First, between emotion and symbol-the consumption behavior of contemporary college students
According to the definition of American Marketing Research Institute (AMA), consumer behavior is "a dynamic interactive process among emotion, cognition, behavior and environmental factors, which is the behavioral basis for human beings to perform exchange functions in life". [1] Perceptual students' consumption behavior on the university campus must take many forms:
(A) Irrepressible emotional consumption
College students are a special consumer class, and their consumption behavior embodies the characteristics of pursuing new trends, new fashions and new tastes, and has more emotional factors than other groups. Because they not only hope that goods can meet people's needs in practicality, but also hope that goods can make people get spiritual pleasure and psychological satisfaction in use and viewing. Generally speaking, college students are more willing to buy goods that can meet their emotional needs to the greatest extent, and their consumption behavior pays more attention to sensory satisfaction. They perceive and know the world with keen senses. People's feelings include sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste ... Just because the same product is slightly different in color or packaging, college students may look at it and buy it, or they may ignore it at a glance. In other words, their understanding of the world is more emotional. When something outside is perceived by them and arouses their emotions, they will follow it with ecstasy. Therefore, their consumption behavior is more likely to be dominated by emotions and more likely to follow their feelings. Secondly, the independence of college students is gradually enhanced, and their attachment and conformity psychology are decreasing. Under the influence of this psychology, college students' emotions and intuition play a very important role in the process of buying goods. When emotion and reason collide, it is usually dominated by emotion and easy to get emotional. At the same time, college students' emotional "bipolar" psychology in consumption is also very obvious, and whether they are sure is also clear and strong. As long as a commodity meets personal needs and interests and arouses positive emotions, it will form a preference and pursuit for the commodity; On the contrary, it will produce a negative and contradictory mood, disgust and rejection of goods.
(B) irresistible symbol consumption
Jean baudrillard, a French sociologist, believes that goods have another value attribute besides use value and exchange value, that is, symbolic value. The symbolic value of commodity is its function of showing social class and distinguishing society. The more a commodity can reflect the social status and prestige of consumers, the more it can distinguish consumers from others, and the higher its symbolic value. This kind of consumption behavior, which pays attention to the social and personal information conveyed by commodities, is called symbolic consumption. [2] In this way, the products or brands that people choose and consume have become a tool for self-expression and individuality, a symbol of social group culture, and a symbol of mutual recognition and extra points among people. Therefore, symbol consumption can be divided into two forms of symbol expression: one is "convergence" and the other is "difference". The so-called "convergence" is to show the identity, consistency and unity with a certain social class or small group you agree with through consumption. When consumers see what others buy, they don't need it, but they will follow suit. The purpose of "buying" is only to keep oneself in the so-called consistency with social groups. Students wear Nike shoes, so do I, others have Swatch watches, so do I. The convergent fashion consumption makes college students have a sense of belonging to the group, just like getting a ticket to the "fashion social circle", thus getting rid of the criticism of "backwardness". The so-called "showing difference" is to show your difference and others' difference through consumption. When you use the pager, I have already used my mobile phone; You only used a 3000 yuan mobile phone, but I have already spent 5000 yuan or even 1000 yuan to show my uniqueness.
(C) "insincere" image consumption
"In modern society, what do consumers represent? It doesn't make any sense. What can he be? Everything, or almost everything. Because he is alone with millions of lonely people, he is dominated by all interests. " [3]
Today's students are no longer Confucian scholars who "turn a deaf ear to things outside the window and concentrate on reading sage books" They pursue novelty, have diverse needs and lead the consumption fashion; They are lively, emotional and spontaneous, but they can't help spending impulsively. In the era of rich and colorful material life and spiritual life, today, when they express themselves and show their individuality, they pay more attention to and care about their appearance image than any group or period in the past, and do whatever it takes. In their eyes, the consumption of skin care products, whitening and freckle removing products, eyebrow shaping, tooth washing, breast augmentation products, body care products, weight loss products and so on is commonplace. Some people even realize the dream of "artificial beauty" and "artificial handsome boy" at a high price. As Giddens said, "Our bodies are increasingly becoming the objects of self-examination, reflection, planning and transformation". In addition, we should also see that the surplus of human resources and the increasing employment pressure are also one of the reasons why college students attach importance to image consumption. In the case of imperfect relevant laws and regulations, some employing enterprises and units adopt employment policies of "age discrimination" and "appearance discrimination". For example, in the job advertisements of many companies and units, it is publicly declared that applicants over the age of 35 will not be recruited, and some even have harsh restrictions on height and appearance, which are beyond the needs of job roles. Therefore, in order to delay the aging, cover up the image shortcomings and increase the image charm, college students who are in the ivory tower and about to leave the ivory tower have to pay attention to image consumption.
