The Closer We Are To A Product Category, The Easier The Choice Is? Consumer Behavior Evidences From Field Experiments In A Restaurant Setting

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how familiarity to a product category in terms of habits, knowledge and interest is linked to their behavior toward choice. Two experiments respectively test the following hypotheses: participants are to a product category in terms of habits, interest and objective knowledge ; 1) the less likely they are to deliberately reduce the number of their options in a choice set, and 2) the more value they assign to a purposeful choice between products versus getting a random product. In both experiments, products tested were a range of different coffees. Experiments mostly took place in an experimental restaurant. Such field experiments enable to observe representative behaviors, while seeking for control through behavioral and experimental economics methodologies (Lusk & Fox,2003). Results confirmed our first hypothesis, as subjects who deliberately reduce the number of their alternatives were more distant from the products considered. In proportion, women also had a higher chance to reduce the number of their alternatives. Our second hypothesis was not confirmed at the level of the group. But men who were willing to pay a premium for choosing a product by themselves were indeed closer to the coffee category overall. Gender was a factor of importance in the results of these two experiments. Taken all together these results show that several factors influence the perceived value of choice among a set, and suggest that distance to the product category and gender are some of these factors for coffee offered in restaurant.