Chocolate, biscuit and confectionery packaging: How the weight of the product influences customer expectations

Satisfying one's appetite is one of the primary goals of the industry that makes chocolate, biscuits and confectionary. In order to meet that challenge, marketers must explore parameters beyond the food itself that appeal to multisensory perceptions. An important element of how people judge food that is often overlooked is weight of the product and the container. Here's a deeper look at how product or container weight can influence people's perceptions and purchasing decisions about food.

Container Weight Research

A growing body of appetite studies to observe how people correlate product weight with other perceptions, such as product density and fullness expectations, point to suggestions that marketers of chocolate, biscuits and confectionery should use this evidence as a guide to improve packaging based on visuals, weight and other subtleties. Researchers have sought to learn about the relationships between container weight, perceived density of food before consuming it and expected satiation. Several of these studies confirm that perception of satiety is related to factors beyond what the product tastes like. Some of these studies include:

Wooley, 1972
Raghubir & Krishna, 1999
Yeomans, Lartamo, Procter, Lee & Gray, 2001
Wansink, van Ittersum & Painter, 2006
Irvine, Brunstrom & Rogers, 2008
Bilman, van Triip & Renes, 2010
Brunstrom, Collingwood & Rogers, 2010
Brunstrom, Brown, Hinton, Rogers and Fay, 2011
Piqueras-Fiszman, Harrar, Alcaide & Spence, 2011

Weight Density Illusion

Illusions are often thought of as misconceptions of reality, but everyone experiences them on some sensory level. Weight density illusion is a perception of how weight affects impressions on how filling food may be based on assumptions, past experiences and overall presentation that may not correspond with physical attributes of food or packaging. Heavy containers, for example, are perceived to equate to denser food compared with the exact same contents in physically lighter containers.

Expected Satiety

Several factors can influence an individual's satiation expectations of food before they taste it. Even slight modifications to container weight can have a dramatic impact on expectations of a filling meal or dessert. Here are examples, based on the above studies, of factors that can influence a perception of increased satiety:

when food becomes more familiar
nutritional information
high calorie food
energy density information
perceived volume of food served
portion size of food intake
container or bowl weight

Conversely, a 2008 study by Brunstrom, Shakeshaft & Scott-Samuel observed that high fat and more energy-dense foods are perceived to be less filling than lower energy-dense foods. The authors speculated that these expectations may be learned rather than based on the physical nature of the food.

Conclusion

Heavy containers can be more satiating than when food is presented in a lighter container according to ongoing studies. Makers and marketers of chocolate, biscuits and confectionery should consider conducting their own tests to determine ideal product weight. Customer expectations can be influenced by visual appearances, particularly the weight-density illusion, as heavier container weight is often perceived as more food density, creating a filling sensation. Food marketers should keep in mind that these factors affect consumer purchasing decisions. Desjardin has been producing packaging for Chocolates , Biscuits and Confectionery packaging for more than 100 years. The company's experts are at your service to help you find the right packaging to support your products' success.