You might never have considered the psychology behind the choices your clientele make, but it’s about time you start. The user psychology involved in reading a menu is no different from the reasoning for a big ‘buy now’ button on a website or ‘summer sale’ sign in a shop window. With a better understanding of your customer you can strategise to glorify your bestsellers, upsell your struggling items and even cater to the dietary requirements of your guests.
Here are some of our favourite tips and tricks.
The Golden Triangle
When given a menu, your eyes will move from centre, to top right, to top left- this is the first scan we do without thinking. Therefore, this is where you want your money makers to be! Items in the golden triangle will not be overlooked.
Money Money Money
It’s natural to want the pricing of your items in a neat list down one side of your menu. This is a mistake! By organising them this way you’re encouraging the customer to scan the prices without even looking at the product, and your most (and least) expensive can be ruled out. By integrating the prices at the end of each product description, you can encourage your customers to have a good read and choose what they actually want- not what the price dictates.
Storytelling in a menu is undeniably effective and can have us drooling over a dessert before we’ve even ordered our drinks. There are many ways to do this while still keeping it short and sweet, customers like a bit of backstory to their meal, tell them where the fish was caught and where the vegetables were grown! Also, don’t forget that nostalgia is also a force to be reckoned with..
If you’d like to know more about becoming a fully fledged menu engineer, Gregg Rapp can teach you a lot more than we can! Get in touch with him at https://www.menuengineers.com/