How to Bundle: Improving the Perception and Evaluation of New Products by Color Contrast

ABSTRACT Bundling a new product with popular products is a common strategy for new product introduction. In order to investigate the influence of the bundle design on consumers' perceptions and evaluations, we conducted two experiments to examine how the color contrast between the packaging of the new and popular yogurt products within the same bundles affected participants' ratings of the new products. In Experiment 1, 80 participants were asked to rate their taste expectations concerning the new products without flavor labels but bundled with popular products. The results revealed that the color contrast between the red packaging of the new products and the yellow packaging of the popular products reduced the expected sourness of the new products. In Experiment 2, 80 participants rated the attention they paid to and the expected prices of the new products bundled with popular products. The results revealed that high color contrast between the packaging of the new and bundled popular products could attract more attention to the new products and lead to higher expected prices. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that the color contrast between the packaging of new and popular products can affect consumers' expectations concerning the new products in bundles. These findings suggest that the strategic use of color contrast may attract consumers' attention to the new products and increase their price expectations, which has direct implications in the design of product bundles.