don’t blame the messenger

Product Loyalty: Familiarity Beats Superiority

Product Loyalty: Familiarity Beats Superiority

In what is sure to launch another tiresome Mac/PC debate, the Journal of Consumer Research has released a study that shows familiarity to be the deciding factor when consumers are asked which product is superior:

“The costs associated with thinking about and using a particular product decrease as a function of the amount of experience a consumer has with it. Thus, repeated consumption or use of an incumbent product results in a (cognitive) switching cost that increases the probability that a consumer will continue to choose the incumbent over competing alternatives.”

So, basically, people are too lazy to learn something new, even if it’s easier to learn than what they already know, because, well, they already know it.