Review: Why We Buy, The Science of Shopping - Paco Underhill

Book Name: Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping
Author: Paco Underhill, environmental psychologist and founder of Envirosell
Year: 2008 (original edition published in 2000)
Genre: Management, Psychology

This was part of my recommended reading for my Retail Management course at IIM I. Though intrigued by a couple of essays by Underhill, I never got around to actually reading the book until last week. Firstly, Why We Buy should have been How They Buy, because 1) the book is about insights on shopping (and not shoppers), based on elaborate observations of shoppers when they're shopping and, 2) it's addressed from the retailer's point of view.

The structure of the book goes something like this:

• Opening scene: the retailers were basically village simpletons who happened to have stores that were being visited by cattle masquerading as customers. Oh, and the world as we know it is about to end!
• And then I, in my magnificent self, and Envirosell (insert trumpet blowing), happened on the scene.
• Sarcastic commentary with two examples of how ridiculous the current practices were.
• Trumpet Envirosell's modus operandi of spending hours collecting data.
• Voila! Insert insight such as old ladies products being sold on the bottom shelf.
• Sales went up by 88000%, the retailer has a better looking wife, won Big Boss, and is currently building a temple on the moon to honour me.
• Deride 2 companies that didn't take my advice.
• Trumpet Envirosell's Science of Shopping.
• End credits.
• Repeat.

Okay, it's not that bad. Mostly.

If you manage to plough through all the noise, there are some nuggets in there. But it's just that it takes so much persistence and teeth-grinding to actually do so. Where the book does leave a mark is when Underhill talks about facts of consumer behaviour, with empirical evidence arrived at with truckloads of detailed observation of shoppers, data analysis and mining. Such points do provide for some fascinating moments in terms of an anthropological perspective, but Underhill's writing style and personal opinions mean that it becomes a grind. At places the book is just plain sexist, generalised, and archaic with statements like "We always advise our bookstore clients to group sections by gender, acknowledging the tendency of men to cluster in sports, business, do-it-yourself and computers while women troll psychology, self-help, health, food, diet, home and garden".

This could have been a truly great book. Or atleast a great read, if he had structured this along the lines of David Ogilvy's Ogilvy on Advertising, which was on a similar theme and genre. Where Ogilvy was elegant, simple and prescriptive, Underhill is verbose, tacky and in-your-face.

My Rating: 2/5

150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty

The rules of the tag are,

• Bold for things you have already done.
• Italics for things that you are dying to do!

An American list though it is, here I go!!

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Hugged a tree
9. Bungee jumped
10. Visited Paris
11. Watched a lightning storm at sea
12. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
13. Seen the Northern Lights
14. Gone to a huge sports game
15. Walked the stairs to the top of the Eiffel
16. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
17. Touched an iceberg
18. Slept under the stars
19. Changed a baby’s diaper
20. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
21. Watched a meteor shower
22. :P
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run six
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two six hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 29 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Enjoyed hostel life
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Saved someone’s life
83. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
84. Gotten flowers for no reason
85. Performed on stage
86. Been to Las Vegas
87. Recorded music
88. Eaten shark
89. Kissed on the first date
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried Cremated someone close
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror
97. Raised children
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Passed out cold
100. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
101. Picked up and moved to another city to start over
102. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
103. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open
104. Had plastic surgery
105. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
106. Wrote articles for a large publication
107. Lost over 100 pounds
108. Held someone while they were having a flashback
109. Piloted an airplane
110. Caused a car accident
111. Touched a stingray
112. Broken someone’s heart
113. Helped an animal give birth
114. Won money on a TV game show
115. Broken a bone
116. Gone on an African photo safari
117. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
118. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
119. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
120. Ridden a horse
121. Had major surgery
122. Had a snake as a pet
123. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
124. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
125. Visited more foreign countries than Indian States
126. Visited all 7 continents
127. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
128. Eaten kangaroo meat
129. Eaten sushi
130. Had your picture in the newspaper
131. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
132. Gone back to school
133. Parasailed
134. Touched a cockroach
135. Eaten fried tomatoes
136. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
137. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
138. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
139. Skipped all your school reunions
140. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
141. Been elected to public office
142. Written your own computer language
143. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
144. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
145. Built your own PC from parts
146. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
147. Had a booth at a street fair
148. Dyed your hair
149. Been a DJ
150. Shaved your head

