Mar
10
How many is enough?
Posted by: mihailbaranovschii | March 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment
In this blog I would like to reflect on a Canadian Marketing Blog “More choice is always better. Really?” by Dave Burns.
As the title of the blog suggests I will be talking about choice. In particular, I will try to answer whether more choice is actually better. Most of us would probably without hesitation say that of course more choice is always better. This, however, is not always the case.
Let’s take, for instance, Wal-Mart. It offers a tremendous amount of products and competes almost in any industry we could possibly think of. Does this improve customer satisfaction and customer service? Not really. From my own experience as a consumer I would never go to a store (to buy a laptop for example) that sells anything from pet food to TVs and automobile tires. This is just not serious. When I want to buy something specific I go to a store that specializes particularly in that good and where I can get a reasonable advice from sales people.
Another brand I would like to mention is Zara, which is known for offering affordable clothing as well as for its outstanding supply chain management. Zara’s online store offers a choice of more than 150 shoes. I mean, really? Why would you want to sell so many, frankly speaking, not good-looking and of poor quality shoes?
The evidence suggests that many retailers alter their product mix in order to focus on providing better customer service. As such, the GAP is reducing the number of product lines by encompassing the old ones under its major product line.
The moral of the story is that certainly more choice is not always better. What’s better is focusing on the product quality and customer service.