profile

Nudge Newsletter

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

Published 6 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.

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

Phill Agnew

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

Read more from Nudge Newsletter

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 Fishbachยน, participants were given information about how...

1 day agoย โ€ขย 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 2024ยน 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...

8 days agoย โ€ขย 1 min read

Price Transparency Read online I spent far too much time moaning about the price of pints. I'd harp on about the ยฃ3 ales I used to buy and how they're ยฃ5.50 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 ยฃ5 for a pint seems quite reasonable. And there's evidence to prove this price transparency tactic works. In 2020, Harvard researchersยน tested the effects of showing a product's...

15 days agoย โ€ขย 1 min read