Excerpted from INSEAD Knowledge “Supersizing and downsizing: the impact of changing packaging and portion sizes on food consumption”
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When it comes to packaging, size matters.
In a research paper, INSEAD Associate Professor of Marketing Pierre Chandon and co-author Nailya Ordabayeva, an INSEAD PhD student, found that changes in the shape of packaging or portions can have a big impact on our consumption patterns.
As consumers, we tend to buy bigger packages or order bigger portions because we believe we’re getting better value. However, this phenomenon leads to overeating and obesity because we fail to notice just how big these portions and packages are and hence underestimate how much we consume. The size and the shape of packaging play a key role in these misperceptions…
For marketers, this means that if a company increases the size of its packaging in one dimension, consumers perceive it to be much larger and so assume they’re getting a better deal and are more likely to buy it. If a company increases the product size by the same volume but the package is expanded in three dimensions – not just one – consumers don’t perceive as big of a change.
This has important consequences for purchase and consumption decisions…“If you want people to order a larger portion, then you should just increase the height because people will notice. If you want to reduce the quantity of your portions, for example if you had higher raw material costs, you should reduce the height, the width and the length because people won’t notice,” Chandon says.
The research is timely because the phenomenon of ‘supersizing’ has swept the US and is now moving to the rest of the world…This trend has had a big impact on how much consumers eat. The supersizing trend is one of the main drivers of the obesity epidemic and packaging is adding to the problem, the study states.
“It’s very easy to be influenced by marketers,” Chandon says. “For example, the size of the package, the size of the meals, even the size of the plates and of the spoons; we know these things have a very strong impact on how much we eat.”
When it comes to eating healthy, people sabotage themselves as well…Chandon’s research shows that, in addition to underestimating how much we eat, when we eat ‘healthier’ meals, we tend to reward ourselves with treats or bigger portions…
One of the other conclusions of the research: downsizing packaging and portions is one of the most effective ways of reducing overeating. Chandon believes there’s a growing market for low calorie, smaller portion products. But manufacturers need to be very clear in their labelling and careful about pricing, because many consumers think smaller portions are less economical.
Edit by SAC
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Full article:
http://knowledge.insead.edu/SupersizingDownsizing080901.cfm
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