Quantitative Analysis on Food Packaging Anthropomorphization and

Purchase Intention

Ziyue Fang

Dance Academy, Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Shenyang, 110000, China

a137015@correo. umm. edu. mx

Keywords: Food Packaging, Personification, Purchase Intention.

Abstract: Food packaging has an important theoretical and practical value and is an emerging research field by giving

human characteristics through anthropomorphism, enhancing emotional connection and influencing

consumers' purchase intention. Therefore, the research theme of this paper is food packaging

anthropomorphism and purchase intention analysis. The research method of this paper is as follows: firstly, a

questionnaire is designed to collect data on people's anthropomorphization of food packaging. Secondly, the

data were analyzed for preference analysis and purchase intention analysis. The survey shows that

anthropomorphic packaging design has the advantage of fun and emotional connection. Consumers' attitudes

towards anthropomorphic food packaging design are diversified, and they believe that it has the potential to

attract attention, enhance emotional connection and brand recognition, but there are also problems of

misinformation and cultural differences. Businesses should balance design and practicality, focus on humor

and emotional resonance, ensure design quality, consider cultural differences, while paying attention to

potential problems, and enhance brand value through innovation. In the future, anthropomorphic storyline

design is considered to have more market potential, and the impact of differences in consumers, cultures and

expressions can be studied in the future to promote the development of theory and practice.

1 INTRODUCTION

Food packaging anthropomorphism refers to the food

with anthropomorphism on the packaging design.

With the typical phenomenological nature of the

intuitive method characteristics, the use of

anthropomorphism in the external packaging of food

directly on the rapid formation of consumer judgment

cognition and stimulate the emotional resonance of

the experience to produce a great role and value, so

that consumers can be more clear, intuitive

understanding of food. Food packaging design using

anthropomorphic methods for designers to optimize

the food packaging design to provide more ideas, so

that the food design is more unique, and then

effectively attract more consumers' desire to buy,

increase product sales.

People in the purchase of food, both concerned

about its taste, hygiene conditions, etc. , but also from

various aspects of food packaging design has a new

demand, in food packaging design.

Anthropomorphism has an important role to play,

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1951-1844

which pulls in the distance between the food and the

consumer, not only to make the goods outside to be

beautified, but also significantly promote the increase

in sales of commodities, and become an important

marketing aid. Anthropomorphism in packaging is a

very attractive presence, and can touch the softness of

the customer's heart, visually bring consumers a sense

of joy and satisfaction, so that they get a great

spiritual richness. From the results of other literature,

designers determine the design scheme from the

aspect of anthropomorphism, and combine the

anthropomorphic elements perfectly with food

packaging, which can effectively attract more

consumers' desire to buy, and then increase the sales

of the product.

One of the reasons for packaging

anthropomorphism lies in its ability to help people

use familiar human schemas to understand the

unknown, which leads to smoother cognitive

processing and easier acceptance of anthropomorphic

products by consumers than ordinary products.

However, the consistency between the presentation

296

Fang, Z.

Quantitative Analysis on Food Packaging Anthropomorphization and Purchase Intention.

DOI: 10.5220/0013843000004719

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-commerce and Modern Logistics (ICEML 2025), pages 296-301

ISBN: 978-989-758-775-7

mode of the product and the human cognitive pattern

determines the implementation effect of the product

packaging. Moreover anthropomorphic design

through human-related behavior, language and

appearance, so that human beings establish a more

relevant cognitive schema, so that consumers are

more likely to understand and interact. Therefore, this

paper utilizes a questionnaire to study food packaging

anthropomorphism and purchase intention. This

study aims to show that packaging

anthropomorphism can make consumers know the

food more clearly, distinctly and intuitively, thus

bringing the relationship between food and

consumers closer and increasing the desire to buy.

