Making a purchase is always an emotional decision, even if we try to tell ourselves that it is a fiduciary one. When we buy, we usually don’t do it out of necessity. Case in point:

My wife and I recently purchased a new freezer. Like always we consider cost and features into our decision. We are finding more and more that we are also basing that decision on our previous experiences with the retailer. In fact, there are several that we refuse to even patronize.

When we make a purchase, we tend to research the features and prices of various retailers. In this case, we used Amazon, Nextag and three “BIG” retailers to determine our purchase parameters - Sears, Best Buy and Sam’s Club. This is where we found something interesting.

In every case we researched the same unit we researching cost more at Sam’s Club than it did at any of the other retailers. That was very surprising, because our purchasing experience with Sam’s Club had always been good and we expected that the value for the dollar was going to be better than the others. This was not based on actual figures, it was all based on our emotional and personal experiences. Once we looked at the actual numbers and combined them with our experiences at the other retailers, we immediately purchased the item we were interested in from Sears - the lowest priced and nearly identically related features.

We would have never believed it until we went through this exercise. Surprisingly enough, our emotions - regardless of what you believe - contribute to the buying experience more than any other factor. If you don’t believe it, on your next purchase try using our methodology and then comment back your results here.

Sometimes if you look very closely at something, you can see the hidden beauty in it. For instance, take gold mining. Prospectors spend days dredging sludge off of the bottom of a river and running it through a series of sieves to find tiny flecks of gold. Read more

Seth makes a great point about having a web presence for your business. More often than not we go overboard with our Internet Marketing “tactics.” The KISS principle is alive and well. So if you are a small business owner who thinks that you need a flashy site to attract customers, ask yourself two questions:

1. What do I want my web site to do for me?
2. If I make the investment, will I get a return?

If you can type a letter in Word and use a browser, you can have a very nice website for under $100. If you can read a blog, you will have all the instructions you need to establish your business on the Internet. Check out Seth Godins blog entry here.