The Buying Principle: Why and How Do We “Buy”

What is this and why does this even worth the time buat dibaca?

The primary goal of this essay datang dari rasa penasaran buat bisa sedikit lebih ngerti soal human behavior (termasuk behavior diri sendiri) soal exchanging our limited asset for now we call this “money” or “time” for a particular product or services.

This essay is to answer some simple yet fundamental question: Why do we buy? and How do we buy?

The definition of “Buy” di sini is beyond just a simple purchase yang biasa kita kepikiran, tapi juga covering a bigger topic such as job applying and hiring, investing, collaboration, and building a long lasting relationship.

By leveling up (even just a little) pemahaman kita soal this, harapannya bisa help us buat lebih aware sama every “Buying” decision yang kita lakuin almost every single day. And more importantly, how we can influence the “Buying” decision from other people that we meet every single day, for different purposes in different occasions.

Mari kita start exploring satu per satu 💪 

Part #1 Why do we buy?

Upon observing personal habits, tapi juga during the past few years working with companies yang jual berbagai macam product and services, most of the “reason” we buy something I feel bisa di-simplify jadi beberapa hal ini.

#1 Functional Necessity (To Solve Our Own Problem)

We buy something karena kita mau “Solve our Own Problem”. Maksudnya “problem” di sini apa and gimana? Jawabannya tergantung karena bentuknya beda-beda, but let me share below beberapa example yang paling simple ke yang relatively complex.

Example “Problem” yang trigger kita untuk kita “Buy” something:

1. Karena belom makan seharian, akhirnya kita berasa laper and memutuskan untuk beli sate padang. (Laper = Beli Sate Padang)

2. Karena cuaca sekarang super jarang hujan, jadi di rumah berasa panas and gerah jadi akhirnya memutuskan beli pendingin tambahan kaya Kipas Angin atau Air Conditioner. (Panas = Beli AC)

3. Karena kerjaan sebagai early-stage solopreneur makin complex dan multitask, akhirnya kita decided untuk subscribe AI tools kaya Claude or ChatGPT. (Multi-Task Work = Subscribe AI Tools)

4. Karena laptop yang tiap hari dipakai kerja creative (graphic design and video editing) performance-nya makin lelet dan cepat panas, kita decided buat beli desktop instead. (Laptop Panas & Lelet = Beli Desktop)

5. Karena udah ga lama ke barbershop, rambut rasanya mulai ngembang dan berantakan, makanya akhirnya this time set jadwal untuk potong rambut. (Gondrong = Potong Rambut)

6. Karena sebagai pemilik toko nailshop mulai banyak customer yang datang barengan dan kita tolakin (karena cuma ada satu nailist), akhirnya kita decided untuk hire additional nailist. (Nolakin Customer = Hiring)

7. Karena sebentar lagi company kita dikit lagi mau IPO, kita butuh great pre-IPO stories biar market makin confidence, jadi kita decided to do PR campaign and do some more acquisition. (Pre-IPO = PR & Acquisition)

All the examples above have the same underlying principle, cuma emang level of complexity-nya yang beda-beda. But all the example above have specific “Problem” yang mau di-solve dengan cara we “Buy” something.

Jadi the 1st principle of why kita sebagai human being buy something, adalah karena kita punya “Masalah” yang kita mau solve by “Buying” something in the market.

#2 Relational Transfer (To Solve Other People Problem)

On top of masalah diri sendiri, human being ga jarang juga beli sesuatu untuk solve problem yang orang lain punya. “Orang Lain” di sini formatnya bisa macem-macem. Tapi intinya we “Buy” something untuk help to solve other people’s problem.

Let me share below few examples of “Orang Lain” di sini maksudnya siapa and gimana:

1. Orang Tua: Karena orang tua udah mulai suka susah jalan kaki, akhirnya kita decided untuk hire PT buat bantuin mereka melatih otot kaki & fisiotherapist.

2. Pasangan (Istri or Suami): Pasangan kita kerjanya as seniman (Pelukis) dan selama ini kerjanya di meja yang bikin sakit pinggang, so as a loving partner kita beliin meja khusus untuk menggambar.

3. Tetangga: Tetangga kita tiba-tiba sakit dan di rumahnya ga ada orang yang bisa anter ke rumah sakit (Dan kita juga ga ada kendaraan), akhirnya kita orderin online transportation (Grab Car or GoCar) untuk jemput and anter ke RS terdekat.

