In 2015, Sappi North America released The Neuroscience of Touch – a book that dives into haptics (the science of touch), and how it influences emotion and decision-making – click here to learn more.

This year Sappi took on a mission to dive deeper. They teamed up with Clemson University – a leader in packaging science – to explore how touch affects purchasing decisions and perceptions at both the point of sale and after. They compiled their findings and released a new and updated book called The Touch Advantage, and some of the results might surprise you.

The touch advantage

The first book demonstrated the ROI of touch in print marketing. Now to study how it – specifically premium packaging – affects purchasing decisions, Sappi set up a new series of experiments.

This poses important questions when marketing and packaging budgets hang in the balance. Respective departments often focus on the look and overlook the feel. Sure, ‘the look’ can draw attention and entice a customer to pick a product up, but once it’s in their hands, what role do sensory factors play?

The Experiment Setup

All that glitters is not sold

Attention might be the first step to a sale, but touch triggers feelings ranging from perceptions of quality to emotional attachment. By tapping into the behaviors that lead to sales, brands can tailor their packaging to create a haptic experience, resulting in more engagement and sales. 

You might have heard of the endowment effect. It’s a cognitive bias dictating that touching an object or even imagining touching it, results in a sense of ownership. This triggers the endowment effect, or our willingness to pay more for it. In other words, we value what we own or think we own. And ultimately, the findings confirm that the more someone engages with a product, the more likely they are to buy it.

In the study, every participant agreed that touching product packaging was integral to their shopping experience. But what behaviors actually predicted sales?

Touch frequency and duration

The results are in and it’s clear. The more and the longer a customer touches a product, the more likely they are to buy it.

Filling up on premium

Sappi went on to study the effects of premium and nonpremium packaging on the shopping experience. The next series of experiments took place inside of a curated retail space, testing different packaging for CBD serums, earbuds and skincare products, using A/B testing.

The CBD Serum experiment presented a unique opportunity to show brands how to approach packaging decisions when introducing a new product to the market and trying to garner attention from a new audience. An interesting tidbit from the results was that foil was selected as the #1 embellishment – given the choice, nearly 60% of participants purchased packaging with a foil embellishment. 

As much as we try not to judge a book by its cover, at the end of the day premium techniques and materials tend to make a bigger impact than their nonpremium counterparts.

A good first impression means no second thoughts

Another consideration is customer satisfaction before, during and after a purchase. Packaging has the power to relay information with its size, shape, texture, weight and sturdiness, signaling character, value and perceived quality. 

In these experiments, the researchers set up a home environment where facial expressions were recorded on opening a package of earbuds and chocolate bars.

A customer’s feelings about the packaging tend to carry over and influence what they say about the contents or the product itself.

When it came to product testimonials and online reviews, people who chose the premium packaging wrote longer, more positive testimonials using words like “vibrant”, “luxurious”, and “decadent”. Those who chose CRB packaging felt more dissatisfied with their purchase because the packaging didn’t meet the expectations of the product inside. They commented that the products looked cheap, bland and dull, and that the packaging lowered the quality of the earbuds.

Packaging things up

Packaging can create long-lasting connections and satisfaction with a brand. To use premium finishings that can lead to more sales, it’s important to invest in high-quality SBS for its paperboard integrity and surface quality. 

The 3 key takeaways:

1 – Optimize your marketing research to include haptic print applications that are appropriate for your category, and develop a touch test to research different types of packaging.

2 – Check the packaging trends in your product category, and invest in high quality paperboard.

3 – Packaging is the true influencer (the perception of the packaging quality is applied to the product quality inside).

60 participants surveyed. Areas of interest: confectionary, electronics, health & beauty. Staged a retail store and a home environment. Premium packaging = SBS with at least one embellishment, plain= CRB paperboard and no finishing. Used biometric data (eye and emotion tracking), sales data (predications), quantitative data (statistical analysis), qualitative data (surveys).