‘The choice problem’ — A problem for startups to solve
On summer mornings I would find my grandfather sitting on the veranda in his rocking chair reading his morning newspaper. He could have finished his morning prayers, and you would expect a whiff of incense sticks from the pooja room. But through the hall and the veranda, there was this strong smell of Chandrika soap. He used that soap for over fifty years. Never once did he even consider changing the soap. I saw the same pattern with my grandmom, a whiff of Hamam soap and she was loyal to the brand for over 40 years. In fact, my grandfather was so annoyed when they changed his soaps flavour a bit and the shape from a rectangle to oval. That is admirable customer loyalty, but it was also something that gave them comfort. Whenever I try to retrieve their memories the sensory smell kicks in. It was not some company or some product. It was their product, their personal brand identity.
Do you think it is possible to replicate this with a modern brand or company? I doubt that. What do you think is the biggest trouble these days? I have used over 30 types of soaps and over 20 types of body washes, and those are things that I can remember. Big companies like P&G or Unilever have thousands of products, and they build brands around every product. And each of these products ends up having hundreds of variants. Take Ariel, there are over 10 variants, of course, they get different jobs done, but it takes a customer a lot of time to figure out which one is best for them. Ariel is actually in a better place, there are brands that provide over 100s of variants of the same product. The more the choices, the more the confused your customer gets.
You would know about this too if you had spent an evening shopping on Amazon. If you are an informed user who knows exactly what you want then it is actually bliss. If you are a customer who is suffering through a pain or problem and try to search for a solution, you only have a broad idea on what you might need. And it is ridiculous because every time you search a search string, there are over 100 pages of returns. Repeat this on AliExpress and there are 400 pages of results. It is pretty much like the Google search engine — extremely few people are going to go to the second page. And that I find is a pattern that is going to hit our online buying behaviour too.
Try it yourself: Pause reading this article for few minutes and search ‘baby girl dress’ on Amazon.in, AliExpress.com, Hopscotch.in, Firstcry.com and try and tell me which was easier. Amazon and AliExpress sell more than dresses, Hopscotch and Firstcry are speciality online stores for babies and children.
What this is causing is extreme exhaustion and confusion. Too many choices are confusing your buyer or consumer. We want to show differentiation between our products and that is good but not these many variations. If your customer is confused they might even bail without buying your product, and I think you would see that by giving too much, you are actually losing business.
When my mom asks me to make a decision of what breakfast I want, I say — make whatever you want. If she did make something I don’t like I am sure to complain, and then she would say, hey I asked you what you wanted, but you didn’t say. On days though when she asks me do you want Pongal or Rotti, I quickly make the decision that I want Rottis.
For me, Apple iPhone is a default choice because in the market at any given time it has only one major version with two to four variations (well they wanted to copy competition and now they made it nearly 2 version with 12 variants — which I find annoying already). All I have to do is walk into the store test it if I like it buy it or leave it.
For a startup, this seems very scary. What if I cannot fulfil my client’s needs? If I say I don’t have it, will they walk out? Will I lose them to a competitor? So we sit down and over engineer our offerings, products and services alike — thinking that we would hit the mark somewhere in this mix — if not this, that, if not that, something else. To go with very few offerings does need confidence. But if you did do one thing, or just a few related things really well, your customer will really like you and buy you. On the other hand, you also will be able to deliver excellence. Unlike investments where you can’t put all your eggs in the same basket, this ball game gets slightly different.
Key Takeaways…
Don’t become your own competitor: By having too many choices or variants don’t confuse your customer. Customization and personalization are different and it is possible to accomplish that in the single product too.
Try not to solve every problem: If you are everything for everyone, then you land up being nothing for no one. As every company grows bigger and bigger, this is the thing they try to do, and you will see they slowly start consolidating than innovating.
Reduce choice making: Act like the problem solver. I am not advocating a one size fits all solution, just saying that by reducing choices you reduce confusion. Your customer is already suffering a problem, you can’t trouble them with one more — and that is one of choice making.
Categorize products by needs or contexts: When you categorize my needs and context — you won’t show me that many variants. Say a person in India won’t see the same Ariel products, as someone in the UK does, it is to do with hand washing culture, climate, washing machine style, etc.,
What do you think we can do to mitigate the risk of having too many choices and variants?
See you next time…
