Barbara E. Kahn

Variety for sale: Mass customization or mass confusion?

Abstract Retailers who implement a high variety strategy need to ensure that customers are not confused with the complexity inherent in a wide assortment of options. Experimental evidence shows that when asking consumers to choose among items in a wide assortment, both the way the information is presented and the type of customer input to the information gathering process influence customer satisfaction. First, asking consumers to indicate their within-attribute preferences through an attribute-based information format, as opposed to an alternative-based format, increases satisfaction and learning. Second, consumers are likely to be more satisfied and perceive less complexity in the choice set when they are asked to explicitly indicate their preferences within each attribute, as compared to more effortful tasks or less effortful tasks.

Cross-category effects of induced arousal and pleasure on the Internet shopping experience

Abstract Online retailers are likely to try to influence consumers’ shopping behavior through atmospherics and service, just as physical stores do. The impact of online atmospherics can be measured by the degree of stimulation and pleasure that is provided by a website. It is suggested that the characteristics of products and websites that are encountered early in online browsing can significantly influence the level of arousal and pleasure that consumers experience, and thereby can influence their later shopping behavior. Two experiments show that if the initial experiences encountered in a simulated Internet shopping trip are higher in pleasure, then there is a positive impact on approach behaviors and subjects engage in more arousing activities (e.g., more exploration, more tendencies to examine novel products and stores, higher response to promotional incentives). Further, if higher stimulation or information load is provided by the initial Internet experience, then consumers subsequently tend to engage in less arousing activities.

The Influence of Positive Affect on Variety Seeking among Safe, Enjoyable Products

In three brand-choice experiments executed on personal computers, a significant interaction was found regarding the influence of positive affect, induced by the gift of a small bag of candy or sugarless gum, on variety-seeking behavior. In three food categories (crackers, soup, and snack foods), a positive-affect manipulation increased variety-seeking behavior relative to that in the control conditions, when circumstances did not make unpleasant or negative features of the items in the choice task salient. However, when a negative feature, such as the possibility that a product would taste bad, was made more salient, there was no difference in variety-seeking behavior between the subjects who had received the small gift and the control subjects. Positive affect was also found (1) to increase the tendency of subjects to categorize nontypical items as belonging to a predefined product category, (2) to increase credibility that a product designed to reduce negative health effects would be successful, and (3) to increase variety-seeking behavior in choice sets containing the latter two types of items.

The Impact of Private versus Public Consumption on Variety-Seeking Behavior

Three experiments demonstrate that people incorporate more variety into their consumption decisions when their behavior is subject to public scrutiny. Studies 1 and 2 indicate that consumers expect others to evaluate their decision more favorably if they choose variety and that this sometimes leads individuals to incorporate more variety into their public than private decisions. Results of study 2 confirm predictions that a relevant individual difference variable (self-monitoring) moderates the effects of expected evaluation on variety seeking. The final study demonstrates that pressure to choose variety in public is eliminated when a social cue signals the appropriateness of consuming ones favorites.

The Influence of Assortment Structure on Perceived Variety and Consumption Quantities

Increasing the actual variety of an assortment has been shown previously to increase the quantity consumed. We show, however, that consumption quantities are also influenced by the perceived variety of an assortment. In combination, six lab and field studies show that the structure of an assortment (e.g., organization and symmetry or entropy) moderates the effect of actual variety on perceived variety. We further show that it is perceived variety that in turn influences consumption quantities through anticipated consumption utility. Making salient other consumption rules, such as size of the assortment, moderates this effect. These findings are of immediate relevance to interdisciplinary researchers and to consumers and health practitioners who wish to better control food consumption.

Choosing Less-Preferred Experiences for the Sake of Variety

Data from several experiments show that, contrary to traditional models of variety seeking, individuals choose to switch to less-preferred options even though they enjoy those items less than they would have enjoyed repeating a more-preferred option. Two explanations for this finding are tested. Results indicate no evidence of a benefit to more-preferred options due to the contrast to less-preferred alternatives. However, the results of three studies suggest that retrospective global evaluations favor varied sequences that also include less-preferred items as opposed to sequences that only include more-preferred items, even though these more varied sequences result in diminished enjoyment during consumption. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.

Corporate Sponsorships of Philanthropic Activities: When Do They Impact Perception of Sponsor Brand?

We examined the benefits to a corporate sponsor of two types of philanthropic activities — cause promotions and advocacy advertising. Results from 4 laboratory studies indicate that perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are affected by consumers’ elaboration levels. Consumer perceptions of CSR are more favorable for cause promotions, which do not receive much elaboration, than they are for advocacy advertising, which prompts more elaboration. In addition, perceived congruence between the sponsor and the social issue is shown to moderate these effects: Higher congruence between the sponsor and social issue increases favorable ratings of CSR for cause promotions but only if elaboration on the sponsorship activity is facilitated. On the other hand, lower congruence increases favorable ratings of CSR for advocacy advertising as long as elaboration on the sponsorship is not constrained. We also found that higher congruence enhances CSR ratings if participants are primed to focus their attention on the sponsor brand, whereas lower congruence enhances CSR if participants are primed to focus their attention on the social issue.

Consumer variety-seeking among goods and services: An integrative review

Abstract Reflecting the importance of variety-seeking in consumer choice, there has been an explosion of research in the marketing literature on this topic in the past decade. The goal of this paper is to provide an integrative review of the key findings. In particular, a conceptual, integrating framework for understanding the reasons why consumers seek variety is presented. Within this context, the implications of this research for retail and service management are discussed as well as a review of the measurement tools and predictive models of variety-seeking that have been proposed in the last decade.

There's Something in the Air: Effects of Congruent or Incongruent Ambient Odor on Consumer Decision Making

Pleasant ambient odors are found to affect consumer decision making depending on whether the scents are congruent or incongruent with the target product class. Two different choice contexts are examined. In experiment 1, in a static-choice context, subjects in conditions in which the odor is congruent with the product class are found to spend more time processing the data, are more holistic in their processing, are more likely to go beyond the information given, are more likely to spread their choices evenly over the whole choice set than are subjects in the incongruent-odor conditions. In experiment 2, in a dynamic-choice context, subjects in the congruent conditions are more likely to exhibit behavior that is consistent with variety seeking than are subjects in the incongruent conditions. Copyright 1995 by the University of Chicago.

Dynamic relationships with customers: High-variety strategies

A proposal is made that one way to compete effectively in the 21st century is to meet customers’ needs over time better than the competition by offering a high-variety product line. More variety in a product line can make it more likely that each consumer finds exactly the option he or she desires (customization strategy). In addition, more variety in a product line can allow each consumer to enjoy a diversity of options over time (variety-seeking strategy). Other issues such as profitability, cost considerations, how much variety to offer and where in the delivery chain to offer it, and when does too much variety cause confusion or overload are also discussed.