Louis Cheskin
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Louis Cheskin was a scientific researcher, clinical psychologist, and important marketing innovator. Born in Ukraine on February 17, 1907, he was a one-time Works Progress Administration (WPA) artistic supervisor.
He observed that people's perceptions of products and services were directly related to aesthetic design, and named this relationship sensation transference.
Cheskin spent most of his life investigating how design elements impacted people's perceptions of value, appeal, and relevance. He also discovered that most people could not resist transferring their feelings towards the packaging to the product itself.
Based on consumer feedback, Cheskin recommended changing the colour of Jelke's Good Luck margarine from traditional white to yellow. Furthermore, he changed the wrapper material from waxed paper to foil to represent a higher quality product. These simple recommendations dramatically improved the product's sales, and are still in use for many margarine and dairy products.
Sensation transference
Most people make unconscious assessments of a product, service, or event not only based on the item itself, but on secondary sensory input associated with the item, which all contribute to one general impression - whether intended or not, accurate or not. Cheskin called this "sensation transference".
Cheskin's innovative insight was that impressions created in customers' minds, based on experiencing products sensorially, transferred directly to concepts of value, price, quality, and emotion. These, in turn, created and fulfilled expectations of satisfaction. Cheskin's research didn't always explain why these associations existed, but he confirmed that they did play an important role in both customer choice and satisfaction.
Cheskin's work was not just focused on appearance. Often his research led to understanding that added value and changed the product or service offering in valuable ways. For example, initially McDonald's operated burger-stands designed for walk-up service. Cheskin's research showed that these configurations were uncomfortable for families, particularly women alone with their children, accounting for low sales to these customers. Cheskin was able to show that tables, chairs, and a semblance of walls helped these customers feel safe and comfortable visiting and eating on-site. Later, this understanding led to the transformation of the burger-stands into restaurants. Research on color use and imagery, too, led to the introduction of Ronald McDonald. It was these kinds of insights that Cheskin's research gave his clients that helped shape companies' strategies.
Some results of Cheskin and his team's research include:
- The adoption of the spoon on Betty Crocker packages (leading to a doubling of sales)
- The consumer flop of the Edsel automobile was predicted in a legendary article Cheskin wrote before its introduction (triggering Henry Ford to hire him shortly afterward)
- Uncovering the preference of American consumers for circles over triangles on packaging
- Developing the first successful mainstream margarine (Imperial for Unilever)
- The basic market research underlying the introduction of the Ford Mustang and the Lincoln Continental
- The development of the Marlboro Man and Marlboro packaging from what was previously a women's cigarette
- The creation of the Gerber Baby
- Rounding the corners of the Fleishmann's Gin label to appeal more to women (who made up nearly 40% of liquor store shoppers)
- The transformation in the mid-1950s of the Duncan Hines cake mix package toward a more 'colonial' style to reflect American consumers' desire for both newness and tradition
- The retention of the Golden Arches by McDonald's, which he argued "had Freudian applications to the subconscious mind of the consumer and were great assets in marketing McDonald's food", and likened to "mother McDonald's breasts".
Cheskin's approach and successes won respect from corporate leaders at McDonald's, Ford, Polaroid, General Mills, and many others. Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Ray Kroc personally engaged Cheskin on the basis of his innovative approach.
One famous Cheskin study involved the testing of identical deodorants in different packages. Samples were mailed to users and told that the formulations were different. However, the only difference between them was their packaging (three different colour schemes). As one might expect from Cheskin's work, the trials showed that customers preferred one over the others. In fact, some perceived one of the samples as so threatening that they reported rashes and trips to dermatologists, yet had no trouble with the same formula in a different package.
Bibliography
- Living with Art (1940, 233 pages)
- Colors: What They Can Do for You (1947, 333 pages)
- Notation on a Color System for Planning Color Identification (1949, 18 pages)
- Color for Profit (1951, 164 pages)
- Colours and What They Can Do (1951, 214 pages)
- Color Wheel for Color Planning (1953, 4 pages)
- Color Guide for Marketing Media (1954, 209 pages)
- Cheskin Color Charts (1955, 8 pages)
- How to Predict What People Will Buy (1957, 241 pages)
- Why People Buy: Motivation Research and its Successful Application (1959)
- Basis for Marketing Decision Through Controlled Motivation Research (1961, 282 pages)
- How to Color-Tune Your Home (1962, 203 pages)
- Business Without Gambling: How Successful Marketers Use Scientific Methods (1963, 255 pages)
- Problem-Directed Men: Our Greatest Need in Business and Government (1964, 320 pages)
- Secrets of Marketing Success (1967, 278 pages)
- Marketing Success: How to Achieve It (1972)
- The Cheskin System for Business Success (1973, 250 pages)
