Packaging texture influences product taste and consumer satisfaction

This article aims to understand how and when sensory congruence (and incongruence) between packaging textures and product textures affects hedonic food taste evaluations and consumer satisfaction. Involving chocolate tastings and following experimental protocols, two studies show the effects of sensory congruence (and incongruence). Two products (with two textures: smooth and granular) and two packaging forms (with two textures: smooth and granular) were used. The first study focuses only on the visual influence of packaging texture. The second study explores both the visual and haptic influences of packaging texture on perceptions of a product when the product was contained inside the packaging. The results indicate that the effects of packaging texture on product perceptions occur mostly in presence of both visual and haptic interactions with the packaging texture. If sensory incongruence exists between packaging texture and product texture, then the packaging texture might negatively affect evaluations of product taste and the satisfaction level. These findings are generated for a single product category using experiments designed to highlight consumers' attention on product taste and their satisfaction. This article provides preliminary guidelines on how to utilize packaging texture to congruently stimulate consumers' perceptions and satisfaction. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: These results are relevant to sensory scientists and packaging designers interested in how packaging textures interact with product. This research contributes to the literature on food consumption and sensory marketing by integrating the influences of sensory congruence between both textures. Although previous research supports the use of packaging features to stimulate consumers' perceptions and behaviors, none examine the interaction and effects of manipulating both packaging texture and product texture. Specifically, this research shows that texturing the packaging might induce lower product taste and lower consumer satisfaction if there is sensory incongruence between the packaging texture and the product texture. This negative impact occurs in the case in which the packaging texture induces expectations about product texture that are not present in the product's features.