Toast Straightforward Label Designs

For marketers, what is the best balance between simplicity and complexity in graphic designs on an item’s label? The answer from researchers at Université d’Angers and Montpellier Business School is that a label’s design should deliver the intended sales message with no more than necessary complexity.
     Considering that both research institutions are in France, it’s less than surprising that the studies were centered on brand perceptions of Champagne bottles. But the conclusions can provide guidance for a panoply of consumer products and persuasion agents: For the most part, keep label designs simple.
     On the shelves of a liquor store at the time of the study, the complexity of Champagne labels ranged from the simple rectangle and uncluttered graphics of Moët & Chandon to the scalloped label shape and graphics-filled border of Dom Pérignon. For the research studies, fake label designs were created, but in keeping with the spirit and spirits of the project, those fake labels were commissioned from a wine label printing company doing business in the Champagne region since 1910.
     The objective of using the fake labels was to avoid judgments of brand image being associated with brand names familiar to the study participants. However, I’ll note that there still is potential contamination, since the whole impression of label simplicity might be associated with memory traces of Moët & Chandon and complexity with Dom Pérignon. All participants in the study had been screened to be Champagne consumers.
     In the studies, participants overall expressed more positive brand impressions for the bottle carrying the simple than for the one carrying the complex label. As part of this, simplicity produced consumer perceptions of success, modernity, authenticity, and reliability.
     Still, there are circumstances in which at least some complexity in design is advisable. In the Champagne bottle study, complexity of the label on the bottle produced perceptions of maturity, imagination, joy, and sophistication. Although consumers had preferred simple to elaborate, all four of those results of complexity could be considered as desirable when choosing among brands of the bubbly.
     Complexity can engage shoppers in ways which hold them long enough to become purchasers. Researchers at University of London, University of Groningen, and Università della Calabria found that when a store or brand logo was easier to perceive, people liked it better initially. However, after prolonged consideration of the item, the attraction turned to aversion.

For your success: Retailer’s Edge: Boost Profits Using Shopper Psychology

Click below for more: 
Anticipate Aesthetics Avoidance
Flex Shoppers with the Complex