Thesis Proposal on

Packaging as a Brand-BuildingTool.

Presented to:

Dr. Muneeruddin Soomro.

Institute of Commerce,University of Sindh.

In (Partial) Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

M.S Commerce

By

Muhammad Yousif Shaikh2K7/COM/82

October 2012

Packaging as a Brand-Building tool

Marketing competition in this day & age as quite stiff, and as a result, businesses & other

organizations are frantically trying to find new ways to get customers to purchase their

products, therefore by utilizing excellent packaging, companies can bring more

customers’ in. nothing tends to get a attention of customer the same way that outstanding

packaging design can. At the point of purchasing a product packaging is what serves as a

direct link between the product within and the customer looking to make a purchase.

It is important that marketers really get to know their market well so that they can make

sure that they are having a positive level of penetration. If the packaging is not doing

anything, when it comes to drawing attention to the product, then probably nobody is

going to buy the product. Whether brand packaging is designed for business to business

or consumer retail sales, packaging is everything when it comes to truly reflecting the

brand. Having a good packaging design will continue to work for company and product

for many years to come, which will allow you to build large amount of loyalty all along

the way.

It is important for this reason that you make a point to know your customers well, and

that you choose your packaging options accordingly. In order to be able to penetrate the

market with your packaging, that is when you can generate real brand power, generating

the appreciation of your customers & building business as a result.

Marketing & advertising will both play important roles in influencing the buying

intention of the customer, but neither of these roles are nearly as close to your product as

packaging is, because the decision to make a purchase during a shopping experience is

made specifically at the store level & not at the marketing or advertising level. Packaging

has a better reach than advertising does, and can set a brand apart from its competitors. It

promotes & reinforces the purchase decision not only at the point of purchase, but also

every time the product is used. Packaging in different serving sizes can extend a product

into new target markets or help to overcome cost barriers.

An important part of the product decision making process is the design of the packaging.

An effective packaging strategy can contribute to the firm’s competitive advantage. A

good packaging strategy will endeavor to produce packaging that is unique, functional,

safe, easy to remove, promotes product benefits and promotes the brand. Packaging

design, which upgrades the brand image value of its products in an artistic form and is for

the purpose of commodity sales, is a combination process of art & natural science.

Excellent product packaging is a link that delivers the products’ information &

consumers’ purchasing desire, and it should include the arts, materials, psychological,

market and many other factors. Therefore, it is critical for the package designer to

conduct a deep research into the consumers’ emotional appeal before carrying out

product design, due to which marketer use various psychological tricks to influence the

overall behavior of the consumers.

Products can be packaged in variety of styles. When it comes to packaging, size matters.

And also changes in the shape of packaging or serving sizes can have a big impact on

consumption patterns. Lets take the example of Tang (powdered beverage), they offer

their packages in various sizes. Pack ranges size from 4 gm sachet to 1000 gm bulk unit.

This can be either in the following formats, sachets, bag in box, printed bags, non glass

jars, non glass canisters, metal cans, composite cans, etc.

According to recent study, published in the journal of marketing research, volume

changes appear smaller when all three dimensions (height, width, and length) changes.

This is because to double the size of one of its dimensions – and then people will notice –

or one can just increase each dimension by 26 percent – and then people will under

estimate how big the change is. For marketers, this means that if a company increases the

size of its packaging in one dimension, consumers perceive it to be much larger & so

assume they’re getting a big deal and are more likely to buy it. If a company increases the

product size by the same volume, but the package is expanded in three dimensions – not

just one – consumers don’t perceive as big the change is. If the consumers are willing to

buy a larger size, then packaging designers should just increase the height because people

will notice. If they want to reduce the quantity of your package, for example if you had

higher raw material costs, marketers should reduce the height, the width, the length

because people won’t notice.

