Choices: why 4 is better than 5, 3 is better than 4, and 2 is better than 3.
Anna Talerico on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 10:48AM Sheena Iyengar is a full professor in the Management Division of the Columbia Business School. I learned of her work in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. Ms. Iyengar is one of the leading experts on choice, and how choice impacts our decision making. She is also my new hero.
In her well-known study conducted at Draeger’s Market in Menlo Park, California, she conducted a study in which shoppers could sample jam. The sampling table had either 6 jars of jam or 24. You can guess which booth sold more jam, right? The booth with 6 jam samples.
(image source: http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/book.shtml)
Ms. Iyengar also conducted a study with Vanguard on retirement plans in which she found that the more retirement fund choices people had, the less likely they were to participate in the retirement program.
As marketers, we say “of course!”. We instinctively know that too much choice can overwhelm and dilute the choice to the point where focus is lost. So, why don’t we apply this knowledge more often? And why don’t we apply it to our landing experiences?
We need to be familiar with this kind of academic research and how to apply it. The research has implications for how we bring products & solutions to market (do we need 3 product models or 10 product models?). And as a post-click marketer, I am most excited about how it applies to user behavior on the landing experience.
Coincidentally we’re running some tests right now with an e-commerce client to pare the choices available in the online shopping experience. The client intuitively feels than 9 product models are diluting the user’s focus. I think they are right and I am looking forward to sharing the results of the test with you when we have the final results.
Now might be a good time to go take a fresh look at your landing pages and make sure you’ve eliminated any unncessary distractions or overlapping choices & offers. Pare it down to the essentials for happier users and better conversions!
Reader Comments (5)
In my experience, human beings are best at making a decision between two choices. All factors considered, people will have a preference between two options. As soon as a third option is added though, the whole system goes haywire.
Our experience has been that customers seem to be most comfortable with three choices. Two choices oversimplifies the options and four or more risks over complicating them. Interested if anyone else has the same experience.
Gregory, I agree -- I really like 3 choices and see that it works well with client tests. But 2 choices also works very well in many contexts, I hope you don't rule it out.
Fear and the Options Roulette Wheel
I think that consumers are driven more by the fear of making the wrong decision than many marketers realize. In the abstract, people like the idea of having "more," including more choices available to them.
However, when the actual moment of decision arrives, the consumer is in the position of having to make "the right choice." And most consumers believe that there is only one "right" choice, instead of considering that that they could be choosing from among several "right" choices.
Think of it as a roulette wheel. In the moment where consumers have to make a choice, on some level they see each additional option as another potentially "wrong" numbered slot where the ball might land. By reducing the number of options presented to the consumer, we increase their perceived odds of finding that one, right answer.
T. Scott, I couldn't agree more! Thanks for your comments.