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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

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Many plant-based products are failing due to bad naming.
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In 2018ยน, a study was conducted with 727 Brits who already ate meat.
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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.
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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%.

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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.

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Nudge Newsletter

Phill Agnew

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

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