domingo, fevereiro 19, 2006: Appealing To the Senses

...

One promising way appears to be targeting as many of the five senses as possible via the package itself.

Soon, just strolling the aisles at a grocery, drug or big-box store could cause sensory overload. Manufacturers are spending more to design packages that blink, beep, yell and waft scents at shoppers. Though some companies have created paper-thin, flexible video displays and tiny speakers, aroma seems to be the biggest payoff in packaging, thanks to its powerful link to memory and emotion.

Companies are incorporating scents directly into plastic bags and bottles, so a consumer can smell shampoo or chocolate without opening the top. Newly developed scented ink, meanwhile, is allowing ads and catalogues to capture a consumer's attention with an unsuspecting whiff, using a technology beyond your father's scratch-'n'-sniff.

"Consumers have to be given a good reason to buy a product," said Chris Lyons, publisher of Package Design Magazine. "Certainly, knowing or having a sense of what it smells like can help that."

Other packaging innovations are underway, such as labels that change color to indicate ripeness of fruit or a temperature change. A disposable, self-heating cup (introduced last year with a line of hot coffee beverages by famed chef Wolfgang Puck) will soon be available with soups, tea and hot chocolate.

Coming down the road are computer chips embedded in packaging that can communicate with a shopper's PDA or cell phone to give additional product information. Miniature sound systems on boxes and bottles will give people spoken tips and ideas. And German electronics giant Siemens AG has developed a flat electronic display that can be applied to boxes like a label, allowing for tiny lights, miniature games or flashing messages.

...

Olfactory scientists say using scent is smart marketing. Of all the human senses, smell has the most direct pathway to the emotional center of the brain.

"The olfactory system, anatomically, is right in the middle of the part of the brain that's very important for memory," said Donald A. Wilson, a neurobiologist who studies olfaction at the University of Oklahoma. "There are strong neural connections between the two."

The nose is also closely associated with the autonomic nervous system, he said, so scents can easily trigger subconscious physical responses, even when the aroma is so slight it's hardly noticeable.

"Odors can change your heart rate; odors can cause you to start salivating," he said. "You know that smell means cookies, and there's a very short link from the parts of the brain that control those things. "

...

Washington Post

Site Meter
Get awesome blog templates like this one from BlogSkins.com