profile

Nudge Newsletter

A behavioural science masterclass? | Nudge Newsletter

Published 10 months ago • 1 min read

Only One Ingredient

​Read online​

Popular British supermarket, M&S, launched an eye-catching new product range.

Breakfast cereal, with one to six ingredients, listed plainly on the package.

It's created to compete against the high UPF alternatives¹.

Yet, I think this cereal range will succeed for entirely different reasons.

Show your costs

In 2020, Harvard researchers² tested the effects of showing a product's costs.

Rather than just listing the price, they showed ingredient cost (and profit margin).

Students were 21% more likely to buy the soup when the costs were shown.

Even the profit margin didn't put them off.

Wallets sold with a profit margin of 55% still saw a boost in sales.

Show your ingredients

The Harvard researchers concluded² that showing costs boosts trust.

And that boost in trust makes consumers more likely to buy.

I reckon the M&S cereal will do the same.

In a famously unhealthy category³ where products often contain dozens of unfamiliar ingredients, the "Only" cereal will stand out and garner trust.

And compared to other launches in this highly competitive space, I'd gamble that the cereal should see ~21% more sales.

What do you think? — Phill​

¹van Tulleken, C. (2023). Ultra-processed people: The science behind food that isn’t food. W.W. Norton & Company.

​

²Mohan, B., Buell, R. W., & John, L. K. (2020). Lifting the veil: The benefits of cost transparency. Marketing Science, 39(6), 1105–1121.

​

³BBC News. (2010, April 19). Many cereals ‘have more sugar than desserts’. BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8630446.stm

​

As a behavioural science practitioner, I believe in the peak-end rule*

​Tune into Nudge | Advertise with Nudge | Unsubscribe

Nudge Newsletter

Phill Agnew

I spend 18 hours each week turning marketing psychology into readable newsletters.

Read more from Nudge Newsletter

The Anchoring Effect Read online "𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘥: 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘣𝘺." Why does this line work? Well, it's due to a great use of the 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭. Anchoring = "𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵." In a 2022 study¹, 404 shoppers tested how reference prices affect perceived value. When Ben & Jerry’s ($3.99 for 16oz) was shown next to Walmart’s cheaper $1.99 tub, only 27% rated Ben & Jerry's as great value. But when paired with a costlier $4.99 Halo...

35 minutes ago • 1 min read

Goal Dilution Effect Read online Keen listeners of Nudge will have heard Richard Shotton explain how Five Guys succeeded because they limited the number of items on their menu. Taken from Shotton's episode in late 2025. They focused on just burgers and chips. That helped them improve and benefit from economies of scale. But it also helped them psychologically, due to the goal dilution effect. Here's why: In a 2007 study by Zhang and Fishbach¹, participants were given information about how...

7 days ago • 1 min read

Pratfall Effect Read online A few months ago on Reddit, someone asked, "Is this the best Black Friday marketing campaign?" Personally, I think it's disingenuous garbage, but clearly, something about this type of ad resonates with some. And it might be because of the first two words. "We're sorry." In 2024¹ a number of researchers from Belgium ran four experiments. They tested what happened when a company apologised for a trivial mistake. In one study, participants were shown an email from a...

14 days ago • 1 min read