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!

Shape It Top Tips

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.

Sign up to get updates to your email inbox, follow us on Twitter @healthy_profit, Facebook @healthyprofitsfgf and on LinkedIn. Also follow us on Instagram @healthy_profits as Tracey sails around the world finding out how feel good foods are promoted overseas.

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!

Buy ebook from Amazon

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us along the way and made Healthy Profits a reality. We couldn’t have done it without you!

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.

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?

Shape It Top Tips

Tip 1 of 3: Change it up!

We aren’t very accurate at estimating size changes. We underestimate portion size increases and think the increase is smaller than it really is. When a portion is doubled (a 100% increase) we estimate the increase as being only 50% to 70% bigger. This means super-sized portions aren’t judged as being as excessive as they actually are. Take a look at Chandon’s 2013 paper for more on this (see bottom of page).

However, we are much more accurate when judging how much smaller a portion gets. This means if you reduce a portion size, it is highly likely your customers will notice. Let’s say Joe Bloggs orders a burger and fries from your pub every week at his regular family get together, and then one week, the portion of fries has noticeably shrunk. Poor Joe is going to feel understandably shortchanged. The experience may leave such a negative memory that he then associates your food establishment with being money grabbing, or taking away his free will to eat what he wants, and his family might decide to try eating somewhere else next week instead.

One way to overcome this is to change it up. Make the plate look completely different to before. This will distract the eye and make it difficult to accurately judge the change in portion size of fries. You could serve the fries in baskets instead of on the plate, such as these from Amazon.

Or you could change what you serve the meal on, such as changing the size or shape of your plate, or presenting your food in a creative or novel way. For example, introducing a retro burger basked instead of serving on your usual white plate. There are many dishwasher safe versions of these on Amazon.

Not only will Joe Bloggs not notice the portion of fries has shrunk, but he may also be really impressed with the novel new presentation! Follow us on social media to find out our next #ShapeItTopTips.

Sign up to get updates to your email inbox, follow us on Twitter @healthy_profit, Facebook @healthyprofitsfgf and on LinkedIn. Also follow us on Instagram @healthy_profits as Tracey sails around the world finding out how feel good foods are promoted overseas.

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!

Buy ebook from Amazon

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us along the way and made Healthy Profits a reality. We couldn’t have done it without you!

References:

Chandon, P. (2013). How Package Design and Packaged-based Marketing Claims Lead to Overeating. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 35(1), pp. 7-31.

You want to increase sales of the healthier options in your grab and go lunch bar, but what’s the best way to do it?

Shape It Top Tips

Tip 1 of 3: Position healthier choices in the prime location

The nature of a grab and go lunch counter means your customers are after a quick convenient option, and are likely in a hurry. This means they are influenced by what stands out and catches their attention first. Big brands don’t pay for prime location on shop shelves for nothing – they know it works. Items positioned in the middle of a shelf and at eye level are selected nearly 300% more than when placed on the left, as shown in a study by Keller in 2015.

Thorndike and colleagues conducted a study in a hospital cafeteria in the USA where items were labelled green (healthy); yellow (less healthy); or red (unhealthy) and, importantly, they also rearranged the offer to make healthy items more accessible. With just these simple changes they found that sales of less healthy items dropped by 17% and green healthier food sales increased by 11% which was sustained even two years later.

So make sure you place the healthier options in the middle of the display customers tend to browse first, and not in the bottom corner of the display, or tucked away in a separate healthy section around the corner. Although Thorndike’s study might suggest that you should use traffic light labelling to highlight your healthier options, don’t forget that many of us aren’t motivated by health so take a look at our next top tip to see what else you could do.

Follow us on social media to find out our next #ShapeItTopTips.

Sign up to get updates to your email inbox, follow us on Twitter @healthy_profit, Facebook @healthyprofitsfgf and on LinkedIn. Also follow us on Instagram @healthy_profits as Tracey sails around the world finding out how feel good foods are promoted overseas.

Find out even more tips in our new book, Healthy Profits, including how you can reinvigorate your food offer, use rewards and meal deals 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!

Buy ebook from Amazon

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us along the way and made Healthy Profits a reality. We couldn’t have done it without you!

References:

Keller, C., Markert, F. and Bucher, T., (2015). Nudging product choices: The effect of position change on snack bar choice. Food and Quality Preference, 41, pp. 41-43.

Thorndike, A.N., Riss, J., Sonnenberg, L.M., and Levy, D.E. (2014). Traffic-Light Labels and Choice Architecture: Promoting Healthy Food Choices. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 46(2), pp. 143-149.