Buyer Behaviour

We humans can resemble funny cattle at times, and the way we spend our money proves this.

Early in my career I did a course in Marketing and one of the topics was Buyer Behaviour, in other words, how and why people spend their money the way they do. It was a fascinating topic and in the end, I came away believing there was no one pattern that fits all so to speak, and how discovering that was supposed to help, was beyond me. Even now, I don’t think there are any clear or common reasons for the way different people spend their money.

Let me give you just a few examples to make the point. I know someone of considerable means who wouldn’t blink at spending thousands of dollars on some things yet will not buy a $1 chocolate bar unless it’s on special. During the Marketing course I mentioned we were told that back then, and generally speaking, many people who bought Mercedes Benz cars would claim they were doing so because of the car's quality and safety features when in actual fact, it was more to do with wanting to be seen as successful or a big shot.

My wife once worked in a corner store where they sold two bread varieties from the same local bakery. One called Milk Loaf in a yellow wrapper, and the other White Sandwich in a blue wrapper. We had a friend who worked in that bakery and told us both breads were exactly the same, by using the two labels it gave the company more space on shop and supermarket shelves. Despite this my wife said customers would come into the shop and when they couldn’t find the right coloured wrapper, they were reluctant to take the other one even when told they were the same!

The amount of money people spend today on their pets is another sign of the times we live in. This while people starve all over the world. I’m also guilty. Until a few months back, and for a couple of years after losing my beautiful wife, I started buying a coffee each day, more as comfort food I think. I was spending about $40 a week on coffee while at the same time, watching my pennies on other things. Crazy really!

Now moving right along…..The Cheerful Giver project came up and I started to think more about my spending generally. Although my wife and I have always been faithful givers, other people’s hardship suddenly started to mean a lot more to me. This led me to review my spending in a number of areas. I’m not wealthy by any means, but I’m certainly not poor either, and over the years I genuinely believe that our growing giving pattern did not disadvantage us in any way and that continues to be the case.

The Bible verse featured on the Home page of this website – “A generous man will prosper. He who refresh others will himself be refreshed.” certainly appears to ring true in my case.That growing giving pattern I mentioned now sees me buying much less coffee each week and now sending $100 a month to an orphanage in Africa via Anglican Aid. I certainly feel refreshed after making that change.

Cheers and go well!

Bob (Holland) 15th July, 2025

Feel free to send me some feedback or comments anytime contact@thecheerfulgiver.com.au