The perfect menu: The intersection of neuroscience and consumer behavior

In the world of neurogastronomy, understanding the intricate relationship between the brain and food is essential. As a professional deeply involved in this field, I explore how our brains perceive and react to different culinary experiences. Neurogastronomy is not just about taste; it's about how all our senses interact with food, influencing our choices and satisfaction. This fascinating domain allows us to create dining experiences that are both memorable and enjoyable by leveraging insights from neuroscience.

Neurogastronomy: A deeper dive

Neurogastronomy combines neuroscience and gastronomy to study how the brain perceives flavor and makes food choices. It explores the multisensory experience of eating, including taste, smell, sight, touch, and even sound, to understand how these senses influence our food preferences and dining behavior. By understanding the neural mechanisms behind these processes, we can design food experiences that not only satisfy hunger but also create lasting memories and emotional connections.

The Psychology behind menu design

The best restaurants understand the psychology of their customers and use neuromarketing tricks to make more sales and maximize profit margins. One important task is creating a restaurant menu that will successfully attract guests and generate a healthy profit.

This strategy, known as the "psychology of choice," is essential for a successful menu, and consequently, a successful restaurant.

How the psychology of choice works

The psychology of choice involves the biases that shape human decisions. To save time on making a decision, people often rely on intuition rather than rationality. Neuromarketing helps restaurants identify these decision-making shortcuts and appeal to them when presenting their menus.

Neuromarketing tips to enhance your restaurant business

1. Change the Menu Structure Studies reveal that most diners tend to order items at the beginning of the menu. Positioning high-margin items at the top can increase visibility and orders. This takes advantage of the "serial position effect," which engages the prefrontal cortex involved in decision-making and attention, reducing the chances of low-margin items being ordered.
2. Subconscious Scheming We subconsciously order the top two items in each menu section more often. Restaurant owners list their highest-margin dishes first and often place another high-margin dish at the bottom, leveraging the human tendency to notice the first and last items.
3. Add Some Weight to Your Menu A weighty menu conveys a sense of importance and exclusivity. The tactile experience engages the somatosensory cortex, which processes touch, making the menu feel more substantial and valuable. However, balance is key – the menu should be substantial but not cumbersome.
4. Covert Currency Paying for a meal is the biggest pain point when dining out. Removing currency signs and writing prices in round numbers reduces the emphasis on cost, making it easier for customers to spend more. This engages the anterior cingulate cortex, involved in emotion regulation and decision-making, reducing the pain of paying.
5. Choose the Right Fonts Fonts should be simple and legible. Cursive fonts can highlight specific items, while angular fonts suit tart dishes and rounded fonts for sweeter dishes. The right font can instill confidence and enhance readability, engaging the occipital lobe, which processes visual information.
6. Paint a Picture with Descriptions Descriptions using relatives' names or sensory adjectives can make dishes more appealing. Words like "aromatic," "creamy," and "crunchy" engage the sensory cortex, making the food more attractive and memorable by stimulating taste and smell memories stored in the hippocampus.
7. Controlled Costing Using prices like $10.95 makes diners feel they are getting a good deal, while exclusive establishments use round numbers to add an air of sophistication. This tactic leverages the brain's sensitivity to pricing and value. (don't use .99!)
8. Limit Choices (Paradox of Choice) Offering fewer options can reduce anxiety and lead to more satisfactory choices. A targeted menu with fewer high-margin items can persuade customers more effectively, engaging the prefrontal cortex to simplify decision-making.
9. A Blast from the Past Nostalgia is a powerful force. Descriptions like "Grandma's Apple Pie" evoke emotional connections and memories, engaging the limbic system, which processes emotions and memory, making these dishes more appealing.
10. Storytelling in Menu Design Longer descriptions for high-margin items attract attention and create a narrative, engaging the brain's natural affinity for stories and details, processed in the temporal lobe.
11. Empowering the Customer Detailed wine lists with descriptions empower guests to make informed decisions, enhancing their dining experience and increasing the likelihood of higher sales.
12. Negative Space Using open spaces around high-margin items draws attention to them, engaging the brain's visual processing areas, making these items stand out more.
13. Material World The material of the menu communicates the brand image. High-end materials like leather and thick paper suggest quality and exclusivity, influencing the customer's perception of the restaurant.
14. Glossaries Including a glossary section helps diners understand and feel more confident about their choices, reducing anxiety and increasing the likelihood of ordering higher-priced items.

