The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz
I found this book’s premise strangely compelling. Why, when shopping with so many excellent choices today, do I feel stumped as to which to choose? The book explained why and delivered much more. As a marketer, it was also a helpful reality check of what our prospects face.
As background, know that Barry Schwartz divides consumers into two groups: maximizers who want the absolute best value, and satisficers who are willing to settle for ‘good enough’.
Points learned:
More choices actually means less satisfaction with your selection because you can’t feel sure you got the best value. Barry Schwartz’s best example is a taste test with six flavors of jam that significantly outsold a taste test with sixteen jams, even though the larger selection attracted more testers.
Marketing lesson: Make the prospect’s choice as clear as possible.
The challenging issue with making a choice is not satisfaction, but regret. He says the larger selection of jam actually caused the taster to perceive future regret that they didn’t pick the best flavor.
Marketing lesson: How can you ease the prospect’s regret before, during, and after the sale? Surprisingly, Schwartz says a reversible deal, such as a trial period will not help with regret.
One other strong example about the reality of choice that he uses: 65% of people without cancer said that would want to choose their treatments if they got it, while 88% of cancer patients said they would leave treatment decisions to the doctor.
Marketing lesson: Don’t rely on customers’ opinions about what choices they want to be able to make. In actuality, they would rather trust the ‘expert’, which is hopefully your marketing materials and/or salespeople.
For some, the amount of choice actually drives past indecision and regret and leads to depression. Maximizers, he says, are especially vulnerable.
Personal lesson: By personally limiting choice and freedom, more happiness can be experienced, which seems contrary to what we would think. Marriage was a prime example.
Overall, the book helped me understand much about myself and the material world I navigate. Why do I buy everything online from Ebay or Amazon? The choices of where else to buy are so overwhelming that I can’t bother. And as a marketer, making the customer’s choice clear and apparent is so, so important.