The theory of anthropomorphism is that

anthropomorphism (Personification) is a widely used

in literary and rhetorical device, which refers to

giving animals, abstract ideas, or other inanimate

things, human form, character, emotions, etc. , in

order to express human behavior or thoughts and

emotions, to give human characteristics to non-

human entities, and to promote the incorporation of

objects into the " human" characteristics (Nie et al.,

2024; Wang & Wang, 2021). Simply put, it means to

personify things, i. e. to write about things as if they

were human beings, so that they have human

thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It is a way of

expression that gives human physical characteristics

and makes them have human behavior or thoughts

and emotions, which is widely seen in human

language expression and art works, and is also

increasingly used in online games and packaging

design.

Food packaging is an important cue for consumers

to " intuitively" understand the health value of a

product, and is one of the most important bases for

consumers' purchasing decisions (Kim & Petitjean,

2021). Anthropomorphization in packaging is the

process by which a third party assigns human

characteristics, motives, intentions, and emotions to a

target object, thereby altering people's perceptions

and attitudes toward the target object (Wang & Wang

2021). Brands communicate with consumers through

anthropomorphic techniques called

"anthropomorphic marketing". Anthropomorphic

marketing is a corporate strategy that can enhance

consumer favorability as a whole (Wang & Xie,

2014). Brand anthropomorphic communication refers

to the use of interpersonal communication mode by

brands to interact with consumers, breaking the

identity positioning of the brand in traditional

marketing and transforming the brand from an

"objective thing" to a "real human being" (Muehling

et al., 2004; Widya & Mursalin, 2023).

The purpose of anthropomorphic packaging

design is to manipulate the anthropomorphic

tendencies of consumers by providing appropriate

stimuli to give human characteristics to something

that is not human, so that consumers perceive the

product or brand as a personified one. In packaging,

anthropomorphism can be used to create a unique

brand image and bring the product or service closer

to the consumer, and the anthropomorphism of the

product can increase the perceived similarity of the

product to the consumer and shorten the

psychological distance between itself and the product

(Wu et al., 2025).

Chinese cholars believe that brand

anthropomorphic images affect consumers' attitudes

and purchasing behaviors through their perceptions,

and that consumers will have different expectations

of partner brand anthropomorphic images and servant

brand images (Liang et al., 2024). For example, some

brands may anthropomorphize their product or

service into a character with distinctive personality

and characteristics to create an emotional connection

with consumers.

At the level of marketing strategy, appearance

anthropomorphism, disposition anthropomorphism

and interaction anthropomorphism represent the

continuous enrichment and development of

anthropomorphic means (Wang & Wang, 2021). That

is, from the initial provision of visual and auditory

sensory stimulation information, it gradually begins

to advance towards the deeper perception of the

audience. Anthropomorphic packaging is no longer

satisfied with simple physical anthropomorphism or

cartoon images, but attempts to use anthropomorphic

images to communicate and interact with consumers

in depth, through anthropomorphic packaging images

to make their products and brands not only "look like

people", but also "feel like people", with human

temperament and thought. Enterprises through

anthropomorphic marketing strategy, the use of

humorous language, pictures and cartoons, animation

and other anthropomorphic images, shorten the

emotional distance between consumers and

enterprises, so that the corporate brand deep into the

hearts of consumers (Lu, 2020).

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Zhang Yu conducted a study with an experiment,

which was a between-group design with the level of

anthropomorphization of product packaging

(anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic) as the

independent variable and the anthropomorphism

Quantitative Analysis on Food Packaging Anthropomorphization and Purchase Intention

297

rating score as the dependent variable (Zhang, 2022).

