Earlier this year, Sappi North America, Inc. released “The Touch Advantage,” a study with Clemson University exploring how touch affects consumers purchasing decisions and perceptions in the paper and packaging industry.

We recently sat down with one of the authors of the study, Vicki Strull, Packaging Designer, Vicki Strull Design.

One of the big questions that we had for Strull was: What was the genesis of the collaboration between Sappi and Clemson University?

“It came about because Sappi has always had a history of thought leadership in the industry, and several years ago they had done a study on the neuroscience of touch as it relates to commercial papers, commercial printing and graphic papers,” Strull explains.

As Sappi transitioned its business into packaging, a logical next step was to explore how the neuroscience of touch relates to paper packaging.

“We set out to prove how touch can correlate to sales and what that can do for converters once they have those statistics,” Strull said, adding, “We wanted to know how does premium packaging affect people’s perceptions of quality, and we also wanted to know how sensory marketing affects people’s post-purchase experiences and their reviews.”

Thus, a key part of the study was looking at two distinct shopping experiences: 1) shopping in a brick-and-mortar retail space and 2) making purchases online.

You can learn about the study’s findings and check out the entire video interview above.