Pleasing aesthetics is package perfect.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Good-looking packaging design such as those curvy Coca Cola bottles or Altoid mints tins--significantly increases the likelihood that a consumer will choose a product even if it is more expensive and an unfamiliar brand, a study by the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, has found. "Consumers appreciate, and are willing to pay more for something that is new and different and visually pleasing to them," notes Martin Reimann, the study's lead author and a doctoral candidate of psychology.

The implications of the power of aesthetic packaging could level the playing field for new products entering a competitive market and suggest that investing in more beautiful packaging pays off, as the researchers bund that the neural mechanisms in the brain associated with the experience of reward showed increased activation when participants chose that route. This suggests that the experience of reward--associated with cash, delicious food, and alcohol-plays an important role in choosing objects that are visually pleasing.

Moreover, this brain activity is triggered even before the package is chosen--the same...