Menu positions influence soft drink selection at touchscreen kiosks

Schmidtke, Kelly ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5993-0358, Watson, Derrick, Roberts, Pendaran and Vlaev, Ivo (2019) Menu positions influence soft drink selection at touchscreen kiosks. Psychology and Marketing, 36 (10). pp. 964-970. ISSN 0742-6046

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Abstract

The current study investigates whether companies can influence which soft drink consumers select on touchscreen kiosks. Soft drink options presented on touchscreen kiosks are multi-dimensional stimuli represented by icons and locations. Overtime the pairing of icon and location forms an expectation that certain icons will be in certain locations. As a result of these location expectations, changing the order of the soft drinks may help consumers consider more healthful items. In the current study, the Coca-Cola icon was moved from the first to last location and the Coke Zero icon from the third to first. The intervention decreased the number of times Coca-Cola was sold and increased the number of times Coke Zero was sold. The discussion explores the rationale for the intervention and the importance of fitting interventions into existing choice environments to modify real-world behavior.