CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In nowadays competitive marketing environment the role of package has changed due to increasing self-service and changing consumers’ lifestyle. Firms’ interest in package as a promotional tool is growing increasingly. Package becomes an ultimate selling proposition stimulating impulsive buying behavior, increasing market share and reducing promotional costs.

According to Rundh (2005) package attracts consumer’s attention to particular brand, enhances its image, and influences consumer’s perceptions about product. Also package imparts unique value to products and works as a tool for differentiation, i.e. helps consumers to choose the product from wide range of similar products, stimulates customers buying behavior.  Wells, Farley & Armstrong,(2007) opined that package performs an important role in marketing communications and could be treated  as one of the most important  tools of promotion. The primary function of packaging is to protect the product against potential damage while transporting, storing, selling and exploiting a product and to ensure the convenience during performance of these activities. Groundage & Ostil, (2009) indicates the importance of packaging in the case of grocery, when consumers buy unbranded products. Seeing that most consumers tend to touch products before purchasing, they treat product packaging as a tool for protecting consumers from contamination, for allowing them to touch products without restraint, without need to avoid smudging their hands. They propose to use packaging with a “window”, in order to allow consumers  to  evaluate  product  by  its  appearance  at  the  same  time  reducing “consumer uncertainty regarding quality by branding the product and labeling it” i.e. to communicate to consumer adequate message about product. It could be stating that in length of time a function of identification and communication became of vital importance especially for consumer products in the group of convenience goods. Packaging  as  a  tool  for  communication  was  investigated  by  Gonzalez  et  al., (2007)  Taking  into  consideration  that  impulsive  buying  is  proper  to  many consumers it could be maintained that “packaging may be the only communication between a product and the final consumer in the store”. Consequently the role of package in marketing communications increases: it must attract consumer’s attention and transmit adequate value of product to consumer in the short period right in the place of sale. The role of packaging has evolved from the traditional function of protecting the product against dirt, damage, theft, mishandling, and deterioration. This functional role is a requirement of all packages. In the modern era, packaging is also utilized as a marketing tool to promote the product, to increase visibility of the product on the shelf, and to provide information to the customer (O’Shaughnessy 2005). In spite of packaging use as a growing marketing tool, marketers still view packaging as a container. A known marketing expert, Philip Kotler (2000) defines packaging as all activities of designing and producing the container for a product. Packaging draws the attention of the consumer at point-of-sale through its attractive design and color, gives an indication of its contents, package can be a tool in educating the customer. Finally, the package contributes to the overall image of the brand. It is important to remember, however, that packaging is not the only marketing and promotional tool. Meyers (2001:25)

The increasing importance of packaging in the marketing mix has equaled and occasionally surpassed product advertising and sales promotion in the past thirty years. The  physical  packaging  of  a  product  can  be  used  for  many  purposes, from  the manufacturing point to the end users, such as the protective and promotive functions where it is called as a “silent protector” Long (2002:52) and a “silent salesman” Pilditch (2003:102). The packaging not only delivers product information and brand identity, it also visually appeals to consumers and due to its protective function which delivers the product undamaged. Besides, Packaging  plays  an  important  role  in helping consumers to recognize and understand the products.

When consumers go to retailers, they usually see the packaging of products before they can see the products themselves. Therefore, the packaging of products can be an effective tool for promotion in real shops Stewart, (2006:208).

According to Cateora (2002:405), a poorly packaged product conveys an impression of poor quality. Supermarkets have many products on the shelves each containing many items of information and there are very few sales people in a supermarket hence most selling is done through packaging. The modern marketer should then see packaging  beyond  its  traditional  role  of  holding  contents  together  but  as  a promotional tool for his products which is the purpose of this study.

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