For the health and diet conscious customers, one of the keys to a healthy weight while

still getting all the nutrients and energy they need to enjoy life is watching packaging

serve size. Serve size is the amount of food you eat at one time. To avoid temptation, buy

single serves or individual portions of treat foods rather than big blocks of products or

family sized packs. The number of serves from each food group one need to meet their

nutrition needs depends on many things such as age, height, weight, how active consumer

is and how much consumer is willing to use that product.

There was a time when it was easy to raise the price of products and shoppers didn’t even

notice. Past researches showed that shoppers were completely unaware of little 5, 10, or

15 percent rise in prices, that’s not true anymore. Such as the wholesale price of

ingredients, their best option is to reduce the product size & retain the original price,

instead of raising the price. Some examples include smaller pizza in the same sized box,

more air space in the cereal boxes. There are all these kind of generic tactics being used

so shoppers don’t notice the difference.

Humans have always been interested in the preservation of food to extend its storage life.

Packaging became a necessity when food and other items needed to be packaged for

storage, transportation, protection, measurement, & display purposes. In early civilization

nature provided containers like hollowed-out trees and stones. A man discovered through

chemistry how to use elements like ores, product packaging took on new forms which

remain the standard today. However, the United States military has been a behind-the-

scenes influence in product packaging. The need to get perishable and non-perishable

products to servicemen around the world in all different climates led to many packaging

innovations. The space program has also been the source for packaging concepts.

Packaging industry is constantly coming up with new techniques to improve the quality

of products final appearance while launching them in the market. Since, overall

appearance of the products significantly impacts the marketing part, commercial product

manufacturing companies are very careful about the packaging services they hire.

Statement of the problem

Packaging could be treated as one of most valuable tool in today’s marketing

communications, necessitating more detail analysis of its elements & an impact of those

elements on consumer buying behavior.

The impact of package & its elements on consumer’s purchase decision can be revealed

by analyzing an importance of its separate elements for consumer’s choice. For this

purpose main package’s elements could be identified: graphic, color, size, form, material

of packaging are considered, wrapper design, printed information, innovation while

product information, producer, country-of-origin & brand are considered as important

ones. However, the impact of package elements on consumers purchase decisions should

be evaluated depending on the consumer’s involvement level, time pressure or individual

characteristics of consumers.

I am trying to point out few of the facts, which marketers will need to be aware of and

consider in product packaging. It’s important to understand the evolution of the package

because now products are using the packaging as the primary sales tool. It has to be

“speak” to consumers both literally & visually.

So, I do start my analysis by viewing a particular package from the eyes of consumers,

and emphasis on how to shape the image of the product to better meet the needs of the

consumers.

Research Questions:

1. Do verbal/informational packaging attributes influence the purchase decision?

2. Do visual packaging attributes influence the purchase decision?

Objective/Aim/Vision

According to the World Packaging Organization (WPO), globally the packaging material

& machinery industry is estimated to be worth 500 billion US $ per year, representing

between 1-2 % of the GDP in industrialized countries. An estimated 100,000 million

people, and in principle, serve all business sectors manufacturing and/or trading physical

products.

Packaging concept has gone through a fast & significant development in recent decades,

however the smartest development are to be seen in developing economies. Today’s

modern society depends to a large extend on the availability & use of modern packaging

technology, comprising a vast variety of modern materials, high tech applications &

smart concepts.

The aim of the study is to understand integral role packaging has to play in marketing &

selling product, as it’s no longer enough for the retail environment in a satisfactory

condition, now it has to sale the product too. Packaging plays an integral role in the

decision to purchase a product or not, therefore, it’s very crucial to analyze how the

psychological characteristic affects the buying behavior of customers.

Objectives of the Study:

To find out the effects of packaging on the buying behavior.

Theoretical analysis of package elements & their impact on consumer’s purchase

decision empirically reveal the elements having the ultimate effect on consumer

choice in a case of different products.

To check the effect of packaging elements on the buying behavior.

To measure the relative impact of each packaging element on the consumer.

To identify the elements which should be highlight while design the packaging.

Respondents' likes, dislikes as well as key purchase drivers will be examined.

