Snaps to Organic's Three Minds blog for shedding light a very interesting piece of recent research from the University of Chicago. As described in a NYT article the study documented that when people are offered a choice between multifunctional and singly functional objects, they prefer singly functioned.
The experiment had people choose between a plain pen and a pen equipped with a laser pointer. The plain pen was selected in virtually all instances.
This seems to fly in the face of what we think as interactive marketers - aren't we supposed to give people lots of functionality? Isn't that marketing as a service?
Well, maybe not.
"What happens, the researchers showed through other studies, is that connecting one tool or method to multiple goals weakens the mental association between that means and any one goal. Take jogging, for instance. Participants in one study were informed that jogging both strengthens muscles and increases the body’s level of oxygen. But after the researchers subliminally reinforced the participants’ association between jogging and one of those goals — strengthening muscles — participants irrationally deemed jogging less effective for boosting oxygen."
It seems to have more to do with the meaning of the functionality than with the functionality. I guess the learning for us is: if you're giving people lots of ways to interact with a brand online and you don't want to confuse them or inhibit their response, make sure it all hangs together as part of a single experience, message or takeaway.
Thoughts?
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