The impact of packaging elements on consumers' unconscious emotions

Date

2012

Authors

Liao, Lewis Xinwei

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thesis

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Abstract

Product proliferation and cluttered shopping environments create an important role for packaging at the point of purchase. Effective packs should fulfil the following criteria: a) Stand out from the shelf—i.e., be easily noticed (Pieters, Rik, Rosbergen & Wedel, 1999; Underwood, Klein & Burke, 2001); b) Be quickly recognised (Wakefield et al., 2002); and c) Elicit positive affect (Nancarrow, Wright & Brace, 1998; Underwood, 2003; Silayoi, Pinya & Speece, 2004) in order to facilitate choice. From the perspective of consumer behaviour, these three criteria coincide broadly three reactive categories—i.e., affective, cognitive and behavioural responses. Consumer attention to and recognition of packs are cognitive responses. Consumer choice is a behavioural response. To most of the packaged goods, it is important for the pack to be seen, be identified and hopefully be chosen eventually. This research represents one of the first studies to investigate customers’ affective response to different images, colours and fonts on a package using physiological measures. The research reveals that affect exists as an important dimension in consumers’ responses to packaging design. It also demonstrates the distinction between two sets of results obtained by physiological measurements and self-report methods. This distinction suggests that consumers’ unconscious emotional response is measured differently by physiological devices as opposed to typical self-report methods. Self-report methods show a conscious response to changing colours, images, and fonts, while measurement of the unconscious responses show only a response to image. However, unconscious measures showed an interaction between some of the elements, but the self-report measures did not. The discussion provides practical guidance to the design and measurement of packages that aims at evoking positive consumer affective response in order to attract more attention, be more recognisable, and to facilitate consumer choice.

School/Discipline

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science

Dissertation Note

Thesis (MBusiness-Research)--University of South Australia, 2012.

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Copyright 2012 Lewis Xinwei Liao. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Australia 3.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/)

Description

160 leaves
ill.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-128)

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506 0#$fstar $2Unrestricted online access

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