An Apple iPad3 sits on display at a store in Melbourne on March 28, 2012. Apple on March 28 offered... [+]
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones and iPads and Nike’s (NYSE:NKE) sneakers are certainly cool products, especially among young people craving for innovative goods. But are they worth giving away a kidney to acquire them?
For most people the answer is definitely no, but not for the seventeen-year old boy in China who sold one of his kidneys and used part of the proceeds to buy an iPhone and an iPad. What can explain this rather unusual behavior? Why anyone would pay such a stiff price for two gadgets?
Emotions.
Humans are both intelligent and emotional beings. As intelligent beings, humans make decisions by reason; by carefully examining the environment they live in, setting goals and priorities; crafting alternative strategies and tactics to reach them. Emotional beings decide by impulse, fueled by anxiety, anger, fear, greed, and other emotions.
The intelligent and the emotional sides of human beings come out in shopping. Intelligent consumers begin with the “Big Picture,” the things that are important in their lives, setting needs ahead of desires. Before they grab a piece of a merchandise and head for the cash register, they always ask whether they need the product; whether the price is right; and whether this product is right for the price paid. Obviously, it is hard to think of intelligent consumers selling one of their kidneys to pay for a gadget!
Emotional consumers, by contrast, act by impulse, passion and hype. They rush and race to buy products without asking whether they really have a need for it in the first place; whether the price is right; and whether it is the best choice for the sacrifice they make to buy this product. Emotional consumers end up buying things they do not need, end up accumulating debt, and even pay an excruciating price for the merchandise they buy, as is obviously the case for the teenager who sacrificed one of his own kidneys to pay for an iPhone and an iPad.
Emotions are usually aroused and magnified by WOM and buzz that turn consumer interest in certain products into desire and passion, creating contagious behavior whereby consumers are rushing and racing to copy and replicate the behavior of other consumers, and none wants to be left behind. This is especially the case in situations where the “context,” the conditions and circumstances that are ripe for such behavior, as is the case in today’s China, but the penalty for such behavior can be unbearable.
Also read Why China cannot Develop its own iPhone
