The sales of the majority of consumer products have decreased during the recession and many businesses are restructuring and downscaling operations as much as possible to survive plummeting demand as people choose carefully what to spend hard earned money on but surprisingly sales of footwear have actually increased compared to the previous years sales figures. Sales of footwear and specifically ladies shoes are actually increasing.
One possible explanation for the increase specifically in the sales of women's shoes can be explained by the feel good factor associated with purchasing a new pair of shoes, incidentally the sales of chocolate have held steady too. It seems that the current economic climate almost demands that we treat ourselves occasionally and find a little happiness and pure escapism from the endless news reports about redundancies and closures and the increasing number of unemployed each month.
It is a cliché but the vast majority of women do love shoes. It is almost hardwired into their brains to release a serious dose of the feel good factor every time they purchase a new pair of those must have shoes, buying shoes or a big bar of chocolate can be a serious mood booster. Martin Lindstorm is a Fortune 100 branding expert and author of a book offering some possible explanations. In his book, Buyology; Truth and Lies About Why we Buy Lindstorm explains that a neurotransmitter called Dopamine could be responsible for the love of shoes and steady sales even in a recession. First of all what is a neurotransmitter? They are the chemicals that allow the signals to be transmitted from neurons across synapses if that clarifies matters any.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and helps to regulate the pleasure and reward centres of the human brain. Dopamine aids regulation of both our movement and our emotional responses. Starting to see the link? Buying those must have shoes must stimulate a nice big dose and initiate some serious pleasure and reward in the mind. Dopamine enables us to perceive rewards and to actively take measures to move towards the gratification. If it means just getting your credit card out of your handbag it is beginning to make sense and explain one of the great mysteries eluding modern man. Why do women love shoes? They cannot help it and are irresistibly drawn like a moth to the light to the sheer joy and sensation of buying and owning a new pair of ladies shoes and the subsequent release of pleasure centres in the mind.
Does the high last? Probably only until the monthly credit card bill drops through the letterbox however purchasing shoes can often be rationalised as something practical.
It's not just about the Dopamine though, buying shoes is also purported to stimulate the collecting spot, an area of the human brain's prefrontal cortex. Lindstorm explains that shoes can be perceived as something valid to collect. Just think of Imelda Marcos and her shoe collection. Shoes are stored carefully and with consideration on special racks and shelves just like other collectors display and carefully catalogue their prize collections of items. Like other collectors, women who amass collections of footwear will often admire the aesthetic beauty of each shoe like it a piece of art such as a sculpture and offer it prize of place in a collection.
I hope this brief article offers some possible explanations as to why some women are seemingly irrational when it comes to the subject of shoes but a friend of mine also recently shared his own personal theory with me concerning the relationship of women and shoes. He said that women can be categorised into three types concerning shoes. There are the women who have a true love for shoes, there are the women who perpetuate the myth of women loving shoes because they believe they should love shoes and there are the women who are practical and would not contemplate spending a whole month's salary on a designer pair of shoes when they could buy ten pairs instead.
One possible explanation for the increase specifically in the sales of women's shoes can be explained by the feel good factor associated with purchasing a new pair of shoes, incidentally the sales of chocolate have held steady too. It seems that the current economic climate almost demands that we treat ourselves occasionally and find a little happiness and pure escapism from the endless news reports about redundancies and closures and the increasing number of unemployed each month.
It is a cliché but the vast majority of women do love shoes. It is almost hardwired into their brains to release a serious dose of the feel good factor every time they purchase a new pair of those must have shoes, buying shoes or a big bar of chocolate can be a serious mood booster. Martin Lindstorm is a Fortune 100 branding expert and author of a book offering some possible explanations. In his book, Buyology; Truth and Lies About Why we Buy Lindstorm explains that a neurotransmitter called Dopamine could be responsible for the love of shoes and steady sales even in a recession. First of all what is a neurotransmitter? They are the chemicals that allow the signals to be transmitted from neurons across synapses if that clarifies matters any.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and helps to regulate the pleasure and reward centres of the human brain. Dopamine aids regulation of both our movement and our emotional responses. Starting to see the link? Buying those must have shoes must stimulate a nice big dose and initiate some serious pleasure and reward in the mind. Dopamine enables us to perceive rewards and to actively take measures to move towards the gratification. If it means just getting your credit card out of your handbag it is beginning to make sense and explain one of the great mysteries eluding modern man. Why do women love shoes? They cannot help it and are irresistibly drawn like a moth to the light to the sheer joy and sensation of buying and owning a new pair of ladies shoes and the subsequent release of pleasure centres in the mind.
Does the high last? Probably only until the monthly credit card bill drops through the letterbox however purchasing shoes can often be rationalised as something practical.
It's not just about the Dopamine though, buying shoes is also purported to stimulate the collecting spot, an area of the human brain's prefrontal cortex. Lindstorm explains that shoes can be perceived as something valid to collect. Just think of Imelda Marcos and her shoe collection. Shoes are stored carefully and with consideration on special racks and shelves just like other collectors display and carefully catalogue their prize collections of items. Like other collectors, women who amass collections of footwear will often admire the aesthetic beauty of each shoe like it a piece of art such as a sculpture and offer it prize of place in a collection.
I hope this brief article offers some possible explanations as to why some women are seemingly irrational when it comes to the subject of shoes but a friend of mine also recently shared his own personal theory with me concerning the relationship of women and shoes. He said that women can be categorised into three types concerning shoes. There are the women who have a true love for shoes, there are the women who perpetuate the myth of women loving shoes because they believe they should love shoes and there are the women who are practical and would not contemplate spending a whole month's salary on a designer pair of shoes when they could buy ten pairs instead.
