My experience
During the past summer holidays, I needed to buy a new phone that would replace my old phone that kept having problems every time. I did not have much money, therefore, I had settled on buying a low cost smart phone with the features that I required. In my mind, I had two brands that I was looking forward to purchase. I was either going to purchase a Samsung galaxy or a HTC smartphone. I had gathered around $ 250 that I was going to use to make the purchase. However, when I went to the phone store, there was a huge variety of phones from different manufacturers retailing at a price below my set target. The phones that I also wanted to purchase which were either a Samsung or a HTC were also available but slightly priced higher than by budget by a few dollars. So I resorted to seek the help of a marketer who was readily available little did I know that she represented the Sony brand. The marketer used my weak knowledge of the brands that were available to move my thoughts from Samsung and HTC to Sony which was priced at $350, $100 above my budget. I tried to tell the marketer about the need to save the $100 but she kept on insisting on quality and better features offered by the Sony Z-series smartphone. So I decided to top up the $100 to add to the money I had and make the phone purchase.
Personal reaction
When I got home with the phone, I realized that I had made a mistake since I used $100 extra which was not necessary since the features offered were similar to the ones on a Samsung smartphone or HTC. The marketer used persuasive communication skills to lure me into a purchase of a product that I did not even think of purchasing at first. The purchase of the smartphone was not the right decision and I got frustrated about it since all my friends also thought I got easily persuaded into buying something that I did not like. After leaving the shop, I kept asking myself whether the sales representative keeps persuading every buyer who visits the shop to look for new products or even why there were no other sales representatives to represent other brands in the shop. The sales representative took advantage of the fact that I had little knowledge about the Sony z-series smartphones and their prices and also the fact that I was seeking advice from her leaving all other sales representatives in the shop.
Scholarly analysis
The attribution theory is one of the theories that explain such a situation of persuasion in marketing that can influence a customer’s decision. The theory explains that people look forward to influence the actions of others through situational attribution or dispositional attribution. The fundamental principle that applies in my case is the situational attribution where a person takes advantage of the current situation to ensure that there is the best result acquired according to a study conducted. It is important for persons to know the right decisions to make and not let the influence of persuasive marketing communication technique work in influencing their decisions in the long run. The change of decisions due to the pressure that an individual places on another is part of the balance theory.
