There is an interesting article in the NY Times about "Menu Psychology", that is, the subtle (and not too subtle) ways in which a menu is designed to influence a person's perception and decision to select particular items for a meal. It even explains the rationale for why dollar signs ($) don't appear on certain menu. Some of the commonly known heuristics and priming effects are referred to but not by name (e.g., the anchoring and adjustment heuristic which would suggest putting the most expensive item on the menu at the top, thus making all other menu items appear to be more reasonably priced). To give a sense of the article, consider the following quote:
|In the “Ten Commandments for Menu Success,” an article published |in Restaurant Hospitality magazine in 1994, Allen H. Kelson, a restaurant |consultant, wrote, “If admen had souls, many would probably trade them |for an opportunity every restaurateur already has: the ability to place an |advertisement in every customer’s hand before they part with their money.” | |And like advertisements, menus contain plenty of subliminal messages. | |Some restaurants use what researchers call decoys. For example, they |may place a really expensive item at the top of the menu, so that other |dishes look more reasonably priced; research shows that diners tend to order |neither the most nor least expensive items, drifting toward the middle. |Or restaurants might play up a profitable dish by using more appetizing |adjectives and placing it next to a less profitable dish with less description |so the contrast entices the diner to order the profitable dish. | |Research by Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell |University and the author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We |Think,” suggests that the average person makes more than 200 decisions about |food every day, many of them unconsciously, including the choices made |from reading menus. | |Menu design draws some of its inspiration from newspaper layout, which |puts the most important articles at the top right of the front page, where the |eyes tend to be drawn. Some restaurants will place their most profitable items, |or their specials, in that spot. Or they place a dotted outline or a box around |the item, put more white space around it to make the dish stand out or, in |what menu researchers say is one of the most effective tools, add a photograph |of the item or an icon like a chili pepper. | |(Photos of foie gras on the menus of white-tablecloth restaurants would be |surprising, however. Menu consultants say those establishments should never |use pictures.) According to the article there are four types of diners; which are you? a) Entrees b) Recipes c) Barbecues d) Desserts Remember, if you put lipstick on a pig, you still have a pig but some people will like the pig with lipstick better than the pig without lipstick, if it is done right. And they'll pay more for the pig with lipstick. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
