What Gourmet Jams Teach Us about business
TRANSCRIPT:
Have you tried to make a cake lately? It’s amazing how many options we have! I mean an entire 1/3 of an aisle is devoted to cake mixes! Yellow, white, orange, brown, multicolored, oil or butter based. And then the icings! Thank goodness I’m gluten free so I’m pretty restricted to what I kind of cake I can make!
And what about cereal? I believe the last time I looked there was an entire aisle plus a 1/4 of another aisle that was nothing but cereal at my local Wal-Mart. I don’t know about you but I feel overwhelmed just walking past all of those choices. More isn’t always better!
THE GOURMET JAM STUDY
“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. ”
— HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Research reveals that giving your customer too many choices can hurt your business! Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper conducted research on choice overwhelm in 2000 in an upscale food market using 24 varieties of gourmet jam. Samplers received a coupon for $1 off any jam. Every few hours, the selection dropped to a group of six jams also offering the same coupon. On average, people sampled 2 jams regardless of whether 24 or 6 were displayed.
Here is where it gets very interesting—sixty percent of customers were drawn to the large assortment and 40% to the small one but 30% purchased from the small display and only 3% from the large! Although more choices are appealing in theory, PEOPLE FIND IT MORE DIFFICULT TO DECIDE WHAT TO BUY SO THEY BUY NOTHING! There’s even a technical term for it, “choice paralysis.” Other studies revealed that more choices causes “buyer’s remorse” because each new option diminishes the feeling of satisfaction and well being. In other words, your customer wonders if he or she bought the right product. Too many options also causes anxiety, excessive high expectations, and self-blame if the choices don’t work out.
Bottom line. Simplify your products and services.
STEVE JOB'S GENIUS
One of the first things Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple was slim down the product line, which had grown exponentially during his absence. He then focused everyone at Apple on the remaining products to make them the best and easiest to use as possible. It worked and, literally, saved Apple.
As a side note…Jobs was known for always wearing jeans and black turtlenecks because he limited his choices as much as possible so he could focus on the most important ones. The super successful leverage the power of LIMITED CHOICES by eliminating all unnecessary ones.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ”
— LEONARDO DA VINCI
When I owned my personal training business, I always encouraged my new clients to eat the same things every day until they learned how to eat healthy. Have eggs and bacon for breakfast. Eat grilled chicken salad for lunch. Eat a lean meat and steamed veggie for dinner. And eat the same snacks. You would’ve thought I asked them to eat their kids! I’d hear things like, “I like variety! How boring! I couldn’t do that!”
By insisting on too much variety at the beginning of their fitness journey, they sabotaged their weight loss efforts because every meal became a decision to make causing overwhelm, and they’d revert to the same fast food and junk food that caused the weight gain in the first place. A major part of my fitness success is that I eat the exact same meals every day with minor variations. Occasionally I’ll find a new recipe I like and eat it regularly, but I limit my choices because who has time to think about what to eat all the time?
Barry Schwartz in “The Paradox of Choice” states, “Seeking the perfect choice…is a recipe for misery. This includes both big and small choices from everyday choices to relationship choices, etc. The more options you have, the more it costs you in time and effort not to mention a lack of certainty as well as decision fatigue.
WHAT TO DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Limit your products and services. This is especially true for course creators, photographers, and other service based businesses. I know this can be hard. I’m an idea generator and not creating a course on every idea I think up is hard! But it can be done.
Record all of your ideas and chew on them until THE ONE seems to “fit.” I do this a lot. I ponder my ideas. I write or draw them out. I seek advice if needed. And then…BAM! The one clicks, and I go for it. This process will help you do #1.
Keep your business model simple and strategic.
Do beta testing and see what are the most popular and useful products, courses, and services you have. Eliminate the rest (I can hear your screaming on the inside at the idea of eliminating your beautiful ideas, products and services but just think of the screaming on the inside when you’re actually making more money!).
WHAT TO DO FOR YOURSELF
Make the most important decisions earlier in the day. Willpower has a shelf life. Every decision you have to make drains your willpower gas tank. Eliminating unnecessary choices for yourself is the smart thing to do!
Sleep on it. This gives you space to decide and wake up refreshed to make your decision.
Don’t go to extremes. Be okay with a middle ground. Psychologist, Dan Ariely, warns of UNCHANGEABILITY BIAS because it block decision-making. It’s ok to try something or experiment before making big decisions. Avoid the ALL OR NOTHING MENTALITY.
Don’t try to figure out exactly how everything will go. Choices beget other choices. You can’t know what opportunities are going to come from your choices until you start making them. Same with obstacles. Predicting everything is impossible. So what if your idea fails? You learned great things in the process to take to the next idea.