When messaging your product, don’t say what’s missing.

Renaming the “𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐭-𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭” to “𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝-𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭” made diners 200% more likely to pick the plant-based option.

&

renamed “𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘢𝘳-𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨” to “𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒔”.
Doing so increased sales of the carrots by 25%.

Why? Loss aversion. Losses hurt more than gains feel good, even if we say we want less of thing (e.g. sugar).

caveat: disregard this if what your product is missing is what you’re turning into an enemy to stand against (e.g. Liquid Death’s death to plastic tag).

Benchmarks are useful for quick comparison and decisions. But forget what the benchmark is or that it isn’t an immutable law and it becomes a trap.

The CEO of Bronco Wine – which sells the Charles Shaw “Two Buck Chuck” wine at Trader Joe’s – was once asked how he’s able to sell wine for less than the cost of bottled water.

He replied: “They’re overcharging you for the water. Don’t you get it?”

The real question is how can they sell bottled water for more than the cost of a bottle of wine?

Comparison goes both ways.

via Morgan Housel

According to Goldman Sachs research:

Our estimates imply that US consumers had absorbed 22% of tariff costs through June but that their share will likely rise to 67% by October if the later tariffs have the same impact over time as the earliest tariffs

Not sure how recent announcements and rate changes may impact this, but it doesn’t bode well for Q4 and already meh consumer confidence indices.

via CNBC

side note: I can’t find the original research/note from GS and it’s annoying me

Conductor David Robertson has a mixtape he plays for conductors he’s teaching filled with all kinds of music. But this isn’t your classic high school mixtape.

It’s all put together with a maximum of 2.5 seconds. Sometimes they’re even shorter.

Why?

to get them to understand that, whether or not you feel musically sophisticated, the speed with which your brain decides, “Ah, yes, for me. No, not for me,” is very, very quick.

We make taste based decisions incredibly quickly. Not just about music.

via Conversations with Tyler

don’t know what a mixtape is? Kleon’s got you

Taco Bell gets it 🔔

Their Distinctiveness Rule:

You can change either the taste or the form, but you can’t change the taste and the form.

People want their new to be familiar. They need an on-ramp.

Your thing also has a language. Changing the “taste” and “form” (whatever those are for your thing) is more likely to make it a different thing altogether.

Be different. But make it rhyme.

via Austin Kleon