The Homa Files

TakeAway: The improved lighting in the produce section of your grocery store isn’t just for aesthetics.  

It’s part of a concerted effort by grocery stores to drive sales of healthier food that consumers say they want.

Studies indicate lighting alone can increase sales nearly 30%.  Expect these practices to become more widespread.

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Excerpted from NPR, “Nudging Grocery Shoppers Toward Healthy Food,” by April Fulton, November 8, 2010

Grocery stores are not necessarily designed to help customers choose the healthiest food. Signs and specials advertise chips and soda, and the coupons are usually for the pre-packaged, processed foods advertised by big brand-name companies with deep pockets. …

Some stores are getting wise to shoppers’ desires to eat better, as well as the challenges they face in doing so. Some are subtly shifting the focus to healthier products by using the same marketing tricks the large food companies and restaurants have used for years. …

Brian Wansink, the co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs, says grocery store sales goals are compatible with public health goals. …

He’s done a lot of research on produce and found that there are small things stores can do that will help them move a lot more volume of the healthy stuff.

Take product placement and soft, focused lighting, for example. Items that are highlighted in this way — even if they aren’t on sale — sell about 30 percent more, Wansink says. They just look more appealing than products under harsh, overhead fluorescent lights. …

… Smells can be used as an enticer, rather than just “fanning them out of the building,” as many stores do …

The danger with these marketing tools is in going overboard, bombarding people with public health messages about how they should eat better. If people feel persuaded, they will resist, Wansink says. Stores have got to make the shoppers feel like it’s their choice. …

Edit by DMG

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Full Article
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131074210

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This entry was posted on December 14, 2010 at 6:15 am and is filed under Retailing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.