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The purpose of this paper is to examine perfume packaging in Spain and its effects on Basque female consumers’ purchase decision. The study population was made up of females, as they represent the highest consumer in the perfume market, accounting for 67 percent of the total perfume sales (Trufragance.com). Furthermore, in the past few years the perfume industry has basically targeted females (McIntyre, 2013).

An empirical study was conducted using a questionnaire to collect primary data in order to test the hypotheses. The questionnaire was distributed to 400 randomly selected respondents, from the general female population.

The findings show a relationship between the independent variables (i.e. visual packaging design, verbal packaging design, and packaging benefits) and the dependent variable (i.e. consumer purchase decision) based on several reasons discussed thoroughly in this paper. Additionally, age, education level, marital status, monthly income, and employment category of sample subjects influence the effect of perfume packaging on purchase decisions.

The main limitation of this study is the use of simple random sampling. The research findings bear important implications for more functional, emotional, environmental, and socially responsible marketing practice where packaging is concerned.

The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of packaging as a strategic marketing tool and how it can significantly influence the female’s purchase decision. Thus, giving managers and marketers a competitive advantage in this increasingly growing market. A new concept and measurement scale is presented that can be used for identifying creative packaging design and its benefits.

This study remains one of few research works focusing on the four dimensions of packaging benefits: functional, social, emotional, and environmental. Furthermore, it attempts to fulfill the identified need for encompassing potential and generally accepted packaging elements, including both the visual and verbal elements. Therefore, the uniqueness of this study arises from its examination of both aspects simultaneously, which has been ignored in previous research.

Do the package designs of organic products differ from those of conventional products and which package design elements are used more systematically in organic products? This paper aims to address this question by exploring the package design elements of organic products. The proposition is that in addition to package design elements that explicitly communicate and position a product as organic (i.e. organic labels and claims), other package design elements that implicitly convey an organic image are used.

The authors conduct a content analysis of the package designs from new product launches in four product categories (butter, cereals, fruit juice and milk) and across four markets (Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland).

The results show that the package designs of organic products differ from those of conventional products based on the presence of more paper material, white and green colours and images displaying nature.

The findings support the notion that in addition to organic labels and claims, package design elements that implicitly communicate values associated with organic products, such as environmental friendliness and sustainability are used.

This study is among the few to explore package design elements for organic products. Understanding how the package designs of organic products are constructed can support managerial decisions on the use of the package as a means to better communicate and position organic products.

It is estimated that 73 percent of purchase decisions are made at point of sale. In scanning packs at point of sale, perception is rapid, and quick recognition is important for inclusion in the decision process. Under conditions of rapid perception, there is an advantage for verbal stimuli perceived from the right‐hand side, and for non‐verbal stimuli perceived from the left‐hand side. This advantage probably derives from the laterality of the brain, with word processing generally being handled by the left hemisphere, while the right hemisphere generally processes pictorial matter. This asymmetry of perception implies that to maximise recall, words should be on the right‐hand sides of packs, pictures should be on the left. We tested this, using a tachistoscope to measure difference in recall. The results confirm the asymmetry of perception of elements of packaging.

The importance of packaging design and the role of packaging as a vehicle for consumer communication and branding are necessarily growing. To achieve communication goals effectively, knowledge about consumer psychology is important so that manufacturers understand consumer response to their packages. this paper aims to investigate this issue.

The paper examines these issues using a conjoint study among consumers for packaged food products in Thailand, which is a very competitive packaged food products market.

The conjoint results indicate that perceptions about packaging technology (portraying convenience) play the most important role overall in consumer likelihood to buy.

There is strong segmentation in which packaging elements consumers consider most important. Some consumers are mostly oriented toward the visual aesthetics, while a small segment focuses on product detail on the label.

Segmentation variables based on packaging response can provide very useful information to help marketers maximize the package's impact.

Anthropomorphism is the innate human tendency to attribute human or human-like characteristics to non-human entities or objects. Even though it is widely used by marketing practitioners, there is a scarcity of academic research that systematically attempts to capture this phenomenon. The aim of the current study is to investigate anthropomorphism in product packages of the 2010 Nielsen’s Top 100 grocery brands in the UK.

This study uses a mixed-method design combining quantitative content analysis and correspondence analysis. The former methodology allowed for documentation of anthropomorphic package elements, whereas the latter facilitated the study of structural relationships between anthropomorphic cues and product-related attributes such as type, category and target market.

The findings reveal that anthropomorphism is widely used in the packaging of grocery brands in the sample investigated. Moreover, the evidence shows that there appears to be an association between anthropomorphism and product-related attributes.

The current study contributes to both theory and practice. It illuminates the under-investigated interface of anthropomorphism and marketing by capturing anthropomorphic elements appearing in product packaging. The combination of anthropomorphic package elements and product-related attributes may assist managers in designing their packages to provide unique product experiences.

This study serves as a roadmap for both academics and practitioners wishing to engage in a fruitful dialogue on the emerging area of anthropomorphic marketing.

