How to evaluate the most popular consumer packagin

How to evaluate consumer packaging design

research shows that commodity promotion cannot only rely on advertising. 80% of customers decide whether to buy or not after seeing the commodity with their own eyes in the market, and more than 50% of them make decisions under the influence of product packaging on supermarket shelves. The basic function of packaging is to convey information, because consumers usually don't take more than 8 seconds to make a decision whether to buy or not. Research also shows that changing packaging design can usually attract new consumers, but not all changes can play a positive role. Therefore, here is a question: facing consumers, how should packaging design be evaluated

it is difficult to effectively evaluate complex packaging only by personal experience and intuition without adjusting the toothed rod. When many products (including many similar products in competition) are displayed on the shelves, there is a battle field between products, and the reaction of consumers to product packaging can really explain the problem. This evaluation is the most real evaluation method

this is exactly where the evaluation in some packaging research and development is at a loss. Brand managers and packaging designers try to evaluate the impact of packaging in a non-traditional competitive environment, just like guessing the meaning of a word that is not in a sentence

what we want is a good method that can simulate the real environment, so that the evaluation is closer to the real situation. The comprehensive performance of packaging design in the market can be measured from three aspects:

1. Visual impact, which measures the ability of packaging to "stand out from the crowd" on the shelf

2. Discovery: it determines how consumers can focus on the target packaging in many products

3. Imagery: it evaluates the "thought" and "feeling" conveyed by packaging

let's look at the two best evaluation methods: eye tracking and Internet-based survey. These two methods have advantages, but also pay attention to their potential disadvantages

method 1: eye tracking method

this method is to put consumers in a realistic environment to investigate packaging design. The respondents observed the packaging placed on the shelf, and researchers used passive devices to track the movement of their eyes. Researchers determine where their eyes go and how long they stay at a particular point. This measures the noticeability of a package

eye tracking method has four advantages:

first, the sampling volume is larger, rather than focusing on a few groups. This method allows brand managers and packaging designers to make statistical prediction through a large number of respondents' data, and the prediction is more accurate

second, it can actually reflect shopping behavior. Eye tracking method has no disadvantages that discussion or group dynamics have an impact on personal behavior

third, the place where eye tracking is used is the competitive environment in which many products on the shelf are launched together

fourth, eye tracking is more or less passive. It focuses on consumer reactions rather than consumer thoughts and opinions

however, eye tracking also has its disadvantages: there is no definite evidence that the time of looking at a particular package is related to the sales volume or the overall impression of the package

when you stare at something carelessly, maybe only a strange sound or thought can make you regain consciousness. When you are doing eye tracking research, staring at something does not necessarily mean paying attention to it, that is, you do not necessarily have knowledge of it

in addition, the eye tracking method, like the face-to-face focus group, usually requires investigation and research. (2) sometimes in order to reduce weight, nonferrous metals such as aluminum alloy and special metals are also used; Central locations, which have some defects. The fixed-point survey method will introduce demographic differences and geographical deviations, because the research of eye tracking method is only concentrated in a small number of sites. Participants may also exhibit significantly different characteristics from the general population

why does this happen? Because only certain types of people will go shopping - this is the most common place for fixed-point surveys. Therefore, the respondents' reactions may be very different from the target consumers of the product. At the same time, we should also consider the impact of the investigation itself. Is it strange to have a device in a shopping mall to measure the movement of people's eyes

eyeball and biological polymerization require a lot of oxygen. There is another thing in common with the group discussion method, that is, the presence of investigators will inevitably affect the respondent's reaction behavior

therefore, although eye tracking method may be better than group discussion method in packaging evaluation, brand managers and packaging designers need to carefully consider its limitations when using eye tracking method. As far as the cost of eye tracking research is concerned, it is much higher than the group discussion method

method 2: Internet survey method

the Internet has paved a new way for packaging market research. Many traditional offline investigation methods have been transferred to the Internet for investigation. It took about 20 years for the interview survey method to replace the on-site face-to-face interview method, while it took less than 5 years for the Internet survey method to become a widely accepted method

there are five factors that make the Internet a data collection tool:

1. The cost of each survey visit is relatively low, especially the survey of a large number of samples

2. Data collection is faster. Internet survey method is 25% to 75% faster than traditional survey technology in time

3. Professional survey access weight technology can eliminate potential sample bias

4. The difficulty of conducting interviews has increased, and more and more people are calling shielding and registering not to be investigated, which has become the biggest problem of interviews

5. Fewer and fewer shopping malls provide survey locations, which makes offline surveys expensive and unreliable

when using Internet method to evaluate packaging design, it has the advantages of high speed, low cost, wide geographical distribution and no investigator bias

brand managers can also use the Internet to create a competitive environment and exercise stricter time control over the observation packaging of respondents. In the process of packaging design, to evaluate the visual impact of packaging on consumers, a successful survey project has at least two prerequisites: first, a "real" packaging image; Second, there is an immersive feeling, that is, there is a process like customers see packaging in stores

Harris Interactive, an American market research enterprise, recently developed a new interactive tool, shelf impact, which uses a special image file to make the image very clear even if it is very small. With this effective tool, the above two goals can be achieved

in the page, put products of various competitive brands on the shelf at the same time. Consumers observe the packaging as if they were buying products in a store. Such a survey not only saves money and time, but also does not need a site

shelf impact technology in addition to special image files, another important technology is to control the time for respondents to watch packaged images on the screen. The "flashing" of the packaging picture is a bit like the method of visual memory test mirror (or Tachyon) - an instrument that quickly projects a series of images onto the screen to test the ability of vision, memory and learning

the working process of shelf impact technology is:

first, the respondent visited the page and spent a short time looking at the packaging on a shelf; Next, the computer screen displays all the packages and prompts the respondents to recall and identify as many packages as possible

the second process is called discovery ability. It determines the difficulty of respondents to point out the position of a package among many competitors

the respondent previews the image of a single package, and then the screen flashes the package of a shelf, including the package of the target brand. Next, the respondent saw an empty shelf with corresponding grids, and asked the respondent to put the packaging of the target brand into the corresponding position on the shelf

Author: Kuang Xianfeng

reprinted from: China packaging industry

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