Introduction
This article is about two varying perspectives on the effectiveness and value of increased consumer choices. According to Malcolm Gladwell, increased choices increase consumer happiness and satisfaction (Gladwell, 2004). Gladwell based his theory on the research and experience of Dr Howard Moskowitz. However, Barry Schwartz disagrees. He believes that increased choices decrease consumer happiness and satisfaction (Schwartz, 2005). In this article, we will analyze both perspectives. But first, here is a brief biography of the three gentlemen:
- Malcolm Gladwell is a famous New York based Canadian Journalist. He has been writing for The New Yorker since 1996 and has appeared on Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people (Malcolm Gladwell, 2012).
- Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist and professor at Swarthmore College. He is also a frequent editorial contributor to the New York Times (Barry Schwartz, n.d.).
- Dr. Howard Moskowitz is a world renowned psychophysicists and “an inventor of world-class market research technology.” (“Dr. Howard Moskowitz” n.d.). He is considered the founding father of modern day consumer science and behavioral research.
Body
According to Malcolm Gladwell in this TED talk video, Howard Moskowitz, a brand specialist in the 70s, proved that consumers are happier when they are offered multiple choices, i.e. varying product and service options. He describes how Moskowitz, arrived at this conclusion after his Diet Pepsi research study (Gladwell, 2004). But Pepsi was not impressed with his conclusion, and neither was anyone in the food industry. But Howard Moskowitz would not and could not be stopped. Howard Moskowitz went on to prove his theory when he accepted the task of increasing sales of Prego spaghetti sauce.
“He was obsessed with it. And finally he had a breakthrough. Campbell’s Soup. Campbell’s made Prego, and Prego in the early ’80s was struggling next to Ragu, which was the dominant spaghetti sauce of the ’70s and ’80s. So they came to Howard and they said, fix us. And Howard looked at their product line and he said, what you have is a dead tomato society. So he said, this is what I want to do. And he got together with the Campbell’s soup kitchen and he made 45 varieties of spaghetti sauce. And he varied them according to every conceivable way that you can vary tomato sauce.” (“Transcript of “Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce””, n.d.)
According to Malcolm Gladwell, Prego spaghetti sauce, which was considered superior to its competition, Ragu, was struggling to stay in the market. Sales were subpar and the company enlisted Howard’s services because of his extensive knowledge on branding, market trends and consumer behavior. Per Howard Moskowitz’s professional advice, Prego decided to create 45 different sauces and Campbells, the company that made Prego, saw a significant increase in the sales of Prego sauce after that (Gladwell, 2004).
“And Prego then went back, and completely reformulated their spaghetti sauce, and came out with a line of extra chunky that immediately and completely took over the spaghetti sauce business in this country. And over the next 10 years, they made 600 million dollars off their line of extra-chunky sauces.’ (“Transcript of “Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce””, n.d.)
After Howard’s big win with Prego, many more companies understand and now implement the proven theory that increased options and variety increases consumer happiness and patronage. Howard Markowitz revolutionized the manufacturing and marketing of consumer goods.
This consumer behavior is backed by scientific research. Research study on the human psychology concludes that we are happier when we feel we are in control of some or many aspects of our lives and in the direction we’re heading (Larson, 1989). Pasta sauce, for example, may seem insignificant on the grand scheme of things, however, knowing we can control how chunky or smooth our spaghetti dinner will be tonight, gives us the feeling or illusion of control, which makes us happier and more satisfied than we were when we felt we had little to no control over the consistency of the spaghetti sauce.
