What’s In A Name?

Your name may affect your buying behavior

Alright. I thought I’d heard it all. And then I read this article about a research study conducted at Georgetown University’s School of Business that concluded that a person’s last name is predictive of how quickly one responds to an advertising offer. According to the study’s author, those whose names begin with a letter toward the back of the alphabet, are more likely to respond quickly offers while those at the front of the alphabet are more likely to take their time in responding. Seriously? The author attributes this behavior to the fact that in school, we were lined up in alphabetical order, so that those at the front of the line got used to always being first and those of us at the back of the line became accustomed to waiting our turn. Hmmm. My last name is toward the end of the alphabet, but when LivingSocial released its $20 Amazon bucks for $10 last week I dawdled just long enough to miss out on a great deal. LivingSocial reportedly sold $1.3 million of the Amazon deal, so I suspect that customers from A to Z all got in on the action. That just goes to show you…

OwnerLESSness

While the economy has put a big-time damper on our ability to buy many of the things we once did, it hasn’t suppressed our desire for luxury and convenience. But with so much economic uncertainty, many purchases are just not wise and, for many, financially impossible. “Traditional ownership implies a certain level of responsibility, cost and commitment,” says Trendwatching.com. Consumers are remaining fiscally responsible while satisfying their desires by going ownerless. Why buy when, for just a fraction of the price, you can rent?

Last fall, when my daughter started college, I anticipated that textbooks would be a large part of our budget. Our budget was rescued by CollegeBookRenter.com! We rented all of her books, most in new or almost-new condition. They were shipped straight to our door, and we returned them just as easily. The best part was that the cost was about 30% of what we would have paid for new books!

Cash-strapped and thrifty consumers can rent everything from purses to parking spaces. Onenightaffair.com offers designer gown rentals that can be accessorized with diamond earrings or necklace from jewleryadorn.com. At avelle.com (formerly Bag, Borrow or Steal), handbag aficionados can rent the latest Prada for a week or month at a time, and complete their look with a pair of Valentino sunglasses from blingyourself.com.

As for me, I’m headed over to Barclays.com to sign up for a bike-on-demand to get around on while my family visits London through a home-swap arrangement through homelink.org.