Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice | Video on TED.com

Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice | Video on TED.com


ted talks: RORY SOUTHERLAND. Life lessons from an ad man



Video: (Buzzer) Man: Shreddies is supposed to be square.

Woman: Have any of these diamond shapes gone out?

Voiceover: New Diamond Shreddies cereal. Same 100 percent whole-grain wheat in a delicious diamond shape.
HHH

Man: So, Shreddies is actually producing a new product, which is something very exciting for them. So they are introducing new Diamond Shreddies. (Laughter) So I just want to get your first impressions when you see that, when you see the Diamond Shreddies box there.

Woman: Weren't they square?

Woman #2: I'm a little bit confused. Woman #3: They look like the squares to me.

Man: They -- Yeah, it's all in the appearance. But it's kind of like flipping a six or a nine like a six. If you flip it over it looks like a nine. But a six is very different from a nine.

Woman # 3: Or an "M" and a "W". Man: An "M" and a "W", exactly.

Man #2: [unclear] You just looked like you turned it on its end. But when you see it like that it's more interesting looking.

Man: Just try both of them. Take a square one there, first. (Laughter) Man: Which one did you prefer? Man #2: The first one.

Man: The first one?



produce placebo education. The point is that education doesn't actually work by teaching you things. It actually works by giving you the impression that you've had a very good education, which gives you an insane sense of unwarranted self confidence, which then makes you very, very successful in later life. So, welcome to Oxford, ladies and gentlemen. (Laughter)
from Rory Southerland


and Joseph PINE.

goods have become commoditized. Commoditized: where they're treated like a commodity, where people don't care who makes them. They just care about three things and three things only: price, price and price.



That's why you have companies like Starbucks, right, that doesn't advertise at all. They said, you want to know who we are, you have to come experience us. And think about the economic value they have provided by that experience. Right? Coffee, at its core, is what? Right? It's beans; right? It's coffee beans. You know how much coffee is worth, when treated as a commodity as a bean? Two or three cents per cup -- that's what coffee is worth. But grind it, roast it, package it, put it on a grocery store shelf, and now it'll cost five, 10, 15 cents, when you treat it as a good. Take that same good, and perform the service of actually brewing it for a customer, in a corner diner, in a bodega, a kiosk somewhere, you get 50 cents, maybe a buck per cup of coffee. But surround the brewing of that coffee with the ambiance of a Starbucks, with the authentic cedar that goes inside of there, and now, because of that authentic experience, you can charge two, three, four, five dollars for a cup of coffee. So, authenticity is becoming the new consumer sensibility.