Advil or Excedrin? New Model Helps Predict Product Choices

In today’s world, consumers face a dizzying array of product choices. Most often, there’s not just one ideal product; it depends on the individual and the context. A beer might be perfect for relaxing after work; a sports beverage after jogging. And a teenager’s ideal beverage isn’t the same as a business executive’s.

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that multiple ideals can be accurately discovered and then used to predict the preferences of various segments of the population. The authors, Wayne S. DeSarbo (Pennsylvania State University), A. Selin Atalay (Bilkent University, Turkey), David LeBaron, and Simon J. Blanchard (both Pennsylvania State University), developed a model that locates the ideal product in a given situation on a graph.

This new approach has been sorely needed to understand the complexity of how products meet consumers’ needs. According to the authors, “Consumers can have more than one ideal product in a given product category. It is therefore essential to understand this aspect of consumer preferences because it can affect how products are promoted to consumers, how new products are designed, and how products are priced and bundled.”

The authors used their model to graph the ideal over-the-counter pain reliever—a $2.1 billion industry with 11 major brands. They identified three groupings of people—“price-conscious consumers,” “the athletic segment,” and “the anti-medication segment.” They collected consumers’ judgments on the painkillers’ effectiveness in various contexts, such as backaches or flu. Using a survey, the model divided up the market into the various segments and showed significant differences among the different consumer types and situations.

For example, price-conscious consumers consider Advil and Tylenol the most effective painkiller overall, but if suffering from a backache, they would be more likely to choose aspirin, or Excedrin for a headache. These differences have been hidden by simpler models.

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Look Before You Leap: New Study Examines Self-Control

Reckless decision-making can lead to dire consequences when it comes to food, credit cards, or savings. What’s the key to making good decisions? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research outlines a novel method for measuring people’s abilities to consider the consequences of their actions. It also provides hope for consumers who want to make more prudent decisions.

Authors Gergana Y. Nenkov (Boston College), J. Jeffrey Inman, and John Hulland (both University of Pittsburgh) developed a 13-question survey that rated participants on a scale called the Elaboration on Potential Outcomes (EPO) scale. The scale proved to be a reliable measure of how much participants considered the consequences of their actions. For example, when undergraduates considered whether to get LASIK surgery or whether to charge an expensive electronics item on an already heavily charged credit card, high EPO scores were associated with more consequence-related thoughts.

In a number of settings, researchers found that consumers who think about the pros and cons before making decisions reported that they were more likely to exercise and consume healthy foods. They had lower rates of alcohol abuse, procrastination, and overspending. They were also more likely to be saving money for retirement.

The good news, according to the authors, is that people who aren’t inclined to consider the consequences of their actions can be aided by simple interventions, like brochures and advertising that encourage them to think about the dangers of obesity or the benefits of saving for retirement. Scare tactics, it seems, were the most effective. “The consideration of negative consequences has a bigger impact than the consideration of positive consequences,” the authors write.

“The importance of studying consumers’ self-control is widely recognized, since being unable to regulate one’s emotions, impulses, actions and thoughts creates problems, not only for individual consumers, but also for society as a whole,” write the authors.

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