Making Your Product "Pop" Off the Shelves

As a CMO, the packaging of your product can make the difference between success and failure. Many marketers focus on advertising a product through various communication channels, but overlook the importance of marketing in the store itself. The variables and conditions in a store may greatly shape a consumer’s final purchase decisions. Thus, how a product is packaged can have a great effect on what a shopper buys. As an undergraduate student in Northwestern's Medill IMC program, I have found two important articles discussing some research on how packaging impacts consumer opinions and purchase decisions.

One important marketing feature in the packaging of consumer goods is the colors used in the packaging. Studies in Consumer Reports Magazine and LifeHacker have shown that consumers have certain associations for different colors. For example, green tells us that a product is “good” for our health or the environment, whereas purple or gold signify to us that a product is rare or exclusive. However, it is important to note that the emotional tone of colors can change. For example, you must be wary of using red to convey feelings of love, as it can also be linked to feelings of danger or urgency (likewise, blue has been associated with feelings of both optimism and sadness). The saturation can also play a role: richer colors indicate richer flavors to your consumers, whereas lighter or muted colors give the perception that a product is ‘lighter’, i.e. lower in fat. Also, it is important to consider the packaging of your key competitors’ colors when designing yours: if you use colors contrasting those of your competitor (think Pepsi and Coke), the consumer can more easily differentiate your product.

Additionally, the packaging itself plays a big role in shaping the consumer’s decision. An article by Sarah Nassauer in the Wall Street Journal described how Hershey Co. recently began selling miniature versions of its chocolates in resealable bags, as opposed to separately wrapping each piece. Sales of unwrapped miniature chocolate in the new bags rose about 14%, compared to only 4% growth in the sales of wrapped chocolates. Consumers associated this new packaging with convenient on-the-go eating, as they no longer had to deal with unwrapping each candy and disposing of the wrapper afterwards. Likewise, consumers also believed the candy in resealable bags would stay fresh longer than similar candies in containers that did not re-seal. Thus, it is important to study consumer trends in the marketplace when choosing how to market your product in-store through packaging design.

From my analysis of these two articles and my studies at Northwestern, here are three action items I recommend you initiate:

1. In-Store is Critical - Don’t undervalue the importance of in-store marketing.
2. Colors Communicate - Choose packaging colors based on what you want to communicate to your consumers about the product, as well as the colors of the competition.
3. Key Trends - Consider current trends, such as consumers eating-on-the-go and valuing goods that come in convenient, portable packaging, when designing products.

As the research shows, sub-optimal product packaging may be costing you dollars and market share in your most valuable markets. Following these action items could not only save your products, but strongly impact how consumers perceive your brand as a whole. 

Hayley Buch is an undergraduate student at Northwestern University, studying Integrated Marketing Communications, Psychology, and Sociology. She is interested in consumer psychology, and applying psychological concepts to the field of marketing. Hayley will be graduating in June 2013, and can be reached on her twitter handle @hayleybuch.

3 Simple Steps to Save Your Money and Become a Rational Shopper

           Shopping is one of the major parts that consist of our lives. Especially for housewives, grocery shopping is one of their daily chores. Moms need to go to a grocery shop--Trader Joe's, Safeway, Walmart, etc...-- almost everyday, and even to big retailers--Target, Home Depot, Bestbuy-- occasionally to buy household neccessities. However, these frequent shopping trips don't always leads to satisfactory shopping. Recall how many times you regretted after impulsive or unnecessary purchases.

Is there a way to avoid those regrets? Yes, by becoming a rational shopper! Then how do we become one? As a Northwestern student majoring in psychology, I've taken several courses on cognitive psychology and decision making, and below I listed three main cognitive biases that I learned to be keeping us from making rational choices. Understanding these three biases is the first step to become a rational shopper.
1. Sunk cost bias
2. Anchoring effect
3. Barnum effect

            Sunk cost is the cost that has already been paid and is not refundable, and thus should not be considered when making decisions. However, we tend to “honor” the sunk cost and therefore it usually plays a huge role in making decisions. “I’ve already spent money on stocking up five razor blades for Gillette, so I will stick with it in order not to waste those five razor blades that I already bought, although I found a much cheaper razor that I like better.” is a common rationale of shoppers who fell into the trap of suck cost bias.

            Anchoring effect is a human tendency to focus too heavily on limited piece of information. We are often “anchored” by initially given information, even if it is only small portion of entire information. Big retailers such as Costco or Sam’s Club utilize this concept to design their product shelving. They place their value products, which are produced from their own factories and therefore cheaper than brand products, right next to brand products, which are placed closer to the entrance so shoppers get to see the price of brand products first. Therefore shoppers who first see the price of brand products are likely to be anchored by that high price and perceive the next price of value item to be much cheaper.

Barnum effect is a human tendency to regard very general characterizations or arguments to be accurate and tailored specifically for him/herself, although those characterizations are vague enough to be applicable to everyone. Informercial or home shopping programs that sell vitamins are typical example of Barnum effect. If you take a close look at their description of vitamin products, you will notice that all the benefits of the vitamin are very vague—alleviating fatigue, boosting up concentration, etc—that they are applicable to everyone. However, still we tend to think that this vitamin just fits our needs and buy it.

            Are there any solutions for these biases? For many of human cognitive biases, simple but strong prescription is to take at least few seconds to think “why” you want to make certain decision, before blindly putting stuffs into your cart. So next time when you go for a shopping and saw a deal or product that you think is really good, why don’t you take a few seconds to contemplate over why you think it is a good deal, and reason your logics step by step? 


Jake Kim, Undergraduate Northwestern IMC, @JakeKim4