Management Research Review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of extrinsic attributes and package design attributes on consumer preferences of high-risk products.

Design/methodology/approach – An explorative conjoint analysis is conducted. A small-scale sample, consisting of 18 consumers, conduct two conjoint tasks for two drug product types, i.e. painkillers and sore throat medicine.

Findings – The impact of the tested attributes varies according to the product type. The intrinsic attribute of taste is valued most in sore throat medicines, followed by colour and producer. Producer and colour are the most valued in painkillers. Colour is the most influential of the design attributes tested. Well-known producer is perceived as more important in painkillers, whereas in sore throat medicine domestic producers are valued more.

Research limitations/implications – The study is exploratory and limited due to the design with few statistical assumptions and to small-scale sampling in one country only.

Practical implications – The health care marketers should recognize the impact of package design on consumers' preferences of high-risk products, such as non-prescription drug.

Originality/value – There has been little research on the impact of package design attributes such as package colours on consumers in health care marketing.