As I prepare for graduation, one of the things that I am starting to do is apartment hunt. While this should seem exciting, honestly, its quite overwhelming. Not only do I need to budget for rent and food, but if I want to furnish it, I need to budget for furniture and appliances. In college, theres a mantra, keep it “cheap and cheerful.” This applies to lots of things: dinner, clothing, weekend trips… to name a few. While eating ramen in college may be socially acceptable, its not so much after you graduate. When I think about purchasing things for after college, I have that same mentality of affordability over longevity. I believe that a book focusing on how to create a lifestyle that is more sustainable and satisfying would hit your target market. Currently, in the market, most “sustainable” books focus on eating sustainably, or how to decrease your carbon footprint, but nothing that really sparks interest in a 20-something. At this age, we are contemplating our first big purchases, and if we get into the mindset of price over quality, its a habit that may stay with us for a lifetime.
Often, sustainable lifestyles are associated with being “green for the environment,” and as we have discussed in class, this is not the case. A wise consumer not only focuses on the external repercussions of their purchase, but on how it impacts them as a being. A book focusing on how to make these seemingly big purchasing decisions could be incredibly useful as I navigate the “adult world.”
Personally, I would use psychology to explain the practical aspects of consumer wisdom. While I am interested in why we make the decisions we do, and how consumer wisdom works, I am more interested in how it can enhance my life. I would definitely use case studies- especially the one about Birkenstocks as it is a product that many millennials own, and can be considered a wise purchase due to their longevity and quality. In terms of practicality, I would show the cost benefit for purchasing one item over another, and elaborate on how an individual can determine whether their purchase would constitute as a wise decision. Visuals could be beneficial in order to compare two products, but I would stay away from complex matrices and showing too much data. The bottom line is keep it simple.
If I were to name the book, I would call it “The art of wise decisions.” The title, Consumer Wisdom seems too much like a textbook.