What motivates you to buy. Whether it is a vacation to Fiji, or even Peoria, a brand new Mercedes, or perhaps a used VW Beetle, or a Gucci bag or a nice slightly used but gently worn sweater from the local Goodwill, would you believe emotions play a big part?
Whether it is a consumable for self, or a gift for someone else, I find that a lot of motivations come into play. At age 54, I tend not to buy as much for myself as I did in my younger more “self-absorbed” days, that is, when it was important for people not only to know me, but know what I possessed (as if they cared….they were too busy buying things for self to make sure others knew them and what all they possessed). Ahh yes, the good old days of the upwardly mobile yuppies.
Today, I get a real kick out of buying gifts or cards or both, often for no apparent reason, and give them to those close to me. I won’t just buy any gift, or send any flower to my significant other. Today the gift has to really mean something of significance, though it need not be of a major expense, and sometimes it is. For instance, a very significant (female) other and I like to joke often about Victoria’s Secret merchandise.
It is not that we have any kind of fetish or unnatural desire of their products; we just both find it funny how, at one time, it was such an “underground store”, not too unlike Frederick’s Of Hollywood, which, for whatever reason has decided to keep it’s “underground image”, whereas V.S. (as she and i like to call it), has become as mainstream as mom, apple pie, and sex toy parties.
Since I am a cartoonist and design a great many images onto a variety of products such as funny t-shirts, key chains, aprons, mouse pads, etc. I recently decided to send her a variety of funny gift items with one of my Victoria’s Secret cartoons on them. The total order was less than $100 and it was a boxful. Had I sent this same gift to, say, a close male friend, my brother, my sister, or my Uncle Jack, I do not believe any of them would have appreciated the gift as much, though they may have found it humorous.
So there are a variety of emotions that come into play when buying a gift. Uncle Jack for instance loves fishing, so I find myself picking out some of my cartoon items such as t-shirts or hoodies or mouse pads or whatever with various fish cartoons on them. I can assure you he appreciates them as much as my sweetie appreciates the Victoria’s Secret cartoon gifts, and appreciates it even more that I take the time to remember, he prefers fishing over v.s panties….at least for himself.