Current count: 77

IIM Indore, Class of 2010

Strange how, when we think back on these two years from the perspective of all that’s happened, it seems like an eternity. Yet, when we look back and remember everything so clearly, everything so recent, everything so close we could stretch out and touch them, it all seems like it really is not that long ago. When we first came, we were hesitant, we weren't sure of what we were getting into; we weren’t even sure about what we wanted.

It's said the beginning is always difficult, and it was especially so for us thanks to jogs at unearthly hours and truly SAD classes. From such physically painful days and the mentally painful ones of Chunauti, MAC classes and our first microeconomics quiz (remember? remember!), over the last two years, we’ve all come a long way. From the wide-eyed Tonty-somethings that we were, we can now fit the world into a 2x2 matrix. We can now walk up to any company and confidently announce in our best Savlon-voice that we can "strategically realign their organization to external exigencies using a process driven approach and scalable, replicable models that offer long-term sustainability."

We’ve shared movies, maggi, bikes, cabs, rooms, notes, assignments, wake-up calls, proxies, doodles, after-dinner walks, suits, seats, fights, secrets, time, fun, and love. We’ve scrambled to class with a minute to go, yakked away for hours in the mess corridor, loafed around TI, swapped chapters on exam nights, and let the batch decide. Over our two years together, we've all grown close and helped each other grow. There will be some whom we'd like to have known better. And some we shouldn't have known this well for the sake of our grades. What each one of us has done though, is to leave a mark in each others’ minds and hearts.

As the answers to “Why MBA” show, the reasons we came to the hillock were various: from the refreshingly truthful "Money" to the very honourable "to impress girls" (I'm still figuring this one out though); from the truly global "in-depth understanding of the market dynamics and to broaden my horizons for a long-term global perspective" to the very philosophical "Because I managed to crack CAT". Some of us managed to switch careers, got the profiles and jobs we really believe in; some of us are walking out with dollar signs as eye-balls; some of us did wonderful community service, others served the community as office bearers; some of us found love; some found ourselves. Over time, hopefully, we would look back and realize that we managed to get exactly what we came for. Except the part about the girls, that is!

Finally, now, the bloody joke's on us for thinking that all this will always be around. Yes, we’ve all hated waking up for 08:45 classes, getting memos from the PGP office and having to sit up all night for projects. Yes, we’ve all whined about the 100% attendance rules, the sex-ratio, the internet speed and our mess food – yes, OUR mess food. However, right now, each of us would gladly take all these for a chance to re-live our two years here. Now. Now when we look back at the mental portraits of all those friends, all those hangouts, all those small incidents that make up life, all those (mis)adventures, all those special people – all so fresh in the eye it seems strange that we have to move on.

We are not saying goodbye to each other in the real sense of the word, because we aren't really going anywhere. We’re leaving the most precious part of ourselves here: our memories in these walls on the hillock. And we're taking the most precious part of us with us: our memories of the two years spent in IIM Indore.

Where we go, we mind of

How we be, we know naught;

But, together we shall stay

all thro' this life we've sought.

For 'tis in our Hearts and in our

Dreams that we together swing away!

And so, to each other, two hundred and thirty eight times over (see, 100% attendance!), HERE’S TO THE CLASS OF 2010!

