Courses Given at SUNY New Paltz

While SUNY universities such as Stony Brook prides itself on its science department, SUNY New Paltz prides itself on not only its art department, but also its Business Department. The Business Department at New Paltz is very large and popular, and teaches many different categories of business. Ranging from Accounting, Finance, International Business, Management, Marketing, and so on, many different opportunities exist if one decides to dive into business. In my studies, I have found that marketing courses are some of the most interesting, and deal with consumer psychology more than any other branch of business.

At the moment, I am taking the core Marketing course, which deals with marketing concepts such as pricing, consumer demand, needs versus wants, brand loyalty, and the marketing mix. It is very interesting to understand how the minds of consumers work. For example, word of mouth is a great and inexpensive way to get customers to buy products, since it is the most credible source of information. Likewise, if one has loyalty to a brand, he or she would not care about the product rising a few dollars higher. He or she will continue to buy it, since he or she has been using it for so long and any alternatives seem worse in his or her mind. Even if the alternative has never been used, he or she will be more wary in purchasing it. Aside from basic marketing, more advanced courses exist in order to dive deeper into the consumer's mind.

More advanced courses such as Advertising Strategy teach us how consumers appeal to certain advertisements and make them more likely to buy the product shown, and consumer behavior teaches us about how a consumer acts towards different products and how much they are willing to spend buying them. Marketing is a very useful and rewarding major, since it will allow many job paths to open up. I am mainly interested in marketing research, which is about gathering information on different age groups, business competition, consumer interests, and so on, in order to create surveys and give product samples to certain people in order to make them buy my company's products. In conclusion, business is a very rewarding major, and when considering majors, one should give business a try.

The Consumer Decision Making Process, Cognitive Dissonance, and You

As I have learned in my Marketing class, the consumer decision making process is a very important study on consumers when they wish to purchase a product. The first step in this process is the problem and need recognition. As an example, let us say that one wakes up in the morning with rancid morning breath, only to find that he or she can completely run out of toothpaste. He or she recognizes this predicament and wishes to solve it by searching for the perfect toothpaste to use now and for many days to come, which brings us to the second step. Fortunately, one can easily search for toothpaste, since it is found in any convenience store (CVS, Walgreens, 7-11, etc). Unfortunately, so many different brand of toothpastes exist, so which one should one choose?

"So many to choose from!"

The third step is the evaluation of alternatives. This is where one should look at the prices of each product, their ounce count, and even the opinions of others who have used the products. After finally deciding the right toothpaste, the fourth step occurs; one purchases the product. Now one can go home with their brand new Crest toothpaste and say goodbye to bad breath. Hold on. Was buying that brand and that flavor the right choice? That Colgate next to it was the same price, and the flavor had more mint strips imbued in the toothpaste. Was purchasing Crest the right decision? These thoughts are connected to the last step, post-purchase behavior, and directly relate to the business definition of cognitive dissonance.

In the business world, cognitive dissonance is defined as the second thoughts one has after purchasing a product. It is good to lessen cognitive dissonance, in order to boost up overall satisfaction of the purchase. Businesses can help lessen this by having a brand of toothpaste on sale or giving one a money-back guarantee. One can also lessen cognitive dissonance his or herself by finding innovative ways to use toothpaste. Believe it or not, toothpaste can be used to treat bee stings and remove marker from painted walls. Everyone goes through the decision making process, and cognitive dissonance may or may not occur. Next time one goes out to buy toothpaste, or a new car, or whatever, these steps are sure to occur.

Sources:
Dr. Yang. (2011, May 21). My Kidz Dentist. Retrieved from
      http://mykidzdentist.blogspot.com/2010/08/product-review-listerine-
      zero.html. (2010, August 20).

Mujtaba Ali. (2011, May 21). 9 Uses for Toothpaste Other than Brushing Your
      Teeth. Retrieved from http://www.sanedentist.com/9-uses-for-toothpaste-
      other-than-brushing-your-teeth.html. (2010, March 27).