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...

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...

Price Transparency Read online I spent far too much time moaning about the price of pints. I'd harp on about the £3 ales I used to buy and how they're £5.50 today. And then I saw this image. Taken from The Times based on figures from Ukospitality and the British Beer and Pub association 13p profit!? Suddenly £5 for a pint seems quite reasonable. And there's evidence to prove this price transparency tactic works. In 2020, Harvard researchers¹ tested the effects of showing a product's...