TiVos and Treos and BlackBerrys. Wi-Fi and HDTV and plasma screens. Picture phones, digital cameras, iPods and now iPod cell phones. Using sophisticated products and keeping pace with their new features requires significant time, interest and a certain amount of smarts on the part of consumers. It also takes a lot of energy to sort out the bells and whistles you really need from those you sort-of need and those you don't need at all.
Complexity among consumer technology products has never been greater -- a good thing if the complexity means product improvement. But Wharton experts say new bells and whistles pose challenges to businesses and consumers alike. Complexity -- along with choice -- can have a big impact on how firms make and market new and improved gizmos, and on the decision processes of the people expected to buy them.
Companies need to spend significant resources explaining new product features to time-strapped potential customers, more than a few of whom never figured out how to program videocassette recorders 20 years ago and pine for the days when a hi-fi set was the most complex piece of technology in the house. The more savvy companies know this means beefing up their telephone, online and in-store support for new products. For their part, consumers must be able to cut through the clutter to make smart purchases. In many cases, companies are relying on the strength of their brands to steer customers toward their products and not the competition's.
Wharton marketing professor Robert J. Meyer has been studying the ramifications of product enhancement and replacement since the 1980s. In a new paper, Meyer -- along with Shenghui Zhao of Wharton and Jin Han of Singapore Management University -- discuss what they call the "paradox of enhancement" in decisions by consumers to adopt new products. The paradox is this: When people are considering buying next-generation products, they find the bells and whistles attractive and decide to make the purchase, but when they acquire the products, they find the complexity of the new features overwhelming and end up using only the products' basic features.
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