For package designers, the use of survey research has required a more difficult transition than the use of focus groups. Of course, no one is fully comfortable having his/her work judged or tested, and quantitative research can easily come across as a “final exam” in which designers have little involvement and over which they have little control. Moreover, almost by definition, quantitative researchers speak a different language than design professionals, which makes it easy for them to come across as adversarial, particularly when they are transforming packaging designs into a series of numbers and data tables. To be sure, some researchers have provided solid grounds for concern through their misguided attempts to reduce packaging design to a mathematical equation (that is, “take the most-favored logo and put it with the highest-scoring color…”). These factors have all contributed to the familiar refrain of “research kills creativity.”
This assumption is unfortunate, because if it is applied correctly, survey research has the potential to serve as an enormous step forward (from focus groups) for designers and their clients.
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