“On the average people report feeling only slightly more happy at times when feeling in control. The between-persons analyses yield findings that are more in line with explanations of subject control, showing that individuals reporting higher average daily control also experience greater average happiness. The results confirm that a generalized sense of control is important to wellbeing in daily life, but for non-disturbed individuals short-term experiences of dis-control are not accompanied by substantial distress.” (Larson, 1989)
In addition to control, there is the human ego. Oxford dictionary defines ego as “A person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance.” (“Oxford Dictionary” n.d.). It also provides a psychoanalytical definition of ego. It states the ego is “the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity” (“Oxford Dictionary” n.d.). In other words, the ego is governed by our self image. We want to know we have options. We want what we want to have, not what we ought to have. The availability of options strokes and protects the ego. Even though we may not always be able to verbalize what we want, we want to know we can have it if and when we know we want it.
“The mind knows not what the tongue wants.” It’s a mystery! And a critically important step in understanding our own desires and tastes is to realize that we cannot always explain what we want deep down. (“Transcript of “Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce””, n.d.)
If Malcolm Gladwell is correct, then the implication for marketing professionals is the need to present the consumers with choices in a way that won’t overwhelm them. It’s easy to get away with 45 variations of tomato sauce in a grocery store, because the environment is dominated by variety. It’s spaghetti sauce, if I or my family do not like the ‘extra chunky zest’ sauce today, I’ll get the ‘mid chunky cheese’ sauce tomorrow.
Marketing professionals are burdened with the task of recognizing environments that product and service variety will thrive. We need to consistently and efficiently find a way to present these variety and options to the consumer, while either inconspicuously guiding them to the decision we want them to make or offering little to no options in the major decisions. An example of this strategy is the social media platform Twitter. You can write ‘almost’ anything you want, a long as it is within 140 characters. Cable packages are another great example. You can get any channel you want, as long it is in one of the packages we offer. These companies, and many others, have found a way to offer consumers options in a controlled and structured environment.
Barry Schwartz believes too many choices lead to decision paralysis and post-decision dissatisfaction (Schwartz, 2005). This is because too many options trigger unhealthy curiosity of within us. Not only do we fear making the wrong decision, we will always wonder and sometimes obsess over the opportunity cost, i.e. the forgone decision.
“Simply stated, an opportunity cost is the cost of a missed opportunity. It is the opposite of the benefit that would have been gained had an action, not taken, been taken—the missed opportunity.” (“Opportunity Cost”, 1970).
How green is the grass on the other side? The most damaging aspect of this human flaw is the fact that we would still go through this unhealthy process, even if we made the best decision for us and our circumstances at the moment. This reminds me of a sermon I listened to by world renowned Texas Pastor, Joel Osteen (Osteen, 2014). He was telling a story about the incidents that occurred after his dad, John Osteen, purchased a car back in the 80s. He said his dad saved up for it and must have visited multiple dealerships to find the right car. He must have also conducted a lengthy research on the features of the car he wanted. When John Osteen, Joel Osteen’s dad, finally made the decision on the car he wanted, he bought it and brought it home. It may have been the same evening or the next evening something interesting occurred. Joel Osteen’s dad was watching TV with the family when a car commercial came on. This commercial discussed the features of a new model vehicle, with the camera zooming into the various parts and features. His dad had this horrified look on his face because he could not believe how amazing this car was. He finally said out loud “I just bought the wrong stinking car” (Osteen, 2014). Not long after he made that statement did the camera zoom out and the whole car was visible on the TV screen. Turns out the ‘wrong stinking car’ sitting in his garage was the exact same car in the commercial. If this isn’t an accurate illustration of the points made by Barry Schwartz, I do not know what is. This issue resolved itself as soon as John Osteen, Joel Osteen’s dad, realized it was the same car. One can only imagine how miserable he would have been if it was indeed another car. He could only afford one car at the time. He made a decision after a lengthy research and shopping process. This would have been tragic because rather than enjoy his new car, he would have been miserable in it. Always wondering about the car in the commercial, i.e., the car that got away.
