Sold exclusively by catalog, Web site, or in company stores, the products of the HoneyBaked Ham Co. never rest alongside those of the competition. But the firm still places so great a premium on package design that, during a recent redesign, it went to the trouble of asking consumers to select the design they liked best via an online survey.
Lipson, Alport, Glass & Associates (LAGA) is the design firm that led HoneyBaked to RepublicEye, the company that came up with the online methodology to measure the consumer appeal of several designs. What made Norcross, GA-based HoneyBaked a prime candidate for online research was that it had accumulated a list of more than 44ꯠ e-mail addresses of past customers.
“This list was really helpful,” says Rob Swan, creative director at LAGA. Without it, it would have been necessary to buy a suitable list.
According to Debbie Domer, HoneyBaked retail marketing manager, the list of e-mail addresses was about evenly split between Web or catalog customers and those who bought product on-site at a HoneyBaked retail store. RepublicEye contacted each e-mail address and provided a Web link leading to the survey questionnaire.
“In this case, loading the questions and getting the survey up and running online took just 24 hours,” says Kimberly Orton, managing director of LAGA in New York. “It uses a template that is itself pretty much self-driving. Once you belong to the service, you could load in the questions yourself. It’s very fast. That’s why this is such a quick tool to get results.” Because LAGA was able to develop the online survey so quickly, HoneyBaked really didn’t have time to create an inducement for its customers to participate.
Once an individual linked to the survey, it took just minutes to complete, Orton says. In this case, respondents were shown the existing package design as well as four redesigns. Next to each image was a sliding bar called a reactor that allowed users to look at a design and quickly assign a value.
The e-mail was sent out on Thursday, and—thanks to most being home addresses—surveys were completed over the weekend. By Monday, says Domer, it was assumed that few more, if any, survey responses would trickle in. Total response was in the 2% to 3% range of about 36ꯠ valid e-mail addresses.
Along with asking about the package designs, the survey also asked respondents about the price point they expected to pay for the product. “We expect to price this product at $29.99, and the survey showed that was in line with consumer expectation,” says Domer with satisfaction.
And the winner is
So which design did consumers prefer? Fortunately for HoneyBaked, the survey results were very clear. The image shown on the lead page garnered more than 40% of the vote, double the number of votes for the design that came in second.
Originally, HoneyBaked hoped to have the new graphic design printed for packaging of the turkeys in August. “Unfortunately, the bag could not be produced when the turkey supplier needed them for the next run,” says Domer. “So the new graphics will be ready for the next production run and will be available for the Christmas season.”
Both LAGA and HoneyBaked are delighted that the trial run of the research went so well. “We’d use it again,” says Domer. “Compared to the time it takes to put together a focus group, it was great.”
“Packaging design hasn’t been easy to measure in the past,” Swan says. “I think this survey approach changes that, plus I think it could be used to get trend information, or what consumers think of new packaging already on the store shelf.” The design agency hasn’t yet decided whether to offer it to clients, use it as an internal research tool, or both.
Based on the HoneyBaked project, Swan said that LAGA offered suggestions to RepublicEye about some improvements that could be made in the survey methodology. But overall, the design firm was pleased with RepublicEye’s new assessment tool.
“This assignment was fun,” says Orton.
