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How Restaurants Get You to Spend Money

August 30, 2007 at 03:18pm Jordan

How do you typically look over a menu? Do you first glance at the top of the right side of the menu (as you open it) and then let your eyes wander to the center of the page? The proprietor of your favorite restaurant thinks so, and uses it to his advantage.

The restaurant business is tough, with lots of competition and thin margins. So naturally, restaurateurs are looking for ways to get you to dole out the cash. Hence, the menu you peruse has some science behind its development.

This site has a post about a recent Forbes Traveler article that talks about the psychology of menu development.

Studies have shown that the first place you look is the top right, so the most profitable dish is typically placed there. The most expensive item is then placed in the center of the page (your second spot to check). You probably won’t buy the most expensive entree, but may certainly end up ordering the one immediately above and below it — again, often some of the more profitable dishes are placed here.

Check it out the next time you are glancing through a menu. I also bet that the nicer the restaurant, the less likely there are pictures of the food in the menu, and the pricing is in whole numbers (i.e. $8 for a Caesar salad at a fine establishment, as opposed to $1.99 to add a side salad at the local sizzler).

The site I linked to also talks about how Red Lobster is becoming more fancy. Could it be that they are returning to a previous strategy? I remember as a kid, we had to get semi-dressed up to go to Red Lobster and it was a big deal… even for a family like ours that went out to eat all the time. I always wondered why they let themselves become so casual over the years, buying into the Chili’s and Applebee’s trend… they lost some differentiation by creating an atmosphere like every other quick-casual restaurant.

(Found via Through the Wire)

Entry Filed under: Marketing