Surveys are an essential part of packaging research and design and help to uncover more about customers’ attitudes and behaviour. Eye tracking technology has now taken this to a whole new level.
Eye tracking helps to bridge the gap between what customers think and what they say they think. An information gathering tool used to study the visual attention of individuals, it works using near-infrared light and high-definition cameras which project light onto the eye and record the direction that it reflects off the cornea.
In a recent consumer test on three international spaghetti packaging brands, distributed by Eataly, iMotions eye tracker software was integrated with Google Modules to examine the consumer perception on different stimuli of spaghetti packaging. This was conducted to obtain specific data for food companies regarding the importance of design elements and to uncover the consumer’s strategic behaviour used during the decision-making process.
The research focused on specific visual details on retail packaging for pasta, including colour, shape, package material, and logo. The Google Modules survey focused on the personal choices of the participants, while iMotions eye tracker software, used in the CoSMIC Lab (Cognition, Social, Multimodal Interaction & Communication Laboratory) at the University of Roma Tre in Rome, Italy, was used for visualisation research.
How it worked
In phase 1, participants were asked to complete a Google Modules questionnaire with questions about gender, age, and nationality. In phase 2, a picture displayed the Afeltra, Granoro and Rigorosa packaging on the monitor for 20 seconds, allowing data to be automatically collected via the eye tracker software. In the next step, using a multiple-choice grid, a question with a rating scale from 1 to 4 was outlined to ascertain the element that most influenced the consumer’s choice, where 1 was rated as “very little” and 4 was “a lot”. The elements of choice were colour, brand name, transparency, logo, quality, and other.
What was revealed
The combined data revealed that participants spent more time focusing on Afeltra (4.9 seconds), while on the Granoro (4.2 seconds) and then on Rigorosa (4.0 seconds). The Afeltra design triggered 548 fixations; Granoro attracted 533 fixations; and Rigorosa had 391 fixations. These findings highlight the relevance of participants’ focus when deciding on the ideal packaging for its aesthetic elements.
As seen, time spent on Afeltra packaging was greater than other packaging since Afeltra was in first position and most viewed, the packaging of the Granoro was the second most viewed and matched with the results of the questionnaire, while Rigorosa packaging was noticed the least and during the survey, the least chosen.
Summary of data
The findings on time spent on the entire package and on the logo of each brand is depicted in the featured image. Through the observed data it is possible to compare what is seen by the candidate and the information reported in the questionnaire. In this case, the result is consistent with what the candidates expressed in the questionnaire.
As seen, the least amount of time was spent on brand logos, and the Rigorosa logo was seen as much as the Afeltra logo, even though the candidates spent less time overall looking at the Rigorosa packaging entirely.
This result also underlines how the candidates were visually struck by the names on the Granoro and Rigorosa packs, which correlated with the products, while the name Afeltra does not. The Rigorosa name pack was also judged as “strongly influential”. Again, the data of the questionnaire was congruent with the observed data obtained through the eye tracker. This data is crucial when choosing certain visual characteristics for the communicative creation of a product’s packaging. The number of revisits provides information relating to the amount of times a participant looked at a particular point, defined by the automated optical inspection (AOI). This shows, and allows further examination of, the areas repeatedly attracted by the participant, and helps to discover the reasons.
As seen, the Granoro packaging had the higher value, possibly because the packaging of the Granoro brand was in the centre of the image and therefore in the middle of the other two packs. The revisits report indicates that Rigorosa was at a lower value than Afeltra and Granoro, which may explain why the survey shows that Rigorosa was consistently in the last position.
Conclusion
The results revealed how important packaging design is in consumer buying behaviour and that packaging design elements such as colour and product information play a key role in
decision making.
This article was first published in the September-October 2022 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p22.
