Lillian,

Do you mean by "disposition of special possessions" the passing on of mementos, souvenirs, keepsakes, etc to family members? Like that grandpa's old pocket watch goes to his grandson, Paul?

If this is the case, there are two behaviors going on. First, people's treasures such as these are very valuable to them. They are memories, mainly. They desire to pass the valuable item to someone to show how much they care for them. And in particular, they want to pass it along to someone who truly saw the item the same way as they. Grandpa got the pocket watch when he retired from the railroad. He chose Paul because when he was a small child, Paul would sit on Grandpa's lap and listen to Grandpa tell tales about this adventures up and down the tracks and play with the pocket watch - flipping the cover open and closing it. As Paul was older, he surprised Grandpa by fixing the crystal on the old watch that was relegated to the top drawer of his dresser after it was broken. Paul also wrote and framed a short story about Grandpa's railroad adventures and gave both to him for his 75th birthday. Grandpa willed the pocket watch to Paul because Paul truly understood what it meant to grandpa.

The behavior is also indicative of a person's desire to live forever. Our instinct is to have children to continue the population of the earth. And the children are an extension of us. Men want sons so their name is carried on. We start foundations so that our wealth will carry through and help our descendants and others. In passing along the treasures, the memory of us is passed as well. We hope that we will be remembered.

Marketers hope to catch hold of these feelings in their goods and promote this feeling. If we feel so attached to a good that we see a "keepsake" value to it before we buy, we're going to pay almost anything for it. Price is no longer a factor. This feeling is illogical in economic terms. The utility of the item is much lower then the perceived value.

By understanding what is cherished by people, marketers can incorporate features and characteristics into their products that emulate those in cherished possessions. These features result in highly differentiable benefits.

Marketers can use the understanding of this phenomena to evoke the emotions in their promotions. If they know what items people (irrationally) value, they can include these kinds of images in their promotions and tie them to their products and services in hopes of tying these emotions to their products to motivate a buying decision.

So IF I understood your question properly, these are thoughts off the top of my head. If I didn't understand it correctly, then never mind, forget what I said... :)

I would like to commend you for an interesting question and for having put some thought into it and sharing your thoughts. I can tell you truly want to learn and understand versus just get the assignment done. This is refreshing.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Lillian,

You are very welcome. Keep up with your enthusiasm for learning and asking great questions after thinking them through yourself and you will be working as a marketing manager soon enough. And you will be great at it!

I'm glad to say I, unlike some of my colleagues, don't fit your target population! I'm not an "old people" yet! :)>

Keep up the good work.

Wayde