Advanced Analytics Blog

Sniffing Out The Best Option: Paw-sitively Overwhelming

I recently adopted a new dog, Lizzie. She’s an adorable Westie who deserves the best. As we welcomed her into our home, I was faced with the difficult decision of what kind of food to feed her.

There are so many considerations I evaluated in making this decision: will her stomach tolerate it, will she like it, will it cause allergies, will it cause other health problems, does it provide health benefits, price, availability, convenience, ingredient source, how it is processed, number of proteins offered, brand, who owns the brand, etc. With pet food manufacturers capitalizing on the humanization of pets, the number of choices in the dog food space has grown exponentially over the past few years.

Faced with the many choices, I became frustrated. I was also reminded of one of my favorite books, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz. It resonated with me so much, and it’s crazy how my thought process is so close to what is described in this book! The premise of the book is that the growing number of choices these days for everything from dog food to TV shows to wellness, can cause anxiety and decision-making paralysis, leading to dissatisfaction with our choices and ultimately depression.

On the one hand, the proliferation of choices is great because consumers get products and services tailored to their needs. However, with the increase of access through e-commerce and streaming platforms, this problem seems to have gotten exponentially worse (the book was originally published in 2004). Now AI is even serving up products it thinks we want. Thus far, I feel like this just gives me more options to consider, although I believe its goal is to reduce all choices down to those that are most relevant.

It would be a lot easier to just keep buying the same food that Lizzie’s breeder was feeding her, but I’m also what is called a maximizer. As defined by Barry Schwartz, a maximizer seeks and accepts only the best which, he explains, leads to even greater stress and dissatisfaction. If I log onto Amazon.com and search for “dog food,” I get over 4,000 results. And that’s just one channel! Many times, when I’m shopping, I end up spending hours going down a rabbit hole searching for the perfect product, reading hundreds of reviews, and making comparisons. I even end up imagining products in my mind that unfortunately don’t exist! And most of the time, I end up frustrated and just give up, not making a purchase after wasting a lot of time. Until I have another few hours to do this all over again. “The more time we have to spend on a task, the more we overcomplicate it,” Barry says. In my dog food example, this in turn, leaves me less time to actually play with Lizzie!

Of course, I’m in the business of understanding how consumers make decisions, which is another reason this book resonated with me. In Consumer Insights, we often focus on determining the drivers of choice. These might be the features, functions, or benefits (or combination thereof) of a product or service. However, research has shown that people cannot always articulate what they want, why they make their decision, or how they make tradeoffs. I am fascinated by the many examples of this which are cited in the book. This may be why I prefer techniques that generate derived over stated importance in research.

At Decision Analyst, we have several techniques to determine what drives choice, where we ask respondents to complete survey exercises that are designed to put them in a real-world decision-making frame of mind and allow them to make tradeoffs. (Find more information here: Choice Modeling and Key Driver Analysis-Prerecorded Webinar)

Based on consumer insights, we help our clients understand their target audience and how to reach them. Then, clients implement new strategies to introduce new products, design product portfolios, manage brands, as well as market and advertise them to the appropriate audiences. Oftentimes, companies may have created the perfect product, but it can be very difficult for their target audience to sift through the thousands of other choices that are available in the marketplace.

So, while I love that I have so many choices today and that I can provide a more healthy, functional diet for my dog, making choices continues to be a source of frustration for me! I’m going to revisit the suggestions in the book I mentioned for how to make purchase decisions less stressful. Think of all the choices you have in your daily life. How do you feel about the abundance of choice in our society today? Do we always need the new and improved? What can brands do to help make purchasing decisions less stressful?

P.S. I did decide on a food brand so Lizzie can eat, but I will probably continue to evaluate other options. Of course, as she ages, her needs will change, which will send me through the evaluation process again. In addition, there will be new products emerging each year which I will surely want to check out.

Ellen Williams

Vice President

Ellen brings over 20 years of market research experience. She is proficient in creating custom research studies to derive meaningful insights and strategic recommendations that address clients’ business questions. She has led both quantitative and qualitative research across industries such as consumer goods, healthcare, and financial services. Ellen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Illinois Wesleyan University.

• 
•