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Marketing, Tyranny Of Too Much

Today's New York Times has a great article on the typical walk down the toothpaste aisle in your local superstore, illustrating what Blackfriars calls the tyranny of too much. Lest people think this is just a casual problem, one analysis illustrates the peril this holds for marketers:

Is there a name for what I'm experiencing? Of course there is, replies John Quelch, the Harvard Business School consumer marketing guru, who began laughing as soon as he heard the words "toothpaste aisle." He was quick to diagnose "analysis paralysis at the point of sale." Paco Underhill, perhaps our most diligent student of the science of shopping, terms it the "confusion index." And yes, it's growing. As are the fractures among us.

Mr. Quelch offers only one survival strategy: "Walk on by." After all, he says, "It wouldn't happen if we didn't buy it." The manufacturers of toothpaste are not exactly worrying about our tuning out. It's a free market. Furthermore, Mr. Quelch adds, "it's rather difficult to compute all the sales that never happen because of analysis paralysis."