With the results of their experiments, the following

studies were conducted: the mediating role of social

interaction in the effect of anthropomorphism on

brand attitudes; the moderating role of adult

playfulness in the effect of anthropomorphism on

brand attitudes, and the following conclusions were

drawn: (1) Consumers preferred product packages

with anthropomorphic elements over those without

anthropomorphic elements. (2) Social interaction

plays a mediating role between anthropomorphism

level and brand attitudes. When product packaging

contains anthropomorphic elements,

anthropomorphic manipulation of appearance as well

as context enables the establishment of social

interaction between the anthropomorphic image and

the consumer, which in turn elicits more positive

brand attitudes from the consumer. (3) Adult fun

plays a moderating role in the relationship between

anthropomorphization level and brand attitudes,

when consumers' level of adult playfulness traits is

high, the higher the anthropomorphization level of the

product packaging, the more positive consumers'

attitudes towards the brand; while there is no

significant difference in brand attitudes towards

product packaging with or without anthropomorphic

elements among consumers with low adult

playfulness traits.

Hu used experimental and interview methods to

conduct the study (Hu, 2021). Experiment 1 tested

that the interaction between anthropomorphic brand

roles and consumers' self-constructed types had an

effect on purchase intention; Experiment 2

demonstrated that perceived value (functional value

vs. emotional value) has a mediating role in the

mechanism by which anthropomorphic brand roles

and consumers' self-constructs interact to influence

purchase intention. The researcher used interviews to

gain insight into consumers' knowledge of

anthropomorphic brand personas. The experimental

and interview methods led to the following

conclusion: when consumers are independent (vs.

dependent) self-construals, consumers have higher

purchase intention for anthropomorphic brands with

servant (vs. partner) roles. Perceived value plays a

mediating role in the interaction of anthropomorphic

brand roles and self-construals in influencing

consumers' purchase intention, including emotional

value and functional value. When the brand appears

in the role of partner, if the consumers are dependent

self-constructs, they will have higher affective value,

which will enhance their purchase intention; when the

brand appears in the role of servant, if the consumers

are independent self-constructs, they will have higher

functional value, which will enhance their purchase

intention.

Huang Fan used two quasi-experiments to

conduct the study - Experiment 1: The effect of the

interaction of anthropomorphic packaging and the

type of nutrition label on the front of the package on

the willingness to purchase food; the effective sample

was 137. Experiment 2: The mediating role of

comparative judgment strategies; the effective

sample was 189 participants (Huang et al., 2023). The

following conclusions were drawn from the study: (1)

anthropomorphic packaging (vs. non-

anthropomorphic packaging) of a food product would

lead to a greater preference for an absolute judgment

strategy (vs. a dimensional judgment strategy) in

evaluating that food product; and (2) This would

further lead to a greater consumer preference for

anthropomorphic packaged foods with evaluated

front-of-pack nutrition labels and for non-

anthropomorphic packaged foods with objective

front-of-pack nutrition labels.

Rongrong Wang determined the research

questions, research theories and research models

mainly through the literature analysis method and

focus group interviews in the early stage; and verified

the proposed hypotheses mainly through the

experimental research method and statistical analysis

method in the later stage (Wang, 2024). Literature

analysis method: in the stage of determining the

research question, literature and books related to food

anthropomorphism and factors affecting the

willingness to purchase healthy food at home and

abroad are sorted out and summarized to summarize

the existing theoretical results, research frontiers and

shortcomings. In the stage of determining the

research model, the relevant stereotype content model

theory and dual-process theory are reviewed, and the

conceptual model among the relevant variables in this

paper is clarified through systematic analysis and

organization to provide theoretical guidance for the

empirical research. Focus group interview method: in

the stage of refining the research question, consumers'

views on healthy food and food anthropomorphism

are interviewed. Experimental research method:

subjects were randomly assigned to different

simulated consumption situations to understand the

effect of anthropomorphization of healthy food on

consumers' purchase intention and the effect of

different healthy food consumption frequencies on

this effect, and the corresponding variables were

measured by scales. Statistical analysis method:

firstly, Excel was used to pre-process the data, and

then SPSS was used to analyze the pre-processed

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data, including the statistical and descriptive analysis

of basic information, the reliability and validity

analysis of the content of the scale, the mediation

analysis, and the analysis of moderating effects. The

following conclusions are drawn from the above

methods: (1) Compared with no anthropomorphism

strategy, warm anthropomorphism and competence

anthropomorphism for healthy food can increase

consumers' willingness to buy healthy food to the

same extent. (2) Perceived fun and perceived quality

mediate the effect of the type of

anthropomorphization of health food (warm vs.

