In Harry Potter, invoking Lord Voldemort’s name is a surefire way to get yourself into big trouble. Is the use of the “v-word” the same when marketing animal-free foods?
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Permission by Paul Shapiro
we I already know Consumers believe that plant-based foods taste much better than vegan foods. Countless studies in the past suggest that “vegan” may be the same as his four-letter word on consumer product packaging. I wrote it before.
study rear study (rear study rear study) found that a good way to reduce sales of animal-free foods to mainstream consumers is to label them as “vegan.”In fact, in 2018 he has one study We’ve found that simply separating plant-based entrees into a “vegetarian section” on a restaurant’s menu is a great way to reduce the number of customers ordering them.
Some vegans argue that as time progresses and people become more familiar with the word “vegan,” it will become more accepted. words.However, another new research Affirm what others have discovered in the past. If you want to be popular with vegans, label your products as vegan. But if you want to be popular with a much larger group of consumers who still eat animal products, try something different.
There is no doubt that vegans are an avid consumer group.I should know – so did I. For the past 30 years and in the future. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many of us. Newly released Gallup poll This suggests that, at least in the United States, the proportion of people who identify as “vegans” has remained unchanged for decades at best, and may even be declining. (This number is so small at 1% that it is difficult to know within the margin of error.)
New research sheds the same light
New research, indeed Published in Appetite magazine It suggests that times have not changed, at least on this issue.
Conducted at MIT, the study focused on menu item labels rather than CPG products, but the results were predictable. MIT researchers found in a randomized trial that “vegan and vegetarian labels commonly found on menu items have a significant negative impact on the likelihood that consumers will choose these menu items. I understand,” he concluded.
This is similar to what hospitals are finding. NPR reported If you want your patients to choose meat-free options this summer, don’t call them “vegans.” actual, new york times That the hospital system has achieved a plant-based diet intake rate of a whopping 90 percent of hospitalized patients, not by promoting the V-word, but by simply silencing the “v” and simply providing those options. I just reported that it was successful. as the default selection. This type of “Architecture selectionIt seems like a much more effective way to increase meat-free options than advertising “being vegan.”
Plant-based mass marketing
Part of the problem may be that for some reason, many people simply think that “vegan” food doesn’t taste good. After all, it’s well established that taste is the number one motivator for food purchases. Food Dive recently reported.
But whatever the cause, those of us who want to build a food system that is less reliant on animals find it difficult to actually achieve change in mainstream consumer behavior than what is appealing to us. You should do what is most effective. This new MIT study is in addition to many that have been done to date, showing that “veganism” is perhaps not as harmful as invoking the name of the Dark Lord, but it does guide Muggle minds accurately. This shows once again that this is not the case.
If you are interested in reducing the number of animals raised for food, and there are good reasons for such a desire, the research remains clear. It seems “vegan” is still a marketing term that should never be named.
