Image Placement on Packaging Influences Consumer Perception of Product, Study Says

Health-conscious shoppers who find themselves in the snack aisle are most likely to toss a package of cookies or crackers in their cart that has a product image at the top or left side of the packaging, according to a study featured in a New York Times article published Aug. 17.

The University of Miami Business School study, which will be published in the December issue of The Journal of Marketing, concluded that consumers perceive product images placed in either or these locations to be healthy or light. In contrast, product images placed at the bottom or right side of their packaging are viewed as being rich or heavy. Of the 270 cracker and cookie packages included in the study, the images of rich, full-bodied products like decadent double chocolate chunk cookies were placed in the lower or right front portion of the packaging most of the time. Light, “healthy” products were placed in the top or left portion of the packaging 66% of the time.

The New York Times article’s implication that these findings arise from the way the human eye approaches images was challenged earlier this week by The Package Unseen’s blog post about the packaging design study. The blog post’s author notes that the cookie industry is dominated by a handful of large companies, and theorizes that their design systems are more influential on the packaging design in this category than how the human eye approaches images. To me, this is like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg?

At any rate, I am looking forward to examining more of the research when this study is published in full. In the meantime, you might want to experiment designing your product labels based on the research that has already been released.