Value-facilitating Simplification in Marketing: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Consumers’ pursuit of simplicity is gaining traction as a research topic. However, despite an extensive set of studies investigating various facets of simplicity in marketing and related disciplines, knowledge regarding cognitive simplicity remains fragmented. To address this issue, the authors synthesize research findings from diverse literature streams to provide an understanding of simplicity and its relationship with consumers’ cognitive effort as a non-monetary but crucial cost in the customer journey. This study also introduces value-facilitating simplification (VFS) as a marketing doctrine that provides firm-wide guidance for simplifying consumers’ information environments. The authors provide practical VFS examples as well as critical future research avenues before concluding with a discussion of theoretical and practical contributions.