To answer the question of whether money buys happiness,

I took my family shopping.

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When I was younger because there were so many of us between my dad and step mum’s direct families (7 people to be exact) at Christmas time instead of the normal gift purchasing process, we would go to a shopping centre, and have an hour with $5 per person to buy a gift for everyone. For a bit of fun but also to explore the relationship between price and brand relationship, I decided to recreate this activity.

 

Gift-giving adds a deeper layer to what a brand relationship means to us as consumers. It’s not only about how we perceive that brand, but how we think the gift-receiver will perceive it, and how that might reflect on how we both view our relationship. Andrew G Parsons wrote that when it comes to gift-giving we look for products with greater perceived symbolic benefits. The bottom line is that even on a budget as low as $5, for a gift we still want something that’s decent quality, and that has a symbolic meaning and/or reflects some aspect of the receiver’s preferences/character.

 

Now with only $5 no one is expecting Gucci, but that’s because we don’t expect to find anything for $5 in a Gucci store. But there are other places that we associate with low price – some that my family visits in my video are Kmart, Target, and The Reject Shop.

 

Let’s look at Kmart specifically. I have bought gifts there in the past for $10-$20 for outer-circle friends and family members, and would happily do so again. The reality is that most people don’t have the disposable income to drop $50 or $100 on every single gift they have to buy, especially when it’s someone you aren’t close with – it’s the same reason why there’s so many options for gift chocolates at the same price-point. The difference is that even with a budget gift at Kmart you can add that symbolic meaning that you can’t get with a generic box of chocolates.

 

Price is just what we have to give up in order to obtain something of value. In many cases (not just in gift-giving) consumers have a certain willingness to pay or expectation of value for money, and there is a demand at that price-point. If the price is low, but your brand is consumers’ first point of call within the market, then that is a strong relationship. This is Kmart for me – if I don’t want to spend a whole lot of money but I need something nice, modern, and a decent quality, the first place I’m going to go is Kmart. This is active loyalty and a core component of brand resonance, the pinnacle of Keller’s CBBE model.