Attempt to measure consumers’ aesthetic attitude toward product packaging: an application to the design of book covers[Essai de mesure de l’attitude esthétique du consommateur face au packaging du produit : une application au design de couvertures de livres]

The aesthetic attributes of fast-moving consumer goods are often highlighted in marketing as key drivers of purchase decisions. In packaging design, however, the difficulty of identifying these attributes often results in simple preference-based measurement scales. This article introduces an original concept—a composite measure of the aesthetic attributes of product packaging—referred to as the consumer's aesthetic attitude. The theoretical foundations and possible measurement approaches of this concept, presented in the first two sections of the article, are based on three dimensions: an evaluative dimension, mental representations, and emotional reactions generated by the consumer's aesthetic experience when perceiving packaging design stimuli. The third section of the article is devoted to validating a measurement scale for this construct. The proposed tool is particularly applicable to hedonic products and, more specifically, to book cover design.