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For him or her?
"For her or for him?" - that is the question asked in the survey by Professor Dr Uta Brandes (Cologne International School of Design) that has appeared in the series "Know, act, sell better".The publisher of the series is Pro Carton, the association that represents the interests of board and folding carton manufacturers. The survey “For her or for him?” indicates possible options for the deliberate designing of packaging for specific sexes. Because success on the market depends to a very large extent on appealing to consumers as personally as possible, i.e. including their identity as women or men, particularly at a time when gender mainstreaming, “egonomics” (a term developed by the American trend researcher Faith Popcorn that relates to individual approaches) and customised mass production are popular concepts.
Differences between the sexes in “shape typology”
Professor Dr Uta Brandes found out: focussing on the sexual identity of female and male customers, on their specific emotional requirements can stimulate sales success and brand loyalty considerably, depending on the product and category.
One of the areas covered in her survey deals in particular with the allocation of specific shape preferences to women and men. She defines a “shape typology” for the sexes where packaging is concerned:
The following tend to be considered as female:
* Exotic, unusual shapes
* Floral or rosette-shaped lids
* Packs with gift appeal
* “Playful” packs
* Packs that look like pillows, cushions, bags or hat / pill boxes or allude to them
* Packs with bulbous, round or vase shapes
* Organic shapes or shapes borrowed from nature
* Protective shapes
* Packs with cut-outs and interestingly shaped windows
The following tend to be perceived as male:
* Cone and pipe shapes that resemble arrows or look “phallic”
* Packaging creations that have a technical feel
* Triangular and all strictly geometrical packs (e.g. cubes, rhombic dodecahedrons, pentagonal dodecahedrons, cuboctahedrons, tetrahedrons)
* Packs that look useful
* Designs with special ingenious technical effects, e.g. folding instead of glueing
* Packs that look handcrafted or architectural
* Packs with technically interesting closures
The summary of the survey can be downloaded from http://www.procarton.de/brandes.php?
More information about board packaging and the results of many other surveys can be found at
