Narrow-Appeal Advantage
The proposal that the same level of popularity implies higher quality for a narrow-appeal product than for a broad-appeal one.
What it is
In a field experiment on a website listing wedding service vendors, narrow-appeal vendors received more visits than equally popular broad-appeal vendors after popularity information was introduced. It is drawn from work by Catherine Tucker and Juanjuan Zhang (2011).
In effect
In the article on why we order the most popular dish, it serves as the case for a label helping an unusual item.
What it does not say
The finding comes from one field experiment on a website listing wedding service vendors. It does not show that narrow-appeal products always gain more from a popularity label.
Sources
- Tucker, C., & Zhang, J. (2011). How does popularity information affect choices? A field experiment. Management Science, 57(5), 828-842.