Epicurean food marketing: A triple win for health, business, and the pleasure of eating

Food marketers should stop acting as if they are in the energy business, treating food as fuel and growing by selling more calories, more often, to more people. By acknowledging that pleasure is the ally of moderate eating, epicurean marketing can help food companies grow by selling less food but more pleasure.

Food pleasure does not increase with quantity

We know that the first bite of something delicious, say a chocolate mousse, is the most pleasurable. The next mouthfuls are slightly less enjoyable and, if the portion is large, the last bites are often bland or make us feel a bit queasy. What most people fail to realise however, is that the total enjoyment from eating that chocolate mousse is not the sum of the pleasure experienced at each bite, but its average. The last bites bring the average enjoyment down, which is why we often regret them.

In a series of studies conducted at #insead, Yann Cornil and I have shown that training people in a lab, or children in schools to focus on the sensory experience of eating can increase the appeal of smaller portions and lead them to choose and consume less than usual.

In our most recent paper, published in Appetite, we show how can this principle can be practically implemented by adding Epicurean language emphasizing the aesthetic, multisensory properties of the food on restaurant menus or food labels.

Cafeteria study

In our first study, we offered participants a fixed three-course lunch for €15 at a French culinary school cafeteria. While the food was identical, we manipulated the menu given to customers. The control menu succinctly described the meal.

The epicurean-labelled menu included the following multisensory descriptions (they sound even better in French, but the English translation is below). As a benchmark, we also included a nutrition-labelled menu which had the same descriptions as the control menu as well as information about calorie and fat content.

Happier to spend more on less food

Paying customers were told that they could choose as many portions as they wanted. Those given the epicurean menu ate 817 kilocalories, 17% fewer than those who ordered off the control menu. Despite eating less, customers in the epicurean condition found the experience worth €20, a 16 percent increase over those with the control menu. Ultimately, these customers were happier and willing to pay more for less food. They also had higher pleasure expectations after reading the sensory-based menu and ate at a slower pace, indicating that they really savoured their food.

The nutrition-labelled menu also reduced the amount of food eaten... but too much! The decrease was so drastic (-31%), that some of the guests probably stopped somewhere on the way home to get dessert. The biggest issue from a business standpoint is that they were also unsatisfied with the experience, estimating that it was only worth €15.

The triple win

In essence we found that epicurean labelling had three clear advantages. First, it was better for people’s health because it encouraged people to eat moderate portions. Second, it was better for business because people ate less food for the same price. Third, it increased overall pleasure, because people really enjoyed the meal more.

In an article published in INSEAD Knowledge, I summarize the results of two additional studies examining the impact of epicurean labeling on supermarket labels and comparing American and French consumers (spoiler alert: it works better with the French!). You can find more summaries of my research at knowledge.insead.edu/author/pierre-chandon. The original research articles can be accessed on my personal site