In the food market, packaging has carved out an increasingly prominent role.
In fact, it does not only have the purpose of preserving food, transporting it or extending its shelf-life. It is a marketing tool in itself, capable (and a cascade of research and studies demonstrate this) of influencing customer decisions, even conditioning their perception of taste itself.
And pizza?
A research by a team from the Ningbo University, in China, published a few months ago a study based on one of the most consumed foods in the world (Downloadable HERE)
Proving (yet once again) Pizza is certainly not immune to the “tricks” of sensory marketing and packaging.
The experiment consisted of showing an audience of 162 individuals three different pizza boxes. Since the research focused on the aspect of “visual density”, the only difference between the three boxes was in the decorative elements.
One contained only the generic name “Pizza“, the other had drawings of various fruits and vegetables, and finally the third had decorative elements not related in any way to food (arrow emojis, basically!).
The team asked, after showing the audience the three boxes, what type of product they expected in terms of flavour and texture, and which of these pizzas they would buy (at the same cost). The highest results were obtained by the box with the decorative elements related to food (although the box with the “arrows” followed closely behind).
What can we learn from this? Well, it seems like two lessons:
– The first is that, quoting the authors:
“The study confirmed a significant impact of visual density on sensory expectations. Specifically, high visual density in food packaging substantially enhanced consumers’ expectations about the taste and texture of the food”.
And pizza is not immune!
– The second is that talking about pizza for a whole day, showing empty pizza boxes and not letting them taste even a piece, is just pure evil!
PS: if you run a business in catering or foodservice industry, and you’re interested in my contentwriting and/or copywriting services, just give me a shout!