Brian Wansink
A leading consumer psychologist answers questions about who eats what and why
By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 2/15/2004
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Brian Wansink knows what sells.
The 43-year-old professor of nutritional science and marketing, and director of the Food and Brand Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studies consumer buying behavior. His research helps retailers and foodservice operators understand why people buy or overbuy and plumbs the power of menu descriptions, the influence of container sizes on consumption, and the abiding appeal of comfort foods.
Q: Why should operators care about consumer psychology?
A: Restaurants vie for customers. [Understanding consumer behavior]
can improve customer satisfaction and deliver food and service
that merit return business in a competitive market.
Q: Where do you get ideas for research?
A: From restaurants. I go off campus to visit a quick-service
or casual operation for a daily hit of “the real world.’’
Ideas come from observation. I look at the body language of waitstaff.
Does a server’s tap on a customer’s arm or a crouch
to meet their eyes really boost tips?
Q: Are menu words and descriptions important?
A: Yes. They trigger associations. We studied consumers in a cafeteria
line. Some foods were labeled in a cursory way. Others contained
more-evocative terms. “Grandma’s Homemade Apple Pie,”
for example, rang up better sales than a similar dessert with
a less-emotional description. The favorable connections to homemade
flavor or sentimental attachment to family influenced immediate
purchases and some repeat business.
Q: Why does certain menu language work?
A: Customers have expectations of how food will taste. Adjectives,
carefully selected to portray geographic, nostalgic or sensory
themes, can trigger those anticipated feelings. If labels describe
taste, smell and mouthfeel, customers can imagine themselves buying
and enjoying the food.
Q: Are buffets or all-you-can-eat restaurants
to blame for the nation’s obesity?
A: Portion size is a factor. So is the sedentary modern lifestyle
that discourages exercise. Help-yourself buffets or all-you-can-eat
specials are excuses to rationalize overeating. People can blame
the restaurant or the packaged-food manufacturer. When consumers
feel overwhelmed or challenged, they lose or surrender the ability
to be discriminatory.
Q: The federal government is revising nutrition
labels on packaged foods. Will that help consumers?
A: What would help people is a label that better relates what
and how much they’re eating to their weight. Instead of
stating that a measure of granola has 200 calories, let the diner
know it will require a two-mile walk to burn off the calories.
Q: How do size or shape of a bottle, plate or
glass influence consumption?
A: If you have more, you’ll probably eat more. In a study
on consumption, we observed the impact of container size. When
consumers are given larger containers for popcorn or chocolate-covered
candies, people eat an average of 44% more popcorn and 40% more
candies. But people’s perceptions of size influence their
idea of consumption. In a study of serve-yourself soda consumption
and glass size, people who drank out of short, squat glasses consumed
more than those who used tall, skinny glasses. Each glass held
an identical 22 ounces.
Q: You studied comfort food last year. What differences
in its appeal did you find?
A: Men like meal-related items, hearty and savory foods such as
pizza or steak, pasta and casseroles. Women prefer snacks, candy
and chocolate. Regardless of what they select, however, women
feel more guilty about their comfort-food choices than men do.
Q:
How do you explain those differences?
A: Socialization. Upbringing. Men are conditioned to prefer hot
or labor-intensive meals. They associate those with being cared
for. Women pick snack foods because they’re convenient.
They don’t require cooking and cleaning up. They’re
fast.
Q: Does comfort food trigger people to overeat?
A: Not really. People feel better after eating small amounts of
these foods. They can achieve the same degree of psychological
comfort by eating healthier foods such as soup or pasta. But the
catch is these healthful foods are less convenient than favorites
such as potato chips, ice cream, cookies, pizza or burgers.
Q: Comfort foods such as mashed potatoes, meatloaf
and casseroles continue to be popular on menus. Why?
A: People reach for comfort in times of extreme. It evokes memories
of a time when someone felt loved, safe and happy. Foods represent
sources of solace, consolation and reward.
Q: Do restaurant concepts have a short life expectancy?
A: Some do. But I think Rich Melman [founder/chairman of Chicago-based
Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc.] is an exception. He is
able to anticipate and react [to market conditions] and change
a concept. And he knows when to pull the plug before the thrill
is gone for those who created the concept—the customers.
Q: Early in your career, you were part-owner of
two restaurants. What insights did you gain about the business?
A: A respect for operators who survive and thrive in the ever-competitive
market. It’s a hands-on business. You’ve got to be
there. I prefer the creative end of menu development and problem-solving
challenge of streamlining operations. Most frustrating is maintaining
a consistent level of excellent service. If you get the wrong
manager in there, the devil is in the execution. No amount of
teaching or training can help on those days when things go wrong.
Even the best-trained staff falters.
Q: What do you do when you’re not working?
A: Run. Play tennis. Play tenor sax in two bands. One, Shaken,
Not Stirred, plays the kind of jazz you hear in fern bars; The
Usual Suspects is a rock ’n’ roll group.
Q: What’s the best part of your job?
A: It makes for good conversation at cocktail parties and family
reunions. Nearly everyone has opinions about food, eating, shopping
and dining.
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