Emotions will unlock your wallet, study finds
By: Trish Crawford
Stores do their darndest to keep us inside once we are through the door. That's why staples, such as milk, will be at the back of the store, making us travel past many products to get to them.
A research study into buying habits of "happy" consumers says you will probably go for the watch because its showiness complements your feeling of pride. Buy the bling, you've earned it.
Now, imagine you've just had a long, delicious meal at a wonderful restaurant – doesn't the comfy couch beckon?
The study, to be published in August in the Journal of Consumer Research but available now at www.journals.uchicago.edu/jcr, also found that contentment makes consumers seek familiar places to "savour and integrate" their pleasant emotions.
When it comes to clothes, the person with pride buys flashy suits while the contented person picks track suits. One is for public display and approval, the other for private comfort and pleasure, says the study, titled Rose-Coloured Glasses Have Many Shades.
It has long been known that "happy" shoppers buy – but what they buy was less well-known. Heightened competition in the retail sector has spurred numerous studies in consumer psychology as stores try to figure that out.
Business professors at the University of Minnesota and Arizona State University asked participants to select which consumer products they would buy after reading short stories designed to induce pride or contentment. Those who read the pride story picked "display" products such as a watch, laptop, computer or shoes, while the contented group picked home products such as a bed, vacuum cleaner or dishwasher.
The researchers recommend that retailers use lighting, advertising, store displays and service to induce "a specific positive emotion." They also mention that, if you sell home furnishings, being beside a restaurant is a good idea – restaurants being filled "with full and contented potential shoppers."
Brent Barr, marketing professor at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management, says 85 per cent of our purchases are made "at the store counter," so the in-store experience is important.
He says stores can put up pictures of Olympic athletes, for example, or other heroes such as astronauts. This will induce pride in shoppers who "believe they have the same attributes."
Retailers who want to create an atmosphere of contentment – say, they sell track pants or furniture – "need places to sit and music that is not overwhelming."
Barr says stores have to make it easy to shop, "create an atmosphere that is not unlike your living room."
David McDermid, coordinator of visual marketing for Seneca College, says stores draw shoppers inside by using flashy window displays – think Holt Renfrew – that showcase their wares. Here's where the emotional shopping experience begins, he says.
His students practice window decorating at the community college. These days, they have Olympic-themed windows and windows dedicated to raising funds for Haiti relief. Both themes inspire pride, McDermid suggests, as they appeal to our nationalism as well as our altruism.
Although stores can play around with lighting and colour for mood – blue and green are said to be calming, he says – the shoppers have got to see the merchandise.
Stores like Anthropologie, which sells clothing as well as home furniture in a setting filled with art and accessories, "have a relaxed feeling, soft lighting and chairs to sit in." This atmosphere helps create feelings of contentment, he says.
Another consumer study to be published in the journal and available online, titled Planning to Make Unplanned Purchases, reports that shoppers actually mentally budget for spontaneous purchases. Whether they spend this amount – or more – depends on the time they spend in the store.
Dale Peers, who teaches the history and psychology of fashion at Seneca College, says stores do their darndest to keep us inside once we are through the door. That's why the aisles in supermarkets are so long, she says, so we can't "zigzag through the store" to get what we want. Also staples, such as milk, will be right at the back of the store, she says, making us travel past many products to get to them.
"As you are walking to the milk, you see the Oreo cookies and say, `That would go well with my milk.'"
Another staple, bread, is way across the store in another direction, she adds. The study showed the more aisles people walked down, the more they bought.
There may be 12 cash registers but there will never be 12 cashiers, says Peers, as "they don't want you to get out fast. They want you lined up, looking at the end of the aisles and all those impulse items."
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Toronto, London stock merger a dream for investors
By David Olive
What does a trans-Atlantic merger of the dominant stock exchanges of Canada and Britain mean for Main Street
First off, there’s greater liquidity. The proposed merger between Toronto’s TMX Group Inc. and London Stock Exchange PLC, confirmed by each exchange yesterday, creates the world’s largest resources-based exchange.
The merged exchanges would also rank eighth in the world overall. And they would boast more listed companies than any other bourse.
A bigger exchange means more of everything.
More volume and value of daily trading. More traders and investors, to provide the liquidity essential to efficient trading. More sophisticated technology in executing trades quickly and accurately. And a bigger and more diverse range of listed companies to trade in.
For any investor, the key is to make a transaction at an ideal price. And it’s the biggest exchanges, with the largest number of trading participants, that are best able to buy or sell a security on behalf of an investor at the price closest to what the investor hopes for.
