Week 12 Blog Post

New Collections and Old Tactics: Amazon is really good at getting you to spend money.

I really like football, more specifically, college football. I look forward to it every year, and am sad when it is over in January. Recently, I have decided to start collected mini football helmets of each team. The helmets are a little bit bigger that the size of a softball and are about 22 dollars each. I have decided that I like Schutt helmets more that Riddell helmets and that I prefer the more traditional designs, rather than the new futuristic designs. As I’ve started searching and looking for old designs, Amazon has started to catch on to that and advertise Schutt helmets and older designs on my Facebook through cookies. They also say different things under the advertisements such as, “Only 3 left,” or “Last One,” in an attempt to get me to buy them. I’m sorry to say that that has worked a couple times already.

The value I place on the helmets is my own, I value older designs more than newer designs. This plays into how willing I am to buy a new helmet because I’m worried about if I’ll be able to find the old designs in a few years. This has played into which helmets I have ordered on my “Priority List,” which is basically helmets that I have researched and found older designs. I might not always be able to buy these helmets which makes me want to buy them sooner. This tactic is know as the Limited Number tactic in the Scarcity Principle. It has really been evident that I have been really close to impulse buying a few helmets that I just don’t need yet, because I as a consumer I am worried I might miss out.

As I move forward with my collection I have realized that if I like a certain style of helmet, chances are that I can find it somewhere online. However, the cookies used online are already pretty specific to each user. It’s interesting to think if based on searches and looks if companies will start combining the technology side with the human side of cookies. A computer can only give basic suggestions based on my past searches, but if a real person analyzed my searches they might be able to see my tendencies toward older designs. This would allow for even more targeted advertising. It’s crazy how linked everything is today through technology and social media. My Instagram and Facebook are linked together, which allows my cookies to be shared even more. I’m not one of those paranoid people, who are afraid of the “Big Brother.” It is interesting, however, just how much information people can gain from my internet and Amazon searches. I don’t feel the need to delete my searches especially if it can lead me to more rare finds, however, I do think I should be a little more careful when it comes to releasing information about myself, just to be safe.

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