Current Topic: Conversion

You may sometimes purposely forgo reading the front-of-package (FOP) labels on the packaging of food goods. The main reason could be to ignore the unhealthiness of the chosen option and let your tastebuds revel in its sugary glory. Other reasons include the difficulty to read and the misleading nature of the labels, leaving the consumer in a state of confusion. If the label is hard to understand, you won’t want to read it and you won’t make a healthy decision.

In this paper, the researchers focus on sugar content and evaluate a novel FOP label’s effectiveness on participants’ preference for the healthier option when presented with various food choices. This was achieved by proposing categories in terms of their simplicity: simple options with few ingredients (smoothies), mid-complexity options with a shortlist of ingredients (yoghurts), and complex options with many ingredients (ready meals). Along with increasing complexity, the sugar content also increases; the smoothie has less sugar than the yoghurt, which has less sugar than the ready meal.

These food options were proposed with the traffic light system or the sugar-spoon label, representing the number of teaspoons of sugar contained in the product. By comparing a standard traffic-light label system versus their invented sugar-spoon label, the researchers found that the participants’ choices were healthier when the product presented was of simple composition (vs complex composition) and adopted their sugar-spoon label (vs the traffic light label).

The study concluded that the sugar-spoon label is more effective at favoring the choice of low-sugar content food goods than the regular traffic light label.

What cognitive process allows for this healthier decision? Find out below.

For the past years, an important new factor guides our decisions when buying different products: how sustainable, organic, or natural they are. Although on a large scale we produce and consume a lot of synthetics (foods and drinks, care products, clothes) we crave to get back to the bare essentials. 

People wish to experience more of the dewy grass and less of the concrete dust. In recent years, we have seen a surge of products and services that harvest the natural, the organic, and the minimal. Those that originate from plants, animals, or humans are considered to be natural (Rozin, 2005).

Sustainable living is not only a modern lifestyle choice but a necessity we embrace as individuals and as businesses. We are willing to drive further, pay more, and put more effort into buying products that are undisruptive to the environment and our bodies. Well, as much as possible anyway. But just as we are willing to put more effort into acquiring natural products, we are more likely to ignore them if they come in a package. Not only in a store but when we shop online too. Do you want to know why?

Nobody wants to finish last. Regardless of which sphere of live you investigate, people take significant effort not to end up in the painful last position. Diners in restaurants rarely order the cheapest wine on the menu—with preferences clustering around the second cheapest option (McFadden, 1999). The pain of rejection stings most when one is picked last in gym class, whereas the person in the second-last spot breathes a sigh of relief (Weir, 2012). 

But what about waiting in queues? Is waiting actually more painful for the last person in line compared to someone waiting an equal amount of time with one additional person behind him?

Through an impressive series of five studies on both in-store and simulated queuing environments, the behavioral scientist Ryan W. Buella investigated the psychological dynamics of queuing. He discovered that being the last one in line carries a powerful psychological difference that has striking consequences on our behavior and satisfaction.

Imagine that you are a retail store manager who has an oversupply of hot dogs. To boost sales, you decide to create an 'outdoor barbeque' display by placing a variety of complements (e.g. condiments, buns, napkins, plastic forks, and beer) on top of the case containing the hot dogs. 

Would such a strategy be successful at attracting shoppers to view the hot dogs? If so, how should you design the display of complements to maximize shopper attention?

With knowledge expanding increasingly fast these days it might be hard to keep track of what is new and happening in Neuromarketing. We try to review new articles weekly in order to keep you up to date on what is new.

To give you an overview of Neuromarketing insights in 2020, we’ve selected the articles that you guys found most interesting and were read the most. These are the 5 best Neuromarketing insights of 2020!