Packaging as performance predictors

Imagine yourself in your local deli. You really feel like some chips, and so head for the displays, where there are two brands (this is a very small shop). The first one has a big display, shiny bright packets and a selection of flavours. The second also has a big display, but it’s sitting at a strange angle, and one of the corners is dented. Their packets seem faded, with barely legible barcodes and brand names, and you have to rummage to see how many flavours are there. They both sell for the same price, so which do you choose?

Or, for a slightly more up-market scenario, you’re at the airport, about to board a plane. Whether or not you get airsick, how far would your heart sink and stomach rise if you saw your plane, the hunk of metal that was all that stood between you and a radical makeover as a pancake, was a grime covered specimen with peeling paint and what looked suspiciously like a giant rubber band beneath the hood?

These may be extreme examples, but every day we ignore our parents and go around judging books by their covers. Those chips mentioned above may be delicious, lovingly hand made morsels of cholesterol enhancing snacky-goodness, and your airline may have no money left over for paint jobs and windscreen wipers because they’ve funneled all their resources into the latest and greatest safety precautions, but that doesn’t change your original impression – and when your customers are considering business with you, these impressions have to count.

Packaging, whist an obvious type of performance predictor, is often given limited attention as we marketers move quickly to the more important stuff. However unfortunately for us marketers, without performance predicting packaging, consumers never move past a 'passing glance'.