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Packaging can influence taste
2025-05-15
Packaging plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety of food and beverages from the factory to the consumer. It's also a necessary marketing factor, as the more attractive the product's packaging, the more customers will buy it. First impressions are everything, after all; a product that isn't prominently displayed struggles to sell. However, product packaging design goes beyond this; the way food and beverages are packaged can influence how people perceive their taste.
Wine and beer experts say that the different bottles and glasses used to package different beverages can affect their flavor, meaning a Pinot Grigio or Cabernet Sauvignon will taste different when served by the glass rather than in a specialty bottle.
Coca-Cola is an example of how packaging design can influence perceived taste. In 2011, the company switched from its world-famous red cans to white packaging featuring a white polar bear. This was the first time their trademark colors had changed in 125 years. These special edition cans were designed to raise funds for endangered polar bears.
However, customers began to complain about the taste of the drink, believing that Coca-Cola had changed its flavor and aesthetics, and the label was eventually changed back to the original red can, but the polar bear image remained.
Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, saw this as just one example of how packaging can alter taste perception. He became intrigued by the case and explored the phenomenon by placing popcorn in different colored bowls. Study participants rated the salty popcorn as sweeter when placed in a red bowl. Therefore, the color was associated with sweetness, further demonstrating Coca-Cola's packaging failure.
This finding suggests that designers and manufacturers should focus on designing more aesthetically pleasing packaging to enhance the taste of their products. Further research into how packaging influences consumers' senses is crucial, such as understanding the effects of color and pattern. It's important not only to consider whether a particular packaging will attract attention, but also to consider the experience consumers have after opening or consuming the product.
The connection between packaging and taste cannot be ignored or underestimated, as packaging sets expectations about a product's flavor profile. Whether this is intentional or unintentional is irrelevant, as the impact remains the same. The product's appearance entices customers to purchase it, and the can enhances their taste perception.
Product manufacturers and retailers need to pay attention to this relationship and how it affects human psychology. By taking advantage of this relationship, manufacturers can encourage consumers to make purchases and create the positive outcomes they seek.
KLBD-Kosher Certification Department