Many vegan products are failing due to ๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’”. | Nudge Newsletter


The Framing Effect

โ€‹Read onlineโ€‹


Many plant-based products are failing due to bad naming.
โ€‹
In 2018ยน, a study was conducted with 727 Brits who already ate meat.
โ€‹
Renaming the โ€œ๐ฆ๐ž๐š๐ญ-๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ž๐ž ๐›๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค๐Ÿ๐š๐ฌ๐ญโ€ to โ€œ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ž๐ฅ๐-๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐›๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ค๐Ÿ๐š๐ฌ๐ญโ€ made diners 200% more likely to pick the plant-based option.
โ€‹
Similarly, renaming โ€œ๐ฆ๐ž๐š๐ญ-๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ž๐ž ๐ฌ๐š๐ฎ๐ฌ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฆ๐š๐ฌ๐กโ€ as โ€œ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ž๐ฅ๐-๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฌ๐š๐ฎ๐ฌ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฆ๐š๐ฌ๐กโ€ made it twice as popular.

โ€‹

The paper went on to find that a Veggie Burger will be more popular if itโ€™s called a โ€œ๐‹๐จ๐š๐๐ž๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ž๐ซโ€.

And gnocchi is 31% more popular if itโ€™s renamed โ€œ๐Œ๐ž๐ฅ๐ญ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐Œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐†๐ง๐จ๐œ๐œ๐ก๐ขโ€.

โ€‹

Don't Say What's Missing

Many health food products focus on whatโ€™s ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ.

Labelling highlights whatโ€™s ๐ง๐จ๐ญ in the product.

  • Sugar-free
  • No sweeteners
  • Low fat
  • Zero carbs

Studies show that this backfires.

While most of us rationally claim we prefer healthy foods, framing the product as missing something decreases its popularity.

Evidence comes from this 2017ยฒ study.

The researchers renamed โ€œ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜จ๐˜ข๐˜ณ-๐˜ง๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ด ๐˜ฅ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จโ€ to โ€œ๐’•๐’˜๐’Š๐’”๐’•๐’†๐’… ๐’„๐’Š๐’•๐’“๐’–๐’” ๐’ˆ๐’๐’‚๐’›๐’†๐’… ๐’„๐’‚๐’“๐’“๐’๐’•๐’”โ€.

Doing so increased sales of the carrots by 25%.

Sponsored by: Superhuman AIโ€‹

Find out why 1M+ professionals read Superhuman AI daily.

AI won't take over the world. People who know how to use AI will.

Here's how to stay ahead with AI:

1- Sign up for Superhuman AI. The AI newsletter read by 1M+ pros.

2- Master AI tools, tutorials, and news in just 3 minutes a day.

3- Become 10X more productive using AI.

โ€‹Join 1 million pros and start learning AIโ€‹

โ€‹

โ€‹

Enjoyed today's newsletter? Please share it with a friend โ€” Phillโ€‹

P.S. If you liked this, you'll love last Monday's Nudge (which is all about this stuff).

ยนVennard, D., Park, T., & Attwood, S. (2019). Encouraging Sustainable Food Consumption By Using More-Appetizing Language.

โ€‹

ยฒTurnwald, B. P., Boles, D. Z., & Crum, A. J. (2017). Association Between Indulgent Descriptions and Vegetable Consumption: Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(8), 1216โ€“121

โ€‹

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

โ€‹

โ€‹Tune into Nudge | Advertise with Nudge | Unsubscribe

Nudge Newsletter

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

Read more from Nudge Newsletter

Psychology of Pricing Read online 1) Charm Pricing for High-Quality Products Imagine youโ€™re buying a shatterproof iPhone case Does it matter if it is priced at ยฃ49.99 or ยฃ49.95? Well, yes. Apple uses charm pricing but usually ends prices with a 5. Gendall, Fox, and Wilton (1998)ยน ran an experiment with fast-moving consumer goods (fly spray, cheese) and durables (electric kettles). They found that prices with endings in 99 cents are more attractive for low-priced, fast-moving consumer goods...

Unit Asking Read online Which of these articles encouraged Brits to donate more? It's the one on the right. Research by Christopher Hseeยน found that donors gave nearly twice as much when first asked to consider the needs of a single person before being asked to donate to a larger cause. This โ€œunit askingโ€ strategy made contributions feel more reasonable and personal. And it explains thisยฒ rather bizarre study: The study looked at the success rate of donation requests on the...

Hyperbolic Discounting Read online One of these ads looks 108% better value. Can you guess which? In 2025, Shotton and Flickerยน tested ads like this in their book. 282 consumers were shown Sierra Nevada Pale Ale priced at $18.99 for 12 bottles. Half were told this equated to $1.58 per bottle. Among those shown the per-bottle price, 28.6% said it was good or very good value (more than double the 13.7% who only saw the total price). Framing the cost at the per-unit level made the purchase feel...