Multisensory Product Packaging: An Introduction

Packaging provides the means of protecting, transporting, and conserving the product that happens to be contained within. Nowadays, packaging also constitutes a powerful brand element, one that can be used to convey information, create value, persuade the consumer, modulate their behaviour. In this chapter, we introduce the topic and present packaging as a multisensory device capable of transforming the consumer's experience. We highlight the growing interest from both academic researchers and marketing professionals in packaging experiences that have been crafted to optimize the way packaging looks, sounds, feels, and even, in some cases, the way that it smells and/or tastes too. Importantly, we discuss how such interest is moving from the consideration of the impact of just a single sense at a time to a growing understanding that ultimately it is their interaction (i.e., the multisensory element) that is key to driving the consumer response. Finally, we provide a brief overview of the chapters included in this volume, highlighting what we see as their key contribution to the emerging field of multisensory packaging design.