The One Item Sale!

I was driving along the road on Saturday morning and I saw a sign outside a home that I was approaching. It had all the characteristics of a Garage Sale sign but when I got closer I saw that it said 'Lazy-Boy Recliner' for Sale. Hmmm....I thought - the one item garage sale. Which got me thinking about the whole science of choice. I realized that if there had been many items for sale I might have stopped to have a browse, and I might have bought the Lazy-Boy. However, since there was no choice and no opportunity to browse, I had little desire to stop. I am inclined to believe that although many articles have been written in the past few years about the fact that consumers are now faced with an over-abundance of choice, that in reality we rather like it. At Factor 9 - my marketing to women group - we have identified one of the factors that affects a woman's product and brand choices as what we call 'the find'. This is all about our desire to not just buy an item, but actually go through the process of searching out just the right thing. Many people finding this searching part of the process quite exhilarating, and if we are denied this part of the overall process because there isn't a large enough selection to choose from, we will often decide to buy elsewhere. So I personally, am not convinced that there can be too much choice, especially for women. As long as the products and brands have a clear brand identity and are laid out in a way that is pleasing to the eye, I tend to have the belief that 'the more choice the better.'