Runners might like variety when it comes to products to buy, but will using your trainers in a variety of circumstances and in a variety of ways lead you to like it more?
Probably not, says a new study. According to the study, Journal of Marketing Research in June 2015, the more we use a product for different purposes or in different situations, the more likely we will report being unsatisfied it.
“Buyers often use the same product in the same way in multiple situations, and these situations may differ in variety,” write authors Jordan Etkin, Duke University and Aner Sela, University of Florida, America. “Across many different products and usage scenarios, we found the same result: When people perceived more variety among a product’s usage situations, they liked the product less.”
The authors conducted several studies to establish this result. Do runners, for instance, use their trainers only for running? Or did they wear them in a variety of circumstances – walking the dog, flying on airplanes, doing home improvement projects?
The authors found the same pattern each time: When people perceived more variety in a product’s usage, they liked the product less.
When we use our trainers for higher variety situations (walking the dog, flying on airplanes, and doing home improvement projects) it gives us a sense that we are using our trainers less often, and therefore getting less value.
Lesson: So if you want to keep a happy relationship with your runner’s … save them for running.
