In marketing 101 you learn about one of the most important steps customers go through when buying a product… the post purchase evaluation.

The dreaded phenomenon of ‘post purchase dissonance’ is one that makes marketers cry into their coffee with fear. For those that are unfamiliar with this term, don’t worry – I’m sure you know the feeling…

Picture this, you old red car (lets, for example, call it petunia) is finally wearing out… So you decide it finally time to actually get a reliable car – next day you go out and buy a nice shiny new red car.

Before you have even left the show room floor, you start getting that sinking feeling in you stomach. You start wondering if you brought the right car, did you pay the right price, should you have stuck with Petunia, or just waited a few months, or this, or that, or… and that’s what we call post purchase dissonance.

Ok, so now that I’ve explained the concept – things were going great with my new camera. That was until I discovered a small manufacturing issue with grease on the inside of the camera – so it has had to be sent back…

Suddenly the post purchase confusion and uncertainty has set in big time – did I really make the right decision???

I hope my camera comes back soon, working 100%, as this uncertainty about the decision is driving me to distraction.