CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Globally, the study and practice of marketing have broadened considerably, from an emphasis on marketing as a functional management issue, to a wider focus on the strategic role of marketing in overall corporate strategy (e.g., Kotler, 2000; Sudharshan, 1995).  This broadening of the marketing concept, to include strategic as well as operational decisions, has resulted in an overlap between marketing and strategic management.  Managers around the globe are recognizing the increasing importance for the firm to develop marketing strategies to compete effectively in worldwide markets.

The emergence of a more open world economy, the globalization of consumers’ tastes, and the development of a worldwide commercial web all have increased the interdependency and interconnections of markets across the globe (Hugh and Elizabeth, 2006). In the world today, companies like Amazon, Alibaba and Google have a Marketing strategy which is a procedure by which these companies react to situations of competitive market and forces of market or react to environment forces and internal forces to enable the companies to achieve its objective in the target market (Slater, Hult, and Olson, 2010). One of which is to understand the purchase intension of their customers.

Purchase intention is a conscious effort by consumers to choose products or services, which may be generated when the impression or attitude given to consumers meets their expectations (Spears and Singh, 2004). Purchase intention can predict purchase behavior well. In view of the significance of purchase intention, researchers have devoted considerable effort to investigate several factors that influence consumers purchase intention, including product information, trust, cultural differences, perceived quality and perceived risk (Chang and Wildt, 1994; Bian and Forsythe, 2012; Hajli et al., 2017).  Consumer purchase intension is stated as the behavior that consumers are searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products, services, and ideas that they expect will satisfy their needs.

The study of consumer purchase intension is concerned not only with what consumers buy but also with why they buy it, when and how they buy it and how often they buy it. It is concerned with learning and specific meanings that products hold for consumers. Consumer research take place at every phase of consumption process before the purchase, during and after the purchase. Philip Kotler defined consumer purchase intension as all psychological, social and physical behavior of potential customer as they become aware to evaluate, purchase, consume and tell other about products and services.

The scope of consumer purchase intension includes not only the actual buyer and his act of buying but also various roles played by different individuals and the influence they exert on the final purchase decision. Individual consumer purchase intension is influenced by economic, social, culture, psychological and personal factors. Consumer purchasing process depends on various factors including price, packaging, promotion and previous experience (Shaq, Raza & Ziaur Rehman, 2011

Product packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of design, evaluation, and production of packages. Packaging is one of the most important aspects that need to be taken into consideration by marketers to attract the consumers in buying their products. There are several main functions of the packaging such as protecting the content of the product as well as being the representation of the product itself. According to Chandon &Wansink (2010) packaging is one of the factors that could drive consumer to buy a product.

With the elements of packaging such as: the color of the packaging, the size of the product, the packaging design, the labeling which defines the brand of the product as well as the product information which explains the ingredients and content of the product, it can influence the buying decision of consumers which resulting in products sales growth. The package of the product has 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.

Besides the role of packaging which contains several elements (color, quality, size, label) that could attract the consumers attention towards the products, according to Vieira et al (2015), packaging also contributes to stimulate consumers’ appetite through its elements.

For instances in the case of food packaging, when the transparency of the food content is shown in detail, consumer will understand whether the ingredients are safe to be consumed because health is one of the factors that is considered when choosing a food product. Packaging influences consumers to the extent that it determines whether a consumer comes back for more products or not. Attractive packaging calls for repeated patronage from consumers, which enable the firm to generate profit. Product packaging is the final stage of production and plays vital role in production activities.

Attractive packaging can also induce impulse purchasing. Scot (2008) states that attractive packaging can attract customers to try product at first sight. Packaging quality is a positive effect on consumer intension for purchase as it enhances consumer perception on product quality. More so, packaging color also influences consumer purchase intension. Color is a visual representation of any product or brand. It triggers thoughts, feelings and emotions about a product. In addition, packaging label also has a significant effect on purchase intension of consumers due to the fact that it indicates the content, guidelines for use, and contact details, thus this changes the perception of consumers for a particular brand or product.

