Marketing eYe

a biztactics.com blog | by Ankesh Kothari

Also read: Marketing Stories

Subscribe to Business Bullet
Receive blog updates And hidden articles

Packaging Trick

Can you guess if people drink more from
tall glasses or the fat glasses?

Brian Wansink of Cornell University runs a behavioral experiment on 198 adults and 86 bartenders. Both group of people are given two glasses: one fat tumbler glass and one tall highball glass. Both these glasses - though differ in shape - can hold the same amount of liquid of 11 ounces.

Brian then asks both the groups of people to pour in 1.5 ounce of liquid from a vodka bottle into both the glasses without using shot glasses or any other sort of measurement tools. And he finds an interesting quirk:

People fill in 20-30% more liquid in the fat glasses than the tall ones! (198 adults pour 2 ounces in the fat tumblers and right about 1.5 ounces in the tall highballs. The more experienced bartenders don't do much better - pouring 1.8 ounces in fat glasses and 1.5 ounces in tall ones.)

So whats this research got to do with marketing?

If you are in the liquid selling business (perfumes, shampoos, soft & hard drinks) you can earn more money by simply making your bottles longer.

If you don't sell any liquids, this research still helps a lot. It shows that peoples perception is a very important factor in getting them to buy and use your products. And perception lies in details.

The size of glass or bottles can affect peoples perception of the value of a product. You might have the same quantity of exactly same tasting vodka in both the bottles, yet people will opt to buy the taller bottles - because they think that it contains more vodka than the fatter bottle!

Similarly, the length of your store aisles, the colour of your paper or plastic bags, the smell at your door step or any other detail can change peoples perception of your actual product.

Pay attention to the details! Mystery shop at your stores to see how it feels like to be one of your clients. Experience the details your clients will experience buying from you.

Here is a small list that can get you started in fixing your details to change peoples perception of your product:

Size
Shape
Colour
Font
Weight
Height
Smell
Feel-to-touch
Music
Taste
Temperature of your store
Cleanliness
Proximity of other products