Georgia State UniversityScholarWorks @ Georgia State University

Hospitality Faculty Publications Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration

2-2005

The Psychology of Menu Design: Reinvent Your'Silent Salesperson' to Increase Check Averages andGuest LoyaltyDave PavesicGeorgia State University, dpavesic@gsu.edu

Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/hospitality_facpubPart of the Food and Beverage Management Commons

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration at ScholarWorks @ Georgia StateUniversity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hospitality Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia StateUniversity. For more information, please contact scholarworks@gsu.edu.

Recommended CitationPavesic, Dave, "The Psychology of Menu Design: Reinvent Your 'Silent Salesperson' to Increase Check Averages and Guest Loyalty"(2005). Hospitality Faculty Publications. Paper 5.http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/hospitality_facpub/5

36 | A G O O D R E S T A U R A T E U R I S A LW A Y S L E A R N I N G

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 36

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 | R E S T A U R A N T S T A R T U P & G R O W T H | 37

The menu is the most important internal marketing and sales toola restaurant has to market its food and beverage to customers. It isthe only piece of printed advertising that you are virtually 100 per-cent sure will be read by the guest. Once placed in the guest’shand, it can directly influence not only what they will order, butultimately how much they will spend. Menu design directly influ-ences sales revenue. Management is constantly forecastingbusiness volume to estimate how much to buy, keep in inventory,and prepare. A properly designed menu makes these kinds of de-cisions easier and more accurate.

A well-designed menu can educate and entertain the customeras well as be a communication, cost control, and marketing tool

for your restaurant. The menu is designed to help the guestdecide what to order. When you strategically place

menu items on the menu, you will sell more ofthem than if you placed them randomly.

Well-designed menus market the food the restaurant preparesbest and wants to sell by making those items stand out from theothers. This article will discuss menu design techniques to helpyou increase the effectiveness of your “silent salesperson” toboost check averages and guest loyalty.

Your Restaurant’s Business CardThe menu design must be congruent with the concept and image

of the restaurant and effectively communicate the overall dining ex-perience to the guest. Think of your menu as your restaurantbusiness card. It introduces the customer to your restaurant, and itsdesign should complement the décor, service, food quality, andprice range of the restaurant. The menu design should incorporatethe colors and graphics that the customer sees from the table. Aproperly designed menu can help any restaurant — whether it be afine-dining, casual-theme, fast-casual concept, or fast-food —

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 37

38 | A G O O D R E S T A U R A T E U R I S A LW A Y S L E A R N I N G

achieve its sales goals, keep its costs in line, increase its speed of preparationand service, and return a desired average check. This does not happen by ac-cident; it must be planned during the design of the menu or menu boards.

Too often menus are not given the time and budget that such an impor-tant marketing tool deserves. Many of the popular and high-volume dinnerhouses have menus that if their logo and name were removed, the imagecreated in your mind from the menu would be severely understated to theextent that you might not even consider going there to eat. One of the ser-vices provided to out-of-town visitors by hotel concierges is makingrecommendations and reservations at local restaurants. They often displaymenus for the benefit of visitors, who make dining decisions solely on thebasis of the menu.

The same care, time and effort should be given to the task of menu designand production as is given to the design and décor of the dining room andkitchen. The menu content is the product of the chef and owner who have inmany instances spared no expense in the dining room décor and the kitchenequipment. They are highly respected professionals in the restaurant commu-nity and yet their menu design gives the impression that they ran out of moneyor that the menu design was just an afterthought. Considering how much therestaurant depends on the menu, it is astonishing that many menus do not reflectthe level of professionalism and knowledge of the owners, chefs and managers.

More and more restaurant companies have come to realize and understandthe importance of proper menu design on check averages. Several years ago,Houlihan’s revamped its menu with the goal of increasing check averages.The menu was designed to lead the customer from the specialty drinks on thecover to appetizers on the first page to the complete dinners inside. Its oldmenu, by contrast, lumped all types of items next to one another on the samelarge fold-out page. This, it was felt, might have somewhat deflected dinnersales by making it easy for the customer to select only an appetizer.

