Female power in packaging design

Abstract

This report describes a graduation project for the master programme Integrated Product Design of the faculty Industrial Design Engineering of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. The report describes a research concerning the influence of buyers’ gender differences on appealing packaging design and a redesign of whisky bottles based on the results of research. This project was conducted for CARTILS, a branding and packaging design consultancy with offices close to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and in London, England. Starting point The reason for this project was a publication with the fact that women are responsible for 80% of the purchase decisions in the western world (Nummerdor, 2011). CARTILS wondered, “How should spirits packaging design be adapted to convince these female buyers?” Findings At the start of the project the context of the project was explored. The focus on marketing aspects of packaging, and differences between genders were explained. An online questionnaire was held to explore the consumer context. The outcomes showed that packaging design plays an important role in purchase decisions, when a consumer stands clueless in the store, without a servant to give advice. A small research showed that in the case of spirits, the purchase decisions are almost equally divided between men and women. Hence, it became relevant to focus on the differences in appealing packaging design between genders, instead of solely focussing on the feminine aspect. Another relevant question rose: should the packaging design be adapted to the buyer’s gender, when the buyer’s and the consumer’s gender are not similar? Taken into account was the probable outcome that the purchase decision are almost equally divided between genders. In literature was found that a product appeals to a consumer when the product personality matches the self-concept of the consumer. The product personality is based on evaluation of aesthetics. In case the buyer is not the final consumer, it is unclear to what buyer matches the product personality. Proposed is that the buyer matches the product personality to the ideal personification of the product concept, named the prototypical product personality. It has been researched whether the ideal personifications of gender specific products differ between men and women. This was done by discussing a masculine spirit category (whisky) and a feminine spirit category (cream liqueur) in gender specific focus groups. Clear differences in the prototypical product personality appeared between genders, while the stereotypical consumers were comparable. Both the male and female personifications of whisky were translated into three bottles of The Famous Grouse brand, varying in strength of expressing the personification. The designed packages were used in testing whether the difference in product personality was reflected in the buying decision. The results of the test could not indicate significant relations between gender and the purchase decision based on packaging design. Neither a relation could be found between the expressed personifications and purchase decision in general. Limitations A number of limitations need to be taken into account regarding the presented study. The study is conducted with the typical masculine spirit whisky, from which the packaging design generally is not a key element in the purchase decision. Secondly, one should always take into account the consistency controversy (Liska, 1975) stating a discrepancy between what people say and their actual acting. Thirdly, the participants of the research were relatively young; more than half of the participants was aged between 18 and 25, almost a fifth was aged between 26 and 35. Fourthly, the discussions were lead by a female facilitator. This might have influenced the outcomes, since genders do react and communicate differently compared to a situation wherein the opposite gender is present. Finally, apparently cream liqueur is not popular among the chosen focus groups. The image of cream liqueur was clearly less strong compared to whisky’s image. This makes the prototypical product personalities described in this report for whisky more reliable than for cream liqueur. Implications CARTILS is advised not to consider gender differences between the buyer and the actual consumer. They could better continue focussing on reflecting the actual consumer’s personality to make the package appealing, until research shows new factors affecting the purchase choice based on packaging. For similar research, is advised to conduct multiple focus groups per variable. Next to that is advised to simulate a more realistic situation in either an online questionnaire or real life. This would request a higher amount of participants Designers, who want to represent a personality in their design, are advised to translate the personality into design terms and create inspirational collages based on these. The collages help to create a common understanding among people. This is useful for discussing the designs with colleagues. And since the design terms are not one-to-one translatable into design, advised is to first explore widely the directions, before choosing a basis design with boundaries to elaborate. Recommendations Recommended for further research is to conduct a similar test to research the effect in purchase decision of these differences on a typical feminine spirit. Next to that, advised is to research in what way the gender differences in prototypical product personalities are reflected in purchase decisions, taking into account it might not have significant effect.