"Everything was Better Back when Everything was Worse."

The week before I came back to UT for the start of this semester, I made a trip to my hometown HEB to pick up some groceries for school and in the end left empty-handed and frustrated. Why you ask? Well, after listening to Barry Schwartz’s “The Paradox of Choice” podcast, I figured out that I made a huge consumer mistake…I started in the bottled water section. It used to be that one would enter the bottle watered section and pick up whichever water was the best deal. But not anymore. Oh no. There are now entire AISLES dedicated solely to water. Why? Because it would be humanly impossible to display the now innumerous bottled water options on a few meters of shelf space (as used to be the case). To my utter astonishment, I was greeted by every type of imaginable so-called “water” concoction. There was kiwi-strawberry, mango peach, lemon, and chocolate-mint flavored water (not even kidding!); there were vitamin and mineral enhanced options, special filtered options and even options claiming to enhance energy and performance levels. Add to that your plain-Jane options and throw in new packaging options (seriously?!) and you have a consumers worst nightmare. All that was missing were speed and strength enhancement water, and even the average Joe could have claimed Superman-like powers. I felt overwhelmed and could no longer use my same criteria to evaluate my water purchases. Disgruntled, I left empty-handed and decided to put off my purchase until I had time to clear my head.

That being said, I found this podcast extremely insightful. I couldn’t agree more with Barry Schwartz that we as consumers are constantly overwhelmed in the marketplace. With the sheer volume of options allowed to us, the capability to get the best products/service increases, but it also leaves too much room for us to make mistakes in choosing. With that knowledge, we become incredibly uncomfortable making purchase decisions and can never truly enjoy the consumption of our goods and services. Instead, we are constantly left to fight with our contradicting thoughts as to whether we made the best choice. This could explain why Gen Yers (the generation that’s the youngest to be exposed to such a large selection of similar offerings) tends to be the most skeptical of advertisements and marketing efforts. Perhaps Gen Yers have just been exposed to so much frustration over actual points of differences among offerings that we are quick to distrust advertisements and the like. After all, we have been battling this pattern of consumer doubt and frustration pretty much since the time we first had money to spend. Additionally, we now have to expend even more time and energy just to make simple purchasing choices (have you seen the variety of toothpastes these days?) often causing us to avoid new purchases altogether. This very idea was articulated by the Endowment Effect in the “Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers” article. All too often, marketers and product developers assume that more is better, but perhaps we’d be smarter to focus more of breadth of available products and services as opposed to depth. This would allow businesses to focus more on being truly innovative and perhaps open up whole new marketing ventures and industry opportunities.

On a separate but similar note, I believe that it’s this wide array of choosing that essentially forces us to form an identity. When buying bottled waters offers seemingly limitless possibilities, just imagine the variety offered in fashion and lifestyle choices. Even the variety of majors available at universities is rapidly expanding. And while these nearly limitless choices allow us to more clearly define our preferences and thus allow us the opportunity at individuality, it also creates the very consumer paralysis described by Barry Schwartz. My water bottle incidence is proof of just that. Additionally, to be quite honest, the whole reason I initially selected business as a major was for its generalness. I couldn’t seem to be specific enough to focus on Radio, Television, Film or Corporate Communications. I wasn’t ready to make such a significant choice and so I chose one that offered some extra insulation. In the end, I was pretty lucky that I get so much enjoyment out of marketing because as it turns out, I essentially hate every other aspect of the business profession. Along this line, I predict that as marketers, we can expect this similar type of decision making pattern among consumers in a whole array of areas. As marketers, communication efforts will become even more important as we actively work to articulate our position in the market and why consumers should feel assured that our offers are best then any previous or current offers out there. Additionally, when it comes to products and services, we may want to operate by the simple principle that sometimes, “less is more.”