Menu PsychologyAn article in The Wall Street Journal told of restaurants that designed

their menus to highlight the most profitable offerings. These menu itemswere also hyped by servers when asked to recommend a dish by a guest.Techniques such as highlighting items have been used for years in the retailsector. Their store window, counter, and mannequin displays have been usedto promote clothing and merchandise. They found that if a customer noticesthe merchandise it greatly increases the likelihood that they will make a pur-chase. If they never noticed the merchandise, there is zero possibility ofpurchase. Adapting this merchandizing theory to menu design, restaurantoperators can boost sales of high-profit/low-cost items by highlighting themon their menus. This is called “menu design psychology” or “menu psy-chology.” What we are essentially saying is that the design of the menu canhave a subtle effect on what customers will eventually order. The menu isto a restaurant what the merchandise display is to a major department store.You want the customer to see all the things you have for sale in the hopethat they see something they like and ultimately make a purchase.

The concept of menu psychology was introduced to the industry in thewritings of the late Albin Seaberg, in his book, “Menu Design,” published in1971. He pointed out the importance of designing a menu in such a way thatyou get the customer’s attention and raise the odds that they will select cer-tain items more than others. Too often the menu design was left to the printeror graphics specialist without any input from the restaurant manager. Knowl-edge of these “menu psychology” techniques will greatly improve the designof any menu.

✓CheckListCommon Menu Mistakes

✓ Inadequate management commitment.Not treating the menu design decision with thesame due diligence as any major capital invest-ment decision is setting yourself up for failure. Sois leaving the menu layout and design up to yourprinter and not working with a graphic designer toaccentuate the menu items you want to feature.

✓ Hard to read. Examples include poor read-ability because of font size, paper color and fontstyle; crowded menu pages with elements toonumerous and font type too small; and printingon dark paper with dark ink making readabilitydifficult under low-light conditions.

✓ Overemphasizing prices. When you alignprices in a column down the page, guests cansummarily discount items based on price alone.

✓ Monotonous design. Using the same graphicdesign on all menu items so nothing stands outsays, “blah.”

✓ Poor salesmanship. Not emphasizing theitems the restaurant wants to sell through graph-ics, fonts, color, or illustrations reduces yourinfluence on what items will move.

✓ Poor use of space. This includes not usingthe front and back cover for information about therestaurant, e.g., hours, services, history, address,etc. I have more than 1,000 menus in my libraryand about one-fourth of them do not have anyidentifying information. Over the years I have for-gotten where some of them came from and themenu does not contain any information. Sincepeople take menus from restaurants as sou-venirs, it should contain what is referred to as“institutional information.” To not include it wouldbe like having custom matches without yourrestaurant’s name on them.

✓ Incongruent. This includes failing to design themenu to fit the décor and personality of the restau-rant. Your menu is your primary communication tooland it should be designed in a way that if a cus-tomer who had never heard of your restaurant werehanded a copy of your menu they would be able tovisualize your décor, type of food, price range andwhether you were casual or upscale dining.

✓ Too big. The size of the menu needs to takeinto account the size of the table, the place set-ting and the table appointments. Oversizedmenus can be awkward to hold and handle whilesipping a martini and trying to have a conversa-tion with your dinner companions.

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 38

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 | R E S T A U R A N T S T A R T U P & G R O W T H | 39

109 Seconds and CountingSeveral years ago, Gallup reported that

most customers will spend an average of109 seconds reading a menu. This is thetime limit you have to get your message tothem. The time it takes to read a menu andmake a decision needs to be addressed inyour menu design and presentation. Overthe years, restaurants like Bennigan’s, TGIFriday’s, and The Cheesecake Factory havebeen known for their multipaged menus andextensive listings of menu items. If it takeslonger to make a purchase decision, it willlengthen your table turnover times, espe-cially with first-time guests. With theinformation on menu item sales beingquickly and easily assembled through point-of-sale computers, the number of selectionsand pages have been greatly reduced be-cause they found that 60 percent to 70percent of their sales came from fewer than18-24 menu items. It did not make sense tohave 50-100 different choices. Not only didthey shorten the order-taking time, they re-duced inventory and purchases.

