Packaging Offers Tactile and Sound cues

Touch
Interesting and differently shaped packages can act as both visual and tactile cues, inviting shoppers to reach out and touch the package at their Food Retailers. And once a consumer has the product in his or her hands, the likelihood of them then putting it into their basket increases exponentially.
Embossing or other printing techniques can be used on any surface, etching or 3D-designs on glass bottles or jars, rough finishes on paperboard packaging, or molded plastic containers are a few ways food packagers can incorporate texture.

Sound
Sound cues like the pop of a seal as it breaks, or the click of a closure snapping shut, can enhance the user’s experience of the product.

Belinda Winder, consumer psychologist and senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, England says, “We’re playful, curious creatures. We like to make sounds, and we like feedback, so if you can incorporate a sound into a package, consumers will respond”.
Package sounds can be powerful mood stimulators. A classic is the pop of a champagne cork. Another is the opening sound of a beverage-can pull ring. “There’s a feeling that goes with that,” Winder says. “Poof! I’m going to get my drink now. The moment of relaxation has started with that sound.”

The significance of a sound sometimes becomes apparent only after a packaging change, as in the case of the peanut marketer that switched from a steel can to a composite can a few years ago. The steel can made a whooshing sound when opened, and research revealed that consumers heard the whoosh as a freshness cue. After making the switch for cost reasons, the brand’s sales dove, and though they can’t prove it, they suspect the loss of the whooshing sound had something to do with it.

Sensory Research pays!