Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Consumer and managerial goals in assortment choice and design

  • Published:
Marketing Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In many domains, consumers must deal with an increasing number of choices—spanning where, when, what, and how many items to buy; how many and which options to consider; and how best to weigh the pros and cons of these options. This paper considers how consumer and managerial goals and the ensuing tradeoffs affect the optimal design of assortments in order to help enhance our understanding of assortment choice, identify issues that merit particular attention, review some of the recent research in pertinent areas, and suggest directions for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abaluck, J., & Gruber, J. (2011). Choice inconsistencies among the elderly: evidence from plan choice in the Medicare Part D program. American Economic Review, 101(4), 1180–1210.

  • Ariely, D., & Wertenbroch, K. (2002). Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: self-control by precommitment. Psychological Science, 13(3), 219–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J., Draganska, M., & Simonson, I. (2007). The influence of product variety on brand perception and choice. Marketing Science, 26(4), 460–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boatwright, P., & Nunes, J. C. (2001). Reducing assortment: an attribute-based approach. Journal of Marketing, 65(3), 50–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Böckenholt, U., & Kroeger, K. (1993). The effect of time pressure in multiattribute binary choice tasks. In J. Maule & O. Svenson (Eds.), Time pressure and stress in human judgment and decision making (pp. 195–214). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bonezzi, A., Chernev, A., Brough, A.R. (2013). When two is better than one: polarization and compromise in unrestricted choice, Working paper, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

  • Botti, S., & Iyengar, S. S. (2006). The dark side of choice: when choice impairs social welfare. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 25(1), 24–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broniarczyk, S. (2008). Product assortment, Handbook of Consumer Psychology (pp. 755–779). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broniarczyk, S. M., Hoyer, W. D., & McAlister, L. (1998). Consumers’ perceptions of the assortment offered in a grocery category: the impact of item reduction. Journal of Marketing Research, 35(May), 166–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chernev, A. (2003). When more is less and less is more: the role of ideal point availability and assortment in consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(2), 170–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chernev, A. (2006). Decision focus and consumer choice among assortments. Journal of Consumer Research, 33(1), 50–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chernev, A. (2008). The role of purchase quantity in assortment choice: the quantity-matching heuristic. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(2), 171–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chernev, A. (2012). Product assortment and consumer choice: an interdisciplinary review. Foundations and Trends in Marketing, 6(1), 1–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chernev, A., & Hamilton, R. (2009) Assortment size and option attractiveness in consumer choice among retailers. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(June), 410–20.

  • Dhar, R., & Wertenbroch, K. (2012). Self-signaling and the costs and benefits of temptation in consumer choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(February), 15–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dholakia, U. A., Gopinath, M., Bagozzi, R. P., & Nataraajan, R. (2006). The role of regulatory focus in the experience and self-control of desire for temptations. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16(2), 163–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diehl, K., & Poynor, C. (2010). Great expectations?! Assortment size, expectations, and satisfaction. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(April), 312–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Draganska, M., & Jain, D. C. (2005). Product-line length as a competitive tool. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 14(1), 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Draganska, M., Mazzeo, M., & Seim, K. (2009). Beyond plain vanilla: modeling joint product assortment and pricing decisions. Qme-Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 7(2), 105–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, J. K., Broniarczyk, S. M., Griffin, J. G., & McAlister, L. (2013). Help or hinder? When recommendation signage expands consideration sets and heightens decision difficulty. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 23(2), 165–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffin, J. G., & Broniarczyk, S. M. (2005). Search paradox: the role of feature alignability in the rise and fall of satisfaction, working paper. Austin: McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gul, F., & Pesendorfer, W. (2001). Temptation and self-control. Econometrica, 69(6), 1403–1435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, R., & Chernev, A. (2010). Managing product assortments: Insights from consumer psychology. In A. Tybout (Ed.), Kellogg on Marketing (pp. 348–360). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  • Heitmann, M., Herrmann, A., & Kaiser, C. (2007). The effect of product variety on purchase probability. Review of Managerial Science, 1(2), 111–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, B. E., & Lehmann, D. R. (1991). Modeling choice among assortments. Journal of Retailing, 67(3), 274–299.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, B. E., & Wansink, B. (2004). The influence of assortment structure on perceived variety and consumption quantities. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(3), 519–533.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, B. E., Weingarten, E., & Townsend, C. (2013). Assortment variety: too much of a good thing? Review of Marketing Research, 10, 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ketcham, J. D., Lucarelli, C., Miravete, E. J., & Roebuck, M. C. (2012). Sinking, swimming, or learning to swim in Medicare Part D. American Economic Review, 102(6), 2639–2673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kling, J. R., Mullainathan, S., et al. (2012). Comparison friction: experimental evidence from Medicare Drug Plans. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 199–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koehler, D., & James, G. (2009). Probability matching in choice under uncertainty: intuition versus deliberation. Cognition, 113(1), 123–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kreps, D. M. (1979). A representation theorem for preference for flexibility. Econometrica, 47(3), 565–577.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mantrala, M., Levy, M., Kahn, B., Fox, E., Gaidarev, P., Dankworth, B., et al. (2009). Why is assortment planning so difficult for retailers? A framework and research agenda. Journal of Retailing, 85(1), 71–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, R.J. (1997). The effect of set composition on stopping behavior in a finite search among assortments, Marketing Letters Special Issue on Time Course of Preferences, 8 (1).

  • Meyer, R. J., & Shi, Y. (1995). Sequential choice under ambiguity: intuitive solutions to the armed-bandit problem. Management Science, 41(5), 817–834.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mogilner, C., Rudnick, T., & Iyengar, S. S. (2008). The mere categorization effect: how the mere presence of categories increases consumers’ perceptions of assortment variety and outcome satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(August), 202–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morales, A., Kahn, B. E., McAlister, L., & Broniarczyk, S. M. (2005). Perception of assortment variety: the effects of congruency between consumers’ internal and retailers’ external organization. Journal of Retailing, 81(2), 159–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Novemsky, N., Dhar, R., Schwarz, N., & Simonson, I. (2007). Preference fluency in choice. Journal of Marketing Research, 44(3), 347–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rachlin, H., & Green, L. (1972). Commitment, choice, and self-control. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 17(1), 15–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schelling, T. (1984). Self-command in practice, in policy, and in a theory of rational choice. The American Economic Review, 74(2), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N. (2004). Meta-cognitive experiences in consumer judgment and decision making. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14(4), 332–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simonson, I. (1990). The effect of purchase quantity and timing on variety-seeking behavior. Journal of Marketing Research, 27(2), 150–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, R., & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, C., & Barbara, K. (2014). The "visual preference heuristic:" the influence of visual versus verbal depiction on assortment processing, perceived variety, and choice overload, Journal of Consumer Research.

  • Wertenbroch, K. (1998). Consumption self-control by rationing purchase quantities of virtue and vice. Marketing Science, 17(4), 317–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Barbara E. Kahn & Robert J. Meyer

  2. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Alexander Chernev & Ulf Böckenholt

  3. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Kate Bundorf

  4. Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Michaela Draganska

  5. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ryan Hamilton

  6. INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France

    Klaus Wertenbroch

Authors
  1. Barbara E. Kahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alexander Chernev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ulf Böckenholt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kate Bundorf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michaela Draganska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Ryan Hamilton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Robert J. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Klaus Wertenbroch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barbara E. Kahn.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kahn, B.E., Chernev, A., Böckenholt, U. et al. Consumer and managerial goals in assortment choice and design. Mark Lett 25, 293–303 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-014-9307-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-014-9307-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation