Prego and Afro

This past weekend I watched a TED talk by Malcom Gladwell, which you can enjoy below:


The talk was largely focused on Howard Moskowitz, a psychophysicist who helped Prego create and launch its chunky spaghetti sauce, which helped the company’s sales surpass those of Ragu. The article discussed how Moscowitz basically debunked three assumptions regarding consumers (he zoned in on consumers from the food business, but I think his information can be applied to any industry).

The assumptions and his findings include:
Assumption 1: People know what they want and they will tell you.
Moscowitz: Consumers have no idea what they want! Some of the time they agree with their peers even if they don’t want to, some of the time they tell marketers the "right" information, and some of the time they have no idea what they’re talking about.

Assumption 2: Products experience horizontal segmentation, meaning there are different varieties of the same product and only one can really succeed.
Moscowitz: Different types of the same product exist to benefit different kinds of people. Each group should be catered to and satisfied.

Assumption 3: Every dish is “platonic,” meaning there is only one way to make it. (Like I said, Moskowitz’s research was based on food, but from my perspective, I took “dish” to mean any product.)
Moscowitz: We must go past the idea of “platonic” dishes and cater to variability based on consumers’ preferences. That means there should be changes to products based on each person’s needs.

All of Moscowitz’s ideas fit together to reach one idea: if consumers’ various desires can be discovered and satisfied, everyone will be happier.

Gladwell’s videocast caught my attention for a few different reasons. First, after reading his article, “True Colors” for class, I thought his work was entertaining. He has a knack for telling a good story. That being said, the lecture I watched was also really engaging since he talked about Moskowitz’s research for well-known companies such as Campbell’s and Pepsi. Hearing about how Pepsi tried to find the perfect Diet Pepsis, not Diet Pepsi, was really eye-opening because I didn’t realize how hard Moskowitz worked to satisfy multiple consumers’ needs instead of worrying about creating one perfect product.

Next, I thought his views were the complete opposite of Barry Schwarz’s views in his lecture, “The Paradox of Choice,” which I wrote about in my last entry. As I mentioned last time, Barry Schwarz wrote that people now suffer from a paralysis that results from having too many choices when trying to purchase products. I felt that Gladwell’s lecture was saying that that idea itself is what Moskowitz was trying to advocate: that people feel happier when they have the ability to pick from a variety of products because they’re more likely to find what they’re looking for.

Also, I also thought Gladwell’s ideas were fascinating because they supported another article we read in class, “Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers.” That article discussed how companies try too hard to come up with new and exciting products that they think will entice consumers, when in fact consumers are only interested in products that they can truly benefit from. I think Gladwell really hit this one on the head when talking about Moskowitz. Like I said before, Moskowitz helped Prego come up with chunky spaghetti sauce. The success of the chunky sauce really skyrocketed because Moskowitz learned how to benefit consumers by learning what they wanted. If companies could just learn that consumers want to get something out of their products (not just fun), they would be much more successful.

Finally, the last thing that caught my eye about Gladwell was his unforgettable hair. Be proud of your afro!