competent) on purchase intention. (3) Health food

consumption frequency (low frequency vs. high

frequency) moderated the relationship between health

food anthropomorphization type (warm vs.

competent) and purchase intention. Low-frequency

health foods with anthropomorphization strategies of

warmth type (vs. competence type) had higher fun

perceptions and higher purchase intentions: high-

frequency health foods with anthropomorphization

strategies of competence type (vs. warmth type) had

higher quality perceptions and higher purchase

intentions.

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Questionnaire and Data Collection

In order to explore people's preference and purchase

willingness for food packaging anthropomorphism,

this paper designed a questionnaire. The

questionnaire was divided into two parts, containing

thirteen questions, involving respondents' basic

information, respondents' views on

anthropomorphization of food-based packaging. It

was released on February 19, 2025 on the platform of

Questionnaire Star, and a total of 100 valid

questionnaires were collected by February 25, 2025,

with a recovery rate of 100%. The basic information

of the respondents is as follows:

There are relatively more "female" respondents in

the questionnaire, with a proportion of 64. 00%. The

proportion of "male" sample is 36. 00%.

More than 30% of the respondents were in the age

range of "18-24 years". (see Figure 1)

Figure 1. Results of age distribution

3.2 Preference Analysis of

Anthropomorphism in Food

Packaging

Table 1. Anthropomorphic design: attractiveness and

potential problems at the same time

Name (of a

thing)

Optins Frequenc

Percentag

e (%)

What is your

attitude towards

anthropomorphi

c design of food

packaging?

very

supportiv

16 16. 00

supportiv

28 28. 00

neutral 54 54. 00

opposed 2 2. 00

More than 50% of the samples in the survey chose

"neutral". The reasons may be as follows:

anthropomorphic design can attract attention,

enhance emotional connection, improve brand

recognition and promote sales. However,

anthropomorphic design may also have potential

problems such as misleading consumers, cultural

differences, over-reliance on packaging, and target

group limitations (see Table 1).

The proportion of "humorous anthropomorphic

language" in the survey questionnaire is relatively

high(51. 00%). Humorous anthropomorphic language

packaging is more popular due to its emotional

resonance, memory points, brand personality, stress

relief, target group and cultural acceptance. This type

of packaging not only enhances brand appeal, but also

improves consumers' shopping experience and

satisfaction (see Table 2).

Quantitative Analysis on Food Packaging Anthropomorphization and Purchase Intention

299

Table 2. Differences in acceptance of anthropomorphic

design elements

Name (of a

thing)

Options Frequen

Percenta

ge (%）

Which of the

following

anthropomorp

hic design

elements do

you find most

appealing?

Cute cartoon

image

24 24. 00

Vivid

Emoticons

20 20. 00

Humorous

anthropomorp

hic language

51 51. 00

else 5 5. 00

39% of respondents prefer anthropomorphic food

packaging design.

Whether the anthropomorphic design of food

packaging in the questionnaire can attract attention,

people choose "a certain degree of attraction"

relatively more, the proportion of 39. 00%. proving

that the anthropomorphic design of food packaging

compared to ordinary food packaging, some people

will be more fond of anthropomorphic design of food

packaging.

Table 3. Future food packaging trends: anthropomorphic

storylines to enhance emotional connection and brand value

name (of a thing) Frequency Percentage (%）

A Cartoon image 41 41. 00

B anthropomorphic

storyline

58 58. 00

C Interactive design 36 36. 00

D Emotional expression 55 55. 00

E Else 9 9. 00

Based on the questionnaire survey, more

anthropomorphic storylines should be added to food

packaging design in the future, as this design

approach can enhance emotional connection, improve

brand memory, convey brand concepts and increase

fun. Anthropomorphic storyline not only attracts

more consumers, but also gives deeper emotional

value to the brand and adapts to the future market

trend (see Table 3).

