Slice Off Consumers’ Small-Penis Syndrome

What does penis size have to do with successful retailing?
     I’ll start with the research findings from Royal Hallemshire Hospital, Sheffield, and St James’s Hospital, Leeds, that about 45% of men risk “small-penis syndrome” (SPS). They wish for a more generous endowment. Yes, 45%. Perhaps a long-term opportunity for retailers wanting to stretch their service offerings.
     But I digress.
     How do men handle this concern? For an extended time now, consumer researchers with a psychoanalytic bent have said straight on that the men buy big gas-guzzler cars and large-screen televisions.
     Except they’re buying smaller and smaller computerized devices. What gives?
     Researchers at HEC-Paris and Northwestern University have pulled out the answer: When the large size of a product or package implies power, consumers craving more power go for the large. A set of study participants were offered a choice of different-sized bagel pieces. Those participants who felt powerless chose bigger pieces.
     With men, it might have to do with SPS. But the findings were pretty much the same across genders.
     Since they’d worked with bagels, the HEC/Northwestern researchers applied their findings to addressing the ways in which Americans are supersizing their meals and themselves. But in a recent MediaPost article, one of the researchers, Derek D. Rucker, says that the principles apply to a broad array of products. And that brings us to the puzzle of the computerized devices: When small size implies status, consumers who want more status will forgo the large.
     In another study, participants were offered four sizes of hor d’oeuvres. Some of the people were told that the largest ones had recently been served at a White House event. Others were told that the White House event featured the small hor d’oeuvres.
     The status of being a White House appetizer outflanked the importance of size.
(The research article I cite here was subsequently retracted following the discovery of a set of statistical errors which cannot be explained, since the authors no longer have the data. I’m leaving my reference to this article in place with this notice so that my blog readers coming here via a hyperlink won’t get a search error message.)

     In all this, there are other factors, to be sure. With most product lines, the larger alternative costs more. That gas-guzzler commands a premium for the initial purchase and to keep the tank topped off. People who get the large vehicle project power because of their willingness to spend big. And smaller items which do the job are generally more desired because of convenience, even if the items don’t convey status.
     The relevance of the research findings to successful retailing is in questioning the notion that consumers universally select larger items in order to compensate for insecurity. Often they don’t.

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