Create better packaging designs

Iggesund Paperboard is becoming more active in sharing knowledge about packaging and packaging materials. The company known for its Invercote and Incada paperboard brands, has partnered with Tobii Pro, in this venture, and will together hold seminars for its customers on how neuromarketing is used in packaging development. Neuromarketing involves biometric measuring techniques to analyse consumer reactions.

In the seminars, Tobii Pro will present the effectiveness of eye tracking. The firm focuses on studying visual attention to help businesses understand human behaviour in situations such as how consumers perceive packaging.

Ali Farokhian, head reseach consultancy team at Tobii Pro 

“With eye tracking you can measure customers’ visual attention to and experience with your packaging design, you can test before production to ensure you get the wanted result and catch the consumer’s eye in the store. The majority of shoppers’ decisions are made in store therefore capturing the shopper’s attention and interest through effective packaging formats is key in a competitive market landscape,” explains Ali Farokhian, heads of the research consultancy team Tobii Pro Insight at Tobii.

Farokhian added that it becomes more cost for companies when they don’t get the packaging right since the design and materials have to be reworked, and revenues are already lost in the process.     

“Consumers often function on autopilot, so the key issue is how to arrive at a design that captures attention and interest in a relevant way, persuading the consumer to dare to try something new. In the hunt for the optimal solution, we are offering a powerful tool,” said Farokhian.

Besides supplying paperboard, Iggesund is active in conveying knowledge about how to get the most out of it. This joint project is one step in spreading knowledge about packaging and packaging materials.

“We want to make our customers aware of the possibilities that are available to them at an early stage so they can evaluate various design alternatives,” said Jonas Adler, Director Business Development at Iggesund Paperboard.

Jonas Adler, Director Business Development, Iggesund Paperboard

Endowment effect

Combining measurements of visual impressions with sensory measurements of packaging’s haptics – how it is experienced when it is held by someone – is ingenious. The psychological concept called “the endowment effect” – that we have difficulty getting rid of things we own – can also be applied to something we are holding in our hand. The more pleasant that experience is, the longer we want to keep on holding it.

“We often hear from customers that one reason they choose Invercote is the experience when they hold a piece of packaging in their hand,” continues Adler. “We really welcome the opportunities to measure this, because until now the feedback has mostly been word of mouth. Now we can actually measure the haptic differences between materials.”

University uses eye tracking to test packaging

Clemson University in South Carolina, USA, offers a highly ranked educational programme in packaging expertise. The university has built a laboratory there equipped with eye tracking tools from Tobii Pro, a store environment where types of packaging can be tested.

“The use of eye tracking will result in design that is more consumer oriented,” explains Andrew Hurley, Associate Professor at Clemson University. “By that I mean packaging that makes it easier for consumers to find the right product faster and enables us to more rapidly and more efficiently find the products that satisfy our needs.”

The seminars on neuromarketing and its usefulness in developing and evaluating packaging will initially be held in Paris, London, Tokyo and San Francisco.  --INGESSUND