A recent research program by scientists at the VU University and Amsterdam School of Communication discovered that products that have atypical packaging increased the attention of the consumer.
According to the researchers, this sort of packaging encourages customers to scrutinise product claims more strictly, which boosts the efficiency of claims made on the packaging, while reducing the customer’s eagerness to spend money on weaker claims.
Statements on products about quality control or flavour are included under the strong claims bracket while statements about alternative product sizes or new formulas are included in weak claims. Researchers found the effectiveness of strong and weak product claims on the package is influenced by whether the package design is atypical or typical. The research was written in a journal named ‘Food Quality and Preference.’
In the case of atypical packaging, strong claims caused a higher quality judgment from consumers. However, with weaker claims, consumers were found to show less willingness to pay for the product. This feedback showed that atypical packaging may not always be helpful for product assessment.
What is Atypical Packaging?
This type of packaging is unusual in appearance, based on the norm. This includes packaging that is oddly shaped, unusually small, or large, constructed from unusual materials, or has special and unique features that make it stand out from the rest of the packaging in the market. Atypical packaging normally includes items such as pouches, stand-up pouches, gusseted bags, and types of bottles. Atypical packaging often needs to be handled carefully with special dispatch needed, which can add to the cost of shipping items and storing them. The products that use this packaging are normally lightweight which can offset some of the increased shipping charges due to the specialist product packaging type.
The Benefits of Atypical Packaging Design for a Business
This sort of packaging can be a powerful marketing tool, which helps to attract attention and create a sense of excitement. When the packaging is designed and used correctly it can help boost sales performance and build brand loyalty.
Unusual packaging design can create an advantage for the company and designer in any industry that uses unique ideas to make unusual and creative packaged products for their business to promote their products to their customer. This can be a design on flexible packaging such as paper and be used to create a weird shape product on food products, cleaning products, personal care items, and others that helps the customer to remember the product and even re-purchase.
The increasing use of atypical packaging is creating a growing market for product designer businesses and the packaging design industry is constantly trying new things to attract customers.
Atypical packaging is a welcome break from the norm of product packaging and if done properly can enhance the performance of a product in retail stores.
Unusual Packaging Atypical Packaging May Not Always be a Recipe for Success
To analyse the effect of atypical packaging the scientists presented design alternatives for a ketchup bottle to 102 university students through an online test. The results of this test showed that atypical designs made participants spend longer looking at the product claims because of the increased processing of product information.
Where there is a case of weak claims on products, the participants were found to be much more unwilling to pay for the product. However, the stronger claims with an atypical design too did not result in an increased willingness to pay for the product. This outcome was surprising to the researchers and was not expected. It was found that the typicality of a design did not have a strong effect on the consumer’s purchase intention, irrespective of the strength of the claims.
In terms of perception of quality, researchers found the reverse of the results of the intention to pay. The strong claims on a product with an atypical design increased its perception of quality whilst the weaker claims did not have any significant impact on the quality perception.
In the case of perception of quality, researchers experienced the reverse of the results of the intention to pay. Strong claims on a product with an atypical design increased its perception of quality. Weak claims didn’t have any significant impact on quality perception. The researchers noted the role of visual observation in the consumer decision procedure. The study also showed that attractive packaging can be harmful when presented with semantic components of poor quality.
The study concluded that it is important to consider the interaction between various kinds of packaging cues when calculating how these affect the assessment of products.
