It’s fairly well known that most children aren’t the biggest fans of eating vegetables. But, a recent study by the University of Cornell has shown that just by altering the names of the vegetables to be more exciting, schools and grocers can increase sales and consumption from the younger crowd.
According to the study, by changing the name of the carrots to “X-ray vision carrots” 66 perent were eaten by children aged eight to 11-years-old. This is more than double the 32 percent that were eaten when the vegetable was labeled “Food of the Day” and the 35 percent that were eaten when it wasn’t even named.
The university led a second study where they tracked the consumption of vegetables in neighboring, suburban schools in New York City. In each of the schools, vegetables were not labeled at first. But then in the treatment school, broccoli became “Power Punch Broccoli” and “Tiny Tasty Tree Tops.” Green beans were suddenly “Silly Dilly Green Beans” and carrots took their familiar superhero name, “X-Ray vision carrots,” completing the group of obesity-fighting vigilantes. Vegetable consumption grew by 99 percent in the treatment school.
“This research suggests that schools have a low-cost or even no-cost solution to induce children to consumer more nutritious foods,” Brian Wansink, the study’s lead author, told the Daily Mail. “These results demonstrate that using attractive names for healthy foods increases kid’s selection and consumption of these foods and that an attractive name intervention is robust, effective and scalable at little or no cost.”
While this study mostly focused on schools, it goes to show the power of an effective custom label. By realligning the names of their private food items toward more exciting, likeable names, grocery stores may see an increase in sales of items such as broccoli, green beans and carrots just by catering more toward children rather than adults. In order to do this effectively, though, companies should invest in a Primera LX900 color label printer.