Fries then caught my eye, and in addition to the cashier offering friendly customer service, influenced my decision process. Hook, line, and sinker.