How can packaging change children's eating habits from un-healthy food towards healthier options?

Field Lab: Children consumer behaviour

This experiment has the purpose of testing and measure the influence of packaging on children consumer behavior. More specifically, we seek to evaluate the impact that packaging can have on shifting children´s snack preferences from unhealthy food towards healthier options. The study was conducted through individual questionnaires done by 106 children aged from 7 to 9 years-old. There were two distinct groups in the sample (a control group and an experimental group) that were presented with two different visual options of a food snack each – a healthy option and a non-healthy one. The difference between the two groups was the packaging form of the healthy snack that they were presented with. Both groups were presented with the same packaging form for the unhealthy option. Results show that a healthy snack is more likely to have a positive impact on packaging overall evaluation, fun perception and preference over a non-healthy snack, if it is presented in a fun packaging, in contrast to a regular one, although it does not influence the taste perception of the product. Such findings suggest that packaging can be a powerful tool that can be used as a marketing strategy to promote healthy food as well as gain market share to non-healthy products.