Second, restless demand-psychological reasons for consumer behavior
Nowadays, most college students are around 20 years old, and many of them are only children. They have lived in comfortable environment and conditions since childhood, and their psychological strain and endurance are poor. Changes in the outside world will have a greater impact on their psychology. The consumption of college students is also under the influence of certain psychological factors.
(A) consumer psychology, consumer behavior and college students
The psychological activities of consumers in buying goods refer to a series of psychological activities that occur in the whole process of consumers' buying behavior. It is the comprehensive response of consumers to objective consumers and their own subjective consumption needs, and [4] is the decisive factor of consumption. Human psychology is very complicated, including feeling, perception, memory, thinking, imagination, emotion, will and so on. These factors are the key factors that affect or determine consumer behavior, but they do not work in isolation. In fact, they are interactive. The change of any one factor may cause the change of other factors, and any one factor is also influenced or determined by other factors. Consumer behavior is the process of interaction between these factors. At a certain point, it can be considered as the result of the interaction of these factors. For example, a certain emotional reaction state (such as anger or surprise), a certain cognitive reaction state (such as recognition or evaluation of a brand) and a certain behavioral reaction (such as consumption of a brand) of consumers are all the results of the interaction of the above factors. Moreover, these factors will change over time, and the change of any one key factor may lead to the change of the whole consumer behavior. In other words, different consumers or groups, different periods and different products or services may have different consumption behaviors. Although consumers' consumption psychology (consumption decision-making process) is unknown, consumers' external consumption behavior not only reflects the influence of external environment on their consumption behavior, but also reflects their own characteristics that play a decisive role in purchasing decision, such as cultural education and psychological quality. College students' educational experience and special campus environment make them a special consumer group in society, with different consumer needs, special consumer psychology and different consumer behaviors.
(B) the unique psychological characteristics under the guidance of consumer psychology
College students are in the youth of life, and the consumption psychology at this stage has its own psychological development characteristics and laws. In youth, with the development of the body, the ability of abstract thinking, memory, perception, understanding and adaptability to the environment has been greatly developed, and personality has basically formed. In line with these psychological development conditions, the consumption psychology of young college students is also unique: because of their wide knowledge, they pursue knowledge in consumption; Because of their enthusiasm for new things, they will pursue fashion and trends in consumption, emphasizing beauty and generosity; Because they have a strong personality, they will be emotional when they consume, and they will buy on impulse. Impulse buying is often more than planned buying. Because of creativity, they will also pay attention to individuality and pursue uniqueness in consumption.
Although college students are not yet financially independent, they have independent purchasing power and poor willpower when shopping. As long as they have money in their pockets, they can't wait to buy what they like. These characteristics are embodied in consumer psychology and buying behavior, namely: 1, pursuing novelty. Although college students are on campus, they have plenty of time for social contact and practice. With certain social skills, they can also make decisions on some things independently. At the same time, for middle school students, there is no pressure of college entrance examination, and for adults, there is no heavy pressure of work, society and family. They can really put down their shackles, spend what they like and pursue what they like. Novel products attract their attention most, and some students have reached the point where they don't want anything. 2. Emphasize "aesthetic feeling". In other words, the aesthetic value of goods should be consistent with their own aesthetics. However, the aesthetic feelings of college students are not completely consistent with traditional aesthetics. In their eyes, maybe imperfection is beauty, and asymmetry can also achieve beauty ... as long as "I" thinks it is beautiful, then "it" is beautiful. There is no reason to choose "it". 3, chasing fashion. With the gradual maturity of physiology and psychology, college students begin to chase social games of adults, and fashion activities are the closest way of life. Fashion itself can attract the attention of others, which coincides with the psychological characteristics of college students who want to attract the attention of others. Therefore, chasing fashion is not only the consumption characteristics of different types of social members, but also meets the psychological needs of college students.