Sunday, September 7, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Bussines

Marketers can manage ‘feature creep’

May 28, 2024
in Bussines
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Marketers can manage 'feature creep'
65
SHARES
594
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

AUSTIN, Texas — Wifi-enabled washing machines. Voice-controlled microwaves. App-enabled TVs, vacuum cleaners, and even window blinds you can control from the comfort of your couch.

AUSTIN, Texas — Wifi-enabled washing machines. Voice-controlled microwaves. App-enabled TVs, vacuum cleaners, and even window blinds you can control from the comfort of your couch.

Many of the technological features now included in everyday products are useful and accessible. But research has shown that having too many can overwhelm potential buyers, making them less likely to make a purchase.

In new research, Wayne Hoyer, marketing professor and James L. Bayless/William S. Farrish Fund Chair for Free Enterprise at Texas McCombs, digs into the phenomenon of “feature creep” and its impact on consumer sentiment. His findings might help companies strike the right balance as they design new products — or more effectively market ones that are feature-rich.

“Traditionally, marketers and researchers addressing the topic of product complexity have only looked at the number of features,” Hoyer says. He and co-researchers Andreas Fürst and Nina Pecornik, both of the Universität of Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, examined not only the number of features but also the relationships among them.

The team looked at two very different dimensions of complexity in a consumer tech product.

  • Heterogeneity: how similar or dissimilar the features are. A highly heterogeneous product would be a smart home system that controls dissimilar features, such as floor heating, the refrigerator and television.
  • Interrelatedness: how functionally connected they are, as with a smart home system that automatically closes the blinds and fires up the audio system when the television gets turned on.

How do each of these dimensions affect consumers’ expectations about how capably a product will perform and how easy it will be to use — and thus, how likely they will be to buy it?

To find out, the researchers asked a total of 1,300 people in four experiments to evaluate and rank two different types of products — smart home systems and smartphones — under various scenarios. They ranked each product on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 representing the lowest or least favorable response. They also ranked their purchase intentions.

Unsurprisingly, the team found that the participants were more likely to buy a product if they thought it would be both capable and usable. But several factors influenced those judgments:

More useful but less user-friendly. The more features a product had, the more consumers expected it to be capable — but the less they expected it to be easy to use.

More complex, less usable. The less similar and the more interrelated the features were, the harder consumers thought a product would be to operate.

For example, participants in the smart home group ranked rated usability at 3.56 when a system had a lot of features that were not very alike. That ranking improved to 4.13 when the features were very similar. The effect was true for smartphones, as well.

Related features, better performance. When features were highly interrelated, consumers expected a product to be more capable. High levels of heterogeneity, on the other hand, had the opposite effect.

The reason, a separate experiment found, is that they don’t trust that products with highly dissimilar features will perform as promised.

“The number of product features is still very important,” Hoyer says. “Marketers just also need to consider heterogeneity and interrelatedness. Our research clearly shows that these two dimensions are very important in determining product complexity and how that affects the consumer.”

The big takeaway for companies and marketers, he says, is that they can boost sales by emphasizing that a product’s features are interrelated, thereby promoting expectations that it will work well. They should deemphasize dissimilar features, so that consumers don’t think the product will be hard to operate.

As for product developers, they should temper the desire to add as many new features as possible by ensuring that those features have plenty of functional connectivity that adds value for the consumer. Says Hoyer, “It’s not really that tricky.”

“How Product Complexity Affects Consumer Adoption of New Products: The Role of Feature Heterogeneity and Interrelatedness” is published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.

 



Journal

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

DOI

10.1007/s11747-023-00933-7

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

“How Product Complexity Affects Consumer Adoption of New Products: The Role of Feature Heterogeneity and Interrelatedness”

Article Publication Date

1-Mar-2024

Share26Tweet16
Previous Post

Scientists identify gene that could lead to resilient ‘pixie’ corn

Next Post

A unified account of Darwinism’s varieties

Related Posts

blank
Bussines

Innovation Crossroads Companies Collaborate to Secure U.S. Air Force Contract

September 5, 2025
blank
Bussines

When Finding a Job Leaves You Hungry: Exploring the Science Behind Employment and Food Security

September 5, 2025
blank
Bussines

Rotman School Professor Honored as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

September 5, 2025
blank
Bussines

Experts Urge Enhanced Pilot Training to Address Safety Concerns in General Aviation

September 4, 2025
blank
Bussines

Researchers Discover Key Personality Traits Linked to Academic Success in Schoolchildren

September 3, 2025
blank
Bussines

Do State Bans on Flavored E-Cigarettes Lead to a Rise in Traditional Cigarette Smoking?

September 3, 2025
Next Post
A unified account of Darwinism’s varieties

A unified account of Darwinism’s varieties

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27545 shares
    Share 11015 Tweet 6884
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    960 shares
    Share 384 Tweet 240
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    643 shares
    Share 257 Tweet 161
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    510 shares
    Share 204 Tweet 128
  • Warm seawater speeding up melting of ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ scientists warn

    313 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Digital Dialogue Feedback Boosts Preschool Learning and Interaction
  • Zidesamtinib Demonstrates Lasting Efficacy in ROS1 TKI-Pretreated NSCLC, Including Cases with CNS Involvement and ROS1 G2032R Mutations
  • Crizotinib Does Not Enhance Disease-Free Survival in Resected Early-Stage ALK-Positive NSCLC
  • Ivonescimab Combined with Chemotherapy Enhances Progression-Free Survival in EGFR-Positive NSCLC Patients After Third-Generation EGFR-TKI Treatment

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Blog
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm Follow' to start subscribing.

Join 5,183 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine