How businesses can reduce their risk when modernising packaging

Redesigns can cause serious harm to businesses. New research from Adelaide University in Australia explores what brands should consider when modernising their packaging. 

“The study shows that successful redesign depends on increasing consumers’ perceived modernity without undermining recognisable brand cues,” explains Dr William Caruso from the University’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. 

“If a redesign removes distinctive visual elements such as colours, logos or layout that consumers associate with the brand, familiarity can decline, weakening purchase intent.” 

Modernisation is one of the most common objectives when companies redesign packaging, with 58% of marketers reporting it as the main purpose of their most recent redesign. Yet Caruso says businesses should not redesign packaging simply because modernisation is fashionable. 

Instead, firms should modernise when pack likeability has measurably declined, while protecting Distinctive Brand Assets (non-brand name elements such as logos or characters) that help consumers recognise and find the brand.  

Rebuild familiarity if major redesigns are introduced 

“The findings suggest companies should use research to track likeability, test brand identification via Distinctive Asset Testing, and rebuild familiarity through communication if major redesigns are introduced,” he states.  

Distinctive Asset Testing is a market research method used to measure how effectively brand cues – such as logos, colours, taglines, or characters – prompt consumers to identify a specific brand. 

Because consumers often rely on visual cues to identify products quickly in busy retail environments, maintaining recognisable elements is critical to helping shoppers locate and recognise products on the shelf. 

The study surveyed primary household shoppers in the United States and the United Kingdom, and has been published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.  

The study aligns with existing research, which indicates that consumer responses are shaped by recognition and judging packaging holistically, rather than on isolated cues alone. Yet it is among the first studies to investigate modernisation in packaging redesign in a more integrated way – linking explicitly to familiarity, likeability and purchase intent. 

“I was interested in this topic because packaging redesign happens all the time, and brands often assume that making a pack look more modern ‘with an improved look’ will automatically improve how consumers respond,” Caruso says. 

“What I found worth investigating was the idea that redesigning the graphics on packaging can weaken familiar cues by changing what people use to recognise and choose a brand, so it was important to understand how these constructs relate. 

You can find out more about the research here.