Preference of different packages by different income groups.

Literature Review

The concept of package design is inherently multidimensional, incorporating multiple

elements such as text, shape, graphics, design , logo, size, colors, illustrations, material,

construction, texture, and so on (Underwood et al., 2001). With regard to the main

elements of packaging, many different points of views have been expressed (for example

Ampuero & Vila, 2006, Underwood et al., 2001 and Vidales Giovannetti, 1995).

According to Ampuero & Vila (2006), a distinction is made between two blocks of

components:

1. Graphic Components: It includes color, typography, the graphical shapes used

and the images introduced. And

2. Structural Components: It includes the shape & size of the packages & the

materials used to manufacture them.

Silayoi and Speece (2004) also divide packaging elements into two categories, which are,

in part, different from Ampuero & Vilas (2006) view. According to Silayoi and Speece

(2004) four main packaging elements potentially affect consumer purchase decisions, and

they can be separated into two categories:

1. Visual Elements: The visual elements consist of graphics, size, and shape of

packaging, and relate more to the affective side of decision-making (Silayoi &

Speece, 2004).

2. Informational Elements: The informational elements relate to information

provided, and technologies used in the package, and are more likely to address the

cognitive side of decisions (Silayoi & Speece, 2004).

Figure shows the two types of communication elements of packaging: Visual and

Informational elements. Visual elements are divided into two parts: package graphics, &

package size & shape, and package graphics are further divided into four parts: layout,

illustrations, color, and typography. Informational elements are also divided into two

parts: Packaging Information & Packaging Technologies. First, the visual components,

and then, the informational components of packaging should be looked more closely into.

1.1) Package graphics

According to Silayoi and Speece (2004) the visual components of packaging are the

different graphical elements of the package and the size and shape of the package.

Furthermore, as mentioned, the graphical elements include layout, color combinations,

typography, and product illustrations, and they all contribute to creating an image for the

product or brand (Silayoi & Speece, 2004). Simply put, Silayoi and Speece (2004) state

that poor graphics can lose the sale for many consumers, while attractive graphics gains it

for many. First, a look at one of the most attention attracting graphical elements: color is

taken.

Color

Meyers-Levy and Peracchio (1995) suggested that color, which is assumed to be more

vivid than black and white, attracts attention and can provide information, as we will see

shortly. As already discussed, a product must be able to stand out from the clutter of

competing brands in order to succeed and color has a great capacity to attract the needed

attention (Fitzgerald Bone & Russo France, 2001; Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1995).

However, color can also attract attention to irrelevant data at the expense of more

important and diagnostic information in a situation when colorful graphics use

consumers’ resources that might better be used in examining the verbal component of the

package label, leading to an incorrect conclusion on the product (Fitzgerald Bone &

Russo France, 2001). Especially in the grocery store environment, consumers may rely

on cues that they can quickly assess (Richarsson et al., 1994) and therefore if the

product’s color evokes associations that conflict with actual product attributes the risk of

making a bad product choice is possible.

Color associations seem to be influenced by numerous aspects. Interestingly, Ampuero

and Vila (2006) discovered some color associations they stated could cross category

boundaries. In their study, the authors found that packaging in cold and dark colors were

usually associated with high-prices and refined aesthetics. In contrast, accessible products

that are directed to price sensitive consumers required light, mainly white, colored

packaging (Ampuero & Vila, 2006). Safe and guaranteed products were associated with

red packaging (Ampuero & Vila, 2006).

LayoutAmpuero and Vila (2006) found, in the same way, some common associations in the

second type of graphical elements: package layout. They found that non-selective, middle

class products were associated with horizontal and oblique straight lines, circles, curves,

wavy outlines, asymmetrical compositions and the use of several elements. In contrast,

high price products appeared to be associated with vertical straight lines, squares, straight

outlines, and symmetrical composition with one single element (Ampuero & Vila, 2006).

