Product Is Form or Function

As technology advances, it becomes more feasible to load products with a large number of features, each of which individually might be seen as useful. However, too many features can make a product overwhelming for consumers and hard to use. Three studies examine how consumers balance their desires for capability and usability when they evaluate products, and how these desires shift over time. Because consumers give more weight to capability and less weight to usability before relative to after use, consumers tend to choose overly complex products that do not maximize their satisfaction when using them, resulting in "feature fatigue." Choosing a number of features that maximizes initial choice results in the inclusion of too many features, potentially decreasing customer lifetime value. As the emphasis on future sales increases, the optimal number of features decreases. This suggest that firms should consider having a larger number of more specialized products, each with a limited number of features, rather than loading all possible features into one product.

A common way to enhance and differentiate a product is by increasing the number of features included (Goldenberg et al. 2003; Mukherjee and Hoyer 2001; Nowlis and Simonson 1996), providing greater functionality for consumers. This strategy has become especially popular as new developments in electronics and information technology (e.g., miniaturization and integration of electronic components) have allowed products to include more functions, yet cost less and require less time to be manufactured (Freund, König and Roth 1997).

While each additional feature provides another reason for the consumer to purchase a product (Brown and Carpenter 2000) and may add desired capabilities, too many features can make products overwhelming for consumers, leading to dissatisfaction and "feature fatigue." Anecdotal evidence suggests that consumers do not use all of the features of the products they buy (Ammirati 2003),