Imagine two restaurants, one of which sold only french fries as a side dish and another that sold both french fries and salads. Which would sell more fries? While logic might suggest that the salad would poach some of the side dish business, new research shows that adding a salad to the menu INCREASES sales of the less healthy fries!
Neuromarketing readers are used to human behavior being hard to predict and sometimes seemingly inexplicable. In Decoy Marketing, we showed how adding a less-capable product to one’s mix could boost sales of a better product priced the same or a bit more. And Compromise Marketing demonstrated how adding a new, more costly product to the lineup could increase sales of the previous top of the line model. But one has to admit that adding a salad to boost sales of french fries seems counterintuitive. Here’s what the researchers found:
In one study, college students were given one of two menus. One menu featured French fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato; the other included those same items as well as a salad. The French fries, widely perceived as the least healthful option, were three times as popular with students selecting from the menu that had the salad as they were with the other group.
“When you consider the healthy option, you say, well, I could have that option,” said Keith Wilcox, a doctoral candidate at Baruch College who is one of the paper’s four authors. “That lowers your guard, leading to self-indulgent behavior.” [From The New York Times – Want Salad With That? Make It Fries by Alex Mindlin.]
Just ten percent of the subjects ordered fries when no salad was present, but thirty-three percent ordered fries when the salad was on the menu. The counterintuitive nature of this study continues with the finding that subjects with high self control (as measured by a psychological test) were MORE likely to be swayed into ordering the fries by the presence of the salad, while those with low self control were more likely to opt for the salad when it was present.
This is fascinating news for McDonalds and Burger King, but I think it may well have applicability beyond fast food. Most obviously, might a fine dining restaurant sell more steaks by offering, say, an option like baked salmon with steamed broccoli? Beyond food, other firms sell items which may be perceived as less healthy or less socially responsible. It certainly seems possible that the presence of a healthier or more socially responsible option could have the same effect of leading to MORE self-indulgent behavior. Would prominently listing an alcohol-free beer in a bar sell more alcohol? I don’t want to get carried away by extrapolating too far from fries and salads, but it seems that this simple experiment has revealed an interesting aspect to buyer behavior. Could this phenonomenon apply to YOUR products?
This is a fascinating study. Basically it means you have to include a ‘bribe’ like a salad for people to eat a rich food. The logic could be extended to include other foods heavy on the stomach.
so besides Mac it could also benefit KFC and a lot of others.
The colonel has done this by offering a ‘healthier’ alternative in its grilled option. Keep your guards up. Almost got me.
Hehe, reminds me of the old logic “when you eat a diet coke and a mars bar, the diet in the coke cancels out the sugar in the mars bar”
Perhaps that same thing works with salads and chips, we feel slightly healthier eating the salad so we feel we are able to indulge in chips.
You don’t say whether people who ordered more french fries were also going with the salad. Is it that people who order a salad feel entitled to treat themselves to french fries, or is the mere presence of salad (not ordered) on the menu more likely to sell fries?
I’m not sure, Marlene, but I believe the researchers found the mere presence of the salad on the menu was sufficient to boost sales of fries.
Roger
I wonder if the actual effect comes from association. The inner thought process could be: “Hmm, if they offer salads, they are obviously a place that offers healthy foods in general. Their fries are likely healthier than other fries.”
Seeing no salad, the thought process is: “These guys don’t even offer salads? They don’t care about offering healthy foods. Their fries are likely those ‘bad, junk-food fries.'”
Not that the above would be an active thought process. It’s a micro-second inner dialogue. (My guess.)
The “why” of things is always the hardest part, Mark. You could be right. Or, perhaps having gone to the trouble of entering a restaurant with salads, the consumers feel their effort should be rewarded with some fries!
Roger