Impact of packaging on consumer perception and purchase orientation

Abstract

Traditionally packaging of a product has merely been associated with the utility function of protecting the goods from damage during shipment and transit. Over the years, packaging has moved away from merely protecting the product to being an important tool in the way a product is marketed. The global packaging market was valued at $400 bn (end market) in 2012 with food contributing nearly 55%.1 Packaging is the basis of promotion at various touch points and influences consumer buying behaviour. Consumer attention span is getting shorter and companies have to develop solutions that will quickly catch consumer’s attention. In a typical supermarket, there are numerous product categories and hundreds of brands within that category. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative to differentiate your product from the rest of the brands in order to have a higher chance of being selected. With an every growing trend of self-service shopping in modern retail, there is an increasing number of shoppers who make their decision on what to buy in-store. Statistics show that atleast 50% of the buyers ended up shopping for more than what they had planned for2 . This was influenced by number of brands, the kind of retail environment, packaging and display. Thus packaging becomes a very important tool to stimulate impulse buying behaviour. Another important role of packaging is improving the product or brand image of the consumer. Consumers make judgements about the quality of the product, its efficacy, volume etc by looking at the packaging. Packaging here consists of both visual and verbal elements and both influence consumer perceptions about the brand.