Considering the importance of themenu sales mix in the smooth and effi-cient operation of the restaurant, itbehooves all restaurant operators tolearn the various techniques of menu de-sign so they can be incorporated intotheir next menu design. A properly de-signed menu can direct the attention ofthe diner to specific items and increasethe likelihood that those items will beordered. These items should be the oneswith the highest gross profit, lowestfood costs and help achieve the averagecheck needed to return the desired sales.In addition, degree of preparation diffi-culty should be factored into your menuevaluation. If an item cannot be pre-pared in 10-12 minutes or it requiresmultiple steps and needs to be movedbetween more than two stations or em-ployees before it gets to the pickupwindow, it may not be one of the itemsyou want to prominently display on yourmenu. This being said, while menu de-sign and placement of items on themenu can influence the customers’ deci-sion, it will not influence customers topurchase items that they do not want.Menu design can help increase the oddsof an item’s selection.

Highlighting and arrows have long been used by retailers to bringattention to specials. Why not do the same in your menu?

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 39

40 | A G O O D R E S T A U R A T E U R I S A LW A Y S L E A R N I N G

Think how much easier it would be to forecast use levels of perishable in-gredients, production quantities, and scheduling help when you can forecastto within 1 percent to 3 percent of what you will be selling during any givenmeal period. If you can predict the number of customers that will enter yourrestaurant, you can quantify your needs for inventory, production and staffing.

Don’t Leave Guest Preference to ChanceThe following statement may at first sound contradictory to what has been

stated, but here goes: Any menu, any design, and any format will produce apredictable sales mix if put in service every day for a prolonged period. Inother words, regardless of the menu design, the popularity of particular menuitems will evolve so management will be able to forecast customer preferencesand thereby be able to plan purchases and preparation quantities according tothe existing sales pattern. Here is the key point we want to make: If such asales pattern will occur without any rhyme or reason to the design of the menu,think of the possibilities if the menu were designed to promote the items therestaurant wanted to sell more than any other. Instead of leaving it entirely toa random selection, you can actually “direct” the customers’ attention to thoseitems you want to sell and are geared up to sell.

How do you turn your menu into a cost control, marketing and communi-cation tool? There are certain “practices” that when incorporated into thegraphic design and layout of a menu can actually “influence” the menu se-lections of the guests. These practices and techniques are not subliminal anddo not in any way force or trick the customer into ordering something they donot want any more than looking at a television commercial or newspaper ad-vertisement influences the purchase decision. However, like a televisioncommercial or newspaper advertisement, menu design can put an idea intothe head of the consumer, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will atleast consider the choice when a purchase is made. If they never saw the ad it

would never had occurred to them to even consider its purchase.

The Power of PrintThe techniques of menu psychology are most applicable to

the printed menu. (However, there are others that can be em-ployed with verbal menus, i.e., menus delivered orally by theserver. In some restaurants, this might just include specials. Invery upscale establishments, this might include the entire menu.But this article is devoted to only the printed menu.) What arethe techniques employed in the design and production of amenu? Some of the techniques involve such elements as theprint style and size, the paper and ink color, the texture and fin-ish of the paper, graphic design, art work and illustrations. Eventhe placement of items on a page or with a list is done for spe-cific reasons. Actually, menu psychology techniques can beanything that is used to direct the reader’s attention to certainparts of the menu to increase the likelihood that those items will

be remembered. If they are noticed and remembered, they are more likelyto be ordered than an unnoticed or forgotten item.

In a study by a hospitality management student at Florida State Universityof a Bennigan’s menu from the early ’80s, more than three-fourths of all menuitems sold were either snacks or appetizers. The menu at the time contained 14pages and the dinner entrees were listed on the last two pages. The customersdidn’t bother to read past the first four or five pages and the menu length anddesign was significantly contributing to the poor sales of dinner entrees in theoverall menu sales mix.