Globally, in the international marketing management literature, purchase behavior is recognized as a risk. In the light of the openness of the market and the convergence among the markets, the markets are crowded with the different commodities, as one can see the one commodity comes in shapes and different substitutes, consequently, it becomes necessary for the organization to recognize its commodities among other existing ones in the market in order for the customers to find the product very easily (Gronroos, 1982; Klimchuk and Krasovec, 2013). Therefore, the organization relies on the strategy of packaging in recognizing its products from other products to attract consumer’s intention for the product.

In the world today, the prevalence of self-service stores and automated sales through machines, the spread of modern materials in the field of packaging such as plastics, paper, aluminum, wood, carton, iron and other materials, and in recent years, the development of the concept of packaging is no longer limited to the purpose of protecting goods from damage, but also become a marketing tool to influence consumer trends in the purchase of goods (Charles. W Lamb et al, 2011).

In the developed world, for instance countries like USA, UK and Canada with Increasing and developing technology has a variety of influences for its users. The internet today is one form of technological development.  With the internet, it facilitates the activities of many people, one of which is shopping.

People no longer need to go out and shop at the supermarket, just sit at the computer or via cell phone, choose and order their favorite items, buy and sell items via internet, called e-commerce or online shopping (Oliver B. Buttner and Anja S. Goritz, 2008). Along with rapid development of the internet Purchasing through, many online shopping sites, online blogs or community sites have sprung up not only as friendship sites but also offer buying and selling forums that provides all the necessities. Purchase intension through the internet is one of the most rapidly developing forms with a rate of sales growth that exceeds retail in stores (Levy & Weitz, 2009).

More so, in the developing world, it is obvious that starting a business is one thing and winning customers is another thing. One can be sure of producing products as much as he or she can, but on the other hand, if the customers are not persuaded to buy the product the business will fade away. Persuading customers is a complex task due to the fact that they are exposed to more than one product choices within a short period of time.

Nzumile and Taifa (2019) confirmed that most of the small-scale entrepreneurs in Tanzania normally disregard packaging which at large extent bears the convincing power and draw the attention of customers towards a specific product. This is witnessed by the way small-scale entrepreneurs’ products are packed in comparison to the imported ones. As a result, customers tend to doubt the products thinking that products of small-scale entrepreneurs are of low quality.

In Cameroon, the development of retail business causes changes in consumer behavior in conducting shopping activities that lead to entertainment (Nielsen, 2008). This change in consumer behavior has caused retailers to rearrange the layout of their stores and packaging goods with entertainment nuances. As a result, many retailers use private labels to sell their products. Levy 2007) and Collins (2008) state that building a private label can create a competitive advantage. The various strategies. Use packaging tactics cannot be over emphasized since many businesses know how relevant and reliable it’s in the business world. However, Cameroonian also faces the challenges in making the right decision for their oral health as it is in the case of Buea. Thus, is a clear understanding that packaging affects consumer purchase intention in Cameroon at large and Buea in particular?

Toothpaste is one of the fastest-growing segments in Cameroon. The toothpaste market in Cameroon in general and Buea in particular is very attractive due to its huge population its account for. Toothpaste is a regular purchasing item on the grocery shopping list. There are so many brands of toothpaste available in Cameroon and as such consumer has a difficult task to choose their favorite brand of toothpaste that matches their preferences.

Companies focus on various aspects for manufacturing and selling toothpaste-like flavor, color, taste, dental care, protection, herbal elements, etc. People having different types of tooth brushing habits. Ideally, the essence of packaging is building a strong bond between the buyer and the brand. The urban population in Buea is witnessing rapidly changing aspirations and lifestyles, which have resulted in increase in demand for personal and oral care items. The present study will be helpful to the oral and personal care manufacturer and marketers in understanding the consumer satisfaction, purchase intentions and attitude of the people residing in Buea.