There is also the dissatisfaction that accompanies the wrong decision. When a consumer is offered choices that he or she is unqualified to make. Below is a snippet from Barry Schwartz’s TED talk transcript:
“It is no longer the case in the United States that you go to the doctor, and the doctor tells you what to do. Instead, you go to the doctor, and the doctor tells you, “Well, we could do A, or we could do B. A has these benefits, and these risks. B has these benefits, and these risks. What do you want to do?” And you say, “Doc, what should I do?” And the doc says, “A has these benefits and risks, and B has these benefits and risks. What do you want to do?” And you say, “If you were me, Doc, what would you do?” And the doc says, “But I’m not you.” And the result is — we call it “patient autonomy,” which makes it sound like a good thing, but it really is a shifting of the burden and the responsibility for decision-making from somebody who knows something — namely, the doctor — to somebody who knows nothing and is almost certainly sick and thus not in the best shape to be making decisions — namely, the patient.” (“Transcript of “The paradox of choice”” n.d.)
Barry Schwartz proceeds to explain another scenario where choices are offered to a consumer unqualified to make the decision. This is the case of marketing prescription drugs directly to the consumer.
“There’s enormous marketing of prescription drugs to people like you and me, which, if you think about it, makes no sense at all, since we can’t buy them. Why do they market to us if we can’t buy them? The answer is that they expect us to call our doctors the next morning and ask for our prescriptions to be changed.” (“The paradox of choice” n.d.)
The implication of Barry Schwartz’s theory for marketing professionals is the need to discreetly limit consumer choices. This is because the product branding and consumer process does not end at the final sale. User experience is just as important because it will lead to return customers and great reviews, which is extremely important in this internet age. Consumers can now post online reviews based on their level of satisfaction with the product. Which, by the way, does not only depend on the quality of the product. Marketing professionals are now burdened with the task of making consumers, not only aware of the multiple ways the product will meet their needs, but also make them ‘aware’ that it is the best product for them. None of the others matter. This, according to my analysis of Barry Schwartz’s theory on the Paradox of choices, will increase their happiness and satisfaction with the product and/or service.
Conclusion
Both Malcolm Gladwell and Barry Schwartz make good points. Even though we experience temporary pleasure and empowerment when we have choices, too many options can create internal conflict and sometimes prevents us from making any decisions at all. Plus, even when we finally make the decision, we are plagued with ‘what ifs’ and regret. In my analysis of Malcolm Gladwell’s perspective on choice, I provided examples of companies that have figured out ways to offer consumers choices within a controlled and structured environment. Consumers feel empowered and experience happiness and satisfaction with the availability of options, and the ability to choose. The controlled environment prevents the decision paralysis explained by Barry Schwartz. For example, I won’t be plagued with a decision paralysis if I only have 3 or 4 cable packages to choose from, even though I am thrilled at the idea of the availability of over 1000 cable channels. This is a structure that meets satisfies the common good.
References
Barry Schwartz. (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2017, from
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6957.Barry_Schwartz
Dr. Howard Moskowitz, Chief Science Officer. (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from
http://www.mindgenomics.com/howard-moskowitz.html
Gladwell, M. (2004, February). Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce. Retrieved June 28, 2017,
from https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce
Larson, R. (1989, June). Is feeling “in control” related to happiness in daily life? Retrieved June 29,
2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2748778
Malcolm Gladwell. (2012). FamousAuthors.org. Retrieved 04:07, June 27, 2017 from
http://www.famousauthors.org/malcolm-gladwell
Opportunity Cost. (1970, November 29). Retrieved July 01, 2017, from
https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/opportunity-cost.html
Osteen, J. (2014, May 02). Realize What You Have. Retrieved July 02, 2017, from
http://blogs.christianpost.com/joel-osteen/realize-what-you-have-21206/#more
Oxford Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2017, from
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ego
Schwartz, B. (2005, July). The paradox of choice. Retrieved June 28, 2017, from
Transcript of “Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce”. (n.d.). Retrieved July 01, 2017, from
Transcript of “The paradox of choice”. (n.d.). Retrieved July 01, 2017, from
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