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Lifelong Learning Faculty Seminars: Additional Reading

 

Consumers have become so overwhelmed by the plethora of options available in nearly every product category, from breakfast cereals or mutual funds to automobiles, that they are likely to put off purchases—sometimes indefinitely. Professor Draganska's presentation will offer ideas for resolving this product marketing dilemma.

Professor Draganska's research has shown that while variety does have a positive impact on brand choice, some companies, especially those with well-known brands, are going overboard and would be better off offering consumers fewer choices. On the other hand, if consumers have to make a purchase, they tend to perceive brands that offer more variety as being of higher quality. How should a company manage this tradeoff and determine the optimal number of alternatives to offer?

 

Selected Articles

Additional reading material has been selected by Jackson Library Staff. Due to contractual arrangements, remote access is only available to the current Stanford community and the subscribers of the "Library Databases" offered through the GSB Alumni's Lifelong Learning Program. Other access is limited to onsite at Jackson Library. Inclusion below does not imply University endorsement of ideas expressed.

 

The Influence of Product Variety on Brand Perception and Choice. Marketing Science, Jul/Aug 2007
We propose that the variety a brand offers often serves as a quality cue and thus influences which brand consumers choose. Specifically, brands that offer a greater variety of options that appear compatible and require similar skills tend to be perceived as having greater category expertise or core competency in the category, which, in turn, enhances their perceived quality and purchase likelihood.
View article

Marketers must respond to a much-reduced cost of choice.
Marketing Week, May 17, 2007
At the last count, there were about 8,000 mortgage products on sale in the UK. If you vowed to get the best possible deal on the market, and decided to invest six minutes per mortgage to understand its fine details, charges, penalties, flexibility etc, it would take you 48,000 minutes or 800 hours to do your research.
View article

Market segmentation strategies of multiproduct firms. Research paper (Stanford University. Graduate School of Business) ; no. 1827.
We analyze a multiproduct duopoly and ask whether firms should offer general purpose products or tailor their offerings to fit specific consumer needs.
View paper [ PDF]

Managing product variety : a study of the bicycle industry. Wharton School, July 1997
Cannondale, a producer of premium mountain bikes, offers 22 models ranging in price from $500 to $3000. VooDoo, a competitor, offers 672. Each mountain bike from National is offered n 104 different colors. A bike from Specialized is offered in only one. Why are the variety
practices of these four companies so different?
View paper [ PDF]

Selected Books

Product Variety Management - Research Advances edited by Teck-Hua Ho and Christopher S. Tang. Springer, c 1998 Order from Amazon.com

Selected Websites

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