Can't live without your iPhone? Do you swear by Oil of Olay? Can you picture your day starting without Café Bustelo?
A new study shows that if your favorite brands were suddenly gone, you may actually move on a lot easier than you think, according to NY Mag's Science of Us.
If you don't have what you want, but are given a substitute, you'd learn to want the original less - or so the experts say. For example, one study titled "How Non-Consumption Shapes Desire" asked participants to stop using Facebook for three days. During those three days, some of the participants were allowed to use other forms of social media, while some participants had to go "cold turkey."
Those who were able to use another form of social media missed Facebook less. Those who went without any social media for three days missed Facebook even more at the end.
So, according to the study, consumers' urge to use or have a product depends on the time that has passed before they find a substitute or get their original product back. The study's findings suggests "out of sight, out of mind," but also states, "If a company restricted the supply of a product in a way that someone could not find the product at all, they would likely develop new tastes for a substitute product and desire the original product less over time."
It's like when you go home from college and you haven't had the hometown diner's burger in a while. It sounds amazing to you. It may even taste better than you remembered.
You could also really want a piece of chocolate, but a piece of tiramisu could satisfy your craving.
But if you're sitting on your couch with no access to sweets and Kit-Kat tells you to give them a break, your craving may increase to the point of getting up, going out and buying a Kit-Kat.
The authors concluded in their report, "As a final note, our study of desire based on non-consumption suggests consumers learn about their preferences by thinking about what they have not consumed. Given changing trends and fashions and the reintroduction of consumer products every several years (e.g., fashion trends making a comeback), this study can shed light on what makes consumers welcome old favorites and see them as nostalgic, and what makes consumers, at other times, reject these products as 'old fashioned.'"
So as the song goes, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find..." a suitable replacement. (Someone should tell Mick Jagger how to get some "Satisfaction" after all these years).