About the Primacy and Recency Theory

Most people do not “read” a menu frompage to page. Instead, they “scan” the menuwith their eyes. Therefore, if you want to fea-ture specific menu items, they need to beplaced where the eye goes first. Do not leavethis to chance. The use of “eye magnets” helpsdirect the gaze of the reader to that particularsection. The eye can be drawn by treating aparticular section of the menu differently fromthe rest. Perhaps you put a box around your ap-petizers or use a larger or different color typefont to make a menu description stand out fromthe rest. Dot-matrix background screens canalso be effective as well as using icons or sym-bols to the left of the menu description. Theyhave been used to designate “Heart healthy,”“low carbohydrate,” or “Spicy Hot” items.However, use these techniques sparingly be-cause it you overuse them, you diminish theability to direct attention to specific items.

This is the typical eye movement over a three-panel, two-fold menu; however, the pattern of eyemovement is not fixed and can be altered and di-rected by “eye magnets.”

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 40

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 | R E S T A U R A N T S T A R T U P & G R O W T H | 41

You can improve your sales withoutchanging any menu item or price. All youhave to do is reposition the items and employmenu psychology techniques on your menu.There are several different menu formats andeach has a different area of sales concentra-tion. The items you put in the area of salesconcentration should be selected with careand purpose. They should be items that youwant to feature and do better than the compe-tition. This is where you want to list yourhouse specialties and signature items.

In addition to the format, the menuitems are typically grouped into menu cat-egories. The number of and names used forthe various menu categories will be greatlyinfluenced by the type of restaurant, theprice range, and number of menu offerings.For example, the typical categories for arestaurant featuring steak will be differentfrom that featuring seafood or ethnic cui-sine, such as Italian or Mexican. Theindustry standard is to put menu items intocategories and in the order in which theitems are typically eaten. Restaurants withhigher check averages typically have moremenu categories than those with lowercheck averages.

FormatsThere are three basic types of menu

page and fold formats you can use on amenu. First is the single-page format inwhich the entire menu is contained on asingle page or card. The area of salesconcentration is in the top half of thepage. Then there is the most commonformat of the two-page/single-foldmenus. Menu size and shape will varyconsiderably. The National RestaurantAssociation conducts a menu contestevery year during its annual conventionin Chicago and has found that the mostcommon sized menu was 9 inches by 12inches. This is the result of no other rea-son than to accommodate the standardpaper size of 8.5 inches by 11 inches.

The graphic “Eye Movement Pattern” onPage 40 shows the typical eye movementover a three-panel, two-fold menu. The pat-tern of eye movement is not fixed and can bealtered and directed by “eye magnets.” Eyemagnets are little graphic techniques that willattract the eye and guest’s attention. Some ofthe best examples are graphic boxes around

menu items, the use of a dot matrix screen ofcolor as a background, using a larger orbolder type font, incorporating an illustrationor even a photograph to “draw” the eye. Theareas of emphasis are used to list the itemsyou want to promote the most.

Gaze motion patterns will vary accordingto the page format, graphics, layout and num-ber of folds in the menu. There is a tendencyto list items in the order in which they areconsumed. This puts cocktails and appetizersfirst and desserts and dessert beverages last.The greatest amount of space on the menu isgiven to entrees, which are the highest-priceditems on the menu. In most restaurants, closeto 100 percent of the customers will order anentrée but only a small percentage will orderappetizers and desserts. This begs the ques-tion that perhaps we should relinquish someof that prime menu space that up to now hasbeen reserved for entrées, and in their placeput a la carte appetizers, side orders anddesserts. This emphasis can only increase thelikelihood of those items being selected in ad-dition to an entrée.

Restaurants with static menus that com-bine both lunch and dinner items can bequite extensive. Their menus tend to befairly large and become crowded and use atype font that’s too small. A crowded menuthat is difficult to read is not an effectivemerchandizing tool. It is recommended thatif the menu approaches 12 inches by 18inches in size that multiple menus be em-ployed to keep the size manageable.Separate drink, wine, dessert and children’smenus may be more practical and do a bet-ter merchandizing job than an oversized andcrowded menu. Especially with desserts, aseparate menu that is handed to the guest isa more effective sales piece than havingthem recall what was on the original menuor having the server describe the choicesverbally. Table tents and menu boards canbe used to merchandize daily specials whenmenu clip-ons add to the clutter and com-pete with the regular menu items.

