You’ve reduced your portion size of fries, so what’s next? How do you make sure your customers are happy and come back for more? Tip 1 of 3 was to change it up!
Tip 2 of 3: Relabel your portion size descriptions
Portion sizes vary depending on where you eat. A portion of fries can vary anywhere from a small handful, to a massive pile atop a plate. There isn’t any consistency to how big a small, medium or large portion of fries should be. If you were to simply remove the large portion option from your menu, it may anger your customers.
Interestingly, how you describe the portion size on your menu has a powerful impact on how big your customers perceive it to be. A study by Aydınoglu and Krishna found that a portion labelled as small is perceived as smaller than exactly the same size portion labelled as medium. Also, a portion labelled as medium is perceived as smaller than the same size portion labelled as large. The only difference between the portions was how they were described.
So, how can you apply this research finding to your food environment? If you previously offered small, medium and large fries, then reduce the portion sizes as well as changing how you describe them. Relabel your medium fries as ‘large’, relabel your small fries as ‘medium’, and introduce an even smaller portion of fries and call them ‘small’. Remove the previous ‘large’ portion size from your menu altogether. Everyone will benefit from eating less fries, but they are unlikely to notice the change. Follow us on social media to find out our next #ShapeItTopTips.
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Find out even more tips in our new book, Healthy Profits, including how you can use rewards, social norms, menu layout and descriptions and LOTS more! Plus, by buying our book you’ll get exclusive access to useful resources like our Healthy Profits checklist, case studies, action plan templates to name just a few! Get our book here!
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References:
Aydınoglu, N., & Krishna, A. (2011). Guiltless gluttony: the asymmetric effect of size labels on size perceptions and consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(6), pp. 1095-1112.
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