Consumer Choices

Why did I buy that pair of red high heels?
I didn't really need them, and certainly had no place to wear them.
But I bought them because of how they made me feel: beautiful, powerful, fancy-free, expensive, and generally like a better version of myself.
How can a simple pair of shoes wield such power?
It's partly because how I was raised to think of high heels, and partly because I like to think those things about myself: like to think I'm beautiful, whimsical, fancy-free, and attention worthy.
SO I willingly forked over the price of the shoes so I could put them on and feel dangerous and wonderful.
Am I the only consumer who spends money to buy something intangible?
Hardly!
People are constantly buying things to give them intangible qualities or feelings. It's my opinion that this is the biggest reason that people buy anything beyond the basic neccessities of food and shelter.
And even those have become sellers of intangible things. Drink the right water and you're intelligent for choosing it,
eat the right snacks and you're healthy.
There are a host of other reason why consumers choose what to buy, such as reseach, information, word of mouth, curiousity, social pressure, and sometimes, need. But I do think that a large number of consumer choose what to buy based on who they want to be. I even believe that a person could figure out not only what they consider to be important, but could find out what they want from life, if they sat down and looked at everything they bought.