The Relationship Between Impulse Buying and Sensation Seeking - Essay Example

The Relationship between Impulse Buying and Sensation Seeking Discussion The results revealed that there was a weak positive correlation between sensation seeking and impulse buying. However they revealed there was a relations hip between risk taking behaviour and emotional gratification and impulse buying.   The results were a stark contrast to the research done by Reynolds, Ortengren and Richards (2006) who found that sensation seeking normally leads to impulse buying. According to the researchers, individuals who show signs of maladaptive shopping behaviors are more likely to suffer from distress and financial constraints, most of them being females. Such people normally think about shopping a lot. They are also likely to experience some form of anxiety or relief before they make their purchases. They used this observation to conclude that impulse buyers are sensation seekers. However they did not offer enough evidence to show that the feelings of anxiety or relief that impulse buyers feel is due to a sensation seeking behavior. The results also contradicted what some researchers found that the needs for unique experiences as well as the willingness to take risks so as to fulfill this experience are some of the reasons for impulse buying (Youn and Faber, 2000 and Verplanken and Herabadi, 2001). The results show no relation between risk taking and impulse buying. Also contrary to previous research, the results show that the willingness to do anything to take risks so as to fulfill some unique experiences has got nothing to do with impulse buying. Instead the results show that most people are engaged in impulse buying because they see something they like and they buy it because they have the money to do so at that particular moment. Youn and Faber (2000) and Verplanken and Herabadi (2001) observed that impulse buying is as a result of an uncontrollable need to experience some kind of sensation, thus concluding that impulse buying was related to sensation seeking. The difference in findings could be due to the fact that the researchers used a population sample comprised of young women; they did not include other demographics in their research. The results also contradict the notion that impulse buying is a form of sensation seeking behavior that is characterized by the pursuit of novel and/or intense and complex sensations as proposed by Rook (1987). In many cases of impulse buying, the researcher found that an individual normally experiences a persistently powerful urge to purchase the product immediately without putting much thought into the consequences of buying it. However these findings are not conclusive as they do not indicate under which conditions the buyer might fell that they have to buy something regardless of the consequences. The researcher also fails to conclusively indicate the correlation of impulse buying behavior and the lack of concern with one’s finances which might be translated as sensation seeking behavior. Instead the results show that impulse buying is a simple activity not related at all to any complex needs. The findings however support the research done by (Zuckerman, 2007) which indicates that there are people who prepare budgets, but they still end up buying things that they had not planned to buy. Zuckerman also observes that there is a category of people who just buy anything they think will delight them. This confirms the findings of this research which show no correlation whatsoever between impulse buying and sensation seeking. However the findings Zuckerman support the findings that impulse buying is an emotional rather than rational behavior that does not have to result from sensation seeking tendencies. The results in this study indicate that impulse buyers normally purchase items without really thinking about the consequences, an act that is not necessarily a reflection of sensation seeking tendencies. This observation has been supported by various researchers who have come to the similar conclusion about impulse buying and emotional situation at the time of buying. In their research, Horvath and Zuckerman (1993) found that people who have tendencies of continuous impulse buying normally base their decisions on emotion rather than rational thought. The researchers did not find any correlation between emotion or rational buying and sensation seeking. Another researcher who finds no correlation between sensation seeking and impulse buying is Reid (1980). According to him, sensation seeking is a genetic trait that is likely to make a person emotionally excited leading him or her to make a purchase when he sees something he likes and wants to buy. This is in line with the findings of this research which show a lack of relationship between impulse buying and sensation seeking but find that there is a link between a person’s emotions and impulsive buying. This research has found that impulse buying is as a result of many different factors and it is not pinned to sensation seeking alone. Although most impulse buyers may be risk takers, that does not mean that they have sensation seeking tendencies. One limitation of this research is that it explored only the relationship between sensation seeking and buying behavior of people from a specific region. Another limitation has got to do with the fact that the research did not show what other factors are related to impulse buying other than emotion gratification and yet there is a likelihood that genetics psychology may have a role to play in the decisions people make to buy things impulsively. There is need to carry out further research in this area so as to ascertain for sure whether or not sensation seeking has got anything to do with impulse buying or it is purely as a result of emotional gratification as these findings show. The findings in this research that show a lack of correlation between impulse buying and sensation behavior are useful for consumer goods and services producers and marketers. The findings show that impulse buying is more of a result of emotions than anything else. Marketers can use this information to create marketing strategies that will make their products more appealing to consumers’ emotions. From the findings, it is clear that impulse buying has no relation to sensation seeking behavior. The results however show that impulse buying is as a result of unplanned purchasing characterized by lack of budgeting and normally guided by emotion rather than rational thought. Further research is required in this area to ascertain for sure what causes impulse buying and how this may implicate the marketing of products and services. Read More