4. Tim Member di Kantor: Tiap hari sekarang kita harus monitor MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) yang masuk dan udah ga bisa lagi manual karena too time consuming and banyak human error, so akhirnya kita pake tools CRM kaya HubSpot or Salesforce.

5. Boss: Si boss mau bikin business unit baru di divisi production dan peralatan sekarang quality dan quantity-nya ga memadai, jadi kita akhirnya do our research untuk cari peralatan produksi yang baru (Kamera, Lighting, Mic, dll).

Part ke-2 ini masih sama-sama soal “Problem”, tapi bedanya kalau sebelumnya we are trying to solve our own problem, this time we “Buy” something buat solve masalah orang lain lagi punya. Dan biasanya “Orang Lain” di sini besar kemungkinan punya hubungan yang relatively close sama kita be it profesionally or personally.

Ini penting buat kita bikin lebih aware, karena biasanya if the person ini ga gitu-gitu amat deket sama kita, kemungkinan we are not going to do the activity of “Buy” ini buat mereka. Soalnya this take some effort from us (Financially or Physically)

#3 Emotional Fulfillment (To Experience a Feeling or Emotion)

Now kita move ke another principle yang extremely penting on our reason to “Buy” something. There are a lot of “Buying” decision yang kita lakuin on a day to day basis itu karena we want to feel a certain emotion or sensation.

We “Buy”, karena kita berharap dan punya certain expectation kalau ini terjadi, kita pasti merasa (….) isi sendiri coba titik-titiknya.

Let me share few examples of emotions, biar lebih mudah dimengerti:

1. Ke Restaurant “Enak” to Celebrate Achievements: Be it di kantor or keluarga, waktu kita celebrate some wins or achievements kita mungkin pernah ajak orang-orang terdekat untuk makan bareng to feel sense of proudness.

2. New Outfit Before Big Event: Kalau lagi ada acara yang kita rasa relatively penting, akan ada keinginan kita untuk cari outfit yang lebih oke (even tho sebenernya kita juga punya). We want to feel lebih fresh and sharp with the new outfit!

3. Working From Cafe: Buat kita yang sekarang kerjanya remote or hybrid, akan ada masanya kita mau kerja di luar rumah such as coffee shop (The 3rd place), walaupun sebenernya di rumah juga bisa. We want to feel more refreshed dengan environment yang lebih beda ini.

4. Running a CSR Campaign: Assuming our company udah relatively big dan kita operate di area warga yang might have some negative impact ke lingkungan, kita decided untuk bikin program Corporate Social Responsibility by building a school gratis untuk anak-anak di sana. We want to feel lebih tenang, karena setidaknya we are doing something good here.

Long story short, we as human being itu very “emotional”, jadi is normal when we “Buy” something dengan tujuan we want to feel sesuatu dari activity itu.

So very important here to understand better and learn more soal different emotions yang kita punya, so that we can understand and influence better our own, but also other people.

#4 Identity Construction (To Get a Sense of Belonging and Affiliation)

By nature manusia hidupnya emang harus berdampingan dengan orang lain.

We want to be part of a “tribe”, a “community”, a “group of interest”.

Not being part of “any” tribe itu menyeramkan, karena dulu banget ini artinya kita dikucilkan, and dikucilkan itu = tidak aman untuk keberlangsungan hidup.

This is one of the mental models yang bisa influence cara kita “Buy” something. We buy karena kita mau jadi part of “something”.

Here are beberapa contoh how we “Buy” to get sense of belonging and affiliation:

1. Jersey Komunitas Olahraga: Biar kita bisa ngerasa jadi bagian dari komunitas olahraga tertentu, biasanya kita mulai beli or bikin jersey yang nandain bahwa kita adalah part of that group.

2. Join Education Institution: Kuliah di specific University bisa help us to feel we belong to an educational community tertentu. One example is how bangga para alumni dari kampus-kampus besar (Lokal or International)

3. Apple or Android Fan Boy: Some of us yang fanatik sama tech mungkin pernah ngerasa we need to use consumer tech dari specific brand kadang not only for the functionality tapi juga karena ada rasa “bangga” tersendiri as “Apple Fan Boy”.

