Cognitive Lock-In: Why Consumers Stick With The Familiar

Consumer loyalty can stem as much from perceived ease of purchase and habit as it does from actual satisfaction level with a product. This conclusion is put forth by Kyle B. Murray and Gerald Häubl, in their paper "Explaining Cognitive Lock-In: The Role of Skill-Based Habits of Use in Consumer Choice" published in this month's issue of Journal of Consumer Research.

In their research Murray and Häubl examined the theory of "cognitive lock-in", the process in which using or purchasing a product becomes easier with repetition. In a series of experiments, they found that people are more influenced by their perceptions of ease-of-use rather than how objectively easy a product is to use.

"This is an important finding because it demonstrates the specific nature of the link between the development of habits of use and consumer loyalty. In fact, the results of the current research indicate that, although habits of use can create a substantial advantage for an incumbent where otherwise none exists, such an advantage appears to be limited to the achievement of a particular goal," stated Murray (University of Western Ontario) and Häubl (University of Alberta).

In other words, a consumer might always drive the extra 20 minutes to purchase the pizza that has been their favorite for years, while ignoring four other eating establishments along the way, however that product loyalty might extend only to pizza and not the entire menu selection. This is pointed out in the authors' comment "[L]earning to navigate a particular grocery store to purchase orange juice does not necessarily lock consumers in to that store when their goal is to buy a cake. Similarly, becoming skilled at looking up stock quotes at Yahoo.com does not mean that the user will inevitably sign up for a Yahoo email account.” In other words, our habits drive our consumer choices only to the extent that the choice meets our personal goal.

The complete report is available by subscription at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/.

ABSTRACT: Explaining Cognitive Lock-In: The Role of Skill-Based Habits of Use in Consumer Choice

[Via: Ars Technica]