Swiss mountain pine tree up (check); decorations up (check); festive music playing (check); plenty of food in (check); CHOCOLATE (check); popcorn and nibbles in abundance (check); It’s a Wonderful Life (check). That’s right, forget Black Friday, we are well on the way to tidings of comfort and joy.
But wait, what’s this that’s just landed in my inbox? According to a new report in the Journal of Marketing Research, boffins at the Rotterdam School of Management have found that people enjoy a leisure activity far less when there is food around because it decreases their engagement with the experience.
YOU WHAT? Yep, you did read that correctly. Researchers Dr Anne-Kathrin Klesse and Dr Emily Garbinsky claim that even amusement parks, movie theatres and concert venues have been barking up the wrong tree for decades by offering food to boost customers’ enjoyment of these experiences.
“Nutty” Prof Klesse explained: “Being able to fully enjoy experiences is central to happiness and wellbeing. [But] it is important to create a setting in which consumers can be fully engaged to maximise the enjoyment from experiences, such as listening to a concert.”
She goes on to claim that the presence of tempting food is therefore detrimental because it distracts consumers who are invited to imagine what they’ll taste next, and this actually decreases their engagement with and enjoyment of their current experience.
However, the results also suggest that the presence of food can increase consumers’ enjoyment of negative experiences.
Well, whatever those whacky Dutch get up to in “the Manhattan on the Meuse”, I can ensure our friends over at the Journal of Marketing Research that here in the Decision Marketing Nerve Centre there’s nothing quite like stuffing your face to make you happy.
As if to prove a point, one of my esteemed bosses claims to have lost nearly three stone for Christmas, meaning we now have McFatter and McThinner – or maybe even the new Little and Large Show.
But guess what, while he might have joined the growing band who’ve shed the pounds over the past few months, he doesn’t sing like Adele, or raise a smile like Matt Lucas and Rebel Wilson. To be honest, he’s been even more of a miserable bastard than normal.
In fact, he’s been so morose that I’ve been forced to shovel down CHOCOLATE biscuits whenever he’s around to combat all that negative energy. Well, someone’s got to keep the economy going.
And, I know this could be hard to swallow but I’m now so huge, I’m even thinking of applying to host next year’s Campaign Big Awards…
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