This article provides a theoretical framework for understanding the communicative effects of product imagery on attention to the brand, specifically, the attentional effects of incorporating a picture or illustration of the product on the packaging of the product. Empirical results from a virtual reality simulation show that package pictures increase shoppers’ attention to the brand. However this effect is contingent, occurring only for low familiarity brands (private‐label brands) within product categories that offer a relatively high level of experiential benefits. These results suggest that package pictures may be especially useful for private label brands and/or lesser tier national brands whose strategic objectives are to improve consumers’ perceptions of the brand and enter the consideration set.

The changing health care market is affecting consumers who are now expected to take greater responsibility for their health. Their means for doing this include purchasing self‐medication and medical self‐service, which coincides neatly with an increase in the number of over‐the‐counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals. Additionally, OTC pharmaceuticals are progressively becoming available in a wider range of stores, where the pharmacists' knowledge of the OTC products is absent. This study aims to examine packaging as media that conveys the product message at the point of purchase, and to explore the impact of its extrinsic verbal and visual product cues.

An exploratory conjoint analysis was conducted in Finland, the USA, and Ghana. In total, 89 respondents conducted conjoint tasks for two product types, i.e. a painkiller and sore throat medicine.

The results showed differences and similarities in the impact of the packaging product cues across Finland, the USA, and Ghana. Differences and similarities were also detected across the two different, but related, product types. The study found that the impact of product cues is contextual, varying across the samples and product types.

The results are limited by the exploratory nature of the conjoint analysis. They highlight that medical marketers should recognize the varying impact of salient cues on consumers' product preferences and choices.

The study deals with a mostly unexplored issue and provides exploratory insights into the phenomenon.

The aim of this study is to explore the contextual influences of packaging design and its cues on respondents' preferences.

To explore the contextuality of packaging cues, a multi-attribute valuation technique, conjoint analysis was used for two types of pharmaceutical products (painkiller and sore throat medicine) across seven countries. Data were collected among respondents (N = 461) from Finland, Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, Portuguese, South Africa and the USA.

Similarities and dissimilarities were observed between the product types and countries analysed in terms of the impact of packaging cues. The findings demonstrate the global and local nature of brand cues expressed in retail packaging.

The study implies that some cues may serve global markets, while some cues may need to be localised in order to meet the needs of local markets. Understanding these cues and their influences on consumers' brand preferences and choices at the point-of-purchases may enable companies to enter new markets, help them create sustainable and credible global brands.

The study contributes to the existing retail packaging literature and pharmaceutical branding literature by providing empirical evidence of the multidimensional aspects of sensory packaging cues. Second, it contributes by showing the contextual nature of retail packaging and its associated cues for OTC pharmaceuticals.

This paper aims to address how adding food ingredients to a packaged base food affects consumers’ calorie estimation of the new augmented product.

The four performed experiments and analyses of variance demonstrate an underlying psychological mechanism, explained below.

Results show that the healthiness of the added food ingredient (AFI) does not matter if the base food is healthy, and consumers’ calorie estimates of the augmented packaged food product are accurate. When, however, the food base is unhealthy, and the AFI is healthy, consumers underestimate the new product calories. This underestimation effect increases further when the healthy ingredients multiply. This underestimation effect endures when these ingredients are presented in a visual form, but it becomes smaller when these ingredients are presented in a verbal form. A justification mechanism is relevant.

Further research should test across the broader range of the food product matrix. There is a great diversity of AFI presentations, and further research may deal with the impact of AFIs of these different forms on consumers’ calorie estimation and healthiness perceptions. Research may also test sensory-arousing mechanisms that can help understand how consumers perceive the calories of the augmented food.

The findings suggest that consumers should be cautious of the judgment bias caused by the presence of an AFI on food packages and raise their awareness regarding nutrition implications and dietary effects. From the perspective of food manufacturers, although adding healthy AFIs to unhealthy base foods may increase consumers’ purchase intention and bring higher profits, it may not be sustainable as a marketing strategy in the long term and has immediate ethical implications.

Policymakers should introduce voluntary schemes to monitor and restrict the improper presentation of AFIs, aiming to rule out the abuse of healthy AFIs on unhealthy packaged food.

This work offers three major original and valuable contributions. It explains the effects of AFIs on calorie estimation and consumer healthiness perceptions in a context not studied before, namely, packaged food products. Next, it advances the literature on consumer judgment error and heuristics concerning product package attributes. As adding ingredients is integral to product line extension decisions, the results also clarify how marketing can safeguard firm social responsibility in combating obesity.

Although the increase in point-of-purchase decisions heightens the communication potential of food product packaging, empirical research on understanding how visual packaging affects consumers' subsequent product and brand evaluations and perceptions is scant. This study seeks to develop a theoretical model to show the effects of consumer attitudes toward visual food packaging on perceived product quality, product value, and brand preference.

A self-administered questionnaire developed from the literature was conducted, and 315 undergraduate students participated in the study.

The empirical results show that attitudes toward visual packaging directly influence consumer-perceived food product quality and brand preference. Perceived food product quality also directly and indirectly (through product value) affects brand preference.

This paper offers directions for understanding the effects of visual packaging on positive consumer product and brand evaluations. Based on the study findings, food firms should emphasize the visual packaging design factors such as color, typeface, logo, graphics, and size to form consumers' positive perceptions and brand preference.