We sat down with MWV’s vice president Steve Kazanjian, who revealed that the study originated from the brand realising that there were critical areas the industry was not focusing on when it comes to how the consumer interacts with packaging.
“At a time when we were doing cat scans of people’s brains whilst exposing them to advertising, we noticed that we only had anecdotal information on how the consumer was using, interacting and storing products,” he tells Cosmetics Design.
“So we wanted to look at the role the packaging plays both in store and in the home and specific metrics of the packaging and the satisfaction and dissatisfaction,” he adds.
Kazanjian says packaging affects purchase intent, impacts product satisfaction and drives repeat purchase.
Thus, this study, tracks packaging satisfaction from the store shelf to the moment of disposal in order to uncover opportunities for brands to deliver on their promises.
This year the second edition of the study expanded into China, India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey, South Africa, the U.K., Germany and Japan as well as the US markets, taking the feedback of over 500 consumers from each country.
It’s not about price but emotional value..
The VP says when it comes to beauty; the industry has long focused on the in-store experience, like investing in extravagant retail displays or how to advance the likes of glass cutting, which is setting the stage for consumer experience.
“What’s interesting is that while we found we were performing well in store, we were completely underperforming within ‘during use,’ as consumers were still looking for something more engaging,” he reveals.
He notes that MWV has found through this research that the consumer really needs those affirmations of that experience during use.
“If we look at an actuator behind a fragrance for example, the spray nub will be the same on YSL as the one on a $30 dollar mid-tier fragrance.."
"We found that there’s a great opportunity for differentiation within that space to create a more measurable experience where you can engage the consumer on a much more emotional or visceral level.”
Adjusting to the online platform
Finally, Kazanjian says we are seeing this massive shift of consumers from a brick and mortar experience into this blending of both and
ecommerce.
As e-marketer forecasts B2C ecommerce purchases to increase by 20% this year and globally 1.5 trillion in sales, the VP says the platform is a passion of his and what the industry is going to have to do to acknowledge the massive consumer movement into that space is going to be interesting in the coming years.
"We’re starting to understand that there’s an entirely new role of packaging online we haven’t even thought about. For savvy marketers who pick it up, it’s going to change the personal care things significantly in the way we design packaging both primary and secondary," he tells this publication.
MWV's webinar kicks off 2pm EST time tomorrow, to find out more on the brand's survey findings, see here.