Studying the emotions and dynamics of the buyer journey can help marketers better understand packaging for chocolates, biscuits and confectionery.The various stages in which these emotions are strongest involve opening the package, cooking the food, eating it and rebuying the package. Here are ways to adapt packaging based on how people react to these stages.
How Different Senses Affect Perceptions
Each stage of the buyer journey deals with different senses that contribute to consumer perceptions of a food product. That's why the entire process is known as a multisensory experience. Vision is more important at the buying stage, which is also affected by pre-existing attitudes and impressions about the product. Then smell becomes important at the cooking stage, followed by taste in the eating stage.
The main attraction to food is flavor, as food consumption is mainly a positive experience. At the same time, consumer sentiments about food is clouded by what they've heard in the media about nutrition and other health concerns, which creates guilt and fear. Negative perceptions can also come from fear of industrialisation, bad taste or bad smell.
Studies show that in the buying stage, in which vision is most influential, people may associate a positive vision with good taste before eating the food. Vision allows people to evaluate ingredients based on color, texture and overall appearance. Smell is important in the cooking phase as a way of gauging how appetizing the food is. Using this sensory mode also helps the cook make sure they don't burn the food. The cooking phase includes vision as a factor, in which the cook judges the food's thickness.
At the eating stage vision, taste and smell all play an important role in how the individual judges the food. At this point, people expect the food to smell and look appetizing. Taste is the ultimate test that has the most impact on people's emotional response to food.
How Emotions Change
The intensity of emotions shifts throughout the buy-open-cook-eat-rebuy cycle. People tend to encounter the most pleasant surprises during the opening, cooking and eating stages. Attraction is strongest at the cooking stage, when people are also least likely to be dissatisfied. Both fascination and boredom slightly decrease over the five stages.
The stages in which negative emotions are most prevalent are buying and rebuying. It's a complex framework since people may start off with mixed emotions, such as fascination plus sadness. Emotions of satisfaction and joy may be highest upon opening the package. It's possible for an individual to go through all five stages with mostly positive emotions and still end up on a negative note at the rebuying stage. Here are reasons why consumers may reject the product at the rebuying stage following positive emotions in other stages:
- curiosity to compare with other products
- bad, artificial or misleading taste
- dislike for size or texture
- product did not live up to package claims
Emotional Strength Shapes Decisions
The consumer experiences a variety of emotions for any given food product. These emotions include admiration, satisfaction, pleasant surprise, attraction, fascination and joy on the positive side. Negative emotions include contempt, dissatisfaction, unpleasant surprise, aversion, boredom and sadness. The most frequent positive emotions are attraction and satisfaction, which can occur when the food looks appealing, fits the person's taste and the product is easily seen and understood.
The strongest negative emotions may be the result of dislike for a certain texture such as powder, the product is not packaged in an interesting way or the taste is different than anticipated.
Once the package is opened, the individual will become more satisfied the more they learn that the product meets their expectations. The degree to which the package can be opened easily also has an emotional effect. Pleasant surprise, attraction and fascination can build when the person agrees with the smell and is curious about the taste. At this stage if the food smells like a foreign chemical, people may begin to doubt the product will taste good.
Food That Triggers Positive Emotions
The cooking and eating stages have a dramatic impact on how the consumer will evaluate the food. Some people judge food at the cooking stage based on how easy the food is to prepare. Others are very conscious of the colour and want to make sure that it matches what they see on the package. By this point the smell is a huge factor and there's a chance the person has sampled the food.
The eating stage is most critical in shaping the consumer's final judgement. They are looking for a taste that matches or surpasses their expectations with no side tastes. People may decide a particular food makes a good snack in between meals or is convenient because it's easy to prepare. They may develop negative reactions if the taste is undefined or has excessive properties, such as being too watery or too artificial. Ultimately, taste is the main factor that will most likely affect future purchasing.
Conclusion
Analysis of how consumers decide food choices shows that they engage in five key phases: buying, opening cooking, eating and rebuying. People are most affected by the visual packaging in the store. Once they open the package, other senses affect the perception of the food, but taste has the most impact on emotions that people will feel toward the food. Packing must match expectations on taste, freshness and texture.
