News

Nestlé has revealed it is adopting Japanese design philosophy Kansei to help develop packaging that targets a specific market by creating and building an emotional attachment between consumer and product.

Senior designer Ben Mortimer told a seminar at last week's Pro2Pac show in London that the confectionery giant had begun to use Kansei and was looking at how a physical design can respond to a consumer's feelings towards a product.

"It's important to delight our consumers when they purchase a packaged product," said Mortimer.

Kansei works by assessing how consumers feel about a product idea early in the development process and building that information into the product design. Certain shapes, for example, are considered more stylish in the same way using words like "premium" creates an idea of what a product will be like.

Design Perspectives, part of Faraday Packaging Partnership, is one company that already uses Kansei with companies such as Reckitt Benckiser and Nestlé.

Research consultant Stergios Bititsios commented on packagingnews.co.uk that Kansei provided a "robust method of optimizing packaging appeal and brand communication".

"The packaging industry needs to invest in such tools to get designs right the first time. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity in today's turbulent economic climate," he said.