profile

Nudge Newsletter

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

Published 12 months agoย โ€ขย 1 min read

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.

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€.

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€‹

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.

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

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

โ€‹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

Concrete Phrases Read online Could writing "๐€๐‚๐“๐”๐€๐‹ ๐’๐ˆ๐™๐„" on a Whopper ad make it sell for ๐’Ž๐’๐’“๐’†? In 2022, 465 participants saw ads for a fictional Lay's multipack.ยน Both groups knew the multipack was 392g in size, but each saw a different headline. One saw: ๐˜“๐˜ข๐˜บ'๐˜ด ๐˜Š๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ด, 14 ๐˜ด๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฌ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ดThe other saw:๐˜“๐˜ข๐˜บ'๐˜ด ๐˜Š๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ด, 392๐˜จ. Those who saw "14 snack bags" were willing to pay 10% ๐ฆ๐จ๐ซ๐ž than the other group.This is due to the concrete phrases effect. We can picture 14 snack bags in our mind. 392g doesn't...

6 days agoย โ€ขย 1 min read

Variable Rewards Read online This video of a smart gas station owner went viral a couple of months back. Here's the original. The video shows dozens of customers failing to balance 25 cents on a lemon. A chance to win $100 is a carrot large enough to make customers bet. It shows something that many marketers have known for decades. We love a gamble. People prefer a gamble In 2025, researchers Gaertig and Simmons offered either a gamble or a certain reward to hundreds of participantsยน. Some...

13 days agoย โ€ขย 1 min read

Adobe Summit London 2026 Read online Last week, I had great fun attending the Adobe Summit London 2026. Partly great hearing about the latest innovations in AI and partly great catching up with the friendliest man in marketing, Joe Glover. Two stats from the opening keynote that stuck with me. 1: Organic web search traffic is down 20% 2: Conversion rate for AI search is 42% higher then before Itโ€™s a reminder that so many of the norms of marketing have fundamentally changed. I remember my old...

15 days agoย โ€ขย 1 min read