Want vs. Should
I Want A Donut. No! I Should Eat Oatmeal, …But I’ll Eat The Donuts Instead!
Pizza or salad for lunch? Consumers use different approaches to buying things they want (pizza) versus items they should buy (salad). How consumers weigh those decisions is crucial information for retailers, and is the subject of recent research by Harvard Business School doctoral candidates Todd Rogers and Katy Milkman, in collaboration with Professor Max Bazerman. In their research on online grocery-buying habits and DVD rentals, there are plenty of interesting insights on the want-should conflict and the implications for managers in areas such as demand forecasting, consumer spending habits, and effective store layout.
What is the difference between the “want-self” and the “should-self”? How does psychology play a role in the internal conflict between the 2? People often behave as if they possess multiple selves with different, competing interests. We call 2 of these metaphorical selves the “want-self” and the “should-self.” The want-self is myopic and desires instant gratification. If left to its own devices, the want-self would always act on immediate, visceral desires (e.g., spending instead of saving money, eating junk food instead of health food). The should-self, on the other hand, prefers to behave in a way that will maximize long-run benefits. If left to its own devices, the should-self would always act on behalf of an individual’s long-term best interests.
How do you apply this to online grocery shopping? We predicted that online grocery shoppers would order healthier groceries when ordering for delivery in the distant future (i.e., 5 days from now) than when ordering for delivery in the more immediate future (i.e., tomorrow). This is exactly what we found. In general, as the delay between order completion and the date a customer selected for delivery increased, customers spent less money per order (or behaved less impulsively), ordered a higher percentage of “should” items (e.g., vegetables), and ordered a lower percentage of “want” items (e.g., ice cream). On the flip side, they focused a lower percentage of their spending on fresh vegetables and other should groceries when ordering for delivery in the near future than when ordering for delivery in the more distant future.
Could your findings be applied to in-person grocery shopping? It seems that to maximize the sale of healthy items or should groceries, brick-and-mortar grocery stores might display healthy foods near the entrance of the store so they will be encountered early on in the shopping experience and as far as possible from the moment when actual consumption will take place. Brick-and-mortar grocers may have already realized this, as fresh vegetables tend to be displayed in the first area customers encounter when they enter most major grocery stores.
