Setting: The Danish population does not meet the official vegetable consumption requirements. Different health promoting initiatives have been made, including campaigns to increase the knowledge in the general public. As separate initiatives, these have proven insufficient though the consumers have gained knowledge on health. Thus this study uses their knowledge as a foundation for using nudging. By a change in governance, the public and private have become equally responsible in affecting the Danish population towards being healthier. Supermarkets have become increasingly interested in the welfare of the customers, including making the healthy choice the obvious choice. In corporation with a supermarket chain, this study aims at increasing the sales of vegetables by affecting the customers’ shopping behavior, by using a ‘sound nudge’.
Methods: A sound nudge was developed for an intervention, conducted in five phases: pre, primo, medio, ultimo, and post.
Two concurrent studies were made in a supermarket after the development of the sound nudge. A case study, investigating the customers behavior, and an intervention study, investigating the sales changes.
Findings: The sound of peeling, cutting and eating a carrot was considered the most suitable to use as a sound nudge in a supermarket. After implementation, it was found that the most effective part of the intervention was during the phase ultimo, due to statistically significance in the vegetables sales between pre and ultimo.
Conclusion: The most effective sound nudge in both changing customer behavior and increasing the sales of vegetables in a statistically significant way, was the sound of a carrot being eaten. The customer group being most affected by the sound nudge was primarily customers with a university or a college university degree. This indicates that a sound nudge can affect the customers and increase the sales of vegetables after considerations of factors such as spotlight effect, staff and sales offers. Thus, further research is needed to fully understand the significance in using sound nudges.