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we're speaking today with wharton
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marketing professor Barbara Kahn
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about her new paper anticipation of
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future variety reduces satiation from
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current experiences which is essentially
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about marketing the future to improve
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the present thanks for joining us
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sure I pledge it did you give you
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summary of your of your research well
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what the research shows is that if you
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anticipate consuming future variety or a
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variety of things in the future you will
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satiate slowly on what you're consuming
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now so this sort of sounds like the
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reason why we all over eat at a buffet
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well except overeating is consumption
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and this is about eating the same thing
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over time how fast do you get bored with
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it or how fast you stay see I associate
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with it and the reason it's interesting
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and marketers is of course marketers
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want you to eat is much more to consume
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as much as possible of their product but
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the problem is and this is not just for
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food it could be for music or for
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anything else that you consume over time
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the problem is when you consume a lot
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over time you get bored or satiated so
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is there a way to reduce the boredom so
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that you'll enjoy what you're consuming
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for a longer period of time and what we
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found was that some of that boredom
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Association is cognitive it's not all
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physical that you're literally satiating
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on it so that if we can encourage you to
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think about something in the future
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that's related to what you're consuming
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now that will offer more variety then
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you'll satiate slowly more slowly so in
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your in your paper in the column about
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your paper you introduce the example of
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yogurt could you explain that one
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because I think that helps to sort of
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clarify this yeah so and here's my kind
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of where the managerial implications so
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to speak could say say you're you're
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eating vanilla yogurt every single day
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for lunch for a week two weeks three
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weeks you can imagine over time you get
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bored with vanilla yogurt so what can we
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do to make you less bored well if you
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knew you went to Costco or BJ's or some
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warehouse and buy the whole that holds
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the pallet of yogurt and it was all
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different flavors or some flavor
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different from vanilla and you know in
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the future you would consume that it
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wouldn't make you satiate slow more
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slowly with the vanilla yo
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you're eating overtime today and that's
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the idea okay so what are the
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implications and for retailers like
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Costco for example well it says that
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selling a variety of things has it
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benefit over and above what you might
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think just having the variety in the
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refrigerator will make the enjoyment of
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a single flavor more pleasurable okay
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and what would you say was the biggest
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surprise that came out of this research
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for you well we've always found a lot
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about anticipation so a lot of past
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research has shown that you should savor
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you know the anticipation of something
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good so there's an advantage of planning
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for vacation in fact or a wedding or
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something that's really fun you might
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actually enjoy the anticipation of the
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event more than the event itself so
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that's something that's been shown
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before but what's different about this
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research is that we show that
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anticipating variety in the future
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affects your current consumption and
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that's different and that's somewhat
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surprising because you wouldn't think
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just thinking about something in the
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future could affect how you're enjoying
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something today one of the other
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interesting examples you've brought up
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in your column that appeared in the AMA
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about this piece the idea that maybe
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it's not always the best thing to keep
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say a gift a surprise gift from a
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significant other can you explain that
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keep it a secret so the point is is
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people can anticipate something that's
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going to happen in the future it not
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only do you savor you know the
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excitement of the future but it also can
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affect your current consumption and so
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that's a little counterintuitive for
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example if someone's going to give
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someone to see a surprise vacation
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knowing about it earlier helps you to
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anticipate that and actually enjoy
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something in the present correct right
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right so you know you're going to have a
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lot of varied activities you're going to
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go skiing and you know mountain climbing
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or whatever you're going to do in the
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future so maybe you won't be as bored
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with what you're doing right now there's
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all sorts of implications for this what
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are you going to look at next do you
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think well it's interesting to think
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about how consuming variety can affect
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things besides actual utility you have
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for the variety so one of the projects
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I'm working on with a doctoral student
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at Drexel University actually is how in
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a consuming variety can
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you feel less guilty or more fulfilled
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when you're in a self-regulatory mode
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which means when you're trying to like
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control your way be more healthy
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sometimes using variety is a cue for
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doing more of a good thing or less of a
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bad thing can alleviate guilt or credit
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and that's kind of an interesting thing
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that variety in and of itself can affect
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these other kinds of feelings or
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emotions great well thanks so much for
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joining us today it is very interesting
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thank you for more insight from
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knowledge of Wharton please visit
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knowledge Wharton you can be you
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