Visual Metaphors: Consumer Products And Packaging Design

In today’s market, consumer products are increasingly similar in quality and functioning. As a result, marketers and researchers show increasing interest for strategies revolving around design and framing of marketing communication messages. It revolves around product and packaging design. Indeed, good product design is considered an important determinant of a product’s success, mainly because design can create differentiation and identity for otherwise homogeneous products (and their corresponding brands) that usually receive limited consumer attention. For instance, usage of stimulating, arousing colors may attract consumer notice and communicate a product’s sensory qualities. Likewise, an eye-catching product or packaging shape may elicit

In the context of packaging design, for instance, a recent line of Schwarzkopf hairstyling products comprised packaging shapes resembling the shape of a shark fin and a top (of another hair gel product) resembling a screw. In these cases, metaphors are used to trigger associations with power, resistance, or fierceness in order to enhance excitement and consumer appreciation of product and brand. Because metaphors, by virtue is artful thus it’s able to evoke imagery into imaginative processes, thus, metaphors are particularly suited to increase the effect of communication more vivid, imaginative, and exciting .

As such (packaging), metaphors can implicitly communicate product and brand benefits, consequently steering band personality impressions is nowadays considered one of the key challenges in branding as it has been linked to, among others, brand equity, loyalty, trust, self-identity, and consumer preference. In that sense, a brand with a strong and consistent personality is the key to forming an enduring relationship with consumers, and to secure a coherent image of the brand in their minds

In order to reduce ambiguity, product developers and packaging designers may use verbal information (e.g., a slogan or claim) to explain the metaphor .

Consumer viewpoint of perceived value

The consumer viewpoints on perceived value can be measured from the monetary, quality, benefit and social-psychological aspects. The consumer perceives the deserved perceived costs and non-pecuniary sacrifice, such as time consumption, energy consumption and brand association .

The overall assessment of consumer on the perceived value is based on the overall assessment of the product utility after comprehensive measurement of the benefits and costs to drive purchase decision. In other words, it is the perceived assessment results of the customer about product or service. The gap of perceived value lies in the consumer intention to pay higher price, such as product and service and the actual payment. Perceived value is regarded as a transaction, which is determined by perceived benefits and perceived costs