The Influence of Assortment Structure on Perceived Variety and Consumption Quantities

Abstract

Increasing the actual variety of an assortment has been shown previously to increase the quantity consumed. We show, however, that consumption quantities are also influenced by the perceived variety of an assortment. In combination, six lab and field studies show that the structure of an assortment (e.g., organization and symmetry or entropy) moderates the effect of actual variety on perceived variety. We further show that it is perceived variety that in turn influences consumption quantities through anticipated consumption utility. Making salient other consumption rules, such as size of the assortment, moderates this effect. These findings are of immediate relevance to interdisciplinary researchers and to consumers and health practitioners who wish to better control food consumption.

Size, entropy, and density: What is the difference that makes the difference between small and large real‐world assortments?

“…This indicates that in the marketplace small assortments combine two attractive properties: They offer less density and less information. Each of these properties alone has been demonstrated experimentally to render choice easier and less complex (Dhar, 1997;Kahn & Wansink, 2004;Lurie, 2004). At the same time, however, larger assortments might hide an ace up the sleeve because of their higher entropy, which has been shown in simulations to lead to higher choice quality (Lurie's 2004, simulation study).…”

“…As Lurie (2004) showed, entropy is high when products are evenly distributed across the attribute levels and when the number of attribute levels is large. Psychologically, entropy appears to tap into people's perception of variety and complexity: Consumers perceive more variety in assortments with higher entropy, and they rate assortments with higher entropy as more complex (Kahn & Wansink, 2004). From this it should follow that high entropy equals greater choice difficulty and lower choice quality, but how does this relate to assortment size?…”

All in the Family? Parental Roles in the Epidemic of Childhood Obesity

“…Useful insights emerge from consumer research (Finkelstein and Fishbach 2010;Irmack, Vallen and Robinson, 2011). Features such as the perceived variety of a food assortment (Kahn and Wansink 2004), and the size of plates, serving bowls, and/or utensils can all impact the quantity that will be consumed. For example, overweight teens consume less juice when pouring into a tall, thin glass relative to a short, wide glass, despite having estimated pouring more (Wansink and Van Ittersum 2003).…”

Sensory description labels for food affect consumer product choice

“…Exploitation of the sensory characteristics of a food product in a marketing strategy may affect or capture the attention of the consumers, and hence affect the often-habitual behaviour in a grocery retail store, which could be considered quite a difficult task (Kahn and Wansink, 2004). The average consumer makes about one major trip to the store per week (Caswell, 1997), spending approximately one hour in the store and being exposed to around 15,000 to 17,000 items (Caswell and Padberg, 1992).…”