Chapter 6: Buying Classes and Milk

For my chapter six blog post, I want to focus on the slide in the power point that talked about the “buy classes” and different types of purchases.  For the purpose of this post, I will focus on one product and then choose the different variations of this product based off of the different types of purchases. This product that I will center my examples around is one of my favorite beverages, milk.

For me personally, when I buy milk and I want to make my purchase easy and do a straight rebuy (which of course requires the lowest effort) I choose 2% milk. This is a purchase I have made countless times and it is a very easy decision to make when I want to just stay within my comfort zone.

However, when I’m feeling adventurous and want to try something different and new (when it comes to milk), I would go with a modified rebuy. This will take some effort, more than what a straight buy would require and I will have to take a little more time deciding what to purchase. For my milk example, a modified rebuy might be 1% milk or chocolate milk. Neither are quite the same product as my straight purchase (2% milk), but the taste very similar and obviously have the same core product. This purchase won’t be a difficult one, but it won’t be an easy one either.

Finally, if I really want to try something completely different, something completely new when it comes to a milk type purchase, I would do what is called a new-task buy. This requires the most effort out of all of the decisions and will take a lot of working deciding which product to go with. Staying within the realm of my product milk, if I am to do a new-task buy, I might purchase a type of milk that is lactose free, maybe Silk (soy milk) or muscle milk. I might also choose a type of milk that isn’t from a cow at all, perhaps goat milk. This product would be much more risky than my original purchase of normal 2% milk and would be a much more complicated and tough decision. This purchase would also be far more risky as well considering there is a good chance I might not like my new product choice at all.

In conclusion, when buying products, whether it is groceries, electronics, or sporting equipment, you can always find a certain class that your purchase will fit in. This might be a purchase that you’ve made hundreds of times and therefore it would be a straight rebuy, but if you stray from this comfortable purchase and choose something that’s different in only a slight way or a much larger way, your purchase would be qualified as a modified rebuy or a new-task buy. This is yet another marketing concept that we may not notice, but it is always happening and always present.