when shopping, do you care how popular something is?

[TheReceder]

Unpopular basses are always fun when you have gear snobs in your band.

I always loved showing up with my modded Affinity, or maybe a couple Peavey foundations.

 

[MJ5150]

i was browsing basses on sweetwater, and as is common on a lot of sites, their sorting defaults to most popular.

i've never cared about the popularity of an item or whether it's trending, so this baffles me. today or this week's most popular item could be based on a short-term marketing campaign, a press release, a single large influencer, an article that appeared one time on CNN or in rolling stone, or the manufacturer could make a deal with a group of influencers. it has nothing to do with quality, features, value, whether audiences will find it compelling, or anything i consider when it comes to buying... well, anything. i don't buy basses, paper towels, cameras or decide what to watch based on popularity or trending.

sometimes an overall product/show rating or user reviews can be useful to me, depending on a number of factors. but even then, quality, price, features, weight (when it comes to basses, cameras and lenses), and lack of animal products or toxic chemicals (particularly in art supplies) are what i focus on. quality of customer support from a manufacturer or retailer is a huge plus.

do people actually buy things, consider buying things or watching things based on popularity or because they're trending? is there something to this beyond herd mentality that i'm completely missing? inquiring minds want to know!

I do believe there is something to this idea. While I do not subscribe to it myself, but considering the amount of money these companies will spend on marketing and market research, I am guessing there are stats, graphs, pie charts, reports, analytics, etc that shows it works.
There are likely folks who look around online for things to buy without any certainty on what they want, so knowing what is popular or trending may assist them to make a purchase. I don't find it necessary since like many of you here, I grew up in a world without these resources available to me, so my purchasing decisions are based on other criteria than what is popular. I'm not suggesting it is lame or wrong, just different from how I do it.

-Mike

 

[bobba66]

I'm old and live a pretty isolated life. I like Fender Precisions and carbureted V-8 engines. Is that stuff still popular?

 

[DrummerwStrings]

Maybe the idea is that, for those who don’t want to do their own research or don’t know what to look for anyway, you could hope everyone else knows what their doing and go along with it.

Or, maybe they’re hoping to get something of a sneakerhead culture where the product is almost like a stock. Buy now, because everyone else is and you don’t want to miss out!

This point should not be underestimated.

More than a small % of people prefer to go with the safe choice, & they interpret the safe choice as what others chose. Look at fashion for an example - I’m thinking of Polo Ralph Lauren - and the Polo Club restaurant in NYC. I haven’t been there, so I don’t know whether it’s exceptional, but I dare say that some of it’s popularity is due to some ppl’s comfort with the brand, despite not having any previous experience with food. Ditto why the most popular menu item is a $35 burger; personally I prefer to order what’s in season & what I don’t normally cook/what is not normally available.

But I’m a bit of a contrarian. In a grocery store I read labels, before I buy a durable good I read reviews & research products, & I turn off ‘most popular’ search filters. After reading a chunk of this thread, I suspect many bass players don’t look over their shoulders at ppl’s shopping bags before they put something in their cart (they didn’t become lead guitarists). Many ads mention the popularity of their best-selling products because Marketers (& Psychologists) know it works.

Just don’t disregard the herd. If a crowd is running down the street, it may be a good idea to run, too. There’s a book that came out in the past few years (don’t remember the title, can look for it if someone wants to find it) summarizing research showing that a random crowd of ppl can come to a right answer to a question faster than a group of experts - or, look at your mutual fund managers’ results compared with the stock market (very few can get better returns than the stock market’s average gains).

 

[pie_man_25]

I'm not going to lie, I won't buy something often BECAUSE it's popular - but if I'm looking at something, popularity is a factor in me buying it.

I don't care if the music I listen to is unpopular, I like it and that's fine by me, but when I look at a bass, guitar, coffee maker, bike etc... you bet I look at how many people have bought the thing and would actively recommend it. Granted, the line 6 spider is a very popular amp and I wouldn't touch one - so this is still subject to taste - but generally speaking if a lot of people buy a certain product and actively recommend it long term, I'd consider that a point in favour.

