Study reveals how packaging interferes with product perception

The saying already said, "the best perfumes are in the smallest bottles." Here we do not talk about the contents of the interior, but of the packaging. One study devoted itself to analyzing how chocolate wrapping can have a major effect on product acceptance among consumers and discovered interesting data. Conducted by researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia, the scientific paper was published in the newspaper Heliyon. According to the analyses, about 60% of the initial decisions of consumers are made in stores and based only on the packaging of the items. To reach this conclusion, 75 participants aged between 25 and 55 years were selected. They should all be chocolate consumers. The tests were divided into three phases: one blind, another only observing the packaging and the other through information. In all, they should evaluate the taste of six sweets as well as the visual identity of the products. In the three tests, the same 70% cocoa bitter chocolate was used. The changes appeared in the name of the product, all related to a fictitious brand, which was named "chuff". In Australian English, the name refers to the "chuffed" slang, which means "very happy". The logo was designed to be simple and universal, in order to please the country's market. All six designs were created by the same person, a professional with experience in creating visual identities for the food industry. And the concepts that guided the packaging were "bold", "fun", "casual", "special", "healthy" and "premium", in respective order in the photo below. For blind testing, individuals received pure chocolate, with no additional information, in a transparent glass. For the test done from product information, the packaging was kept, so that it was possible to examine the combination of food data next to the package. In this sense, because the chocolate is the same, the taste was not always against the information suggested in the packaging. Thus, participants had to use terms related to emotions to issue their perception of sweet. Starting with the "bold" packaging, which promised a spicy chocolate, participants could notice the difference to conventional sweet 70% cocoa, so they had no good perceptions about the product, accused of lying. In addition, researchers noted that people tend to like dessert more if packaging comes with positive visual connotations. And to prove how influenced by the packaging we are, participants demonstrated more emotional associations with the product when they could see the packaging than in the blind test, so that the packaging directly interferes with the acceptance of the items in the Market.