Expert insights: A conversation with Brian Johnson

To gain deeper insights, I consulted Brian Johnson , a seasoned professional with over 50 years in the food and beverage industry. Brian has consulted for numerous establishments, including Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach, one of the top-producing independent restaurants in the United States. His extensive experience and insights make him a valuable collaborator in the field of neurogastronomy and menu design.

Brian, how do you think the traditional layout and presentation of restaurant menus impact a customer’s decision-making process?

?The original design of menus were listed usually in price depending order. ?As time went on, the placement of menu items with the believe that the first and the last placement were?would be looked at more often. ?

The use of descriptors and descriptions were usually not taken in consideration.

From a neuroscience perspective, certain colors and font styles can significantly affect how information is processed. Based on your experience, what design elements do you believe are most effective in a menu?

Currently the use of emotional or sense ?provoking menus are far and few. ?The hard part is not to overwhelm the guest with to much, but have enough to stimulate the guest pallets?

I still have a belief that less is more with the correct descriptors guiding trough the menu. ?The most effective menus currently have a light background with solid block lettering usually in a Shade of black.

We know that visual clutter can overwhelm the brain. In your view, how can menu design balance providing ample choices and maintaining simplicity?

The menu design should be presenting a simple uncomplicated look at. The menu should still follow a logical flow for guest to follow. ?

Once again the use of to much print can disturb or disrupt a flow looking for comfort in the menu design.

Memory plays a crucial role in how menus are perceived. Could you share how the arrangement of items on a menu might help in enhancing a customer’s recall of their favorites?

In the layout of a menu the use of specific categories(prime meats, shellfish, fin-fish etc) is the initial start to get the brain focusing on the specific area. ?

Once there the items listed in brief concise explanation of the menu items should start the process. ?Guest need to identify with the specific protein and then follow the path of the preparation.

Considering emotional responses, how important is it to create a narrative or tell a story through the menu?

In creating the emotional response to a menu is by stimulating past experience by using different descriptors to have guest brain react to them(fresh, crispy, moist, crunchy, fragrant).

And in doing so also try to tell a story about the product(alaskan red king crab, free range chicken, Atlantic jumbo sea scallops).

In the context of enhancing customer experience, how do you see technology integrating with traditional menus? Do digital menus change the way customers interact with the menu?

The integration of technology in current menus needs to be cautious of over complicating the guest experience while engaging them trough the soft descriptions to start the motivation on the purchases and to give them a feeling that they have mede the correct choices.

What are some of the most common mistakes you’ve seen in menu design that could be easily corrected with insights from neuroscience?

The easiest ones are the over complication of menu design and descriptions that will over stimulate the mind and ?items will be neglected. ?When a guest has no choice, because the menu as a whole is over stimulated the guest will look for the simplest items that are easy to recognize. ?

Another mistake can be laying out menu items based on pricing.. the best example is a restaurant where for a number of years the crab cake started as the first item listed and was their biggest seller. ?

The location then moved it into the 4 spot and the sales dropped 25-30% as it was not the most expensive or the cheapest item when the operation went with the idea of most expensive to the cheapest. With the use of neuroscience on this area would show how and where a guest eyes will go.?

Finally, Brian, based on your vast experience, what futuristic trends do you predict for restaurant menu designs? How can neuroscience play a role in these innovations?

in the future the menu will be using a few descriptors to start a brain thinking about their ?choices. ?As these start to develop, neuroscience will help guide and formulate the best descriptors, while helping to navigate some of the idea that what is old is new again only with a twist. ?

The study of human behavior and brain reaction will help to show the path that neuroscience will take future hospitality professionals and navigate a vastly underestimated science of the future one last thought, the menu should be a selling tool and easy to navigate and in simple print(cursive writing becomes hard to read). ?

The use of colors in menus should be limited as not to distract what the guest is reading ? Also, the menu should reflect what age group you are trying to attract?

Thanks to Brian Johnson for his very interesting suggestions, which provide valuable insights into the complexities of menu design and its impact on customer behavior.

Conclusion

By understanding and applying these neuromarketing principles, restaurant owners and marketers can significantly influence customer decisions, enhance their dining experience, and boost their profits. Embrace these insights to create the perfect menu that not only delights your guests but also maximizes your business's potential.

Unlock more insights and transform your business – contact me at [email protected]. Let's create extraordinary dining experiences together!