<p>A new innovative concept called 'nudge marketing' is being introduced in supermarkets that may help retailers increase fresh produce consumption...and sales. According to The New York Times, the theory behind nudge marketing calls for applying just the right amount of pressure to persuade: not too little, not too much. For example, putting a mirror on the inside front of a shopping cart 'nudges' shoppers to be more aware and conscious of their purchases. </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The publication featured the story of Samuel Pulido who walked into his local grocery store and was greeted by posters hanging from entranceway racks, heralding sugary drinks, wavy chips and Berry Colossal Crunch. He then looked down at his grocery cart and felt a different tug. Hooked onto the cart's red steel frame, was a mirror which reflected his face.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>This tact was meant to be a reminder of who he was, how he looked and perhaps what he had come in for. According to the report, the mirror is part of an effort to get Americans to change their eating habits. The research is being performed by two social scientists looking to outmaneuver the processed-food giants using their own tricks: the distracting little nudges and cues that confront a supermarket shopper at every turn. Researchers, like many government agencies and healthy-food advocates these days, are out to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables. But instead of preaching, they gently prod shoppers.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>It might be an interesting thought to see more research funded for projects like this one which increases fresh produce consumption overall as opposed to just the individual categories.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p> Collin R. Payne, a 38-year-old associate professor, graduated from Brigham Young University and then worked on studies at the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University that affirmed a concept known as mindful eating: the notion that if you put food on a smaller plate, you’ll probably eat less. He notes that the same concept extends to shopping, “The more mindless you are when you shop, the more you are going to be poked and prodded to buy the manufacturer’s products...We’re trying to give consumers the same power the companies have.” </p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The inception of the mirror idea came from Payne's colleague, Mihai Niculescu, 37. Niculescu came up with concept by marrying his own specialty in business marketing, known as behavioral choice, with research done by others on self-image.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>A paper the two men wrote last year for The Agricultural and Resource Economics Review said the conventional methods promoted in Washington and elsewhere to encourage Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables have either failed, or require taxpayer money at a time when food stamps are at political risk. These efforts include ads and store display signs promoting produce as healthful, and reducing its cost through tools like additional vouchers for low-income women.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>By contrast, Mr. Payne and Mr. Niculescu are pursuing a strategy that behavioral scientists call nudge marketing, an idea popularized by the 2008 book “Nudge,” by the former Obama administration regulatory affairs administrator Cass R. Sunstein and the University of Chicago professor Richard H. Thaler.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The retooling of shopping carts is drawing the interest of marketing and obesity experts alike.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>“I think what they’re doing is very innovative and clever,” said Michael R. Lowe, a Drexel University psychology professor and Researcher on weight control. “If you put up some cues that remind people of their weight or healthy eating, without hitting them over the head, they will go and choose healthier items. The mirror might do that, but the question will be, ‘What kind of memory association will their body elicit?’ And that is hard to know beforehand. For those who are overweight, it might elicit the sense of, ‘Oh, I need to lose weight.’ Or, ‘I don’t like to see myself because I’m so big,’ which might lead to choosing healthier food.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>At a store in Virginia, another test was conducted- grocery carts carried a strip of yellow duct tape that divided the baskets neatly in half. A flier instructed shoppers to put their fruits and vegetables in the front half of the cart. Average produce sales per customer jumped to $8.85 from $3.99.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>In El Paso researchers focused on laying down large plastic mats with huge green arrows that pointed consumers to the produce aisle. “In retail, the customer tends to go to the right,” said Tim Taylor, the Produce Director for Lowe’s, Pay and Save, a regional grocery chain that let the scientists in to experiment with their arrows and mirrors. “But I watched when the arrows were down, pointing left, and that’s where people went: left, 9 out of 10.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>The scientists also tinkered with the cart in the same store, creating a glossy placard that hung inside the baskets like the mirrors. The signs told shoppers how much produce the average customer was buying (five items a visit), and which fruits and vegetables were the biggest sellers (bananas, limes and avocados) in both English and Spanish.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Produce sales had jumped 10 percent by the second week, with a 91 percent rise for those participating in the government nutrition program WIC. Lowe’s now plans to put the placards in every cart at its 22 stores in El Paso and nearby Las Cruces, N.M., and perhaps later at all 146 of its stores.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>I guess when it comes to increasing fresh produce consumption and sales 'push' won't have to come to 'shove'...we can just nudge.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/dining/wooing-us-down-the-produce-aisle.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=tw-share&adxnnlx=1377794514-HbC095bBXA0X0r67NHHplg" target="_new"> Nudge Marketing </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
