We trust more in simple promises than in long lists. When brands focus on a clear benefit, it seems more credible than trying to do everything at once. Get it from Google.
When Chrome launched in 2009, they called it “The fast browser.” They used this same line over and over again multiple different ads. It’s a good line. But think for a second about all the attributes that Google didn’t mention.
They didn’t mention how passwords are synced, how the security is best in class, or the Gmail integrations. They didn’t mention extensions, stability, or automatic updates. They could have done it, but instead they focused on an advantage. Speed.
The campaign worked. Now, Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, conquering 71% of the market. Saying less can make your product seem more effective. Adding benefits can actually weaken persuasion. Here’s why.
Summary
The lens dilution effect
The simple Google Chrome ad campaign is an example of the goal dilution effect. This cognitive bias causes people to believe that products are less effective if they achieve multiple goals, rather than one targeted goal. In short, the more benefits you offer, the less credible those benefits will be.
In the 2007 In the study conducted by Zhang and Fishbach, participants were given information about how eating tomatoes could achieve certain goals.
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Some are told that eating tomatoes achieves only one goal: “help prevent cancer.”
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Others are told that eating tomatoes achieves two goals: “helping prevent cancer and degenerative eye diseases.”
Zhang and Fishbach found that participants rated tomatoes as 12 percent more effective at preventing cancer when that was the only benefit listed, compared to when an additional health benefit was also included.
The beauty of simplicity: five guys
Five Guys benefited from the same bias in 1986, when Jerry Murrell launched the first store. They didn’t try to be a jack of all trades. They focused on one benefit, and that focus increased the credibility of their claims.
ON Push PodcastRichard Shotton explained how the Five Guys founder was inspired by the long lines outside Thrasher’s Fries in Ocean City, Maryland. He was quoted as saying: “There must have been 20 places selling fries on the boardwalk, but only one had a long queue.”
Why was Thrasher so popular? Well, according to Murrell, that was their goal. The Thrashers only offered fries, nothing else.
Five boys replicated the same tactic. Instead of offering salads, desserts, fish fillets and other typical fast food products. Five Guys offered only the bare minimum: burgers and fries.
That simple menu helped Five Guys explode in popularity. The chain exploded in the mid-2010s and grew by over 700% in six years. With limited menus, the brand could focus on making great burgers and fries. And, thanks to the goal dilution effect, customers got the message.
Less is more
Chrome and Five Guys remind us that moderation is a strategy. When you strip away everything a product could do and focus on doing what it does best, people believe it. The strengths are impossible to miss. So, the brands that win aren’t always the ones that have the most to offer. They are the ones who know what they do best and trust their customers to do the rest.
