The effect of element intensity that distinguishes flavour in a food packaging on the memory and perception of Peruvian millennials and centennials

ABSTRACT
Background: Globalization has greatly facilitated access to all kinds of products and brands from different parts of the world, increasing consumer choices and, consequently, competition among packaged products. For this reason, a brand's packaging design to attract consumers must stand out among its competitors, especially if it is a new product or a new flavour. In this context, it becomes necessary to explore dimensions of packaging design that allow a high degree of differentiation. In that way, there are very efficient strategies and approaches used in the literature to perform this exploration in packagings, such as perception evaluations measured with attributes and eye-tracking technology that records direct information about visual attention on the most distinctive elements. Thus, the present study aims to determine the impact of the presentation of a new flavour on packaging by varying the intensity of the stimulus that represents it according to the Weber-Fechner law, using three main elements of the packaging: text, colour, and image.
Methods: The experiment exposed three groups of participants (n=30) to 3 stimuli, which were based on adding an element as the intensity of the flavour description of three products from three different food categories was intended to increase. This study used the RealEye webcam eye-tracking platform to measure attention, and a self-administered questionnaire was used to examine perception and recall. 
Results: First, the results show that greater intensity expressed in a more significant number of visual elements facilitates flavour distinction. Second, the results reveal that perceived difficulty in flavour differentiation correlates strongly with the presence of colour and image. 
Conclusions: Therefore, this study provides an approach to ways to optimize the intensity of flavour distinctiveness elements that may be useful, especially for less recognized brands.