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7/1/2005 - Hotspex's Detailed Diagnostic Tool - ClickSpex

By Ron Romanik

Consumer market research is often used to determine a "winning" design among several alternatives. The standard process involves a group of consumers rating designs on basic measures such as purchase intent, uniqueness, and appeal. Results are then analyzed to choose a winning design for launch. The end result of this process is a marketing team that is confident that they are putting their best foot forward in the market with their new designs.

The leaders of large consumer goods companies are recognizing the importance of design and looking for research methods that confirm the results of their long-trusted design strategies. A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble CEO, was recently quoted saying: "I want P&G to become the number-one consumer design company in the world." (Fast Company, June 2005).

As package design becomes increasingly important and complex in the battle for market share, innovative companies are turning to advanced market research technologies to gain greater confidence in package design success. Forward thinking brands such as McCain, Unilever, and FujiFilm are using new Internet-based market research to do more than simply pick a winning design. They are interactively involving consumers in the positioning and improvement of package designs to maximize market success.

One technology that allows companies to increase their chances of package design success is ClickSpex™ from HotSpex Inc. (www.clickspex.com). ClickSpex is powered by an online survey interface that allows consumers to pick and choose the design elements they particularly "like" or "dislike" by clicking on the package image. The respondents then give quantitative scores (1-to-10 scale) and qualitative feedback on why they feel that way.

Isolating best and worst parts
Shane Skillen, managing director at HotSpex, explains how companies typically use the results in package design and development. Both quantitative and qualitative consumer insights allow designers to understand the "best elements" and "worst elements" from multiple package designs for potential incorporation into an evolving design. In a recent study for McCain Foods, ClickSpex found that the winning design among five designs could be improved by taking design elements from two of the other designs. In this case, the elements were a fruit image and tag line.

As the design evolved, ClickSpex also found that the tag line of the winning design was not very appealing to the majority of consumers and that adjusting it slightly would have a positive effect on overall design appeal. Package designers were then able to "tweak" the winning design to a new package that resulted in a purchase-intent increase of 13%, soon to be tested on the shelf with a summer launch.

Speed to market
Skillen emphasizes the speed advantages of ClickSpex: "The best part is that because ClickSpex solution is fully internet-based, the capability is available in virtually every market and the costs and timing are significantly better than traditional research methodologies." Although Skillen may talk about the process as a combination of the most favorable elements, he recognizes the necessity of package designers' talents.

"An important part of this package design optimization process is the package designer's ability to incorporate consumer feedback and leverage their design skills," Skillen explains. "It's not as simple as pulling a logo from one design and plopping it onto another design, because the different design elements must still work together to complete the whole picture to the consumer."

Skillen admits that often package designers are initially wary of using ClickSpex, as they feel that good design is more of an art than a science. However, he also sees how quickly designers usually realize that these consumer insights are scientific research results which actually allow them to consistently develop significantly more successful designs in the eyes of the consumer.

The successful increase in package design appeal can also be validated using another HotSpex internet tool, ShopSpex™, which allows for virtual shopping in any retail format. This technology simulates an accurate representation of an actual consumer's shopping experience, so the technology can measure the purchase intent of different designs.

Fictional case study (real data)
In the fictional product example of "Success in a Bottle" shown on these pages, 2,500 real consumers were first asked to state how appealing the different designs were, and then to use their mouse to click on anything they liked or disliked.

The green bottle is the clear winner with 32% of consumers finding it Very Appealing or Somewhat Appealing. The ClickSpex online results analysis tool allowed the design team to understand how to make the green bottle even better based on quantitative and qualitative feedback.

The evolved design improved the bottle color, cap configuration, and wording of the label. This nearly doubled the appeal scores to 62% in a subsequent ClickSpex survey of 1,000 respondents who hadn't seen the examples before. Similar increases in package design appeal and purchase intent scores have been found with many HotSpex clients including McCain, Unilever, Fuji Film, and Tetley.

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