choices

(Welcome to the second in a two-post series on how retailers manage the choice conundrum. This is written by C. B. Whittemore, Chief Simplifier of Simple Marketing Now, a marketing communications consultancy focused on simplifying customer interactions with social media and content marketing.

I’ve written about some of the research that shows that shoppers don’t always respond positively to a bigger selection of products (see More Choices, Fewer Sales) and extreme product/brand proliferation (see Mega-Branding: The Purple Oreo Problem). Now, retailers are implementing the concept of reducing selection in their stores and finding that it can indeed increase sales.

Book Review: You Are What You Choose – The Habits of Mind that REALLY Determine How We Make Decisions, by Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton

Based on the title and cover art, which shows a head stuffed with objects, I anticipated that You Are What You Choose would be chock full of decision-making insights based on neuroscience and behavioral research. Instead, de Marchi and Hamilton mostly talk about their TRAITS system for categorizing individuals and then predicting subsequent behavior.

The last time I wrote about Nabisco’s Oreo brand, it was in Mega-Branding: The Purple Oreo Problem. In that post I was critical of the seemingly crazy proliferation of Oreo variations – 46 offerings, including “Purple.” My criticism was based on research showing that offering consumers too many choices can reduce sales.

Last week, we saw that order of presentation of a small number of products dramatically affects consumer preference. (See Order Effect Affects Orders.) But how do our brains cope when choices number in the hundreds or thousands, and how do websites best match products or services to their visitors?