The consumer testing of food package graphic design

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to present a technique for measuring the impact of package graphic designs on consumer choice and purchase intentions. The technique allows several proposed graphic designs for the same product to be compared, both with one another and with their immediate competitors up to a maximum of eight designs. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is based upon a fractionally replicated Latin square design with two sets of four package graphic designs and five consumer groups as the independent variables. The dependent variable is consumer choice. Findings – Three fully worked examples of the test are presented. The results show that graphic design has a massive and statistically significant impact on consumer choice, ceteris paribus. The test is able to discriminate strongly between package graphic designs that only apparently differ in detail. Research limitations/implications – The results show that graphic design has a significant impact upon consumer choice, but it...

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