4. Stay in Particular Neighborhood: Either sewa or beli rumah di tempat tertentu yang kita pilih and research well, is also a sign kita mau merasa kita belong to this community.

5. Participating Regularly in a Community Event: Joining event meet up community (either paid or free) secara terus-terusan is also a sign we want to be affiliated with the people in that community.

6. Joining a Famous Start Up & Business Accelerator Program: YC (Y Combinator) ini salah satu accelerator yang quite famous di US, kalau di Indonesia ada beberapa, tapi yang I know and I’ve been working closely with the team itu ada yang namanya Impactto. People trying so hard to join this accelerator juga biar rasa kita belong to a group, yang harapannya nanti bisa saling bantu.

Here we learn bahwa merasa menjadi bagian dari sesuatu itu emang kebutuhan dasar manusia, so that’s why we are willing to “Buy” our access to be part of it.

#5 Social Positioning (To Express Certain Status or Identity)

Sebagai manusia pasti ada “Identity” or “Status” yang kita punya and most of the time ada keinginan untuk kita bisa show and tell this to other people.

This identity or status sifatnya ga saklek, meaning ini bisa berubah seiring kita bertumbuh dan berkembang sebagai manusia. Tapi the core needs tetep sama, kita mau punya identity tertentu and kita mau show this ke orang lain.

With this nature, akhirnya ini adalah faktor lain yang influence our behavior when we “Buy” something. Let me share few examples di bawah:

1. Specific Beverages Brand VS Starling: There was a time buying and holding a specific beverages cup jadi “signal” kalau lebih punya duit here. Starling = Starbucks Keliling.

2. Logo di Fashion Product: Biar kelihatan lebih “punya”, some of us willing to some product dengan harga yang lebih mahal, just because ada logo dari brand tertentu.

3. Sport Event Badge or Trophies: Currently Hyrox (Or kepanjangannya Hybrid Rockstar) lagi super popular, so lots of us ikutan buat bisa dapet patch-nya yang bisa kita tempelin di belakang tas kita.

4. NFT Character: Dulu ada masanya a lot of people are creating and selling a Non-fungible Token (NFT) characters kaya: Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins and seterusnya. After that we use that character as a social media profile.

5. Analog VS Digital Technology: With the rise of technology, a lot of us that used to be exposed with more manual or “analog” type of tools now prefer to use the older tech product VS the one that is all relatively easy and fast. We want to be seen sebagai orang yang lebih “appreciate” karya and process.

6. Fashion Style: Anak-anak yang kerja di creative agency VS BUMN, fashion preference and shopping list and style-nya bakal sangat beda.

No matter what status or identity yang kita mau punya and show, all is just neutral (not bad or not good). Yang harus kita lebih aware di sini adalah, kita itu beneran “Buy” something salah satunya karena kita mau “dilihat” sesuai dengan gambar diri yang saat itu kita lagi punya and mau kita promote!

Part #2 How Do We Buy?

Now that di atas kita udah coba explore pertanyaan “Kenapa Kita Buy Something Ya?”, now let's explore the follow up question: “Gimana Akhirnya Kita Decide Untuk Beli?”.

From observing the pattern, ada beberapa pattern on How We Buy things yang I can now map out.

#1 Intuition

Untuk produk or services yang “harga” nya relatively murah in comparison with the capital yang kita punya, biasanya we just use our intuition waktu we make decision here. Meaning kita ga mikir kelamaan + kita bisa ambil keputusan sendiri.

Let me share few examples below on things yang we buy using our intuition:

1. Beli Minuman: Abis olahraga kita haus after that kita beli minuman

2. Tempat Makan: Cari tempat makanan yang relatively sama-sama aja di kantin kantor

3. Paket Internet: Isi pulsa or paket internet HP dari provider cellular kita

All the example above require very little to no thinking or complex decision making process, mainly karena cost and risk-nya relatively ga begitu besar.

#2 Comprehensive Independent Research

Lawannya dari Intuition adalah Comprehensive Independent Research. Maksudnya adalah before we make the purchase, we’ll be doing a lot of research and comparison of the thing that we want to “Buy”.

Biasanya ini terjadi karena 3 hal: #1 The price of the product is relatively lebih besar dari yg “Intuition”, #2 Complexity of the product and services also higher, and #3 Ada Mid-Long Term Impact dari this purchase.

