Cardboard doctors in grocery stores leads to healthier consumers.

For those of you who have read Robert Cialdini’s book – Influence, you probably see it in action everyday of your life – from commercials, to magazines, to street vendors, the principles of Influence are everywhere. Interestingly enough, the 4^th principle of authority has been tested at a Morrisons’ store in Salford, Manchester and the benefits are paying off to store and the community. 

The authority principle states that people are more likely to obey authority figures than not. Makes sense right? What is interesting is that the authority does not even have to be a credible, valid figure. One example used is the famous Milgrim’s experiment.

Now how did the Morrisons’ store take advantage of the authority principle? By simply having lifesize cut-out images of real doctors and nurses in the area, they were able to increase their volume of fresh fruit sold by 20% and frozen fruit by 29%!

How would this help the community? Damian Edwards, the study’s author, believes that if this strategy were implemented across supermarkets nationwide, it could improve the health of nearly two thirds of the population who currently do no eat their daily-recommended portions of fruits and veggies.

For a grocery chain, this would be a great marketing spend and a great way to encourage healthier consumer eating! Win-win! 

-HotBot.