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A632.2.2.RB – Sheena Lyengar: How to Make Choosing Easier

            Sheena Iyengar’s TED Talk presentation entitled, How to Make Choosing Easier, addresses four techniques that will assist us in making choices.  Those four techniques are cut, concretize, categorize and condition (2011).  Each of these techniques can help managers in marketing and selling their products and services to consumers and, consumers can use them to help narrow down their choices when faced with so many options. I realized, I have utilized two of these techniques before. The world we live in today, offers so many choices for just about anything you can think of.  Think about even the easiest things like a cup of coffee. They always ask, do you want that tall, grande, vente?  What happened to small, medium or large? Caramel, Mocha, Pumpkin spice, Chai? Whole milk, skim or non-fat?  Iced, Hot, or blended?  Whip cream, or no whip?  What happened to just ordering a cup of coffee with cream and sugar?

            Sheena Iyengar’s first technique, Cut refers to getting rid of, or letting go of something.  The second one is Concretization, which means to understand the consequences of said choices by seeing it in a concrete way. The third is Categorization, which helps us to understand how to deal with the many choices we have by putting them into categories so we can tell which group is which.  The fourth is Condition for complexity which means when we go from a small number of choices to many we are not as overwhelmed and can handle making more complex decisions rather than being overwhelmed at the start and just picking the standard options.

            A few years ago, when I used to work for the legal field and I was able to work from home a few day a week. I remember, I was looking to purchase an all-in-one copy/print machine. That day I traveled to my local Office Depot to purchase a machine and much to my amazement, there were several different brands of all in ones and various features offered within those brands. I walked up and down the aisle where they were proudly displayed and I felt utterly overwhelmed! I didn’t know what to think or how to choose the best brand or which features I needed the most for my home office.  Needless to say, I left the store without a machine.  I still needed the machine so I decided to go to another office supply store in hopes of finding a machine.  I arrived at Staples and again there was the long aisle of machines filled with choices just like at Office Depot. Iyengar’s technique of cutting down on the choices available to the consumer would’ve been very helpful to me that day.  Later that evening when I arrived at home, I went online to research the brands, features and prices and based on that information, I thought about what exactly I needed the machine to do, which was to make copies, scan documents, fax documents and print documents.  I realized that I could be satisfied with an ink jet instead of laser printing and what price range I wanted to stay within.  Armed with information, I was able to go back to Office Depot with my list of narrowed down choices and purchased my all-in-one machine.  I think that having too many options overwhelmed me and almost kept me from purchasing a product I actually needed.

            In another occasion, I wanted to purchase a pair of high heels to wear for Mother’s Day with my new dress.  I went to the Volusia Mall and entered the Rack Room shoe store because they were advertising a sale in the store window.  Before entering the store I had a list in my mind of what type of shoe I wanted to purchase to match my dress; however, I discovered every type of shoe from sandals to flats, to heels and sneakers down one row and up another!  There were so many categories of shoes, colors and brands that it became hard for me to find what I was looking for to match my dress. Iyengar suggests that retailers categorize their products by offering fewer choices within those categories (2011).  That day I found many pairs of shoes I really liked and “needed” in my wardrobe; nevertheless, not the shoe that I went there to purchase.  There were so many choices that I got lost in the sea of shoes.  I encountered the same predicament at the other department stores as well. In the end, tired of looking around, I ended up wearing an old pair of heels I had in my closet. So, not only I did not find what I needed, but also wasted long hours with the variety of shoes or heels they had to offer at each store.

            In the future, I will be cognizant of the retail tactics that cause consumers to overpay for purchases due to so many choices; and I will keep Iyengar’s four techniques to choosing easier in the forefront of my mind too.  Maybe I will download a shopping app to my cellphone to use as a decision support system (DSS) to use while I’m in the store to help me get right to the products I am looking for with ease.  Making quality choices is more difficult than I originally imagined, but with practice making quick, good choices can become easier.

References

Iyengar, Sheena (2011). How to make choosing easier – TED Talk Video. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html