 

[fhm555]

i was browsing basses on sweetwater, and as is common on a lot of sites, their sorting defaults to most popular.

i've never cared about the popularity of an item or whether it's trending, so this baffles me. today or this week's most popular item could be based on a short-term marketing campaign, a press release, a single large influencer, an article that appeared one time on CNN or in rolling stone, or the manufacturer could make a deal with a group of influencers. it has nothing to do with quality, features, value, whether audiences will find it compelling, or anything i consider when it comes to buying... well, anything. i don't buy basses, paper towels, cameras or decide what to watch based on popularity or trending.

sometimes an overall product/show rating or user reviews can be useful to me, depending on a number of factors. but even then, quality, price, features, weight (when it comes to basses, cameras and lenses), and lack of animal products or toxic chemicals (particularly in art supplies) are what i focus on. quality of customer support from a manufacturer or retailer is a huge plus.

do people actually buy things, consider buying things or watching things based on popularity or because they're trending? is there something to this beyond herd mentality that i'm completely missing? inquiring minds want to know!

The quickest way for a sales minion to lose me is to try the celebrity endorser pitch. I don't care that Turiq Mukerfsone of the Busted Brass Knuckles uses an amp, bass, or pedal, I want to hear what it sounds like with me playing with it/through it, and tweaking the knobs. If I'm looking to buy something I don't normally buy I'll do a bit of reading to get a feel for what might be best suited for my needs, but popularity is not something I put too much weight in. I'll read a mix of reviews, but what seems to be a trend in any review is the skill of the writer with the thing they are reviewing. Things like tools or other items with small engines seem to be problematic for those not familiar with how they work. In my personal experience with helping folks with wet fuel r/c models, the vast majority of buyers will not bother to read any instructions. They will take it out of the box thinking it will be a simple matter of gassing it up, cranking it, and playing with it. It's not hard, and one only needs to read and follow the provided instructions and a rank amateur can pull it off. Those who refuse to follow directions are the ones who tend to make it the product's fault in a review so I usually take those types of reviews with a big grain of salt.
Lastly, I was once offered a job writing reviews for hobby products by a hobby products wholesaler. They were going to pay me to write favorable reviews but not based on actual use of the product. They made no secret that glowing 4 to 5 star reviews were required if I wanted to be paid, part of which was discounts on products. Popularity and trends in consumer goods far too manipulated for me to trust any further than I can throw my house.

 

[moon-bass]

i was browsing basses on sweetwater, and as is common on a lot of sites, their sorting defaults to most popular.

i've never cared about the popularity of an item or whether it's trending, so this baffles me. today or this week's most popular item could be based on a short-term marketing campaign, a press release, a single large influencer, an article that appeared one time on CNN or in rolling stone, or the manufacturer could make a deal with a group of influencers. it has nothing to do with quality, features, value, whether audiences will find it compelling, or anything i consider when it comes to buying... well, anything. i don't buy basses, paper towels, cameras or decide what to watch based on popularity or trending.

sometimes an overall product/show rating or user reviews can be useful to me, depending on a number of factors. but even then, quality, price, features, weight (when it comes to basses, cameras and lenses), and lack of animal products or toxic chemicals (particularly in art supplies) are what i focus on. quality of customer support from a manufacturer or retailer is a huge plus.

do people actually buy things, consider buying things or watching things based on popularity or because they're trending? is there something to this beyond herd mentality that i'm completely missing? inquiring minds want to know!

Only in terms of potential resale value/quick saleability if I think that I might want to sell it down the road.

 

[DaveParker39]

Depends on the definition of "popular"

If it is "popular" amongst other gigging bassists, then yes.

