The online tool uses a web cam during the early stages of a company’s market research, to see how disruptive packaging is seen by shoppers on a virtual supermarket shelf. An image is produced to show what packaging shoppers looked at most and the results are highlighted in neon green.
Lout de Goeij, VP marketing and branding, Smurfitt Kappa, told FoodProductionDaily shelf-ready packaging has traditionally been made with only product protection and transportation in mind.
“Disruptive packaging is designed to take shoppers outside of their habitual choices by drawing their eye to the product on the shelf with attention-grabbing words or striking colours,” he said.
Results available in a week
Smurfitt Kappa claims the eye-tracking research is used in the early stages of packaging development and design and the results are available in a week, meaning manufacturers can save time and money by knowing what works before the product goes into production.
As it is based online, the tool allows manufactures to gather a large amount of data and can narrow down the results to sub-sections of shoppers.
According to Smurfit Kappa, disruptive shelf-ready packaging is noticed by 76% more shoppers in the first five seconds compared to other competitor products. It showed the packaging is remembered by 79% more shoppers after their shopping trip.
Raised levels of curiosity
Overall levels of curiosity and interest are raised in almost three times as many shoppers as standard packaging.
“A redesign of the shelf-ready packaging for a cheese range driven by the insights of this technology resulted in a 40% increase in sales. Similar redesigns for pizza and chocolate saw sales increases of 30% and 10% respectively,” added de Goeij.
Smurfitt Kappa says the tool will let manufacturers change the design and colour of their packaging and see where the product looks best on the shelf.
They can then see if this makes a difference to shoppers before they make the packaging.
Manufacturers can use the tool to view their packaging next to their competitors in 3D on a 2.5 by 4.5m screen.
Olivier Tilleuil, founder, EyeSee, said between 40% and 70% of purchasing decisions are made in-store and 86% of consumers admitted they are ‘switchers’.
“Pack stand-out has never been more important,” he said.