Impulse Buying

The package, as well as the product inside, became what was shown in an advertisement.  In 1900 only 7% of the ads of packaged products showed a picture of the product.  By 1925, that number had risen to 35%.  The primary function of advertising was to create the desire to buy a product.  To picture the product in an ad was to create a desire.  In stores, it was important to display the distinct brand name of the product itself.  Store windows and counters began to display the "dummy product" package, usually in a very large size.  It created attention and it create desire.

Impulse buying was essentially the desire to buy.  As the American Standard of Living rose, disposable income rose, and more people went to the supermarket for what they needed.  In the Old World Europe, they went to market to buy what they wanted, in America they went to market to SEE what they wanted.

DuPont did a series of studies in 1949-1960 on impulse buying.  In 1959 over half the purchases in a supermarket were unplanned, purchases that the consumer had no idea they wanted when they entered the store. 

From 1954-1959 the number of supermarkets increased by 40% and the number of different items in those supermarkets increased by 30%.   The consumer was depending on the supermarket for more of their needs, while spending 50% more than they planned. 

The supermarket had become the shopping center rather than "just a food store."

Next time...Repeatable Desire
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Today in Pioneer History: "On March 19,  1687, the French explorer LaSalle murdered his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, along the Gulf Coast of Mexico.