I know you guys can help me put a name to the concept of usage/time commitment a consumer subconsciously assigns to a product at the time of purchase.
For example: A tube of toothpaste probably requires a 30-day commitment. When you buy that tube of toothpaste, you’re probably going to be committed to using it for a whole month – or until it runs out. Same with a stick of deodorant, a gallon jar of pickles, or a giant can of powdered Gatorade. As a consumer, I am conscious that once I buy this item, I will be stuck with it for a while… so I had better like it. This surely influences my decision to buy a product I won’t get tired of before it runs out.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the products that require almost zero commitment, like a bag of chips, a gallon of gas, or a cup of Starbucks coffee, where screwing up by buying the wrong thing doesn’t really matter.
If I wanted to gauge the notion of that time commitment at the point of purchase across product categories and brands, what would I call it?
This could be called my “investment quotient” or “IQ” just to make things confusing. If IQ across brands takes off as a catch phrase I want a cut
Anyway it’s a cool idea.
It’s catchy anyway.
It is kind of interesting that this concept of time commitment to a product may be seen a relatively newer thing in consuming markets. Consider the role or preservatives and refrigeration (at least for food stuff). With such a product is more apt to last a lot longer, thus extending the time commitment that you the consumer have to said product. Even a hundred years ago technology did not allow for this same degree of convenience. Also consider the popularity of bulk product stores like Sam’s Club and Costco where not only might you be buying things that will last for quite some time but you are also buying quite a lot of the product. I wonder if this says something about the hording culture that we live in. We may not actually need a product to last us for months at a time because we may barely use it and yet we are willing to invest in the sense that it will last. Interesting post Olivier, gives one a lot to think about.
Are you talking about a product life cycle, or product life span?
Unit lifespan.
What about instead of “space / time continuum” you used a “satisfaction / time continuum?”
In other words, correlate the relative use and pleasure of consumption against the amount of time during which the consumption takes place? The goal being to have high satisfaction across the entire spectrum of time.
Obviously, some brands, like Starbucks, can have a very high satisfaction, but a very short time continuum (the 10-15 minutes after purchase), whereas an automobile or major appliance purchase is much longer.
Obviously, market branding works best when you can maintain the highest levels of satisfaction for the longest periods of time. For example, how much more satisfaction do BMW owners have towards their automobile 10 years after its purchase in relationship to say, Chevy?
And besides, continuum is a cool word, being only one of two words in the English language that has two u’s right next to each other . . .
-Steve
Satisfaction-time continuum. I like it.
How about the time honoured “involvement”? There’s always been a nice correlation between the level of risk (physical, financial, social) involved in a decision (commercial or otherwise) and the level of involvement in the decision.
Involvement to me involves (sic) elements of anxiety, time allotment, information need and “securitizing” (the propensity to insure against failure). But maybe what you’re seeking is a term for just one of these elements?
Temporal Investment?