The memories of a beloved season
Summer is ending, the heat of the sun is beginning to fade and many of us are reluctantly going back to offices and classrooms.
We are starting to think about the memories of the nights under the stars, the rhythm of the parties and the journeys exploring unknown corners of the world.
For me, it’s the sea and the beach that hold a special place.
Sun-kissed days spent with my dearest friends, fresh dives into the water followed by hours playing cards, drinking beers and talking about the future.
This year was no exception. Especially during the weekends, I found the peace along the promenade of my beloved Trieste.
A place of true relaxation, but to break the monotony of those long days, my friends and I invented a new game, starting at 5 / 5:30 PM each day.
That’s the hour when sunburned people began to pack up and everyone is starting to think about evening’s plans.
And that’s also the moment when street sellers begin their rounds, distributing flyers from various local pizzerias, looking for the attention of potential customers.
The flyers had a menu that usually appeared like this:
92 varieties of pizza
The flyer game
The game had two versions, each more entertaining than the other.
In the first one, I would say the name of a pizza, and the others had to guess the ingredients that adorned it. The second version was the reverse: guessing the unlikely title based on a list of toppings.
Imagine the hilarity when we tried to match the name The Jukebox (number 30 on the menu) with a combination of: tomato, mozzarella, peppers, “Bufala” mozzarella, brie, tuna and spicy salami.
Or when we discovered that the Italiana pizza (number 92) was a mix of Edamer cheese, shredded chicken, onions, fries and a mysterious "special sauce".
The number is correct, 92. This game was more than a source of amusement, it was also an occasion to explain to my friends some significant flaws regarding the CX (Customer Experience) of those flyers.
The outstanding number of pizzas on the menu is not a statement of the variety and the creativity of the pizzeria, but an overwhelming maze where customers have to navigate.
It’s not a point of pride, but a marketing misstep, a puzzle to solve and an easy way to create confusion for who’s reading the menu.
It’s not a low-quality problem
Before we go deeper into the motivations and reasons behind highlighting this pizza-gate, let me clarify a crucial point.
It might seem too easy making fun of a mid-to-low tier pizzeria, often run by people from southeast Asia who may not have any minimum background in marketing.
But let me assure you, this issue transcends geographical and cultural boundaries, it’s still about ignorance, but it manifests even in organizations with a higher pedigree.
I want to share another story from this summer, one that underscores the ubiquity of this debacle.
I decided to go eat in a new restaurant, the third of a chain opened in my hometown.
Differently from the first two, this one set it self apart branding it self as “Luxury”. Obviously, I was expecting an high-level quality and meticulous attention to detail.
Unfortunately, when I sat down and opened the menu, I had an annoying sense of déjà-vu, of a disorganized and stressful list of dishes, which left me speechless until the waiter arrived to take the order.
That silence was finally broken by the person in front of me, with a hint of frustration and resignation, encapsulating the paradox we were in:
“A Pizza Margherita, because I just can't decide”.
The marketing missteps
What? Just a Margherita? Despite all the option we had?
Actually, I wasn't surprised at all. As I hinted earlier, the creation of these menus, both for a fast-consuming pizzerias or the luxury restaurant, overlooks several marketing principles.
These principles are deeply merged with our cognitive biases (I’ve talked about some of them in this article) and the shortcuts our brain takes when faced with a decision, such when we open a menu.
- The Paradox of Choice:
This theory, first proposed by psychologist Barry Schwartz in 2004, explains that when we have an abundance of options, we tend to feel overwhelmed and consequently we struggle to decide.
This can lead to decision paralysis, also known as paralysis by analysis, where overthinking blocks our decision-making abilities.
It’s applicable to many domains, from personal choices to sports and even product development methodologies.
This theory clearly explains my silence and hesitation in front of the restaurant’s menu.
- The Mere Exposure Effect:
A timeless marketing principle, it suggests that merely being present in someone's life will connect you to that person.
Humans tend to develop an emotional attachment to what they see and know more, preferring familiar options over any other.
This explains why a Margherita seems a better choice compared to a mix of fresh tomatoes, tuna and bresaola (Pizza Delizia, number 58 on the menu).
- Risk Minimization:
People prefer to play it safe, avoiding a "wrong choice" for more secure option.
This principle has been defined for years in Prospect Theory, which describes the mental processes we undertake while making a decision.
These processes involve evaluating potential losses and gains.
It has been proven that, within certain thresholds, humans prefer to avoid losses (like wasting money on an unsatisfactory meal) rather than experiencing the euphoria of a risky gain.
- Cognitive Economy:
Like all biases, this principle serves to lower the workload of our brain.
That’s a survival instinct, that can help us to save energy for complex and more important tasks.
By choosing a simple and familiar option, we can avoid the excessive use of cognitive resources needed just to read a menu.
It’s like our brain is saying “It’s only a pizza, choose the simplest one, it’s not a big deal”.
A unified Approach for UX and CX
In my professional experience I rely heavily on these and other principles.
Their validity is not limited only to restaurant menus, but also extended when I am designing the interface of an app or a website.
The key is to create platforms that are comprehensible and do not overwhelm users.
Essentially, the design should be clear, steering users along the flow designed by you, without any friction.
That’s what I’m talking about when I’m saying that User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX) should be perceived as a unique field.
While UX focuses more on user’s interaction with digital tools, CX has a broader spectrum, about any interaction with multiple processes of a service.
This second one is valid for both digital and physical spaces, but very often CX executors still need to embrace the UX foundation: adopting a human-centric approach.
This is an insight for various sectors and different quality level enterprises. I think this will pay for many industries, including restaurants.
Imagine a world where menus have a “minimalist” approach, mirroring the trend that has dominated web design for years.
Envision an environment where services are genuinely customer-centric, where businesses will stand out in an over-saturated sea of competitors.
In conclusion, our world is always affected by design decisions.
It’s our role embrace the golden principles of UX and CX, even when we are telling a nostalgic and summer-ending tale about pizza menus.
Hope that would be a reminder when, the next year, I will be on the beach, drinking a beer, talking with friends and playing card games.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)