New Product Innovation
Menus can often be overwhelming and confusing. Behavioural scientists call this Cognitive Overload and it can be fatal for restauranteurs. Too much procrastination can create frustration with the customer and leave them with a sense of feeling that they may have made the wrong choice. Too much time can increase the table turnover time and reduce profitability for the restaurant.
Through pop out eye tracking techniques we identified that the menu designs weren’t helping. The menu wasn’t ”chunked up” into easy to find sections. The imagery used directed the customer eyes off the page and in the wrong directions. The cocktail menu didn’t show what glassware the drinks came in, a real no no for guys looking to choose!
A suite of new menus were designed to be tested, initially with further, more extensive eye tracking using stimulus designed to give a real menu feel. We deployed a series of nudges in each menu to help customers choose the items they were looking for and would enjoy.
Visual Complexity – the menu was broken down into easy to read and easy to distinguish sections. More space was dedicated to Starters and Desserts to balance up the menu pages, creating three sections
Picture Superiority Bias – imagery was used to help guide customers through the menu and attract their attention. Flora and fauna images directed eye gaze to the start of each menu section and the glass shapes for the cocktails were highlighted to reduce ambiguity
Anchoring – specific leading dishes in each section were chosen, and additional default dishes were made salient to help aid customer decision making
In the video you can see the before and after of the eyetracking psychometric testings.
In the second half of the video, Current State – Old Menu, you can see how the eyes of the customer dart all over the menu, with no apparent pattern of fixation.
In the first half of the video, you can see the Future State – New Menu and see how the customers eyes follow a spiral pattern. At first looking at the cocktails and starters, then to the Mains, then to the Desserts. The customer then starts again and follows the same pattern.
With this confidence, we then trialled the new menu designs in the real world in real restaurants with real results.
The results were transformational. The original target was smashed as we delivered a three fold return in revenue versus the forecast.
The programme is now being rolled out to the wider estate of restaurants across the group.
The early results of the menu changes look very encouraging - just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work on the project
David Gallacher, Divisional Director, Mitchells & Butler plc