Are your Saturday nights becoming increasingly stressful? Between the endless choice of takeaway food options and the limitless possibilities of streaming services and movies, staying in has become even more overwhelming than going out. Who would’ve thought that the luxury of choice could turn into such a chore?
If you are feeling the effects of decision fatigue, you certainly are not alone. 50% of streamers report feeling overwhelmed (Nielsen, 2022) which is perhaps one of the reasons why Netflix lost $150B of shareholder value in just 12 months. It’s not just content, but physical goods too – 47.3% of clothing shoppers find the level of choice available at retailers to be overwhelming (GlobalData 2019).
Where once we wanted it all, fast and cheap, the last few years have given us a moment to re-evaluate, suddenly we want less, we want simple, we want brands to do a better job of curating our experiences.
The state of the planet means we want less
For the first time in a generation, we’ve seen the natural world flourish as a result of decreased human activity during the pandemic. Perhaps this is contributing to the 71% of us planning to make what we already own last longer (Nielsen, 2022) and the 63% of us willing to spend more on longer lasting items as a result (Accenture , 2020).
The pandemic made us crave simplicity
The pandemic lockdown showed us the value of simpler things; we walked, we knitted, 42% of us even took time to connect more deeply with our neighbours (ABS, 2020). The world as we knew it stopped and we learnt the beauty in slowing down.
Unfortunately, businesses haven’t kept up. Instead of using AI and algorithms to simplify our lives, brands have seen this shift as an opportunity to sell us more, 41% of eRetailers plan on increasing ad spend in the next year despite 35% of us actively avoiding branded ads (Digital Commerce 360).
Recently looked at a brown ankle boot? Here’s 30 almost identical ones that will now follow you wherever you go. This constant selling approach has never been more apparent.
Like a child that’s eaten too many lollies our appetite for choice has been spoilt, and this endless amount of choice has grown tiring, but few are offering an alternative.
So which brands need to pay attention?
Any business who relies on breadth of choice as the competitive advantage, and that spans across industries: content creation, food delivery, travel booking, and fashion retailers. But like always, with challenge comes opportunity.
The brands that are willing to be brave and act now will leave their competitors behind.
It’s time to embrace a new type of curation
Curation used to be the realm of luxury. It was about brands being ruthless in who they sold to and what they sold to them. Curation was defined by exclusivity. To do this well required clarity of brand and a willingness to own a point of view.
Now, thanks to data, curation is being democratized creating a whole new approach.
New world curation starts at a brand level. Start by asking, what should we say no to? Then marry brand intent to deep customer insight to deliver less quantity but better quality.
Curation defined by insight is the key to hyper-curation.
If we look to the fringes, you’ll see a few extreme examples making waves.
Like Thursday, the dating app, only operates one day of the week, gaining 180,000 users upon launching. They went deeper into insight, understanding that users were feeling overwhelmed by the constant FOMO of always on dating apps. By restricting access, they allowed users to rediscover balance and enjoy a more satisfying dating experience.
In Japan, there’s a bookshop that sells only one book per week (Morioka Shoten Ginza) which has become a must visit tourist destination, the perfect antidote to the feelings of guilt readers have over stacks of unread books on their nightstand.
In the mainstream, there are already some businesses using this model to capture market share.
In fashion, The Yes offers a curated online collection based on the brand foundations of luxury streetwear. It takes curation further by asking over 50 yes/no questions to build focussed shopping lists based on the customer’s needs. They are offering a more curated experience with less choices.
From the streaming world, ZoneTV is the first personal Pay TV service. With only 14 hyper curated content channels, one of which is completely personal, viewers are spending fewer minutes scrolling and more time watching. They now boast 34 million users globally.
But it doesn’t stop there, Function of, Unyoked, Asos Boards, Software, Spotify; these brands are all using this method to become the go-to destination for their customers. After all, why would you go anywhere else when you know they’ll get it right every time?
Doing less is the key to loyalty and profit
Of course, selling less feels risky, but it can also be the key to unlocking growth. When businesses become more discerning with what they offer, we are happy to pay a premium. That’s because we recognise that we aren’t just buying the product, we are buying the perspective. That’s something we can’t get elsewhere, and so hyper-curation provides a true competitive edge, one competitors can’t copy.
How can you embrace hyper-curation?
- Get back to your brand’s DNA and be ruthless in deciding what you DON’T do, as much as what you do.
- Get to know your customers, not just by harvesting passive data but by asking active questions.
- Unite steps one and two, make the experience equal parts insightful and effortless to present pure quality, not quantity, to your customer.
There’s a famous quote from Jeff Bezos, “People ask me what consumers are going to want in 10 years time, and I can tell them, they want low prices, they want fast delivery, they want vast choice.”
If my Saturday night is anything to go buy – this isn’t always the case. In a world of endless options, countless brands, and an unrelenting thirst for data, sometimes the greatest gift a brand can give its customer is not everything, but one thing – showing us how well they know us and keeping us coming back for more.
Cover image source: Nikita Kachanovsky