Typical weekend errands. On my list was toothpaste. Simple right? Not so much! Usually I just grab my preferred brand and off I go. Paying little attention to the entire shelf. But on Saturday, it so happened that the toothpaste aisle in this particular store was very wide and as I turned the corner, I had a visual perspective that caused me to stop dead in my tracks. The number of choices, even among the same brand (Crest for example), was staggering.

At what point does choice cease to be compelling and become instead, a burden? Have we devalued real choice by making such a big deal out of small differences? Are we diluting brands with too many line extensions? These questions had me curious and interestingly enough while doing some research over the weekend, I found an excellent new video presentation on TED on this very subject. Definitely worth watching. It may give you a fresh perspective.

3 Comments