Great brands simplify customers’ lives.
Don’t complicate the simple.
It’s in our nature.
We take something that works and want it to be better, more, or do more.
Mostly, it doesn’t work.
Because our customers get confused.
Remember when Starbucks added hot breakfasts, DVDs and sandwiches in their coffee shops? They complicated their brand and lost their identity.
That signature coffee smell was gone, replaced by a food smell.
Sales didn’t increase; they dropped. Howard Shultz returned and reverted to basics, and the 3rd place returned.
Which brings us to Apple.
When Jobs returned in 1997, sales were on the floor. And it happened that Steve was asked by a friend which computer they should buy.
Steve was stumped.
Despite hundreds of products, he realised there was no clear answer.
So he gathered his team and drew a chart to form the basis of Apple’s product range for years.
His insight?
Help people choose a computer using only two questions - are you an everyday consumer or a pro-consumer? Do you want a portable or desktop?
This one move cut 70 per cent of Apple’s range. One year later, the nearly bankrupt company turned profitable. Today, the company is worth $3 trillion.
The lesson?
The simpler the buying experience, the easier it is to choose, and the more sales you can get.
Barry Schwarz’s work on The Tyranny of Choice makes it clear that fewer choices lead to more purchases, faster and with less post-purchase regret.
We tend to think that more choice gives more utility, but behavioural economics shows that complex choices usually result in no choice at all - and no sale.
McDonald’s and its competitors still have menus crammed with offerings.
It’s a competition for more.
B Schwartz published an influential book about consumer choice in a modern market economy: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.
He says having too many choices often leads to bad decisions.
‘There are three things that having too much choice does,’ Schwartz explains. ‘One, it paralyses people into not choosing. Second, it induces people to make worse choices. And third - even when you make a good decision, you’re less satisfied. Because as you’re munching your Big Mac, you’re thinking of all the attractive options you said ‘no’ to’.
And the result is that the Big Mac doesn’t taste as good. The other result is that McDonald’s recognised this and reduced their selections from 145 items to around 70.
Take two different websites in the same industry. One website has three different choices, while the other has 15.
Though it seems counterintuitive, the website offering fewer will likely perform better and successfully convert more visitors.
So, what do these examples tell us?
Make it easy for the customer. (BTW, it also helps your business).
We too often think we need to provide multiple options to ensure an optimal customer experience, but too many choices can overwhelm and lead to analysis paralysis. And the psychology of choice says the more options we have, the less likely we are to make any decision at all.
You can use simple steps to place the psychology of choice to your advantage.
It’s crucial to offer your customers the choices they’ll best respond to, but there are ways to use the psychology of options to improve your customer experience.
1. Eliminate unnecessary choices.
Streamline your choices to make the user experience more laser-focused and increase sales.
2. Create clear categories.
Many products and services, and can’t eliminate choices? Try creating more apparent categories. Categories help the consumer narrow their options. Instead of giving people 24 possibilities, give them a choice of six categories and another four options.
Tip
Research shows that customers can be more motivated to buy when faced with scarcity. For instance, if your store carries a limited number of products, customers may purchase an item so they don’t miss out.
3. No more than five options at a time.
Narrow choices to five at a time. Wny five? Because research tells us that five choices are the optimal number the brain can handle at any one time without the risk of overwhelming our decision-making processes.
4. Have a default / suggested option.
It’s your job to help our customers make the best purchase decision. So, provide default or suggested options that make customers feel comfortable that their choice is optimal.
5. Provide three pricing options.
Experts advise offering three options, which creates an instant comparison model. Customers usually choose the middle package.
Less is More.
Don’t leave your customers to do the work.
A range should only be expanded when it makes choice easier for your customer segment.
Less choice isn’t about offering less. It’s about creating a streamlined experience that showcases what you’re best at.
Good brands simplify things. Great brands simplify customers’ lives.
It’s not about offering everything.
It’s about becoming known for one thing.
Too many brands don’t have that clarity.
So, understand what you stand for if you want to stand out in your crowded market. Then, go all out leveraging it.
Know what you are the best at. And make it distinctive.
Becoming simple isn’t easy. Staying simple as a brand isn’t easy. We have an inbuilt bias to complicate, to do more.
But being simple can make customers love you.
Yep, I think that's a very good example of what we do wrong but should do right.