As far as this study is concern, there are controversies that surround this topic. Different researchers have their own point of view in respect to the topic. Some researchers believe packaging plays a vital part to influence consumer purchase intention for a particular product these was recorded mostly in the developed world due to the advancement of technology (Shaq, Raza & Ziaur Rehman, 2011, Rettie & Brewer, 2000).

More so, other schools of thought believed packaging has a poor packaging leads to get loss in their business, failure in competition and meet the international standards as reported by Kazimoto (2014) in his study on the assessment of challenges facing small and medium enterprises towards international marketing standard indicated that small-scale entrepreneurs in Tanzania cannot compete with products outside the country because of various reason (Nzumile and Taifa, 2019). The study revealed that poor packaging does not attract customers at all. This influenced the researcher to conduct this study so as to examine the effect of packaging on consumer purchase intention in Buea-Cameroon.

1.2 Problem Statement.

The purchase of products in every organization in the world today is a call for concern as these organizations are still unclear about the intensions of their customers towards their products. These has brought many challenges globally as intension is within the mind of the customers if not expressed cannot be known. Problems of low purchase Intension in the world today can be attributed to poor packaging, ineligible package labels, and weak and fragile packing which affect the intension of consumer purchase.

There is a multiplicity of fast-growing consumer goods in the market. As such packaging of a product has become a vital tool to influence consumer’s 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 behavior is fast growing.

Rundh, 2005, noted that packaging and its attributes attract consumers’ attention to a particular product, enhance its image and influence consumers’ perception about the product. In addition, packaging of a product impact unique values to the products and serves as a mechanism for differentiation and thus stimulates the buying behavior of consumers.

Moreover, in this much globalized world with high rate of competition, consumers are faced with enormous increasing number of products to make choices from. With the many choices available just before 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.

In the developed world, in countries like America, Canada, Britain and Australia, that is more comfortable with the use of computers for most of their activities including shopping influence their decision to buy a particular product. People no longer need to go out and shop at the supermarket, just sit at home with their computer and purchase goods online. There are mostly engaged in social media activities and by so doing they easily come across online adverts and when they purchase, it turns out not to be what they expect maybe in terms of quality, package texture or color. Thus, it influences consumer purchasing decision for a particular product.

More so, in the developing world, countries like Tanzania, Nigeria and Cameroon are also facing problems that are attributed to purchase intension for consumers. When a product is damage before reaching the customers, it turns to affect their Intension for purchase. 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. In this sense, consumers in Kenya purchase a particular product based on its packaging labels.

More so, the government of Ethiopia imposed legislative pressure that affects packaging which is related to labeling, whereby the manufacturer or the packer is required to declare the nutritional facts, added ingredients, and best-before-date criteria on packaged food to ensure information on the packaging is sufficient to facilitate purchase decision-making by consumers (Regulation No. 299/2013.

In Buea, with young and dynamic customers, businesses are still not aware about the intention of their consumers as they constantly changing their buying habits that has made customers to often complain of poor packaging. If particular toothpaste is poorly package, it will affect customers Intension for purchase. More so, another problem is ineligible package labels. Customers in Buea are focus on what kind of information is written on the package thus if limited or poor information are written on the package, it will affect customers Intension for purchase.

Based on giving pivot survey carried out by the researcher on some convenience shops in Buea, it’s observed that toothpaste have been noted to get consumed than other companies’ products. It also has an increase in sales of toothpaste products in their shops than that of other competitive products. It is in this light that this research seeks to find out the effect of packaging on consumer purchase intensions of toothpaste brands in Buea.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main Research Question

What is the effect of packaging on consumer purchase intension for toothpaste brands in Buea?

1.3.2 Specific Research Question

1. What is the effect of packaging quality on consumer purchase intention for toothpaste brands in Buea?
2. What is the effect of packaging color on consumer purchase intension for toothpaste brands in Buea?
3. What is the effect of packaging labels on consumer purchase intension for toothpaste brands in Buea?

Check out: Marketing Project Topics with Materials