Also Rettie and Brewer (2000) touched upon layout issues as they studied the recall of

packaging elements. They found that elements were recalled differently according to their

placement on the package. The results indicate that verbal stimuli is recalled better when

they are on the right side of the visual field, and non-verbal stimuli recall would be better

when on the left hand side of the visual field (Rettie & Brewer, 2000). Hence, the

composition of visual elements could be thought to influence both the product

associations and product recall.

Pictures

The third graphical packaging element, packaging pictures, have been found to fulfill

multiple tasks. MacInnis and Price (1987), for instance, state that a consumer viewing a

product picture on a package is more likely to spontaneously imagine aspects of how a

product looks, tastes, feels, smells, or sounds like than they would with a picture less

package. Underwood et al. (2001), say that the positive impact of package pictures is

Primarily to increase attention to a brand, rather than increase the likelihood of the brand

to be chosen. According to them, pictures are extremely vivid stimuli and incorporating

visual imagery on a package may enhance the product’s accessibility to consumers

(Underwood et al., 2001), which does not seem to be synonymous to brand choice.

The picture can also be a source of information to a consumer (Underwood et al., 2001).

Pictorial content represents concrete information that tends to be more influential in the

decision making process than more abstract verbal information (Underwood et al., 2001).

A picture could actually show how the product looks like or how it could be served,

while verbal information can only describe it. For consumers wishing to save money, for

example, a picture may validate the quality of a more inexpensive private label product

when compared to a national brand (Underwood et al., 2001).

Typography

When it comes to the forth graphical packaging element, package typography, some

interesting findings have come up in previous research. Ampuero and Vila (2006) found

that packaging for elegant products usually presented bold, large, roman, upper case

letters with expanded characters (Ampuero & Vila, 2006). In contrast, accessible

products of reasonable price were associated with both serif and sans serif typographies

(Ampuero & Vila, 2006).

1.2) Size and shape

The second type of visual packaging elements is package size and shape. According to

Silayoi and Speece (2004), package size, shape, and elongation affect consumer

assessment and decisions, much like graphical elements, but not always in easily

uncovered ways. In their study, Silayoi and Speece (2004) found that size and shape were

much related to usability. While consumers thought of product pictures and graphics as a

means of communication, discussion about size and shape focused more on packages

being convenient to use and carry (Silayoi & Speece, 2004).

Consumers appeared to use package size & shape as simplifying visual heuristics to make

volume judgments (Silayoi & Speece, 2004). Interestingly, consumers perceived more

elongated packages to be larger, even if there was no difference in the size with the less

elongated packages, and even when they frequently purchased these packages & had

experience using them (Silayoi & Speece, 2007). Thus, elongating the shape, within

acceptable bounds, should result in consumers thinking of the package as a better value

for money & result in larger sales generally (Silayoi & Speece, 2007).

Shape is very important attribute as it is evidenced from the past researches & that signals

towards the fact that previous shape of package can become important marketing tool. In

case of Coca-Cola or other soft drinks, the bottle is the package so the shape of the bottle

becomes its brand identity. If we analyze the shapes of different soft drinks like pepsi or

sprite or fruit juices, we can see that different companies have got different shape of the

bottle, so the shape of package can become an innovative marketing tool creating an

iconic brand image through different shaped packages. Instead how we feel about the

product itself. The shape of the package must be designed in such a way so as to enable

the product to cut through the clutter on shelf space & creates its own distinct identity.

The replacement of tin pack of toothpaste with flexible, soft plastic pack, broadening of

caps of face wash, shaving cream so that the package can stand upside down, innovation

of liquid soap dispenser is the testimony to the fact that more & more effort should be

focused on making the package easy to handle and use by the customers. The shape of

the package is the significant attribute of the communication through the package and an

innovative pack design can help to set a brand apart from its competitors. Various studies

identifies that ease of handling the packages & protection are also weighted highly by

respondents & thus it indicates towards the reasoning that most of the toothpastes have

become soft plastic tubes rather than that old tin tube toothpaste used by companies like

forhans & colgate.

