Your packaging is her first, and sometimes only, introduction to your product. Is it causing her to reach out to touch, test and most importantly buy? The physical package, together with a few dozen words of messaging and all-important consumer claims are important brand elements that must be wisely interwoven so that you have her from hello.  

Savvy beauty and personal care brands conduct consumer research prior to making major changes to existing packaging in an effort to better understand her on a deeper level. Through consumer studies and focus groups, an intimate conversation takes place, allowing brands to open the door to her buying desires, motivations, and most importantly, they discover how to make an emotional connection with her.  These types of conversations reveal the influencers that entice her to purchase and help you uncover the ideal packaging recipe that makes her select your brand over others on the shelf.

Both qualitative and quantitative research can reveal packaging appeal in a number of ways. 

The qualitative “behind the mirror” viewpoint
Get to know your consumer through focus groups.  Focus group recruitment is highly targeted, with each group consisting of 5-10 participants who share the same characteristics and demographics of your exact target customer.  This enables you to see and hear honest feedback about your packaging from just the consumers you are trying to win in a short time frame.  It also enables you to see physical cues and attraction (or lack thereof) to your product and packaging.  Does she instantly connect with your brand messaging? Do your claims draw her in and connect with her? Immediate reaction to a product’s package and messaging are a strong indicator of her potential to buy. Watching a group also allows you to notice facial expressions that are a giveaway to her true feelings and demonstrate her emotional connection to your product.  

Sometimes the best way to get her input during a focus group is to put her in an actual buying scenario.  Action-based focus groups place her in a makeshift shopping aisle where she can pick up your product and package—as well as your competitors. As you watch her picking up a product, reading and reacting, you will quickly see patterns of engagement and how she touches, reads, and reacts to various packaging choices. Putting her into a social situation, watching her reactions and emotions, and tapping into her needs will help inform your packaging decisions.

The quantitative view, measuring packaging appeal
Quantitative consumer research studies are deep conversations that will provide a rich and detailed portrait of your consumer and how she reacts to and engages with your primary and secondary packaging. Online survey methods are fast.  In a few days’ time, a brand can delve deeply into the individual components of its packaging concepts and measure the strength of their appeal.

As an example, in a March 2015 consumer study, The Benchmarking Company surveyed 2,956 U.S. women to uncover her attitudes toward fragrance and packaging in general.  Findings of this 2-day non-branded quantitative study revealed which aspects of perfume/fragrance packaging are important to her in general:

·      71% of women shared that when it comes to packaging, the size of the package is important
·      51% of women said the description of the scent is important
·      43% indicated visual imagery in general
·      39% said product packaging entices her to sample/test a new fragrance
·      28% said the color of the packaging is important
·      26% found it important for the packaging to look feminine
·      21% shared that if the bottle looks like a work of art, they would pay more for the fragrance
·      Only 4% of women find a celebrity name on packaging to be important

Using interactive tools in online surveys, such as ‘text highlighting’ a brand can instantly measure which words or phrases appearing on packaging appeal to her first, second, etc., providing a strong indicator of which messaging to keep and which to rethink.  Surveying tools like ‘picture ranking’ allow her to place your packaging concepts in the order that she’d like to see them, or she can pick apart components of various packaging concepts to “create” her ideal package, seeing it come to life on the screen in front of her (and to you, in the study findings.) These study results provide a platform of data and insights that are actionable from the moment the research is complete.

Both types of research will unveil whether:

·      Packaging is easy for her to understand and utilize
·      It entices her to pick it up off the shelf to learn more
·      It compels her to purchase
·      It effectively communicates product benefits and value messages
·      It effectively blends form and function
·      It tells the story of the brand

With research results in hand, brands that now understand their consumer’s packaging motivators can work toward creating a package that influences purchasing decisions.  Well-researched packaging concepts also help brands to avoid multi-million dollar mistakes.  

About the author
Denise Herich is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at The Benchmarking Company, a bi-coastal consumer research firm borne from The Beauty Company.  The Benchmarking Company provides marketing and strategy professionals in the beauty and personal care industries with forward-thinking, need-to-know information about its customers and prospects through consumer research studies, focus groups, and beauty product testing.