When testing alternative packaging designs, there should be one criterion that rises above all else which packaging alternative maximizes SALES.

It sounds simple, but most packaging research focuses instead on stated appeal scores or package preference. There are two key “watch-outs” to these techniques. First, consumers may like one package design… but, in real-life, that package design may not have a strong shelf presence. It may just get lost in the clutter. Second, these techniques historically ask respondents to specifically evaluate the design. When this happens, the natural tendency is for a respondent to change their mindset from that of a consumer to a graphic designer.

With Decision Insight’s packaging research, there are two fundamental tenets:

• The packaging is tested first in the context of a full competitive set in a store aisle (using SimuShop®). This provides the strongest measure of success for a packaging treatment – does it increase sales?


• The first series of follow-up questions (subsequent to shopping) are always in the context of the PRODUCT, not the packaging. This keeps all results focused on the packaging treatment’s impact on product perceptions, not on a piece of art. So, for example, respondents are exposed to a packaging treatment (tested monadically) and asked to evaluate the product on attributes like quality, value, etc. This provides a strong measure of the packaging treatment’s influence on product perceptions.

After (and ONLY after) the shopping experience and the product evaluations, other follow-up techniques can then dive deeper into a specific packaging treatment’s strengths and weaknesses.

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