Sometimes Bigger Isn’t BetterIn addition, oversized menus are diffi-

cult to maneuver in tight quarters. Guestshave knocked over wine glasses with themenu and menus have been scorched bycandles. Customers have commented thatthe menus were obstructing their view of

their dining partner and were even toolarge to be placed on the table. The moreextensive the listings of menu items, thelarger the menu dimensions and the morespace that is needed to contain the listingsand descriptive copy.

If you have a three-panel menu with in-terchangeable pages, try swapping them atlunch and dinner for a month and checkyour menu sales mix for any changes.Odds are that whatever is in the centerpanel will sell more than if it were on theback cover. This is also a way to increaseyour check average at night by moving thelower-priced sandwiches and salads to theback cover where they are less likely to benoticed and therefore ordered.

Menu design psychology also uses sev-eral visual element techniques to increasethe effectiveness of the menu as a market-ing, communication and cost control tool.The first visual element is the font size andstyle. Words, numbers, or graphic symbolscan be increased in size to attract thereader’s eye or decreased in size to de-em-phasize attention to a particular item. Itfollows that selectively increasing the typesize and style of some menu items is a tech-nique that will draw the customer’s eye andtherefore their attention. It is this attentionthat increases the odds that the customerwill consider ordering that item more thanif they had never noticed it at all.

Different styles of type fonts can be used as“eye magnets.” This technique is most effec-tive when the entire menu is limited to threedifferent font styles. When four or more dif-ferent font styles are used, the drawing powerof the font becomes diluted and the eye neverrests in any one area. Again, the intent is tobring attention to some menu items or areas ofthe menu. Improper placement or use of thesetechniques can be counterproductive and takeattention away from the menu sections oritems the operator wishes to emphasize.

The second technique is accomplished byincreasing the brightness or color (shading)of visual elements to attract attention and es-tablish a menu grouping. In printing jargon,this is referred to as dot-matrix screening.The brightness of a color can be increased,such as changing from gray to black or froma light pink to a dark red through a screen oftiny dots placed in various densities that produces a specified percentage of color.

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 41

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 42

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 | R E S T A U R A N T S T A R T U P & G R O W T H | 43

The use of color in the font, graphics, andborders can also be used to attract attention.The change from a light type to a bold typecan also increase awareness and can actuallydirect the eye along a prescribed path. Thus,color and brightness can be used along withfont size and style to direct the reader to cer-tain parts or sections of the menu.

Another way to direct a guest’s attention toa certain part or section of the printed menucan be accomplished by placing the elementsin a confined area or space on the menu. Theuse of borders to “frame” a menu item orgroup of menu items is an example of thismenu psychology technique. An examplewould be the appetizer section of a menu thatis set off by a box border or graphic design.The grouping of all the appetizers within adesignated area encourages reading them asa unit. Adding an extra line space (leading)between menu items and putting less spacebetween the title or name of the menu itemand its descriptive copy clearly conveys thatthe description is for the preceding item.

In much the same way that spacing tendsto group visual information, the use of sim-ilar elements such as brightness, color, size,or shape encourages elements to be seen to-gether. Thus, switching from regular to boldtype, changing fonts, or introducing a dif-ferent color of type signals to the readerthat they are moving from one section toanother, e.g., appetizers to salads.

While all these elements can be used toguide the customer’s eye around the menu tothe items that provide the best overall return,the entire menu must remain uncluttered andeasy to read. If for example, appetizers arecontained within a rectangular border, do notuse a circle or square around another appe-tizer and place it adjacent to the others. Adifferent shape suggests a different menu cat-egory, e.g., side dishes or salads.

The menu design psychology techniquesdescribed in this article are useful tools tothe graphic designer in preparing a menu. Inthe March 2005 issue, we will discuss howthe menu paper, its weight, texture, finishand color contribute to the menu design, theaverage check and gross profit return.

For now, the key point is to put a greatdeal of energy and thought into the designand psychology of your menu. Your ef-forts and planning will be returned manytimes over.

A way to direct a guest’s attention to a certain part of the menuis to confine the elements with a border or graphic.

4c. Feat Menu(36-43)Feb05 2/2/05 9:56 AM Page 43