More the Merrier?
When I was a kid, my mom would ask me everyday “what do you want for dinner?” I could never answer that question. Because it’s such an open ended and there’re so many options I can choose from. However, when she would give me a choice between two dishes, I know exactly what I wanted. As consumers, it’s way more difficult to choose from a wide range of products than it is to choose from fewer options.
Marketers use segmentation strategy to create targeted marketing campaigns in order to sell more products. However, this segmentation can lead to creation of way too many products which makes it difficult for consumers to choose from. Skincare is a great example of market segmentation. Today, if you walk into Sephora, you will find various skin care categories like acne treatment, eye care, anti-aging, and much more. Furthermore, each of those caethories have 100s of products for it from multiple brands. A rational consumer is now bombarded with 1000s of products to choose from and they have no idea which one is the best for them and often this leads to them going out of Sephora empty handed. However, Sephora has found a great way to tackle this by having skin care experts guiding their consumers in the right direction.
According to Harvard Business Review, There is diminishing marginal utility in having alternatives; each new option subtracts a little from the feeling of well-being, until the marginal benefits of added choice level off. Having too many choices takes a lot of time and effort to review each product which can lead to anxiety and dissatisfaction. From the previous example of skincare, if you are looking for an acne treatment face wash, you will find acne treatment face wash from 25 different brands just at Sephora and you probably don’t know which one works best for you and you’ll end up trying multiple of them which requires time, effort and money. Every new option feels better than the one before and the cycle never stops.
As marketers, we should avoid overwhelming our consumers with a wide array of options. According to American Psychological Association, too many choices can also overwhelm us to the point where we choose nothing at all, and in the worst-case scenarios, may even erode our well-being. The main purpose of marketing is to provide value to our customers and solve their problems, but with one too many options, we are giving our consumers a new problem which can lead a negative impact on the brand image.
In conclusion, even though having more variety of products gives consumers more to choose from, it’s not always the best option for a brand. In some cases, more isn’t the merrier!
