Cereal brand loyalty - it's all in the gaze

CONSUMERS may not be aware of it, but characters in children’s cereal boxes look downward at a 9.6-degree angle, to meet the children’s gaze; in adult cereal boxes, characters look straight ahead. It’s not just art design, of course. According to director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab, Brian Wansink and post-doctoral lab researcher Aner Tal, when shopping, consumers are 16% more likely to trust a brand whose characters are gazing back at them. They studied over 80 breakfast spokes-characters, and found that children’s cereals are positioned 23 inches off the floor – or at the same height as kids. Those for adults are 43 inches off the floor.

To create brand loyalty, Mr Wansink advises cereal companies to use spokes-characters that make eye contact with children.

Their study is published in the Journal of Environment and Behaviour.