The Induced Effects Of Packaging Shapes Of Bottled Drinks On Consumers’ Taste Expectations Concerning Product:an Empirical Research

A tendency that features in one sensory modality to be matched with features in another sensory modality can be defined as cross-modal correspondence. Recently, many researchers began to focus on the application of cross-modal correspondence in marketing area. They indicated that capitalizing on the potential of cross-modal correspondence could manage sensory expectations concerning products. However, the psychological process of cross-modal correspondence is not fully consistent with that of expectation inducing:cross-modal correspondence is a two-way process which focuses on the matching between features or attributes in different modals; expectation inducing is an one-way process which focuses on the perception of the unimodal component stimuli. Hence, it is necessary to examine whether capitalizing on cross-modal correspondence can manage consumers’sensory expectation concerning products.In this study, the shape-taste correspondence which has been verified by many previous researchers will be used as a representative to examine whether the bottled drinks packaging designed on shape symbolism can lead consumers to generate specific taste expectations concerning products. The results of present research on one hand can be directly applied into industrial design. On the other hand, the results can support the application model of cross-modal correspondence in marketing field, enhancing its scientificity, and also it is the foundation for further developing the future research. Although many previous experiments have proved the angular shape carbonation/rounded shape-smoothness correspondence, due to the formation mechanism of specific correspondences may varied, some of them are innate and some may influenced by specific cultural background. Moreover, in previous research, the participants were all western people. Therefore, it is necessary to re-test this correspondence using Chinese participants under China context, as the objective of Research1. After taking this specific correspondence clear among Chinese people, Research2using the word association method will explore that whether the drinking packaging designed on the shape symbolism can induce specific taste expectations concerning the product at an explicit level, and Research3using the implicit association test will indirectly examine that whether such kind of approach to setting taste expectations will steadily operate at an more implicit level.By empirical examination, Research1finds that Chinese people tend to match angular shape with carbonation and rounded shape with smoothness. Research2finds that:(1) in the word association task, the reported words with highest frequency are mainly those target words related to tastes, and the frequencies of these words are significantly different between angular packaging and rounded packaging;(2) the number of participants who correctly reported the target words is mot more than that of participants did not;(3) in the prediction task most of the participants could exactly report the drinks having specific tastes corresponding to the shapes. Research3finds that the reaction time of the either angular packaging or carbonated drinks/either rounded packaging or fruit juice classification task is significantly shorter than that of the either rounded labeling or carbonated drinks/either angular labeling or fruit juice classification task.In conclusion, the results shows that:(1) the angular shape-carbonation/rounded shape-smoothness correspondences are also appropriate for Chinese people;(2) the packaging designed on the shape symbolism indeed can induce specific taste expectation concerning products;(3) the approach to setting taste expectations steadily operates at an more implicit level.