A Suitable Girl- III : Attributes and Decision-making

Last evening, Peter was explaining attributes of a product to the MGT 670(Marketing Management) class and how it can influence the decisions of consumers. He cited the example of himself some twenty years ago when he was "a young, wild chap from Indiana", fresh out of college who had just arrived in Boston to work as a professor. He came across another young professor named HK who was American-Chinese and they decided to share an apartment.

Being the "young, wild chaps" they were, they dated around quite a lot. Sometimes they went by themselves, and sometimes they double-dated. However, every Friday or Saturday evening, they would meet in the apartment after their respective dates and compare notes. Peter would ask "So HK, how was the girl A?" And the answer could be: "Oh man, she was a real stunner!" Now 'stunner' meant someone who walks into a pub and turns the heads of men to obtuse angles.

The following week, HK dated some other girl named B say, Peter would ask the same question to HK when he got back, and he would probably say: "She was not that good looking, but boy was she fun !" Peter might then ask, "What about the girl last week? Wasn't she fun?" HK: "Oh no- she looked good all right, but she was a real dodo!"

The week after that HK might have gone out with girl C who was decently good looking, was fun and highly intelligent. Then somehow HK discovered that the good looking dodo had a father who owned like half of Massachusetts.

Now, HK had to decide which girl to get committed to. Given the weightage he attached to each of the attributes, it is needless to say who the bride was in the wedding a year later where Peter was the best man.



Now, if A was into attributes marketing, she could have articulated the fact that she was gorgeous and her father was a wealthy man who could have helped HK with his career ahead or something like that. A's attributes of "gorgeous looks" and "wealth" would forever hold true ,id est, HK would remember her for that. Nevertheless, you or I or he would focus on the attributes that appeal to the individual taste/requirement the most. It's like Volvo advertising its "safety" when you are out there to buy a car or BMW emphasizing on the style quotient even though its mileage is Subhan-allah.

In a separate incident, a previous student of Peter had issues trying to decide which systems to buy for her firm where there were three RFPs. The accounting department obviously wanted something with good capacity to deal with realms of data, the Finance Department stressed on the price, the Engineers wanted speed and Operations wanted reliability. And when it was time to decide what weightage to give to what attribute- all hell broke loose. Finally, it was resolved by sticking to a well known brand name, even though it was not the optimum decision in every way. But her rationale was: "Hell, no one ever got fired for choosing to buy IBM !"

Now, all the guys and gals out there, still wondering what/whom to choose, get your pen and paper out and good luck !