How product aesthetics cues efficacy beliefs of product performance

Abstract

Aesthetics of package design is an important consideration when consumers make purchase decisions. We argue that this is particularly the case for purchase decision of products in the beauty category. This paper advances current understanding of the role of packaging in product purchase behavior by identifying heuristic cues exhibited in packaging (i.e., that beautiful packaging is more effective at making the consumer more beautiful). Across a pilot field study and four lab studies, we demonstrate that package aesthetics informs inferences of how well the product can perform, which, in turn, drives purchase decisions. Importantly, we show that in the presence of a diagnostic cue such as a brand name, or an explicit promise (e.g. tagline of an advertisement), this effect is attenuated and rendered irrelevant. Further, we show that this effect is rendered ineffective to a category to which beauty is irrelevant. Hence, by signaling product efficacy, the beauty‐in‐a‐bottle heuristic appears to inform purchase decisions.

What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light: effects of influencer transparency on product efficacy and purchase intentions

“…Research has yet to examine how native advertising, including social media influencer marketing, affects product efficacy perceptions. Prior research found that factors such as price (Shiv et al , 2005), information about the manufacturer’s profits (Posavac et al , 2010), “green” characteristics (Pancer et al , 2017), and the attractiveness of packaging (Sundar et al , 2013) can all influence consumer perceptions of the product’s performance. In the context of influencer marketing, the consumer is presented with very limited information about the product in the post.…”

How aesthetic features convey the concept of brand premiumness

“…Importantly, other aesthetic features can also convey these attributes (e.g., complexity can convey quality; Spence, 2018) and symmetry and curvature can convey different attributes (e.g., asymmetry can convey excitement; Bajaj & Bond, 2018). Hence, different aesthetic features may also convey brand premiumness, and the association between aesthetic features and different attributes may be used to convey other brand meanings (Sundar et al, 2020).…”

Visualization aesthetics bias trust in science, news, and social media

“…People are also influenced by this stereotype when evaluating non-human objects. For instance, people associate more beautiful products, packaging, and web pages with better performance (25)(26)(27). The trust bias in favor of more beautiful graphs found here may be another manifestation of the beauty-is-good stereotype.…”