Maksudnya comprehensive research itu gimana? Kita search and consume different information di Buku, Majalah, Websites, AI Tools, YouTube, Public Review Places, and to the point interview orang.

After that we make our own comparative analysis on which product or services or people that is best for us to (Match what we need VS what the product is offering).

Few product or services examples yang fall under this category (Assuming we bukan anak super tajir or millionaire):

1. Upgrading our Working Computer Tech. Kita akan coba bandingin beberapa alternative alat kerja yang bisa kita pake here: Laptop VS Desktop

2. Choosing University to Enter: Be it buat diri sendiri or buat anak (buat yang punya anak)

3. Hire New Team Member: Before hiring manager send offer letter, they will do a lot of interview, case study, and background check. Esp for a more senior role or candidate.

The “Price” that needs to be paid here kalau we miss-calculate the decision bisa lumayan “mahal”, makanya most of people here will do quite some research and biasanya ini take some time + banyak “keraguan” yang harus pelajarin lebih detailed here.

#3 Trusted Recommendation

Recommendation is such a high-impact (scary) thing, esp coming from the people that we think we “Trust”. Kenapa scary? Soalnya we can blindly buy something yang harganya even ga murah, just because someone we feel that we trust rekomendasiin hal itu ke kita.

This is why the world of “Social Media Influencers” and “Guru” tersebar quite fast.

Some of us are looking for some recommendation for the next vitamin, skin care, tech product, holiday destination, best work-place and so on from other people.

“Trusted Recommendation” Ini can be a harming or beneficial depending how we see and handle it:

• Harming: If we blindly trust other people (be it family members) without doing some additional research out there and stress-test the assumption.

• Beneficial: If we treat it wisely, we can save a lot of time and money because someone else has been experimenting and doing what we want to do next.

#4 Imitating Important People

“Monkey See, Monkey Do” 🐒 

Our “taste” in almost anything is shaped by the system that we are in. So does our behavior when we “Buy” something.

Kalau kita udah biasa hidup lama di tempat yang appreciate a lot reading books and banyak tokoh-tokoh yang read books, waktu kita gede (sadar ga sadar) kita bakalan ada tendensi to buy and read books.

Another example, kalau sebelumnya kita ga gitu into dengan “Olah Raga”, tapi kita masuk ke lingkungan yang semua orang olah raga, lama kelamaan kita akan mulai ter-influence untuk ikutan olahraga. And this action will lead us to start seeing what others are using or wearing, and kita mulai imitate them (Cepat atau lambat!)

#5 Scarcity

Contoh yang masih sangat jelas di kepala adalah waktu 2020 dulu Covid and I was still in Malaysia. That day after the office time and the Gov announced we’ll have total lockdown, I rushed into Costco di area Mutiara Damansara untuk beli bahan makanan stock di rumah selama lockdown. And as you might expect, total chaos. People are doing panic buying. Apa aja diambilin. Everything yang ada di rak, berantakan and habis. We all (including myself) ketakutan kalau we’ll not survive the Covid19 situation.

Kondisi gini ngajarin kita kalau manusia itu bisa ter-trigger rasa takut “Kehabisan” and willing to spend more to “Buy” the thing.

Beberapa contoh yang mungkin udah sering kita lakuin tapi ga sadar itu karena fear of Scarcity:

1. War tiket event olahraga (Lari or Hyrox)

2. War tiket konser Girl or Boy Band

3. Buru-buru beli tiket kereta api sebelum hari liburan lebaran

4. Beli “Limited Edition” toys or art piece

5. Nyogok buat masuk lembaga pendidikan tertentu

We might not be aware about this, but now we know kalau emotion kita bisa banget “dimainin” pake kata-kata: Last chance, limited edition, exclusive, etc etc. Intinya sama all is about Fear of Scarcity.

Punya understanding yang lebih dalam soal Why & How do People Buy, will help us untuk bisa navigate better in “selling” different thing to other human being.

Esp during this time, being able to sell something (that is genuinely bagus) become one of the most basic skill that we need to have as a human being to survive! 💪 

Untuk yang currently jadi or dalam perjalanan menjadi people manager, ada berita baik! 🎉 

I just launched a new book judulnya “The Slow Leadership” 🍃 

Isinya lots of practical and insightful panduan jadi People Manager and Leader yang bener! 💪 

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