BEHAVIOURAL PSYCHOLOGY OF MENUS
11/24/2015 10:00:00 AM
The
menu falls to be solely the main entity in every restaurant, which is
not just a listing of dishes, but more involving psychological
techniques for alluring patrons and designing it is not a simple
process. This article concentrates on various psychologies followed
in shaping a menu into a better form.
1. CHOICE OVERLOAD
Choice overload is a problem that is faced at times of making decisions. When people are given little choices there will be less satisfaction. When given more choices, it increases the pressure of choosing and results in worst decisions. In Sheena Iyengar's Ted talk on "The art of choosing" she talks about the effects of choice overload and four techniques to overcome them. She says, "when people are offered with more choices:
- They are more likely to delay choosing.
- They are more likely to make worse choices.
- They are more likely to choose things that make them less satisfied.
She
also emphasizes on 4 simple techniques to deal with choice overload
- CUT: Taking away the unwanted options and presenting only the essential.
- CONCRETIZE: Making the choice real, presenting in a very concrete way to understand the difference between choices.
- CATEGORIZATION: Handling more categories and less choices in each category.
- CONDITION FOR COMPLEXITY: People who go from low choice to high choice finds it easy to choose.
2.
DECOY PRICING
Decoy
pricing is a trick used in business to free people from confusions in
choosing a particular item. It is a marketing technique where one
product is used to increase the sales of other product using
comparatives. It can be made through either adding an inferior
product which is equally priced with other products or highly priced
decoy product similar in features to the less priced with only few
additional features. In restaurants the trick is followed by adding a
very highly priced item among the list. When compared with the decoy
item the patrons find the other items to be fairly priced and
agreeable and end up ordering them.
3.
MENU PRESENTATION
Anything
that attracts people is the way it is presented. Menu design and
layout is found to be the essential being of alluring patrons to buy
more. Emphasis is put on making the color, theme and text, inviting
and presenting the items with tempting photos to make the menu more
appealing.
To
make certain high profitable and special items seek attention,
bolding the names, placing them inside shaded, dotted lined boxes and
decorative frames, pointing arrows towards them and blank space
around the items are followed.
4.
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Striking
description and label is added which by itself arouses the desire to
taste the item lets people conform to the fact that the food is
appealing and tastier. It is true that most people choose to order an
item based on its description and label. Items with persuasive
descriptions when compared to the items without any descriptions are
found to be sold more.
The
description can be based on the ingredients or the method of cooking
or the aroma and taste of the food, making it not too long and using
felicitous words like "Bite-sized, Boneless, chewy, crispy,
delicate, Scrumptious, Spicy and Lavishly etc."
Let's
see an example:
"Tender
artichoke hearts sumptuously melded between spinach and five Italian
cheeses. Served freshly out from the oven, with crispy tortilla
chips"
Isn't
that stimulating the appetite!
5.
PRICE PRESENTATION
The
way the price of each food is indicated also influences people's
choice of selection. Adding currency sign in front of every item's
price lets people be concerned about spending more and pushes them to
make orders based only on the cost rather than the appealing factor.
So
today currency signs are avoided while displaying cost in the menu
and using numbers like .55 instead of .59 or .00 is found to be
friendly and engaging. These psychological techniques used inside
menu designing prevents the patrons from making choices solely based
on the cost.
6.
ATMOSPHERE
Every
patrons loves it when the restaurant atmosphere is pleasing and
likable. They expect the place to be attractively decorated and
surrounded by good willed and attentive waiters/waitress. Music has a
great effect on the customer's time at the table. The music can be of
any kind; Slow tempo, long tempo, pop or classical. Many researches
on the musical effect in restaurants show that customers like to
spend more time in dining when a slow tempo music is played compared
with other types though the differences may not be significant.
7. WISTFUL AND TRADITIONAL COURSE
7. WISTFUL AND TRADITIONAL COURSE
Some establishments attract patrons through traditional dishes and names like homemade and grandma's special, bringing the past times in mind and bring about he cherished memories, making them feel nostalgic and giving them opportunities to spend more on those items.
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