A larger exchange also enables the investor to buy or sell shares in the volume she or he seeks, and at the speed desired. Smaller exchanges lacking this all-important liquidity often require an hour or several days to execute a trade that could be accomplished in seconds on a larger exchange.
That’s because on smaller exchanges there simply aren’t enough traders with access to the amount of stock an investor seeks in order to carry out the trade quickly. An investor might watch helplessly as a stock’s price moves out of his or her desired range while waiting for the transaction to be completed.
Investors in resource stocks, especially, can expect a combined TMX/LSE, as the dominant energy and mining exchange in the world, to attract the traders and analysts with the greatest expertise in that specialized realm. Which means investors should be able to get a better transaction price – whether buying or selling – than any other bourse can offer.
Both of these exchanges have been conspicuously well-run over the past decade. Each has greatly expanded its reach.
Over the past decade, TMX has absorbed most of its rival Canadian exchanges. The LSE, in its goal of becoming a meaningful rival to the mighty New York Stock Exchange, has vastly increased its roster of listed companies.
The LSE, due to London’s diverse population and its relative proximity to the emerging markets of Russia and Central Europe, has made tremendous inroads as the exchange of choice for new companies in that region.
Thus the new exchange is, for Canadian investors, a gateway to both blue-chip European firms like Siemens AG and Renault SA and to emerging tech and manufacturing start-ups based in Prague, Warsaw, St. Petersburg and elsewhere on the Continent.
For European investors, particularly those unfamiliar with, or a bit suspicious of, New World investments, the new trading arena will be seen as a safe means becoming introduced to the likes of Suncor Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and non-energy blue-chips like Shoppers Drug Mart Ltd., Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. and Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada.
What that means, in turn, is higher prices for stock in Canadian companies held by Canadian investors, as they become better known to global investors.
Senior exchanges like the TMX/LSE combo also boast the strictest listing requirements of world bourses. Requirements imposed on companies for initial listing and maintaining a listing will be among the highest in the equities world.
Presumably, shares on the new exchange will come under the supervision of Britain’s Financial Securities Authority (FSA). The FSA is a far more vigorous monitor of good behavior than the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has proven to be.
An ironic consequence of this $6.9-billion deal, should it win the required blessing of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, is that the interminable squabbling among provinces to create a national securities regulator may become moot.
Effectively, the tougher FSA would become Canada’s securities regulator, even if polite noises are made about sharing duties with the OSC. As a practical matter, Britain will not expose investors on an exchange it helps regulate to fraudulent behaviour, and risk losing investors and plum blue-chip listings.
And that would be a boon to Canadian investors, who’ve had their fill of Bre-X and Livent scandals that have been resolved only at great length and to no one’s satisfaction.
The planned merger would put an end to Canadian securities-trading sovereignty. But investors will find that a small price to pay for the end of a tradition that began 150 years ago, when two dozen local businesspeople gathered at a Masonic hall to launch the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The researchers recommend that retailers use lighting, advertising, store displays and service to induce "a specific positive emotion." They also mention that, if you sell home furnishings, being beside a restaurant is a good idea – restaurants being filled "with full and contented potential shoppers."
Brent Barr, marketing professor at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management, says 85 per cent of our purchases are made "at the store counter," so the in-store experience is important.
He says stores can put up pictures of Olympic athletes, for example, or other heroes such as astronauts. This will induce pride in shoppers who "believe they have the same attributes."
Retailers who want to create an atmosphere of contentment – say, they sell track pants or furniture – "need places to sit and music that is not overwhelming."
Barr says stores have to make it easy to shop, "create an atmosphere that is not unlike your living room."
David McDermid, coordinator of visual marketing for Seneca College, says stores draw shoppers inside by using flashy window displays – think Holt Renfrew – that showcase their wares. Here's where the emotional shopping experience begins, he says.
His students practice window decorating at the community college. These days, they have Olympic-themed windows and windows dedicated to raising funds for Haiti relief. Both themes inspire pride, McDermid suggests, as they appeal to our nationalism as well as our altruism.
Although stores can play around with lighting and colour for mood – blue and green are said to be calming, he says – the shoppers have got to see the merchandise.
Stores like Anthropologie, which sells clothing as well as home furniture in a setting filled with art and accessories, "have a relaxed feeling, soft lighting and chairs to sit in." This atmosphere helps create feelings of contentment, he says.
