Package design and consumer memory

Abstract

Packaging is an important determinant in purchase decisions and has a significant role in marketing. According to previous research, the position of the verbal and pictorial elements of a package affects the recall of those elements in left-to-right languages. It has been shown from psychological research on brain laterality that verbal elements are perceived from the right and pictorial elements from the left side of the package. We aim to assess whether the hypotheses are valid for right-to-left languages. This is imperative as many of the world's countries, mainly in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, have written languages with the right-to-left structure. According to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the combined population of Islamic countries is about 1.5 billion, which is about 22% of the world's; such a market size is worthy of substantial marketing research. This paper would be commendable for those who intend to export to these markets.