Packaging affects the senses

Sense of taste, smell and feel is directly affected by the packaging a product comes in, according to recent research.

In a trial, otherwise identical products were rated 35% better overall, simply due to the packaging they were associated with. Wine, for instance, tasted 53% better. The impact of the packaging over senses was so high that people were prepared to pay, on average, nearly three times the price for identical products.

The experiment, commissioned by Packaging Innovations London, selected six everyday items – biscuits, chocolates, perfume, wine, a t-shirt and wine glasses – in a bid to see how much packaging affects the perceived price and quality of a product. Identical items were put to 100 consumers, with half testing the products alongside low end packaging and half next to more luxurious packs.

When placed alongside luxury packaging, the perceived quality of products increased dramatically. Biscuits were rated as tasting 51% better and the taste of chocolates improved by 14%.

The packaging also significantly affected the price consumers expected to pay for otherwise identical items. People were willing to spend nearly seven times more for the same biscuits when they were in the higher end packaging.

James Drake-Brockman, divisional director of the Easyfairs Packaging Portfolio, comments, “Whilst we expected to see the perceived cost of items increase when people thought it came in higher end packaging, what we didn’t expect to see was how the packaging actually appeared to affect the senses. Identical biscuits, wine, chocolates seemed to taste better, and people even liked the smell of a perfume more, if they thought it came in a more premium pack.”

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