Designers measure shoppers' ‘gut reactions' to products

GERMANY-- Neuromarketing specialist Decode and design agency Solutions have developed a new technique to measure the ‘gut reactions' behind shoppers' buying decisions.

Swiss neuropsychologist Christian Scheier developed the system, applying techniques used in psychological tests.

Described as a cross between a questionnaire and a reaction test, the tool asks respondents to make quick choices between products, and to match those against the images and words that best sum up their feelings.

In this way it aims to measure consumers' initial subconscious response to product and packaging design, typically formed within one or two seconds.

Scheier set up Decode last year, having previously worked in eye-tracking for ad research firm MediaAnalyzer. He said the new technique offers a clearer understanding of the processes behind people's behaviour than existing methods, and lends itself better to quantitative measurement.

Hamburg-based Solutions has exclusively licensed the packaging testing tool, but Scheier said the technology may also find applications in other areas of market research. The firm is Germany's second-largest design agency, with clients including Danone, Burger King and Dr Oetker.

Holger Prüßner, founder of Solutions, said that although shoppers' decisions on what to buy are overwhelmingly made while standing at the shelf, there was no effective way of measuring how they are made – hence the 70%-80% flop rate of new products. “We wanted to reduce that,” Prüßner told Research. “Why do products die which are really cool? When it comes to FMCG, a lot of it has to do with packaging.”

Author: Robert Bain