The tyranny of options and the idea diet

In 2000, psychologists set up two jam-tasting booths at an upscale grocery store. One offered 24 types of jam; the other, just six.

You’d think more choices would lead to satisfaction: more chances to find something you love and to meet personal preferences.

The booth with 24 jams attracted more initial interest—60% of passing shoppers stopped to sample. However, only 3% actually made a purchase.

The booth with six jams? Fewer people stopped (40%), but 30% of them made a purchase. Ten times the conversion rate.

The difference wasn’t the jam quality.

It was the cognitive burden of making a choice.

The same mistake

This study, conducted by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper, has been cited approximately 47 million times in marketing presentations. Everyone knows about it.

And then everyone goes back to their desk and adds three more calls to action to their landing page because “different people want different things.”

Everyone nods knowingly when it comes up (like you right now).

I’ve sat in meetings where we’ve debated whether to include a particular feature on a comparison page. The feature is technically impressive. It required significant engineering effort. It differentiates us from competitors.

All true. Also, including it is irrelevant if it dilutes the core message and increases cognitive load beyond the point where anyone converts.

The problem isn’t that we don’t understand the principle. It’s that subtraction feels like failure.

“Just one more thing”

Marketing teams think additively. “What can we include?” becomes the default question. It’s understandable. We’ve worked hard on these messages, these features, these testimonials.

Many people assume that more information helps customers make better decisions.

But that’s not how decision-making works in practice.

When someone lands on your page, their brain isn’t processing elements sequentially like a computer reading lines of code. It’s scanning for patterns, looking for shortcuts, and—most importantly—trying to minimise effort.

Every additional element doesn’t just compete for attention; it also distracts from it. It multiplies the decision-making burden.

Your visitor isn’t choosing between “yes” and “no” anymore. They’re choosing between six different versions of “yes,” then wondering if they’ve picked the right one, and then deciding to leave and “think about it.”

(And then never coming back).

Restaurant menus and choosing

Watching someone struggle with a restaurant menu highlights this principle in real time.

At restaurants with extensive menus, people often order slowly and later regret their choices. At places with eight curated dishes, orders come quickly, and satisfaction is higher.

(Ever watch Gordon Ramsay yelling at restaurant owners to make them restaurant harder and better? One thing he always does is shorten the menu.)

This translates directly to how we structure marketing messages. When we present everything as equally important, we’re essentially handing our audience a thirty-page menu and wondering why they’re no longer interested.

The Apple product matrix

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was dying. They had dozens of products with confusing names and overlapping capabilities. The Macintosh Performa 5400, 6400, and 6500 were all distinct computers that performed roughly the same tasks.

Jobs drew a two-by-two matrix on a whiteboard.

Consumer/Professional across the top.

Desktop/Portable down the side.

Four boxes. Four products. Everything else got killed.

The company went from nearly bankrupt to profitable within a year. Not because they invented something revolutionary (that came later with the iPod). Because they made it possible to understand what they were selling.

Focus isn’t a nice-to-have.

Focus

True focus isn’t about cramming everything into a smaller space. It’s about making hard choices about what matters most—and having the confidence to leave everything else out.

This requires two things most marketing teams struggle with:

Clear prioritisation

Not “everything is important” thinking, but genuine hierarchy. What’s the one thing this page, email, or campaign needs to achieve?

Not the three things. Not the five things. The one thing.

Comfort with subtraction

The ability to look at something you’ve created and ask, “What can I remove while making the message stronger?” This is harder than it sounds, because removal often feels like a failure.

It isn’t. It’s editorial courage.

One thing

Before adding another element, another message, another call-to-action, ask this:

“If I only had one thing I could tell this person, what would it be?”

Then build everything around that answer. The supporting points exist to reinforce it, not to compete with it. The design directs attention toward it, not away from it. The call-to-action flows naturally from it.

This isn’t about dumbing things down or withholding information. It’s about respecting your audience’s mental resources enough to do the hard work of clarity on their behalf.

Those jam researchers didn’t prove that people are overwhelmed by choice because they’re stupid. They proved that decision-making requires mental energy, and excessive choice depletes that energy faster than it can be replenished.

By the time someone’s evaluated 24 jam varieties, they don’t have the mental resources left to commit to buying one.

Your landing page with six messages, four CTAs and a carousel? Same problem. Different jam.

(Mmm… Jam.)

Better marketing

The reality is that most marketing could be half as long and twice as effective. Not because audiences are stupid (they’re not), but because clarity is powerful and confusion is expensive.

Next time you review marketing—a landing page, an email, a presentation—challenge yourself: ruthlessly cut half of it. Actually delete. Then, ask: Does the core message shine through, or is clarity lost?

If it becomes clearer, you’ve found your answer. If it becomes muddier, add back only the minimum required for clarity. Not everything that was there before. Just enough.

Monitor your results. Notice if conversion rates improve and if your audience responds more positively; then commit to focusing on this approach every time you craft a message.

Focus isn’t about doing less for its own sake. It’s about doing less so your audience can truly understand and act. Attention is the scarcest resource in marketing—respect it, and your results will improve.