Initiater ugly produce12/29/2022 ![]() Our research indicates that the main mechanism driving the effectiveness of “ugly” labels is this bias-correction effect. But when you explicitly acknowledge that produce is ugly, you emphasize the fact that its appearance is the only thing that’s wrong with it-essentially interrupting and counteracting the bias against visually imperfect food. In the context of buying groceries, we found, people did indeed assume that ugly produce would be less tasty and less healthful, and those perceptions drove their purchasing decisions. There’s an established psychological phenomenon known as the ugliness penalty, in which people tend to ascribe negative characteristics to unattractive objects. ![]() But our field studies and lab experiments that looked at labeling strategies consistently found that consumers were most likely to purchase atypical produce when it was labeled “ugly.” For example, we found that 96% of managers think that the best way to market them is to underplay or shift the focus away from their appearance. It’s clear that food waste is a huge issue-both for the environment and for sellers’ bottom lines-but what’s less clear is what we can do to make consumers more willing to buy these visually unattractive fruits and vegetables. Mookerjee: Each year in the United States alone, retailers throw away more than $15 billion worth of edible produce, and farmers discard almost a third of their crops because of purely cosmetic imperfections. ![]() The conclusion: To sell an ugly product, just call it that. ![]() #Initiater ugly produce series#Siddhanth Mookerjee and his colleagues at the University of British Columbia conducted a series of studies exploring the impact of labeling visually atypical produce “ugly.” They found that despite managers’ and store owners’ reluctance to use that language, it generated more customer purchases than euphemisms such as “imperfect” or simple discounts without a stated reason. ![]()
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