Kenna's Dilemma
Written on 2:33 PM by Sarah
One important lesson from “Kenna’s Dilemma” is that of sensation transference, which essentially states that people do not evaluate a product independent of its packaging. I think this idea is especially relevant to “green” products. For example, the organic chicken sold at the supermarket comes wrapped the same way, but the styrofoam trays are green instead of white or yellow, and the labels are printed in green. This serves not only to distinguish the organic chicken from the non-organic chicken, but also to emphasize its “green-ness”. Sensation transference is also at play with products which contain biodegradable or natural ingredients, and are also packaged in recycled or biodegradable materials.
This has important implications for marketers who are trying to gain insights from customers about their product, because as the article describes, the packaging can strongly influence a customer’s opinions about a product. Given this information, it would be a good idea to gather feedback in a way that takes into account the effect of packaging.
For example, if Nike were to design a new running shoe, they might want to test it out on real people. They might want to know consumers’ ratings of the shoe’s perceived comfort, durability, etc. If Nike gave out prototypes that were just plain, unicolor shoes (say, if a color scheme for the shoe had not been decided yet), this could drastically affect consumer’s perceptions of the shoe. If the shoe looks comfortable and durable, chances are consumers will be more likely to rate it as such. Therefore, Nike would want to use a finished prototype to include the packaging (in this case, the appearance of the shoe) in their calculations. The important thing to keep in mind is that the context the product will be used in needs to be reflected in the methods used to gather information and insights.
Another important lesson from “Kenna’s Dilemma” is consumers cannot always be relied upon to accurately describe their feelings, attitudes, or opinions about a product or service. This is often the case with new and innovative products that consumers have never seen before, such as the Aeron chair.
When exposed to radically different products, consumers sometimes express dislike when in actuality, they are just unsure or even afraid. I see this at Rudy’s sometimes, regarding their automatic hand washing machine (the “hand jacuzzi”). It resembles a dishwasher for hands, automatically washing and rinsing your hands upon putting them inside the two holes (see image below). It looks a little intimidating and a lot of people go up to it, hesitantly inspect it, and then decide to wash their hands in the traditional trough-style sink instead. Those of us who have tried the hand jacuzzi know that it feels very relaxing and is much more sanitary than a traditional sink, which involves turning on and off taps (which are traps for germs and bacteria). However, it often takes a bit of bravery or a push from a friend for someone to give it a test spin.
Similarly, even if consumers are rating a familiar product, they don’t always possess the vocabulary to adequately describe their opinions (as illustrated in the article by the strawberry jam example). Therefore, marketers should keep this in mind when trying to delve deeper into customer insights and find creative ways to uncover the reasons behind consumer’s ratings without asking them to explicitly explain their answers.
