Marketing has always been a subject that has fascinated me. The idea that changing the presentation of a product, even a simple change, can make a drastic increase to it’s value is a fundamental staple of modern economics. Given two products of almost identical nature, the perceived idea that one product is better than another is often based more on the color of the toy rather than any inherent value.
As shown in one study as posted on Livescience.com:
Study participants were presented products ranging from cordless phones to lawn mowers. The goods were presented in three ways:
* One choice was clearly superior to the other two (asymmetric dominance)
* One choice was intermediate to the other two (compromise)
* Two options that were somewhat equivalent (control)
After participants made choices, they rated the products and their satisfaction. In five tests that shifted the products and setups, the participants’ preferences were affected by presentation. The bottom line: A product presented as clearly superior to other products on a store shelf makes for a happy customer, regardless of the product’s inherent qualities to some degree.
“A pen selected from a set in which it asymmetrically dominated another pen produced a more positive writing experience and a greater willingness to pay for the pen than if the same pen was selected from a set in which it did not dominate another option,” conclude Song-Oh Yoon of the Korea University Business School and Itamar Simonson from Stanford University.
The study is detailed in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.