'They say variety is the spice of life. But maybe we are getting too spicy!' Ellen Degeneres said on one of her shows. And one cant agree with her more!
Marketing 101 begins with Segmentation of a market. When you look at an aisle in a supermarket today, you find choices on literally every segment imaginable and then some more! As a consumer, I often wonder if there is anyone out there who can really 'zip in and out' of a store anymore without getting confused with the choices available! As a marketer, in most of those variants I see the desperate attempt to ward off possible competition or be the 'first mover'. Yet when one sits back and thinks about it, you realize that we have complicated life way more than necessary. And it is in this milieu that some brands are standing out just because they don't offer a million choices to confuse you!
When Apple introduced the first iPhone to the world (in 2007) it was available in 2 colors- Black and White. It has taken a good 6 years to offer up other color options to it's loyal fan base. Yet the most popular color (that contributed to 43% of the sales) was the predictable 'space grey' even when a bolder alternative option was made available. Take another example from a different industry. Coffee connoisseurs are now avoiding the large chains of coffee shops and instead switching to smaller cafes that serve just simple plain coffee the way it is meant to be! Blue bottle coffee is one such a cafe. Here the focus is on the coffee- no pumpkin spice lattes, no other flavors and no frills. Yet, the cafe sees lines forming outside to catch a cuppa!
It seems to me like the world is slowly leaning in favor of simplifying life! Every product doesn't need to come with 10 variants. Consumers are looking for just a simple 'Vanilla' offering that can do the job and not cause further confusion! Sure, a few choices are welcome, but looking down an asile to pick a simple toothpaste can be a daunting task for a consumer.
People are looking to de-clutter and organize their lives to have more meaning and less time spent on decision-making (especially on products designed to serve day-to-day challenges). And that's where cafes like Blue Bottle seem to be winning. So as marketers, its time we looked at the larger picture and realized that every product needs to be designed to solve a problem rather than just offer up a choice.
