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Pack optimisation research

Whether it’s thinking about showcasing your full product range, increasing shelf standout or identifying claims that resonate, our pack optimization offer, powered by Explorer research, helps you understand what facilitates product selection and why

Our approach

Packaging design and messaging play a key role in how consumers engage with your brand. With purchase decision-making often driven in store and at fixture, optimising your packaging design to ensure stand out and maximise conversion is vital.

Our approach to pack testing market research, powered by Explorer research, now combines extensive experience across shelf testing, in-person pack testing and behavioural measurement through eye tracking. With behavioural analysis and expertise on tap we truly understand how to make packaging stand out.

How do you know which is the best design to attract attention, drive relevance and consideration, and ultimately convert to purchase? The in-store fixture is, for most shoppers, the first time they will see your product – so your pack is still ultimately your most important advertising platform. We help you understand key questions...

  • Going through pack renovation and need to optimize the final design?
  • Looking to increase product desirability and need to explore/refine packaging design to help achieve that?
  • Need to validate instore shelf layout and merchandising?

Our aim is to understand how consumers and packaging interact, in terms of purchase decision-making and influencing the wider perceptions of the product and brand. We’ve been supporting product development and innovation across categories for over 20 years. We understand the product development process, from ideation to market launch, with experience that spans across categories and markets. Working with manufacturers and retailers, we bring both global and local lenses to each project, to deliver mutually beneficial solutions that grow product and category performance.

When considering your next pack/shelf study, Savanta will help you explore and assess the pros and cons of a real physical shelf, life-sized virtual reality and online shelf study, and work out which option works best for your requirements.

1. Unobtrusive observation

2. In context research (scenario and scene setting, realistic options)

3. Shop-along & depth interviews (at any customer touchpoint- physical & digital)

4. Virtual environments

5. Eye-tracking

6. Implicit testing

Research benefits

Agile pack screening - Understanding performance

Understand pack performance by assessing the key elements of the packaging solution and fully comprehend customer reactions to understand which packaging works best, and why. Evaluate packaging in a competitive setting to identify pack stand out, improve differentiation, purchase intent brand equity.

Agile pack screening – Evaluating packs

We gauge pack performance through spontaneous recall, prompted stand out and purchase intent, by evaluating packaging in a competitive setting, to improve differentiation and drive brand equity.

Eye tracking

Our online virtual reality uses the latest technology to provide robust, immersive environments, capturing in-depth behavioural and attitudinal metrics. Online VR mimics the actual store environment and utilizes the latest technology to provide in-depth behavioural metrics.

In-person pack validation – Virtual Reality (VR)

When you require a complete store footprint and the precision of eye-tracking hardware built into the headset, in-person virtual reality testing is essential. With the entire store footprint at your fingertips, explore ideal in-store locations, dual placements, the impact of signage on package visibility, display vs. mainline placement, and more.

In-person pack validation – Real Product

By setting up shelves in a central location testing facility, or assessing packaging standout in-store using our in-person testing approach we can help with a range of tactile assessments of packaging to optimise standout and conversion. Whether switching from glass to plastic or changing the weight without altering the size of the pack, in-person product testing is essential.

Online pack validation

Utilize our online immersive platform to effortlessly reach global audiences, enabling you to quantify which new packaging direction achieves the greatest lift compared to the current benchmark. From our quick turnaround standardized approach or fully customized deep dive, we capture purchase behavior at shelf, isolate optimization opportunities through eye tracking, measure visibility and attention at shelf with eye tracking to deliverdetailed pack evaluation to measure shift in KPIs.

Observational deep dives

Assess the standout of new packaging and the ease of navigation at fixture across a range of categories and retailers/formats via accompanied shops.

Co-creation workshops

Co-creation between consumers and client team are great ways to generate ideas and optimise pack design elements. Our packaging design concept co-creation approach explores consumer reaction to packaging as well as new products and propositions, providing a deeper understanding of the consumer and help build final propositions.

Research methods

Ideation & concept development

Product testing

Pack optimisation

Product & service development

Pricing strategy

Concept testing

Case studies

Connecting sales data to BrandVue Eating Out metricsStrategy Research

Our client, a high-street quick service restaurant, wanted to establish a link between sales data and BrandVue metrics to see which correlation was the strongest, to know which levers to pull to drive growth.

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A supermarket clothing brandPath to purchase research

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A grocery retailerCategory management

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