Note If “Not” Drops Price Sensitivity

When a food label states—because of a regulatory requirement—that the package contents include some genetically modified organisms, shoppers’ willingness to pay more for non-GM alternatives in that food category increases. Beyond this, the shoppers become less likely to want to buy any item in that food category. People are on guard when it comes to the unknown, and researchers at Neoma Business School, Concordia University, and University of Wisconsin–Madison point out there is much consumers have not taken the time to know about use of GMOs.
     A label which instead reads—because the claim is considered a benefit—“Non-GMO Project Verified” was found by the researchers to produce a similar effect, although smaller in magnitude. In experiments with potato chips, pasta sauce, and pickles, willingness to pay for a non-GMO item was increased about 8¢ by a “Non-GMO” label and 42¢ by a GMO-present label.
     Either label could start the consumer thinking about the use of GMOs in foods when they weren’t thinking about this previously. They might not have been thinking about it because people are focused on other factors, such as taste and caloricity, in selecting foods. They might not have been thinking about it because of willful ignorance. Since they want to consume the food, they avoid considering the details.
     And then, because the word “not” arouses caution when a shopper does notice it, attention goes to GMO.
     When the movie “Mary Poppins” came out, I was working toward my doctorate in psychology at Stanford University. In that ancient era, “junkie” commonly referred to somebody addicted to narcotics and probably selling narcotics. I tell you that so you can make sense of adhesive signs I started seeing around the Stanford campus reading “Mary Poppins is a junkie.” It looked like some mischievous Stanford students wanted to ridicule Mary’s squeaky-clean persona in the movie portrayal.
     A juicy rumor began circulating that these signs were popping up all over the nation and Walt Disney himself was so outraged about it, he was hiring detectives to locate the miscreants for punishment. A phony rumor, I’d think, but in any case, I did start seeing a new set of signs around campus. Each one read, “Mary Poppins is NOT a junkie.”
     This got me thinking about all those additional people who’d now turn around the “not” to consider the possibility of extra ingredients in Mary’s spoonful of sugar.

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Avoid “Not” in Influencing Shoppers 

Acknowledge Customers’ Willful Ignorance 

Modify Dislike of the Genetically Modified