Another consumer study to be published in the journal and available online, titled Planning to Make Unplanned Purchases, reports that shoppers actually mentally budget for spontaneous purchases. Whether they spend this amount – or more – depends on the time they spend in the store.
Dale Peers, who teaches the history and psychology of fashion at Seneca College, says stores do their darndest to keep us inside once we are through the door. That's why the aisles in supermarkets are so long, she says, so we can't "zigzag through the store" to get what we want. Also staples, such as milk, will be right at the back of the store, she says, making us travel past many products to get to them.
"As you are walking to the milk, you see the Oreo cookies and say, `That would go well with my milk.'"
Another staple, bread, is way across the store in another direction, she adds. The study showed the more aisles people walked down, the more they bought.
There may be 12 cash registers but there will never be 12 cashiers, says Peers, as "they don't want you to get out fast. They want you lined up, looking at the end of the aisles and all those impulse items."
=====================================================================
Toronto, London stock merger a dream for investors
By David Olive
What does a trans-Atlantic merger of the dominant stock exchanges of Canada and Britain mean for First off, there’s greater liquidity. The proposed merger between Toronto’s TMX Group Inc. and London Stock Exchange PLC, confirmed by each exchange yesterday, creates the world’s largest resources-based exchange.
The merged exchanges would also rank eighth in the world overall. And they would boast more listed companies than any other bourse.
A bigger exchange means more of everything.
More volume and value of daily trading. More traders and investors, to provide the liquidity essential to efficient trading. More sophisticated technology in executing trades quickly and accurately. And a bigger and more diverse range of listed companies to trade in.
For any investor, the key is to make a transaction at an ideal price. And it’s the biggest exchanges, with the largest number of trading participants, that are best able to buy or sell a security on behalf of an investor at the price closest to what the investor hopes for.
A larger exchange also enables the investor to buy or sell shares in the volume she or he seeks, and at the speed desired. Smaller exchanges lacking this all-important liquidity often require an hour or several days to execute a trade that could be accomplished in seconds on a larger exchange.
That’s because on smaller exchanges there simply aren’t enough traders with access to the amount of stock an investor seeks in order to carry out the trade quickly. An investor might watch helplessly as a stock’s price moves out of his or her desired range while waiting for the transaction to be completed.
Investors in resource stocks, especially, can expect a combined TMX/LSE, as the dominant energy and mining exchange in the world, to attract the traders and analysts with the greatest expertise in that specialized realm. Which means investors should be able to get a better transaction price – whether buying or selling – than any other bourse can offer.
Both of these exchanges have been conspicuously well-run over the past decade. Each has greatly expanded its reach.
Over the past decade, TMX has absorbed most of its rival Canadian exchanges. The LSE, in its goal of becoming a meaningful rival to the mighty New York Stock Exchange, has vastly increased its roster of listed companies.
The LSE, due to London’s diverse population and its relative proximity to the emerging markets of Russia and Central Europe, has made tremendous inroads as the exchange of choice for new companies in that region.
Thus the new exchange is, for Canadian investors, a gateway to both blue-chip European firms like Siemens AG and Renault SA and to emerging tech and manufacturing start-ups based in Prague, Warsaw, St. Petersburg and elsewhere on the Continent.
For European investors, particularly those unfamiliar with, or a bit suspicious of, New World investments, the new trading arena will be seen as a safe means becoming introduced to the likes of Suncor Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and non-energy blue-chips like Shoppers Drug Mart Ltd., Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. and Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada.
What that means, in turn, is higher prices for stock in Canadian companies held by Canadian investors, as they become better known to global investors.
Senior exchanges like the TMX/LSE combo also boast the strictest listing requirements of world bourses. Requirements imposed on companies for initial listing and maintaining a listing will be among the highest in the equities world.
Presumably, shares on the new exchange will come under the supervision of Britain’s Financial Securities Authority (FSA). The FSA is a far more vigorous monitor of good behavior than the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has proven to be.
An ironic consequence of this $6.9-billion deal, should it win the required blessing of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, is that the interminable squabbling among provinces to create a national securities regulator may become moot.
Effectively, the tougher FSA would become Canada’s securities regulator, even if polite noises are made about sharing duties with the OSC. As a practical matter, Britain will not expose investors on an exchange it helps regulate to fraudulent behaviour, and risk losing investors and plum blue-chip listings.
And that would be a boon to Canadian investors, who’ve had their fill of Bre-X and Livent scandals that have been resolved only at great length and to no one’s satisfaction.
