Breakfast Cereal Packaging in Australia

Abstract

How is a product that is essentially in the colour range of beige to brown presented through packaging? How do colours of package graphics enhance the product and differentiate it from its competitors? How do companies that market breakfast cereal present their products and ranges, to successfully compete for consumer choice from the supermarket shelf? In investigating these questions the use of colour in breakfast cereal packaging in Australia was assessed, visually and numerically, to identify colour characteristics, the most often used and the most proportionally used colours. Nineteen mixed cereals were selected; and included four brands Uncle Toby's, Kellogg's, Sanitarium and Vogel's. Visual analysis of the cereal packaging front face identified significant characteristics. The predominant colour reflected the content or the context of the cereal, while the brand range identity remained consistent. The numerical analysis assessed both the most often used and most proportionally used colours. The results showed that the two top ranked colours in both categories were white/cream and 'cereal' (brown/beige).