Consumer Behaviour – Impulsive purchases
For one week, I have listed all my purchases in a journal (App. 1) and selected three products
to analyse one major psychological mechanism that has led to the buying. The goal of this
assignment is to understand the influences behind and the consequences of these purchases.
On 16th November I clicked on an Instagram story of a fitness Influencer and saw an ad of
RockaNutrition’s new “Joker” protein bar (App. 2). The bar looked nice and interesting and
that is why I swiped up and was forwarded to their online shop. The packaging looked very
appealing by its modern light-blue cover, and the picture of the bar on it conveyed the
message of a high-quality product. The sensory stimuli triggered my appetite as I have
already imagined the taste of the caramel in my mouth when I saw the picture of the bar on
the package (App. 3). I consider fitness Influencer as an important reference group and with
this product I got approval by them because they made regular advertisement for the protein
bar by verifying its great taste and texture since most protein bars taste rather “sandy” and
dry. Due to the fact that RockaNutrition is a well-known brand for fitness supplements on
Instagram and the first firm coming into my mind when I think about fitness utilities, buying
products from them reduced my perceived risk because I know they have great products.
Referring to Goldstein (2007), “[…] customers may prefer a recognized brand even if it has
clear shortcomings […]”. The rather high price of 32€ can be seen as a shortcoming, but in
contrast to other protein bars, these ones are produced without collagen and have better
nutritional values justifying the price. My uncontrolled urge to try the bars together with the
good references from Influencers led to an impulsive purchase of the protein bars. Santhi and
Aruna (2015) describe, “Consumers engage in impulse buying when they experience a
sudden but powerful persistent urge to buy product offers immediately without due regard to
the consequences of buying the offering.” Looking back, I can verify to have ignored possible
For one week, I have listed all my purchases in a journal (App. 1) and selected three products
to analyse one major psychological mechanism that has led to the buying. The goal of this
assignment is to understand the influences behind and the consequences of these purchases.
On 16th November I clicked on an Instagram story of a fitness Influencer and saw an ad of
RockaNutrition’s new “Joker” protein bar (App. 2). The bar looked nice and interesting and
that is why I swiped up and was forwarded to their online shop. The packaging looked very
appealing by its modern light-blue cover, and the picture of the bar on it conveyed the
message of a high-quality product. The sensory stimuli triggered my appetite as I have
already imagined the taste of the caramel in my mouth when I saw the picture of the bar on
the package (App. 3). I consider fitness Influencer as an important reference group and with
this product I got approval by them because they made regular advertisement for the protein
bar by verifying its great taste and texture since most protein bars taste rather “sandy” and
dry. Due to the fact that RockaNutrition is a well-known brand for fitness supplements on
Instagram and the first firm coming into my mind when I think about fitness utilities, buying
products from them reduced my perceived risk because I know they have great products.
Referring to Goldstein (2007), “[…] customers may prefer a recognized brand even if it has
clear shortcomings […]”. The rather high price of 32€ can be seen as a shortcoming, but in
contrast to other protein bars, these ones are produced without collagen and have better
nutritional values justifying the price. My uncontrolled urge to try the bars together with the
good references from Influencers led to an impulsive purchase of the protein bars. Santhi and
Aruna (2015) describe, “Consumers engage in impulse buying when they experience a
sudden but powerful persistent urge to buy product offers immediately without due regard to
the consequences of buying the offering.” Looking back, I can verify to have ignored possible
