Could Active Use Of The Mere-Exposure Effect Be A Growth Market For The Restaurant Industry?
What cognitive bias can the restaurant industry develop to make their customers more connected with their brand and products? The familiarity principle might be the answer.
By Jamie Mah @grahammah
Last week I wrote about the insane new world of non-fungible tokens and how their prominence and development could be a new market gateway for many in the restaurant industry. With Grimes having cashed in this past week to the tune of $6 million for some of her digital art, the floodwaters for what this sphere can develop into is limitless.
Recode’s Peter Kafka detailed how he sees the music industry entering into the fold of NFT’s in his most recent column.
From Recode:
More intriguingly, given Dorsey’s love of All Things Blockchain, and the current mania over NFTs, it won’t be surprising to see Square + Tidal work on their own NFT scheme. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are blockchain-enabled digital pieces of … anything that investors and speculators and collectors are hoovering up at a crazy rate. Even if none of this makes sense to you, you may have heard about people paying real money — a lot of money — for digital ephemera like cartoon cat GIFs or animated trading cards of NBA players dunking or blocking. It’s a thing, for now.
So you can picture the Jay-Zs of the world selling songs, or snippets of songs, or the digital version of a lyric scribbled on a napkin, as NFTs, in deals that let Square and the artist get part of the deal.
If they get it out fast enough — while NFT mania booms — it’s easy to imagine many more headlines like these, except you’ll replace “Grimes” with “Beyonce” or whomever:
For that middle paragraph, just substitute the name Jay-Z and a few key words for Gordon Ramsay and recipe or a how to make video and you’re on your way to recognizing the scope and mania this could develop into.
For a restaurant industry that’s taken a beating this past year, finding new sources of revenue sure would help. I hope this happens.
Anyways, that was last weeks column, this week I want to discuss the mere-exposure effect and how a more active use of its heuristic could help restaurants grow their revenue as well as help foster positive relationships with their customers and their products.
First, ever heard the expression, “familiarity breeds contempt”? While that certainly might be true, there’s another, similar truth that you can add to your marketing toolbox: familiarity breeds content.
Let me explain.
From The Decision Lab:
The mere exposure effect describes our tendency to develop preferences for things simply because we are familiar with them. For this reason, it is also known as the familiarity principle.
For starters the restaurant industry has been using this principle for years. Think of McDonald’s advertising its products everywhere. With repeated messaging, our comfort with their hamburgers begins to form, often whether we like it or not. You’ll notice this more when you travel and see a McDonald’s abroad. For many the idea of travelling is exciting, but the unknown can be scary, especially with regards to foreign food. Welcome trusty McDonald’s, the one place where familiarity reigns.
A seminal example of the mere-exposure effect went on to become one of the Tv show Seinfeld’s best episodes.
Catching on, however silly it might be, is something all businesses long for. Large corporations such as McDonald’s have the means to make this happen with repeated messaging in a variety of formats. But what about the little guys? Those independent’s searching for a leg up. How can they use or activate even more of this principle to their advantage?
This idea came my way yesterday when I watched Vox’s most recent video on how museum gift shops decide what to sell.
In the video, the narrator details how museums decide which art they want to promote and how they go about pushing them in their gift shops. While at first I was blown away by all the mindless “crap” they were trying to hock to would be visitors, soon the concept intrigued as it touched on a possible opening the restaurant industry should explore in more detail. Where I saw said opening was with taking art objects home. Restaurants already do this in some fashion with hats, t-shirts and such, but often those products limit themselves to the company logo. As I touched on with last week’s column on NFT’s, using select imagery could unlock a new form of mere-exposure effect that could help foster a stronger familiarity bond with consumers.
In the Vox video, unique product types are showcased as new ways to engage with buyers. Patches, wallets, tech accessories, socks are all clear examples of products most don’t think of when looking to connect with their audience, at least not in the restaurant industry. Using these examples as guides for what is possible, there are hundreds of things a business could brand out and make. And if I’m to toot the horn of the restaurant community, being creative is something restaurants thrive at. The sky is the limit here. I see so much promise. Cocktail posters anyone?
Plus, with the full integration of Instagram now complete for all restaurants, picking from a plethora of photos to promote and use on merchandise shouldn’t be that difficult.
Finding new ways to breed familiarity with more moments of mere-exposure could activate an already established consumer base as well as a new one. How or if this evolves, I guess only time will tell as I’m sure there are a myriad of other ways businesses can use the mere-exposure effect to their advantage. The example I’ve worked on today is just one way of doing something new.
In the meantime, I’m not going to lie, but I’d love to own a Fat Mao patch or pair of socks.
Asian inspired noodle shop in Vancouver, Canada.
Anyways, food for thought.