Modify Dislike of the Genetically Modified

Years ago when grocery stores began putting onto produce those tiny labels the cashier or scanner would use to identify the item, there were shoppers who strongly objected. The strength with which these people expressed their dislike led me to think they were labeling the labels as downright immoral.
     They very well might have, according to the reasoning of researchers at Canada’s Western University and York University. The researchers’ studies were concerned with genetically modified (GM) foods, not labels on produce, but the argument is that both these are considered pollution of nature’s bounty and this pollution is morally wrong. The objections to GM items were strongest among those who believe in general that human intervention unethically deprives nature of its virtues.
     About 70% of processed foods in the U.S. contain GM organisms, substituting non-GM ingredients would increase food prices 10% to 50%, and there is no compelling evidence that use of GM organisms in itself compromises health, safety, taste, or quality. With all this in mind, it can be to the advantage of both consumers and retailers to ease any shoppers’ dislike which has arisen on moral grounds.
     If you choose to do this, a strategy is to baldly present GM items as manufactured. In the studies, this was successfully accomplished by indicating on the packaging that the item has been processed, depicting the item in a color not generally found in nature for that item, and stocking the item in an aisle featuring processed foods rather than among non-GM produce. These were all done in addition to labeling the item as GM. Just using such a label without also cuing the fact that the item is manufactured elicited negative responses from the consumers in the study. Worse yet was if there were cues that the item was equivalent to natural. When that happened, consumers felt the marketer was trying to mislead them, and this predictably exaggerated the moral objections to the whole situation.
     Sometimes people fool themselves into thinking a food item is different from what it truly is. Researchers at University of South Carolina and Loyola University found that dieters ate more of a mix of vegetables, pasta, salami, and cheese if it was called a salad than if it was called a pasta dish, and the dieters didn’t question the salad name. But it seems that when it comes to GM, willful ignorance isn’t operative.

For your success: Retailer’s Edge: Boost Profits Using Shopper Psychology

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