Grocery Shopping Psychology

How Resourceful Consumers Identify New Uses for Old Products

Why do consumers seek new uses for old products? How do they carry out this search and what types of people are they? This study suggests that resourceful consumers discover new uses for old products most commonly through their own ingenuity and desire for convenience.

Abstract

In a study involving a sample of 410 consumers nationwide, those who searched for new uses for old products tended to be educated, health-conscious, convenience-oriented, and not budget-constrained. These resourceful consumers frequently focus on a product' abstract benefits in place of the traditional situation in which they are used and are driven by the desire for convenience. This motivation is very different from that which impelled consumers about 75 years ago. Rather, this older generation of consumers focused on alternative uses for products primarily in order to save money.

Resourceful consumers in this study derived new uses for old products often because they needed a certain product that was not readily available to them. In addition, labels often played a notable role in proposing alternative uses.

For more information see Wansink, Brian (2003), “How Resourceful Consumers Identify New Uses for Old Products,” Journal of Family and Consumer Science, 95:4 (November), 109-113. Posted with permission of the Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences www.aafcs.org

Contact:
Brian Wansink, PhD
Food and Brand Lab, Director
110 Warren Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Email: foodandbrandlab@cornell.edu

*This study was conducted at the University of Illinois, former location of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

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© 2006 Cornell University, Food and Brand Lab, Department of Applied Economics and Management