The Power of Emotions: Can Food Waste Be Reduced by Tapping into Consumers’ Feelings?
From labels showing the ripeness of fruit and vegetables to messages on milk cartons encouraging consumers to drink up, or lower prices as the use-by date approaches, there’s no shortage of initiatives encouraging consumers to reduce food waste. After all, between harvest and retail, an estimated 13.2% of the world’s food is thrown away. As a result, these ideas are more than ever needed to help drive down waste.
The Role of Emotions in Food Waste Reduction
Could playing on consumers’ feelings be a way of achieving this? This is the hypothesis of a study published in the journal Psychology and Marketing, and carried out in the German supermarket chain REWE, using solitary bananas as the experiment’s main guinea pigs. These lone fruits are typically left at the store after shoppers detach the number of bananas they need from a bunch.
The "Sad" Banana Experiment
As part of the experiment, the scientists put up a sign featuring a banana with a sad face, with the message: "We are sad singles and want to be bought as well." The idea is to stir feelings of empathy among consumers. But can consumers really feel emotion towards food products? Seemingly so, since the number of single bananas sold per hour increased from 2.02 (when an emotionless banana sign was displayed) to 3.19 (with the "sad" banana sign) – an increase of 58%.
The Effectiveness of Anthropomorphism
"Sales of ‘single’ bananas significantly increased when they were anthropomorphised with sad emotions, compared to when they were anthropomorphised with happy emotions or not anthropomorphised at all," the study noted. Similar results were seen when the experiment was carried out with tomatoes. But a final analysis tested whether price cuts could be more or less effective than anthropomorphism in getting consumers to buy these leftover fruits – and it turns out that price cuts were more effective than sad faces in driving consumers to choose single bananas.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this research suggests that retailers could try personifying lone, ugly or imperfect foodstuffs first, before opting for lower prices to prevent these items from going to waste. By tapping into consumers’ emotions, retailers may be able to reduce food waste and increase sales of imperfect products.
FAQs
- How effective is anthropomorphism in reducing food waste?
The study found that anthropomorphising lone fruits with sad emotions increased sales by 58%. - Is price cutting more effective than anthropomorphism in reducing food waste?
Yes, price cuts were found to be more effective than sad faces in driving consumers to choose single bananas. - Can consumers really feel emotion towards food products?
Yes, the study suggests that consumers can feel emotion towards food products, such as bananas, by anthropomorphising them with sad emotions.