The Why #4: Why do I keep ordering the same damn burrito?
Question submitted by Adam, Bondi
Yes Adam, why do you keep ordering the same damn burrito? I’m sure it’s delicious and all, but variety is the spice of life, and the explosion in food delivery apps has made munching your way through all that variety easier than ever.
Conventional wisdom suggests that we love choice. The more options the better.
Choice makes us feel powerful and in control. Choice — and the power of the individual to choose — are at the core of our modern, democratic, capitalist society.
And as marketers and agency folk, we are the navy seals of capitalism; the elite group of men and women dedicating our lives to creating more options for more people in more categories.
Unfortunately, most of our efforts are in vain.
Choice Paradox
Enter the Choice Paradox. So called because we love the idea of choosing, but are quickly overwhelmed by choice. Unfortunately, our small brains are ill-equipped to deal with the thousands of choices we need to make, just to get through a day in our modern, brand filled lives. Jeans or pants? Cereal or toast? Train, bus or bike? And on and on and on.
We are so quickly, and so frequently overwhelmed by all of this choice that we often just default to the simplest choice of all; nothing (aka the same burrito I ordered the last 15 times that didn’t kill me).
The Choice Paradox was beautifully demonstrated in the famous ‘Jam Study’ of 2000, in which psychologists Iyengar and Lepper tested the impact of choice on conversion.
On back-to-back weekends, they set up a display table at a fancy supermarket, offering shoppers a range of jams to sample and purchase. On the first weekend, six varieties of jams were available. On the second weekend, there were 24. While the 24 options attracted 50% more interest and sampling, the table with six varieties converted ten times better when it came time to purchase.
Less choice. More sales.
Despite what our instincts (and textbooks) tell us, more choice is usually not better. Life is stressful enough, which means that giving customers fewer, but better options will reduce anxiety, boost sales and create higher levels of post purchase satisfaction.
Behaviourally Yours,
Dan Monheit
