Science Column: Psychology Behind Packaging

Have you ever wondered why holiday packaging starts appearing on shelves months before the holiday itself and why it’s so brightly themed? Why certain products seem to look similar to each other, yet wildly different from the packaging from other industries? Or possibly why the commercials you see on the TV always feature foods looking 10x more appealing than they seem in real life? If you’ve ever thought about these questions - or even if you haven’t - this edition of the Super Cool Science Corner (SCSC)... name still in progress… is just the place for you!

While packaging, holidays, and commercials may not seem like they’re science-related, they actually are! The science behind all of these is psychology - the study and science of the human mind and behavior. Believe it or not, companies use psychology to draw customers like you to their products. One of the biggest sale seasons for companies to draw in new customers is during different holidays. Around holidays, customers are in demand for products such as goodies, gifts, and treats, and there are many options on the market to consider. How do companies ensure that you will pick their product? Some considerations that are made include the color, design, and packaging of the product, brand reputation, and the season, to name a few.

Brand Reputation - Wait Who?

One of the biggest factors that goes into a consumer choosing a product is the brands that offer said product. If a consumer knows and at least partially enjoys a brand, they are more likely to stick with that brand over one they don’t know or don’t like. The fairly obvious conclusion from this is that brands that are more widely known and well-liked are more likely to get more sales, especially when pitted against brands with less recognition. The same goes for businesses. Chains are more widely recognized and also have more locations. People generally like to stick with what they know, so chains are able to get more sales with ease.

This is not to say that small brands, local businesses, or less known brands will never get sales. They likely wouldn’t be open if that was the case. However, these brands and businesses may find that they have to work a bit harder to get sales - especially from new customers. Psychology is arguably more useful for brands in this situation. They can use the human mind to attract new customers - if the buyer likes the product, maybe they’ll even gain a regular!

Pretty, Pretty Packaging!

In my non-expert opinion, one of the most important surface-level factors of sales that can be psychologically manipulated is packaging. There are almost limitless possibilities for packaging as one can change the colors, sizes, shapes, fonts, patterns, or any other parts of the packaging design desired! I think that the psychology behind coloring is most interesting, but this article from Forbes goes over some of the other aspects that are pretty interesting as well.

Colors are something that can change the entire feel of a product. Bright colors can give a product a pop of energy, neutral and earthy colors can potentially indicate eco-friendly products, dark colors give off an air of mystery. Here is a brief list of colors and the psychological effect they create.

Red: Excitement, passion, love, intensity

• Increases appetite and heart rates

• Good for attracting impulse buyers

• Creates a sense of urgency

Orange: Friendly, confident, cheerful, enthusiastic, excited, caution

• Used to create a “call to action”

• Connected with affordability, good prices, and good value

• Used to affect impulse buyers

Yellow: Optimism, warmth, youthfulness, clarity

• Stimulates the mind and encourages communication

• Used to grab a customer’s attention, especially those that would simply glance at the products

• Yellow draws in customers, but too much can create a sense of anxiety

Green: Health, growth, nature, tranquility

• Used to create a feeling of nature and new growth

• Associated with money, wealth, and riches

• Used to denote eco-friendly products

Blue: Trust, strength, dependability, confidence

• Decreases appetite and increases productivity

• Creates a feeling of security, safety, trust, and retention

• The sense of confidence and security it generates makes it a favorite for financial companies

Purple: Creativity, imagination, knowledge, royalty, success

• Used by cosmetic brands to create a sense of soothing and calming energy

• Being a blend of red and blue invokes a mix of both intensity and security

• Associated with creativity and imagination

Black: Mystery, power, reservation, sophistication, luxury

• Can create a sense of mystery and sleekness

• A very base-line color that can be used to draw attention or make products more neutral

• Too much black can invoke a sense of sadness or negativity

White: Neutral, calm, peaceful, clean, pure

• White space creates contrast as well as opening space and making sure the product doesn’t look too busy

• Represents fresh, new products

• A neutral color that can be used to create or aid in essentially any feeling

While there are other colors, as well as different shades and hues of each of these colors, just knowing the meanings behind these few colors will give you a good idea of how other colors can make you feel and how they can be used. Colors seem simple but are actually very useful in conveying a certain meaning, feeling, or idea. If you’d like to read about how colors can be used to send messages in another way, check out this article about Floriography and the meanings of colors of flowers.

Seasonal Products and Limited Time Offers! Get Now, One Day Only!

Another aspect of marketing that relies on psychology is the idea of “limited” items, products, offers, etc. “One day only” offers are a tactic that companies use to create a sense of urgency and necessity in the buyer. Sometimes, these offers are truly limited, but more often than not they will be offered again in the future.

One thing that falls into the category of limited-time offers is seasonal products! Some widely known examples of seasonal items are things like Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Reese’s collection of holiday-themed peanut butter cups such as trees, pumpkins, and eggs. (The eggs are the best ones, just so we’re all on the same page.) These products are tailored to fit the time of year, holidays, and seasons. Things like “Christmas edition!” packaging or “Halloween flavored!” items are generally, but this is not always the case, the same product only revamped to be more timely and relevant. Kind of like how the College Board is remodeling the SAT to seem more “up-to-date” and “accurate” so that they can get more people to take it because students and universities finally realized the SAT is not actually that great! Not the point though…

Holiday-themed items are not much different from their regular, out-of-season counterparts, but because they are more relevant and limited time, customers feel a sense of urgency. If you’ve ever said “I HAVE to buy this RIGHT now because otherwise, it’ll be too late!!” to yourself, you’ve played into the exact feeling companies are looking to create.

While packing, sales, brand reputation and every other boring marketing term you can think of may not seem scientific, under the surface they are extremely psychological. The next time you go to buy something at the grocery store, ask yourself why you picked up the brand you did! Was it because you think it is the best quality product you could get? The best bang for your buck? Or was it because you are used to that brand? Just some food for thought…

Thanks for reading and happy sciencing :)

Sources:

https://www.colorpsychology.org/color-psychology-marketing/

https://astute.co/the-psychology-of-holiday-marketing/

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/12/materialism-holidays