Comfort Is A Choice, But Not Always the Right One

I’m hungry and tired. It’s 7pm in the middle of the week after a very long day. I find myself walking the aisles of Whole Foods simply wanting to satisfy my need for nourishment and willing to try something new. I am intrigued by a massive selection of choices, all that look and smell good, but I am overwhelmed. As I walk my circuitous path through the store, blood sugar plummeting with every step, I am frustrated with my difficulty in making a decision. So, in the end, I grab a container of pre-made sushi that I have purchased before many times.

So why did I end up with the same old thing when there were literally thousands of fresh, tasty options to try? I knew I needed to eat, and eat soon, but more importantly, I wanted something I knew was good. If the person behind the counter was noticing my dismay, even their slightest suggestion would have swayed me to another choice. But there was no one there to offer suggestions.

I can only assume that this same scenario of choice overload and indecision happens every day. And when we have a myriad of options but they all seem foreign or unfamiliar, we opt for what’s comfortable. Yet, at one time our comfortable option was new too. So, how do organizations move from being that foreign object of choice to a new and better choice? It’s an age-old marketing question but, in today’s environment with the explosion of choice, the age-old tricks are not working.

Organizations need to market themselves quickly and well with each and every customer. If you’re conducting a mass campaign to a mass audience, you’d be better off buying a lottery ticket because it’s the same odds. The many new channels in which to market your organization offer, just as with Whole Foods, overwhelming options. And just with my experience, there is no one there to help make sense of it all. Just like your audience falls into comfort zones, we end up marketing in ways that we are comfortable with, or have experience with, even though, often they are far from the most effective.

The opportunity to break old habits of comfort and create new ones with your brand can bear unmeasurable fruit. Let’s rewrite my Whole Foods experience with one simple change to see how it plays out:

I’m hungry and tired. It’s 7pm in the middle of the week after a very long day. I find myself walking the aisles of Whole Foods simply wanting to satisfy my need for nourishment and willing to try something new. I am intrigued by a massive selection of choices, all that look and smell good, but I am overwhelmed. I am just about to grab a container of pre-made sushi that I have purchased many times before when I’m stopped by a Whole Foods employee who is walking the store with a cart of samples.

“Hi there. Would you like to try our veggie lasagna?” she says.

“That sounds good. Is this new?” I say with a mouthful.

“It is. We make it with whole wheat lasagna noodles, fresh veggies and our own sauce.”

“That’s yummy. What else do you have for dinner today?”

Okay, so this is a pretty simple and obvious example. The one change in the experience is that a sample was brought to me. (By the way – why doesn’t Whole Foods do this? How hard would it be to have someone walk around with samples from 4-7pm?). There is also something else new in this scenario. Conversation. Even if I didn’t like the lasagna I now have someone to help me make sense of the choices. That interaction alone has transformed my experience from hopeless to happy, but the new comfort level I’m attaining is about new opportunities, not old ones.

So, your brand is not Whole Foods and your business may not be retail. But if your brand is a not-for-profit organization, a place for higher learning, a consultancy, an architectural firm or any type of product or service, the question to ask yourself still applies: if your brand can satisfy the appetite of your audience yet they continue to choose another brand out of comfort, what treats are on your cart for your audience to try and how can you find them before they make another decision?

Written by: Brent Robertson

Email the author: brentr@fathom.net

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