When consumers don't have a lot of time to make a decision, they tend to focus on a
few key criteria or product attributes. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores
what this principle means for mobile marketers.
There's a certain, and quite common, mobile on-the-go mindset that's about
executing something immediately under time pressure. Because of this, some of the
well-studied social science phenomena related to time pressure are particularly
applicable in helping to understand mobile decision-making. This consideration is
key for marketers who are trying to reach and influence us in these moments.
Let's start with the obvious: The fact that we can—and often do—use mobile devices
while on-the-go is a huge differentiator between our online behavior on a laptop
versus on a mobile device.
From a social science perspective, these on-the-go mobile moments, which Google
calls
micro-moments, are interesting to
consider. In these situations, we're often making decisions while multitasking,
while looking for something on the way, or by gathering information to shape what
we're seeing in front of us in that moment (e.g., in a store aisle).
To think about the mobile mindset in a concrete way, let's consider two scenarios
of booking a hotel room. One involves Robert, who is on his mobile phone but not
under any time pressure, and the other involves Tom, who is using mobile on-the-go
and feeling time pressure.
Robert is sitting on his comfy couch at home. He knows he's traveling on business
next week and while watching TV and playing with his dog, he reaches for his phone
to decide on a hotel. He has time while browsing to toggle back-and-forth among
different hotel options, considering and contrasting the benefits of different
hotels to weigh the convenience of location near his meeting versus the ability to
earn hotel points at his preferred chain, with a guaranteed king-size bed,
nonsmoking room—and also a gym.
Tom is also on his mobile phone and needs to book a hotel room, but he's at the
Denver airport. He had a late connection and just missed the last flight out for
the night. He needs to book a hotel room for tonight! He's hoping to get one of the
last available hotel rooms while calling his wife to rearrange child care drop-offs
for the morning, and postponing his next morning's team meeting because he won't be
there in time. Tom is experiencing one of the typical impacts of time pressure—the
so-called "narrowing effect"—and as a consequence he pays attention only to the
hotel's proximity to the airport. He is more likely to hone in on location and
choose one of the first hotels he finds that fits his criteria.
Understanding time pressure in customer experiences
Time pressure, a situation in which our need for time exceeds the amount of time
currently available to us, can be seen as a type of stress. To help us manage
stress, we often experience a narrowing effect, where we channel or tunnel our
focus toward a main task and ignore or filter out certain cues.
Consider the following study: People were given descriptions of 30 hypothetical car
models and were asked to give the likelihood that they would purchase a
car.
1 They were given five different attributes for each car. Those who
were put in a time-pressure condition were more likely to narrow in on the negative
attributes, which they weighted far more heavily in their selection process. In
essence, time pressure encourages individuals to rule out products based on the one
attribute they don't like rather than optimize based on the many attributes that
they do like.
Time pressure narrows the consumer's focus, giving the marketer only a brief moment
to grab their attention and direct their choices.
A related study showed the same narrowing effect when people were asked to choose
apartments.
2 Among all the different elements to consider about an
apartment (such as size, quality, and distance from work), people who were put
under time pressure focused primarily on the distance from work and underweighted
all other criteria.
In another example of attention narrowing, a study of military personnel under time
pressure showed that they examined less information, which led to reduced ability
to detect submarines.
3
Time pressure and mobile decision-making
To continue applying these ideas to mobile in particular, let's look at another
example for Robert and Tom. This time they're both in the market for a new shower
head. Robert, who seems to get off easy in our examples, is back on his couch
planning out the bath remodel that's three months away. He's on his smartphone,
browsing shower heads with a massage spray option, in a satin nickel finish, with
different wall mount options. He's able to check the reviews and availability of
the models that meet his criteria. He's not yet sure if he'll buy online or go
in-store, but he's collecting nuggets of useful information to influence his
ultimate decision. Given his state of mind, his decision is thoughtful and
deliberate. He's looking for thorough and reliable information that will help him
make the best choice.
Meanwhile Tom is standing in the shower fixtures aisle at Lowe's and feeling some
time pressure. His contractor is plumbing his master shower this afternoon and Tom
needs to finalize his fixtures selection. There are two different shower heads with
a side mount in the chrome finish on the shelf in front of him. Because of the
narrowing effect, it's likely that Tom would hone in on one particular functional
attribute to make his decision, without considering other, more complex, criteria.
In Tom's case, he cares most about water pressure and turns to his phone for
reviews on which of the two products has stronger water pressure. Tom is also
likely to spend less time on the shopping process and would likely enjoy it less
than Robert. And once Tom starts leaning toward one of the options, it's unlikely
that he will revisit his decision and change his mind. He seeks quick, decisive
information to give him confidence so he can get things done and move on.
What does this mean for mobile marketers?
It's critical today that marketers think about the context of their customer on the
path to purchase: where they are, what device they're on, what their likely mindset
is in that given moment. Time pressure is an important factor for marketers to
consider in this mix. This is particularly true when it comes to decisions made on
mobile devices on-the-go since time pressure narrows the consumer's focus, giving
the marketer only a brief moment to grab their attention and direct their choices.
Given that time pressure creates a narrowing of attentional focus, people are less
likely to consider a larger array of options and product attributes. Marketers
should take this into account and aim to help people define the choice criteria and
the key factors for their decisions.
The move to mobile also means that it's becoming more and more important to be top
of mind with a simple and clear offering. That's why it's critical for marketers to
continue to invest in brand building and subsequently be there with their product
or message when people are making decisions.
Dan is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral
Economics at Duke University, a founding member of the Center for Advanced
Hindsight, co-creator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies,
and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably
Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, and
Irrationally Yours. He can be found at www.danariely.com.
Sources
1 Wright, P. (1974). The harassed decision maker: Time pressures,
distractions, and the use of evidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 59(5),
555-561. doi:10.1037/h0037186.
2 Svenson, O., Edland, A., & Karlsson, G. (1985). The effect of
verbal and numerical information and time stress on judgements of the
attractiveness of decision alternatives. In L.B. Methlie & R. Sprague (Eds.),
Knowledge representation for decision support systems. (134-144).
3 Entin, E. E., Serfaty, D., & Alphatech Inc., Burlington MA (1990).
Information gathering and decision making under stress.
