It’s useful, then, to know that people are more likely to waste virtue foods than waste vice foods. The SUNY Brockport and Bryant University researchers who documented this difference attribute it to counterfactual thinking. Counterfactuals are “what if” questions consumers ask themselves: “What if I’d demanded more information?” and “What if I’d shopped around more?” are examples of upward counterfactuals regarding decisions to return purchased items. These questions help the shopper feel better by giving ways to improve future shopping. Examples of downward counterfactuals include, “What if I’d been unfortunate enough to get a product with even more shortcomings?” and “What if I hadn’t discovered these problems with the product until it caused real harm?” Downward counterfactuals improve the consumer’s outlook by leading to them deciding they escaped a worse situation than the one they have.
In the case of wasting food, the counterfactual question afterwards is “What if I hadn’t discarded it?” Because vice foods offer greater and quicker pleasure than virtue foods, our answers to that question over time make us more likely to throw out the virtue foods when there’s an abundance of each. Study participants felt discarding vice foods was more wasteful than discarding virtue foods.
Based on their findings, the researchers suggest reminding consumers to purchase virtue foods only in quantities they’re confident they can consume. There’s a tendency for people to buy virtue foods because they think they should do so rather than because they think they’ll eat all they buy.
Study results from Poznań University of Economics and Business in Poland argue for reducing food waste by reminding shoppers about proper use of freshness date labeling systems. The researchers saw apparently irrational use of the freshness dates, even when the implications of “use by” and “best before” are well understood. About one-third to more than one-half of consumers will eat food that is past its “use by” date. At worst, this risks food poisoning. But about one-quarter to more than one-half of consumers consider foods unsuitable for consumption when the posted “best before” date has passed. If the taste, smell, and look are still okay, this risks food waste.
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