Next time you're in the fruit aisle, you might want to look twice at that vibrant orange or lemon. The coloured netting wrapping your citrus isn't just for show – it's a calculated marketing strategy designed to trick your brain into seeing riper, more appealing produce.
The Science Behind the Supermarket Illusion
Marketing and perception experts have revealed that retailers deliberately match net colours to specific fruits to influence shopper perception. Associate Professor of Marketing Sven Tuzovic from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane confirmed the tactic is far from random. "Retailers carefully select the colour of the netting to influence consumer perceptions," he explained.
The phenomenon was personally experienced by perception psychologist Prof. Dr. Karl Gegenfurtner from the University of Giessen in Germany. He purchased oranges that looked perfectly ripe in their bright orange nets, only to find they appeared disappointingly green once he removed the packaging at home.
How the 'Confetti Effect' Works on Your Brain
To test his theory, Gegenfurtner recreated the setup using a graphic pattern known as a Munker-Netz, named after German colour researcher Hans Munker. When he viewed the fruit through orange lines, the greenish hue vanished, proving the net itself was creating the illusion.
"I conclude that colour assimilation alone has a strong impact on how colour appears," Gegenfurtner stated. "A delight for a colour scientist, but a sad moment for the consumer."
This is explained by the Munker-White illusion, also called the confetti effect or colour assimilation. Essentially, our brains try to harmonise neighbouring colours, making the fruit inside appear more vibrant and juicy than it truly is. The colour of a foreground pattern directly influences how we perceive the background.
To demonstrate its power, Gegenfurtner showed how three neutral-coloured faces can appear vividly coloured, lightened, or darkened based solely on the background stripe pattern, even though the faces themselves don't change.
A Clever Marketing Tactic with a Psychological Edge
Professor Tuzovic elaborated on why this technique is so effective for supermarkets. "The human brain prefers information that is easy to process. If the package colour matches the product type, it creates a positive subconscious feeling and can increase purchase intentions," he told 7NEWS.com.au.
By carefully aligning net colour with the expected hue of ripe fruit, supermarkets can make products look fresher and more appealing without a shopper ever needing to touch them. It's a marketing technique that works on the brain as much as the eye.
The effect was first studied in the 1970s by Hans Munker and has since been widely adopted in packaging design to subtly sway judgments of freshness and quality.
The Future of Fruit Packaging in a Green World
As environmental concerns grow, supermarkets are introducing more recyclable and paper-based packaging. This shift raises a new question for marketers. Coles has already begun trialling mandarins in new environmentally friendly brown netting.
"Moving forward, the question is how supermarkets will maintain this practice as they introduce new recyclable paper packaging," Professor Tuzovic pondered. The industry must now balance its powerful psychological tricks with the increasing consumer and regulatory demand for sustainable materials.
So, the next time you pick up a bag of oranges, remember: your eyes might be telling you a colourful story, but it's one carefully scripted by supermarket science.
