CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The package of a product has a high propensity of attracting a first-time buyer of the product who had no prior contact with the product. In the same way, it can also turn away the first-time buyer. The packaging actually serves many purposes, ranging from product protection to attracting consumer attention. It is the selling tool that should promote and sell the product by catching consumers’ attention, defining the product’s identity, providing information, ensuring safe use and protecting the product (Adofo, 2014).

Packaging also pertains to a container, a wrapper for a consumer product that serves a number of purposes including protection and description of the contents, theft deterrence, and product promotion. Innovative and attractive packaging may actually add value to the product if it meets a consumer’s need such as recyclability temper proofing, child proofing, easy open, easy store, easy carry and non-breakability (Katiyar et al., 2014).

The labels on packages are important components of the overall marketing mix and can support advertising drives, established brand identity, enhance name recognition and optimize shelf-space allocation. Packaging must be small enough to accommodate available shelf space and large enough to deter theft. It must also contain an adequate amount of product to keep the unit price competitive. Packaging should be designed to highlight benefits and can be an integral part of the product itself, like facial tissue boxes (Katiyar et al., 2014).

In early times, prior to World War II, packaging was used primarily to protect a product during storage, transportation and distribution (Katiyar et al., 2014). Some packages are designed with aesthetic appeal and even ease of use by the consumer, but package design was typically left to technicians. After World War II, however companies became more interested in marketing and promotion as a means of enticing customers to purchase their products. As a result, more manufacturers began to view packaging as an integral element of overall business marketing strategies to lure buyers. This increased attention to packaging coincided with socioeconomic changes around the world as consumers become better educated and more flush, and their exception of products, and their reliance on them increased as well. Thus packaging became a vital means of differentiating and informing inundated consumers (Katiyar et al., 2014).

In recent years the marketing environment has become increasingly complex and competitive. A product’s packaging is something which all buyers experience and which has a strong potential to engage the majority of the target market. This makes it an extremely powerful and unique tool in the modern marketing environment, as it has a more direct impact on how consumers perceive and experience the product. In most cases, the experience has been that packaging designs are more likely to influence the consumer’s perception of the brand for a product with low advertising support. Packaging takes on even a more significant role as the key vehicle for communicating brand positioning.

Good packaging helps to identify products to consumers. Packaging is used for more easy delivery and for protection and enclosure of the product. Many companies try to make packing original and in a way that it will satisfy consumers. It is also used for promotional purposes, to make the product differentiated from other brands. Packaging is used for marketing communication purposes and it plays an important role which influencing the buying decision of the consumers. Through verbal and pictorial symbols packaging can inform the potential buyers about the content of products, properties, usage, advantages and risks.

Product packaging has a very strong promotional power and helps to break clutter in the market. It adds uniqueness and attractiveness to the product. Product packaging has gained a huge significance as a part of product strategy (Kotler et al., 2009). Packaging is a considerate topic nowadays because it can affect the buying decision of consumers. Earlier, the public considered the product packaging as solitary protection for the product it covered from loss and harmful materials, but its purpose now has advanced as a marketing tool (Silayoi and Speece, 2007). A product could have similarities with its competing product, but the thing that can distinguish them is the packaging.

The size, colour, printed text, graphics, material and shape of product packaging are the aesthetic components of a package. Appealing packaging influences not only the choice of consumers but also enhances their product experience. While designing the product package, marketers should make use of color associations of consumers to generate a positive impact on buying decision. New packaging design and shapes make the product more interesting and make it prominent on the store shelf while enhancing its brand image (Agariya et al., 2012). Packaging materials also influence and change the perceived quality of a product. Packaging is a combination of several elements and all these elements generate the image of the product and finally influence the consumer’s buying decision.

Kosgei (2018) said that stiff competition exists in the environment of business today requiring marketers to be in full understanding of consumer behaviour. As explained by Wambugu et al. (2014) studying the buying behaviours of consumers is paramount since this knowledge helps the manufacturers when they plan and implement marketing strategies. This knowledge further allows them to select and segment target markets so that they can come up with the appropriate strategies of marketing that will serve the target market. Secondly it allows enterprises to come up with appropriate marketing mixes that can serve the target market. Thirdly when marketers understand the factors affecting the buying behaviour of the consumers, they can predict the way consumers will react to different strategies of marketing.

There has been much research done on consumer behaviour in developed nations including the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and the United States of America (USA) and in emerging nations such as India and Malaysia. However, the findings of these studies are not the same in developing nations such as Kenya. In developing countries, studies have been carried out in this area but no conclusive statement has been made.

According to Booth and Shepherd (1988) economic and cultural factors, personality of consumers, values, attitudes and emotions affect the decision making process of consumers in regard to food selection (as cited in Koutroulou and Tsourgiannis, 2011). Speiers et al. (2014) further explain that there are factors that influence and motivate the behaviours of consumers including personality, culture, income, lifestyle, motivators, attitudes, knowledge, feelings, family, values, ethnicity, opinions, resources available, experiences, peer groups and other groups.

