www.foodtechnology.co.nz 17
GROUND
BREAKING
KIWI RESEARCH
When Kiwi Frenchman David
Jaud wandered the supermarket
aisles in search of a good wine, he
always wondered about the labels
and how they affect consumer
spending. Wine companies throw
billions annually at packaging and
labelling, he pondered, yet little is
really known about how and why
specific features of package design
influence consumer responses.
So the Massey University consumer behaviour
lecturer started two separate research projects
to explain what themes and elements should be
used…where and when…and analyse retail sales.
“It’s a very cluttered market these days, and wine
companies have to stand out from the crowd,”
the former corporate/business banker for wine
companies in Gironde, France, says. “I wanted to
know what influences wine buyers to pick up one
bottle over the other.”
In a first study, two distinct themes or trends caught
Jaud’s eye…fantasy labelling with the use of fiction
genre that contain imaginative or magical features
(such as mystical dragons or unicorns), and presence
of quality cues on labels/bottles, such as award
wins. “Fantasy themes are now really popular and
increasing across product categories, but it’s unclear
how consumers react to that kind of labelling,” he
says.
“Frankly, we all like wine and we all like fantasy. But
the risk is higher in trying different fantasy labelled
wine when you are in the lower price bracket.” In
other words, fantasy labelling is most successful
with more expensive brands or combined with other
high-quality signals.
Across four (online and field) experiments and one
analysis of retail sales, the results unite what Jaud
says are seemingly contradictory theories predicting
the effects of fantasy labels on taste and purchasing
behaviour by uncovering an important boundary
condition…product quality signal, in line with the
principle of hedonic dominance.
“The results suggest that for low quality products,
fantasy labels backfire, consistent with research on
metacognition,” he says. “For products average
in quality, fantasy and non-fantasy labels do not
differ in their performance. Yet, in the presence of
a high-quality signal, fantasy labels impact taste
and purchasing behaviour positively. This positive
effect is sequentially driven by the evocation of the
imaginary and affect, which is in line with research
on mental simulation.”
In a second study (analysis of retail sales), Jaud
found that extra text information (as a quality cue)
on the label has the strongest positive effect and
high quality features such as gold medal stickers are
important; typefaces that are simple are preferred
(sophisticated or elegant typefaces are more
complex and preferred only under some conditions
such as higher prices or combined with extra text);
and telling the story of the product is welcome.
Handwriting fonts do not fare well, and imagery is
ideal when acting as a visual representative of the
text. Simple labels can still be informative or visually
representative.
In analysing retail sales, results also showed a
negative effect of the combination of extra text and
pictorial/visual representations, but Jaud says some
brands that use such a combination may still perform
well, explained by many other reasons such as price,
grape variety or awards. He wanted to know what
range of label types – background colours, pictorial,
fonts, label fragmentation and complexity overall
–have an effect on consumer purchasing behaviour.
“I was also interested in high quality cues and their
impacts – gold medal stickers, extra text, storytelling,
the technique of wine-making, fonts and type
face.”
Reviewing all the data, do unified labels, plain brand
name typeface and detailed information have any
relevance to why people choose one bottle over
the other? Yes, says Jaud. But there’s a fine line.
Complex label elements such as compound labels
and ornate typeface such as sloped hand-writing and
too many details have a negative effect.
“However, the use of quality cues such as extra
text or a higher price can reverse the negative effect
of complex elements such as ornate typeface at
prices around $28 and up,” he says, relevant to the
selected range of wines/SKUs examined.
“Wine label elements have strong effects on sales,
relative to the other marketing mix elements.
Specifically, extra text, as a quality cue, has the
strongest positive effect. After price, the combination
of image and extra text has the strongest (negative)
effect on sales,” Jaud says.
“Overall, this research shows and confirms the
importance of wine labels in affecting consumer
behaviour. The findings have strong managerial
implications for wine companies and retailers
regarding what specific elements and themes to
use on wine labels – and the research has wider
implications for the entire food and beverage
markets.”
Packaging and label material Will
your label need a protective coating if
it’s chilled in refrigerators? Will it travel
and stay in pristine condition? What does
the label need to endure? Do you want
a thicker more luxurious label paper to
emphasis the quality of the product?
Production runs Taking into account
any regular variations such as different
flavours or fluctuating production runs
means your labelling needs to be easily
adapted to keep costs down.
Special effects Perhaps you can
give your label a bit of a kick? Hot foil
stamping, a gloss varnish or a foiled
badge can make a real difference on the
shelves.
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