During the commute today I listened to Design of Desire, an excellent audio documentary on our consumer tendencies from American RadioWorks.
New research is lending insight into why we want stuff that we don’t need. It also explains why some people are what are called tightwads, while other people are spendthrifts. This site is about buying and selling. About why we buy, how designers and marketers influence what we buy, and how individuals are using market ideas, tricks, and tools to market themselves.
The segments on the psychology behind the pain and pleasure of shopping and how marketers design every aspect of the shopping experience were both very interesting.
But the best part was the third section about how teenagers are creating a brand for themselves using the tools provided on social networking sites like Facebook.
Teenagers are among the most lucrative target markets for companies, but they’ve always been a target market for each other. Today, there’s an arsenal of new tools they can use to say, “check me out.”
Add the program to your listening list. It’s worth an hour of your time.