In Kenya, Consumers make purchase decisions on packaged food while in stores and hence they do not look for information prior to purchase. Consumers make their decision based on the perception of the quality of the packaging. This implies that manufacturers need to ensure that their products are unique and sensitive to attract consumers to purchase their products. The study also showed that packaging attributes explain a 67% variance in consumer buying behaviour of packaged foods (Kosgei, 2018). Hence manufacturers should identify other key factors to enable them to achieve competitive advantage over their competitors, and that packaging attributes have a positive influence on consumer behaviour. The findings are consistent with a study by Silayoi and Speece (2004) that concluded that the package representation of a product with respect to graphics, colour, size, shapes, material and the overall messages on a product is critical in influencing consumer choice.

In Zimbabwe, the companies in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector are struggling to cope with imports that are coming with advanced quality packaging technology. Customers are usually influenced to buy those products as a result of the outward look of the product.  Packaging is being taken as a form of marketing to influence consumers. Change of technology has become a major threat to the local FMCG manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe (Karedza and Sikwila, 2017).

The government of Ethiopia imposed legislative pressure that affects packaging which is related to labeling, whereby the manufacturer or packer is required to declare the nutritional facts, added ingredients, and best-before-date criteria on packaged food to ensure that information on the packaging is sufficient to facilitate purchase decision-making by consumers (Regulation No. 299/2013). Therefore, to ensure success, marketers must not only optimize the visibility of packaging but also ensure that packaging is able to communicate the specific benefits of the product and facilitate the consumers in product selection within a variety of brands available in the market (Imiru, 2017).

In addition, Levin and Milgrom (2004) state that consumer behaviour is a volatile concept, that is difficult to measure and predict and hence the burden of the success of a product has fallen into the hands of marketers who observe consumer behaviour to create an appealing product, consequently they manipulate packaging attributes in order to turn the unpredictable concept of consumer behaviour into a predictable and economically measurable outcome. This is supported by the views of Kuvykaite (2009) who states that packaging attracts the customer to specific products and they influence consumer buying decision towards a product.

The buying behaviour of consumers is a complex and frequently changing issue that is hard to define (Blackwell et al. 2009). Schiffman and Kanuk’s (2000) definition of consumer behaviour is similar as they explain it as the behaviour of consumers shown when selecting and buying products and services using the resources at their disposal so as to meet their needs and wants. There are different definitions of consumer behaviour but all lead to the view that the buying behaviour of consumers involves the selection, purchasing and disposal of goods and services according to their wants and needs.

Consumer behaviour is however not static, it is constantly changing as the purchasing attributes of the consumer change over time because of the consumer’s physical, psychological, geographical, or demographic needs. Kotler et al. (2005) opined that although there have been great efforts used to understand consumers’ buying behaviour it is still hard to pinpoint the reasons why a consumer would prefer a product over another. The reason behind this is that there are times that consumers purchase a product based on emotional beliefs that they themselves might not be aware of.

As Nestlé consumers in Buea see the packaging of Nestlé products this shapes their perception about their products, which will either influence their buying decision positively or negatively. Hence the way consumers perceive Nestlé products and the kind of buying decisions they take, show the relationship between packaging and buying decisions.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

There is a multiplicity of fast-growing consumer goods in the market. As such packaging of products has become a vital tool to influence consumers’ perception of a product. Due to increasing self-service and changing consumers’ lifestyles, the interest in packaging as a tool of sales promotion and stimulator of impulsive buying behaviour is fast growing. Rundh (2005) noted that packaging attributes attract consumers’ attention to a particular product, enhance its image and influence consumers’ perceptions about the product.

In addition, packaging attributes of a product impart unique values to the products and serve as a mechanism for differentiation and thus stimulate the buying behaviour of consumers. Moreover, in this much globalised world with a high rate of competition, consumers are faced with enormous increasing number of products to make choices from. With the many choices available just before a purchase decision is made, product packaging is one of the best marketing tools.

More often, consumers choose a product not by its features but by the attractiveness and comfort of its packaging. Notwithstanding, it has been noted that Nestlé’s products are packaged only for protection, to ease transportation and respect regulatory requirements. The products do not consider other packaging attributes like language, the quality of packaging, the font size and colour of the text, culture and packaging innovation, as such the packaging of Nestlé’s product are not attractive, it does not enhance the brand name, the packaging layout is poor and does not present the information on the product properly.

Based on a giving pilot survey carried out by the researcher on some convenience shops in Buea, she observed that Nestlé products have been noted to stay for longer periods in shops in Buea than other company products. Also, there has been a decline in the sales of Nestlé products in their shops than that of other competitive products. For instance, Nido Milk, no matter the size, stays more than other competitors’ milk. It is in this light that this research seeks to find out the effects of packaging attributes on the consumer buying decisions of Nestlé products.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main Research question

To what extent do packaging attributes affect the consumer buying decision of Nestlé products in Buea Municipality?

1.3.2 Specific Research questions

1. What is the effect of visual elements of packaging on consumer buying decisions of Nestlé products in Buea Municipality?
2. How do written elements of packaging of Nestlé products affect consumer buying decisions in Buea Municipality?
3. To what extent does the presentation of Nestlé products affect consumer buying decisions in Buea Municipality?

Read More: Marketing Project Topics with Material