 

[pcake]

The quickest way for a sales minion to lose me is to try the celebrity endorser pitch. I don't care that Turiq Mukerfsone of the Busted Brass Knuckles uses an amp, bass, or pedal, I want to hear what it sounds like with me playing with it/through it, and tweaking the knobs. If I'm looking to buy something I don't normally buy I'll do a bit of reading to get a feel for what might be best suited for my needs, but popularity is not something I put too much weight in. I'll read a mix of reviews, but what seems to be a trend in any review is the skill of the writer with the thing they are reviewing. Things like tools or other items with small engines seem to be problematic for those not familiar with how they work. In my personal experience with helping folks with wet fuel r/c models, the vast majority of buyers will not bother to read any instructions. They will take it out of the box thinking it will be a simple matter of gassing it up, cranking it, and playing with it. It's not hard, and one only needs to read and follow the provided instructions and a rank amateur can pull it off. Those who refuse to follow directions are the ones who tend to make it the product's fault in a review so I usually take those types of reviews with a big grain of salt.
Lastly, I was once offered a job writing reviews for hobby products by a hobby products wholesaler. They were going to pay me to write favorable reviews but not based on actual use of the product. They made no secret that glowing 4 to 5 star reviews were required if I wanted to be paid, part of which was discounts on products. Popularity and trends in consumer goods far too manipulated for me to trust any further than I can throw my house.

i'm a professional review writer and also a hobby review writer, too. i'm often contacted by companies who offer me products or money to write positive reviews of their products or services. i usually politely turn them down, telling them if they want an honest review with useful feedback, i'd be happy to do that. but one company that makes lower end action and dash cams kept annoying me enough that i told them if they wanted great reviews, they should make great products. i still hear from them, but thankfully a lot less often.

btw, a few companies sometimes hit me up to review their products for them internally to use as feedback.

 

[5StringBlues]

I follow all advertisers and influencers blindly.

 

[monsterthompson]

the ability to resell and either cut even or profit.

Popularity and scarcity definitely combine to help with reselling and holding on to some of what you initially paid. The tough part is that sometimes popularity means a high supply of a product in the new and used market, which depresses prices. Scarcity can help keep prices floating but only to a point. Some niche gear has a passionate but small consumer base. Dunwich pedals, for example, can demand a hefty price on the used market but only if you find the right buyer, and the right buyer isn’t always looking to buy or able to buy when you’re selling.

 

[NotHereNow]

I’ve always assumed “most popular” = “stuff we want to sell the most”

 

[Wasnex]

I think the rationale for setting up sites this way is less because they think customers themselves prefer to know what is most popular, and more because the merchant wants to identify what is most popular and get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible, the same way that best selling items might get priority placement in a physical store. Every customer is going to see the first items that come up on a page, and very few are going to see the last items if the products span multiple pages, so they want to keep the better selling stuff toward the front.

AFAIK it can also be used encourage price competition between vendors on sites like Amazon.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I never follow trends or go for what's popular. To me, that is an extremely shallow, follow the herd mentality. I just do me.

 

[Billyears IV]

Positive feedback from genuine product reviews/demos & users, yes.

Website algorithms, or 'best seller', no.

 

[cnltb]

when shopping, do you care how popular something is?​

No.

 

[JRA]

i voted, "it depends" --- the product category, my needs/desires, timing, other circumstances, yada yada.....

basses? = no.

 

[ViperTim]

Less popular / more obscure = more interest from me.

Why should I play a Pbass? Or a Les Paul when playing guitar?
I like it more obscure. Ok on bass I’m playing a Thunderbird so not super obscure but in guitar I play exclusively 80s Washburn and my favorite and dream is my Washburn A-20.

Seeing someone post their brand new Fender Pbass gives me zero interest, I can browse those at Thomann or in my nearest music store.

 

[Snert]

do people actually buy things, consider buying things or watching things based on popularity or because they're trending?

Not me.

 

[Osvaldo Junior]

After I got older I became a minimalist and I don't care about designer products. Good and cheap.