University Maastricht

The influence of packaging design on consumer decision making

Consumer decision making for low involvement goods is to a large extent influenced by external factors that evoke cues. The package on the supermarket shelf is one such cue. Consumers unconsciously have an idea of what a package has to look like, thus inferring that the product will be appropriately performing the job it is supposed to do. However, products are competing for consumer attention by being visually novel. The question remains in how far a visually novel package still is judged as being appropriate. This issue is examined in the case of detergent-packages.