When to make your product look complex

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📝 Intro

You’re at the supermarket shopping for fruit punch and come across options that catch your eye:

• A typical bottle design for $4.95, with a white background and pictures of the various fruits it contains

• An elaborate bottle design for $7.9, with an embossed design around the neck of the bottle and fruit arranged artistically alongside the body.

The second option might cost more, but you’re willing to pay the difference because it surely costs more to make that fancy-looking bottle than the plain one.

You’re not the only one - new research highlights how packaging can play a key role in how much we’re willing to pay for an item.

P.S.: Some complexity works better than others - using complex language your customers might not understand (e.g. “Ginseng micro-infused tea with multi floral notes”) can make your item seem overly expensive.

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When comparing items, people are willing to pay more for complex-looking products than those that look simple

Topics: Product | Pricing
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: July 2024
Universities: University of Kansas, University of Pittsburgh

📈 Recommendation

When customers are comparing products you offer, price more complex-looking options (e.g. dress with a floral pattern and ruffles on the sleeves) higher than simpler-looking ones (e.g. a plain red dress).

People will be willing to pay more for the more complex-looking product.

If the items are displayed separately from one another (e.g. different web pages or sections in your store), this does not happen (other research even finds the opposite, depending on the product type).

🎓 Findings

• Out of a collection of items shown together, people are willing to pay more for those that look more complex (e.g. a floral patterned notebook vs. a single-color variation).

• As part of a series of 6 experiments, researchers found that people

  • Were willing to pay 10.1% more for a stationery set with a complex-looking design over a simple one, despite liking both designs equally

  • Were willing to pay 13.7% more for a visually complex stationery set compared to a simple one

  • Believed complex-looking stationery cards and disposable plates were on average 29% more expensive to produce

  • Thought that visually complex designs for clothing items, shoes, and accessories were more expensive than simpler-looking designs, for both luxury and normal brands.

• The effect

  • Weakens when people are told both simple and complex versions of the product require the same amount of time and effort to make

  • Disappears when both items are shown to people independently of one another vs being shown together

🧠 Why it works

• We think that more time and effort went into something that is higher quality and that it costs more to produce. 

• Because of this, we undervalue simpler designs, as we consider “more” to be more expensive than “less”.

• When we’re judging products, how complex each one looks visually is a key feature we consider. 

• If we know that equal effort went into both simple and complex-looking designs, this bias is challenged, reducing how much more we’re willing to pay.

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✋ Limitations

• The research did not look in detail at how different visual elements influence the design, such as the type of representation (abstract vs. realistic), the potency of the design (loud/strong visuals vs. soft/weak visuals), and whether it has a perception of movement or is static.

• People were willing to pay more for the items based on the belief that they had higher production costs. Other research indicates that for products with health benefits, or products prized for their purity (e.g. honey or olive oil), people are willing to pay more for items with simple packaging, as they seem purer.

• The research was conducted on a US audience - it’s possible other cultures might react differently to simple or complex designs. For example, in Japan, simplicity and minimalism are often highly prized as marks of great craftsmanship, possibly resulting in different reactions to more complex designs.

🏢 Companies using this

• Especially for relatively lower-cost, everyday items, where different versions are displayed together on racks, companies frequently charge higher prices for similar items that look more complex:

  • For stationery items, like notebooks and journals, those with plain card covers are often priced lower than those with embossing on the cover, or glossy / matte finished plastic covers.

  • In crockery items,  simple one-color plates are usually priced cheaper than those with a metallic rim, or patterned border.

  • For staple clothing items, including t-shirts, plain t-shirts are priced lower than those with screen printing.

  • Amongst various costume jewelry items, from earrings to rings to necklaces, smaller designs with fewer elements (i.e. a stud earring) cost less than more complicated designs like interlocking hoops.

On Amazon, coffee mugs with a gold rim and beveled design are priced higher than mugs with a plain floral design, which is priced higher than plain white design.

⚡ Steps to implement

• When your items are displayed next to one another, you can charge more for a visually complex version of a product (e.g. baseball cap with a pattern on all four sides and different colors brim) compared to a visually simple version (e.g. baseball cap in one color with text across the front) of the product.

• To attract customers who prefer a simple, minimalist aesthetic to pay more, place the visually simple version of the product separately from the more complex version (e.g. different display rack or different website page).

  • To make this even more successful, share information about the production process that justifies why the simpler-looking version costs more time and effort to make.

• For products where people prefer less production and additions, particularly health products or those prized for being pure and unadulterated, simple packaging is likely more effective, as it implies more purity and fewer changes made to the product by the company.

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments

📖 Research

The Visual Complexity = Higher Production Cost Lay Belief. Journal of Consumer Research (July 2024)

🏫 Researchers

• Lauren Min, University of Kansas

• Peggy J. Liu, University of Pittsburgh

• Cary L. Anderson, University of Pittsburgh

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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