PACKAgINg, LABeLLINg & LogISTICS 49
Does touch from a flimsy affect flavour of your coffee
D
oes coffee in a flimsy cup taste worse than Not everyone has the same sensitivity to The results were similar when participants
coffee in a more substantial cup? touch, though, the researchers explain. They were just told about the containers in a written
Firms such as McDonalds and Starbucks first performed a pretest to determine which description and did not actually feel them: Low
spend millions of dollars every year on participants were strong autotelics – the sort autotelics expressed a willingness to pay more
disposable packaging, but a new study from the of people who like to touch things before they for a firm bottle of water, while high autotelics
the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that buy them – and which participants were not did not.
trying to skimp in this area might not be worth particularly inclined to touch products (low The researchers explain: "High (vs. low)
it – and may negatively impact consumers' autotelics). autotelics receive more pleasure from touching
perceptions of taste and quality. Participants were then asked to evaluated objects, tend to touch them more, and are more
In a series of four experiments, Aradhna the feel of the cups while blindfolded or in an consciously aware of the potential effect of
Krishna (University of Michigan) and Maureen evaluation in which they could both feel and haptic clues on product judgement. As a result,
Morrin (Rutgers University) find that see. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the largest they are more capable of adjusting for such
many people do indeed judge a drink by its difference in ratings for the firm and the flimsy clues in their product judgements when they
container. cups was in the blindfolded condition among are non-diagnostic in nature."
Specifically, the firmness of a cup seems to those most sensitive to touch. The Journal of Consumer Research publishes
have an impact on consumer evaluations of the However, the researchers also found that scholarly research that describes and explains
beverage contained inside. those who like to touch are least influenced by consumer behaviour. It is published by the
"We found that the non-diagnostic haptic touch in taste evaluations. University of Chicago Press, and features
qualities of a product package or serving Indeed, in a taste test of the same mineral empirical, theoretical, and methodological
container can affect how a product is water from both a flimsy and a firm cup, it was articles. p
evaluated; that is, such cues can indeed have an low autotelics who gave the most negative
effect on product evaluation," the researchers evaluations of the taste of the water in the For more information, visit www.journals.
write. flimsy cup. uchicago.edu/toc/jcr
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