3.3 Food Packaging Anthropomorphic

Product Purchase Willingness

Analysis

More than 50% of the samples in the questionnaire

paid a premium for "Depends on the situation",

reflecting consumers' cautious and conditional

attitude towards anthropomorphic design. They may

consider the following factors: design quality, brand

trust, product value, personal preference, price

sensitivity, market comparison, and cultural

acceptance. Thus, consumers may judge whether they

are willing to pay extra for anthropomorphic designs

based on a combination of these factors(see Table 4).

Table 4. Willingness of over 50% of consumers to pay a

premium for anthropomorphic design depending on

conditions

Name (of a

thing)

Options Frequenc

Percentage(

%）

If a food

product is

slightly more

expensive due

anthropomorp

hic design,

would you be

willing to pay

a premium for

it?

Yes 16 16. 00

No 27 27. 00

Depends

on the

situation

57 57. 00

Anthropomorphic packaging design: to

'interesting' feeling to win the favor of consumers

From the questionnaire data, 79% of people chose

"interesting" for what anthropomorphic packaging

design will bring to consumers. Anthropomorphic

packaging design can bring more interesting feelings

due to its advantages of emotional connection,

creative expression, memory point, brand personality,

target group, interactive experience and cultural

acceptance.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Through the consumer questionnaire survey on

anthropomorphic food packaging products, the

survey data shows the following main conclusions:

consumer attitudes towards anthropomorphic food

packaging design are diversified. More than 50% of

the samples chose "neutral", indicating that

anthropomorphic design has the potential to attract

attention, enhance emotional connection and improve

brand recognition, but there are also potential

problems such as misleading consumers and cultural

differences. Nevertheless, humorous

anthropomorphic language design is more popular

with 51% of respondents, and can significantly

enhance brand appeal and consumer satisfaction due

to its advantages of emotional resonance and brand

personality. At the same time, 39% of respondents

believe that anthropomorphic design is "somewhat

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300

attractive", indicating that it is more popular with

some consumers than ordinary packaging. In the

future, anthropomorphic storyline design is

considered to have more market potential due to its

ability to enhance emotional connection and convey

brand concepts. However, consumers are more

cautious about paying a premium for

anthropomorphic designs, depending on multiple

factors such as design quality and brand trust. Based

on the results of the current study, the following

recommendations are made for packaging design by

merchants: balance design and practicality, focus on

humor and emotional resonance, explore

anthropomorphic storylines, ensure design quality,

and consider cultural differences. Merchants should

fully utilize the advantages of anthropomorphic

design, while paying attention to the potential

problems: misleading consumers, cultural differences

and sensitivities, prudence of consumers in paying

premiums, overdesign or aesthetic fatigue, matching

of brand personality and market positioning,

limitations of target audiences, market competition

and risk of imitation, longevity of emotional

connection, environmental protection and

sustainability. People should meet market demand

and enhance brand value through innovation and

optimization.

Overall, anthropomorphic packaging design has

brought more interesting feelings to consumers with

its fun and emotional connection advantages. The

future is expected to bring more interesting feelings

to consumers through further research on the

influence of internal factors of different consumers,

the influence of cultural differences and subcultures,

the specific expressions of anthropomorphic design,

the market effects of anthropomorphic packaging, the

ethics and sustainability of anthropomorphic

packaging, technology-driven anthropomorphic

design innovation, the emotional and psychological

effects of anthropomorphicpackaging's emotional and

psychological effects and other research themes. An

in-depth study of these topics can provide a more

comprehensive understanding of the potential and

limitations of anthropomorphic packaging design,

provide more targeted design strategies for

businesses, and promote theoretical innovation and

practical development in the field of packaging

design.

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