Before your diners have tasted the food on offer, they will first have to navigate your menu. So, how do you design one to tantalise the taste buds and encourage your customers to order the latest creation or the seasonal special?
Menu design is an essential element of the dining experience, but it's not simply about making it look visually appealing. While aesthetics certainly play a role, a well-designed food menu goes beyond appearance and delves into the psychology of communication and the philosophy of strategic branding. Its purpose is not simply to showcase the food on offer, but also to subtly guide and influence choices, elevate the overall experience, and increase profitability.
Golden Triangle
This is the area of a menu that people look at first. As with newspapers, readers’ eyes most typically look at the middle first, then the top right corner, then the top left. Placing dishes with the highest profit margins in these areas can boost your bottom line.
Increasing profit by removing currency
Research shows that the way the price of a dish is presented can influence customer choice. Removing the currency symbols from a menu not only contributes to simplicity and elegance but can even encourage diners to give less consideration to the cost. Keeping all prices as whole numbers also keeps menus looking streamlined. According to industry researchers Arron Allen, writing out prices in letters rather than numbers can even encourage diners to spend up to thirty percent more when eating out.
Ordering items correctly
Placing slightly more expensive items at the top of each section can help to give the impression that other dishes below it are better value. However, it is also important to bear in mind that the top two items in each section are ordered the most, so placing items with the best profit margins nearer the top can also help to keep profits high. Similarly, some diners tend to order from the bottom of each list, so placing the item with the third-best profit margin in this spot can also boost profits.
Reducing choice to increase sales
Over recent years, several studies into consumer behaviour have shown that whilst some choice is good for sales, too much choice can have the opposite effect. Too many options can produce what is known as, ‘choice paralysis’. Of course, too little can also be off-putting, or even limiting to those with dietary requirements.
So how can you strike the right balance? Psychologists suggest that the maximum number of items per category should be seven. Three or fewer per category can also be an issue, with choices seen as too limited.
Separate the sweets
According to Thrillist.com, studies have shown that presenting people with complete menus containing starters, mains and desserts can lead to decreases in starter orders. Keeping sweet treats on a separate menu can help to encourage your customers to indulge.
The Menu Matrix
What do stars, puzzles, plough horses and dogs have in common? They are all categories on what is known as the Menu Matrix, a system to engineer a menu to boost sales, cut food waste and increase overall profits. For venues offering a consistent choice of signature dishes year-round, taking the time to put all regular dishes through this system will help to identify which to give prominence on the menu for maximum profits as well as those that might need rebranding or even removal.
The Power of Suggestion
As well as running seasonal specials or special menu deals around holidays, more subtle year-round upselling can be achieved whilst also helping diners to choose. Suggesting wine or other beverage pairings under each dish, for example, can be a welcome addition that also boosts sales. Offering discounts when pairing popular items in an order can also work well - perhaps offering a bowl of soup with a popular sandwich? Offering potential upgrades is also a great way to boost sales, like adding an additional protein to a salad, or a scoop of ice cream to a dessert. For all of these, make sure your staff are trained to highlight and offer them in a friendly, non-pushy way, that feels like enticement rather than obligation to diners.
Negative space
Just as important as the areas filled with text and graphics are the places left blank. According to toast.com, studies show that pages with adequate white space improve reader comprehension by up to 30%. Leaving enough blank space between sections, dishes, and around the edge of menus will avoid a feeling of clutter.
Graphics
Keeping printed and even digital versions of menus uncluttered with minimal graphics not only saves on print costs but saves customer confusion too. But given the popularity of food on social media, make sure your accounts are regularly updated with pictures of new menu items as well as classic favourites. Include your Instagram handle or even a QR code on menus, with a few words inviting diners to visit the page for previews of the dishes on offer.
Boxes, Highlights and Colour
Whilst keeping things visually simple can avoid sensory overload for customers, subtle use of colour to highlight dishes that maximise profits, or evoke a sense of freshness (green) or happiness (yellow). Orange is said to stimulate appetite and red encourages action, so these are worth considering in highlighting, shadowing or as box outlines. For accessibility, avoid too many different colours of actual text, as this can make things much harder to read.
Wording and Typography
Keep descriptions of dishes short but enticing, using straightforward language. Make your guests’ mouths water with words like crisp, fresh, creamy, pan-fried, sun-dried, and line-caught. Keep each description to no more than a sentence and highlight anything locally sourced or award-winning.
Use fonts that align with your brand, however, avoid anything too stylized that could be hard to read. Sticking to one overall font is a good idea but if you want to branch out, choose just one other complimentary style for headings, or to highlight special dishes.
Adding digital elements
As well as helping customers connect with your social media, QR codes on menus could enhance the dining experience and potentially increase profits in many other ways. For some venues, particularly those that can offer online ordering, it may be possible to do away with most printed menus altogether, simply providing QR codes on each table that link through to menus and at-table ordering. For more upmarket dining venues, printed menus are still the best option, although including a QR link to an exclusive interview with your Head Chef, or providing details of upcoming events, for example, may be an interesting touch.
Why not encourage diners to share their experience on social media, providing links or QR codes to your Instagram, and creating a unique hashtag? Consider offering rewards to those using it, such as prize draw entry or extra points or discounts if you have a loyalty scheme.
Keep your menu as fresh as your ingredients
Don’t neglect to upload and promote any menu changes on your website and any social media. For modern diners, there’s nothing more frustrating than being unable to browse up-to-date dishes online. Constantly changing the menu? Post a picture of it on Instagram each time, with an enticing image of the most visually appealing plate from it.
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