Santhosh Kanna,

Class of 2010

~ Editorial for the Yearbook 2010

IIM I - the 2 years

I loved DC Campus Community Service Sunset Point Holi D-block cricket Student Exchange Exchange students Facebook Markstrat and BCP Bakra in PGP-II Sabby in class Borrowing your bike Group projects Melting Pot at 00:00 Mashaal and Sayaji Night walks Night outs Masala Maggi and Aaloo Pyaaz iDope Sleeping in Bhatta's class Open Book Exams iDanim plays Tummy aches and Dembani Unlimited gulab jamun Placement treats ahvan, Mridang, Marathon Football at sunset Shantilalji The Yearbook Team :)

I hated You-Know-Who 8:45 am 100% attendance Guys with 100% attendance Slow internet Swamijis & guest talks Us meeting Placom Placom meeting us Placom Markstrat reports Bakra in PGP-I Sabby teaching in class Lending my bike Individual assignments Melting Pot at 00:00 on my birthday Mess food 01:30pm quiz announcements Talking about 3 Idiots Iterative resume building Sex ratio Fixed seating Desperate CP Reliance's network and bills PGP Office memos Pure Magic stock-outs 11pm curfews Dogs in hostels Laptop deals the 20kms to the city Leaving campus on March 30

Section D, Class of 2010

First of all, we’re Section D. And, doooode, essentially, that means we’re the best section. Yes, no questions about it. See, even TSV has no questions on this. Oh, and our Guruji has something to add here. Uh, who woke Kanodia? NO, Avinash, we don’t want to know what SEBI and UNESCO think of this. No, really! Ah, Nithin’s absent again, I see! And Kamal, why do you always have a Sprite bottle on you? Umm, Vishnu, the Cuckoo…? Nimmu’s engaged? Again? Yes, Rama, Good Morning and how are you all today?

We first saw each other, together, for the first time in Nutty’s session on case analysis all those months ago, the people we’d spend a major part of our time here with, and some of who’ll be a part of our lives forever. How eerily predictive that session turned out to be! Those who were late to class that day were always late. Those who talked excitedly about the globe being globular continue with the same excitement. Those who hadn’t read the case, well, we sure converted a few more.

Some of us felt we were hard done in terms of faculty allocation (the rest of us would truly have trouble even identifying them from a lineup), but all our memorable moments in class have been an extension of who was standing there in front of us. We’ve had them all. We’ve run through them all. The one who could pull in Freud, Sachin, Games People Play and OB into the same discussion and who actually made us read HR books. The one who ran old email forwards by us. The one who was our friend, guide and philosopher. The one we’ll think of every time we look at our Seagate hard disks and wonder if they’ll crash. Heck, we even had one whom we had to brave our interest in finance through. And no, I’ll not mention the one who resembles a banned comic character. Er, by name I mean. But, like I said, I won’t mention that one.

We had our first official party on Aug 23rd (which each of us would remember for different reasons :P), but it actually was one hell of a huge party through the entire first year. The reason for that first party was also that we had the highest number of elected SAC members. Given the responsibility, competence, trustworthiness, skill and patience required of an office bearer of Planet I (yeah, truly!), if that’s what everybody on our batch thinks of us, well, we humbly concur.

The general enthusiasm and fun we shared was best illustrated in how all of us worked for the amazing Talent Night show we put up. We had the most number of toppers too, even if wasn’t necessarily a great thing, because, thanks to them, the rest of us suffered in relative grading (grumble grumble!). We also swept away everything on sight on our Sports Day, which comes as no surprise, especially considering how fast some of us zoomed out of quizzes.

Experience is a function of what we do and who we do it with. We have all played a part in each others’ life over the last two years, over classes, parties, elections, assignments, projects, submissions, deadlines, extensions, seating, good profs, not so good profs, desperate CP, challenge CP, seminars, presentations, attendance, placement talks, gyaan sessions, quizzes, and exams. We’ve needed each other, each of us. Together we have come thus far, and here’s hoping for much more! Cheers SECTION D!!

~For the Yearbook 2010

One final roll...

Vivek's Engagement @ Cochin - Fort Kochi - Alapuzha