Package size has been stressed as one important variable of packaging convenience

(Draskovic, 2010). Size emerged as a very important factor thus indicating towards the

variation of packages sizes available for a particular product. We can take a examples of

shampoo sachet, deodorant sticks, small sized toothpaste packages or even more of

FMCG products. Variation of size makes the affordability of product adjustable as per the

income level & standard of living. Packaging in different serving sizes can extend a

product into new target markets or help to overcome cost barriers. In developing markets

such as Pakistan, the pack size can mean the difference between the success & failure of

a brand in the informal sector. Smaller packages & portions are usually priced at a lower

absolute level – making the product more readily affordable to a greator proportion of the

population.

Informational elements

The second type of packaging elements, are the informational elements: information

provided by the package and technologies used in the package. I will not be as thorough

in my exploration of the informational elements as I have been with the graphical

elements, due to the visual focus of this paper and the fact, that graphics may affect

beliefs more even when accurate verbal information is provided to the consumer

(Fitzgerald Bone & Russo France, 2001). This revelation makes the role of informational

Elements smaller in marketing communications.

2.1) Product information

As mentioned, one of packages’ functions is to communicate product information, which

can assist consumers in making their decisions carefully (Silayoi & Speece, 2007), and it

seems evident that written, verbal information has a great capacity to do this. However,

written information on a package can also create confusion by conveying either too much

information or misleading and inaccurate information (Silayoi & Speece, 2007) in some

cases. Furthermore, in a study by Silayoi and Speece (2007), consumers were found to

use explicit product information to assess healthiness, and also many other aspects of

quality.

2.2) Technology

When it comes to the second type of informational elements: packaging technology,

Silayoi and Speece (2007) found that the impression of the level of technology used in

packaging reflected the contemporary image of the product itself. Also, as convenience

has become increasingly important for food products, consumers who are worried about

time saving could pay more attention to claims of new technology, because of

technology's association with convenience (Silayoi & Speece, 2007). Coca-Cola is

expanding the distribution of products — Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Sprite —

that it sells in eight-ounce glass bottles, and S. C. Johnson now sells a line of reusable

Ziploc containers called Versa Glass that can be used in a microwave, a freezer and,

without their lids, even in an oven up to 400 degrees. “Its part of our overall effort to

increase packaging diversity so that people have more choices of packaging and portion

size,” said Susan Stribling, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman. (Stephanie, 2012).

Scope of Study

A packaging that is well designed for its marketing function helps to sell the product by

attracting the attention and expressing the product positively to the ultimate potential

consumers. To achieve the communication goals effectively and to optimize the potential

of the packaging in a buying place, marketers must recognize the attributes of a

packaging and their impact on consumer’s purchase decision and integrate these

perceptual attributes into their packaging design. This study is significant since majority

of the previous packaging studies were not locally-based (Silayoi and Speece, 2004;

2007; Kuvykaite et al., 2009), and so ought not to be expected to reflect the same

situation settings as in Pakistan. Thus, the results of this study will provide a new insight

to the local marketers towards the impact of visual as well as verbal packaging attributes

on consumer’s purchase decisions of packaged food.

It is important that business organizations focus on providing the best service to their

customers. The survival of the organization depends ultimately on the service provided.

Design is increasingly used by firms as a strategy to create a substantial competitive

advantage. Good design uniquely differentiates a product. Companies mastering the art of

design have emerged as leaders in their respective markets. In this proposal, I examine

how consumers respond to the visual aspects of packaging design and benefits of

studying consumer behavior.

Today’s companies in the packaging supply chain are faced with acknowledging,

understanding, addressing & managing a range of issues affecting the sustainable use of

packaging.

In nowadays competitive environment the role of package has changed due to increasing

self service & changing consumers’ life style. Firms’ interest in package as a tool of sales

promotion is growing increasingly. Package becomes an ultimate selling proposition

stimulating impulsive buying behavior, increasing market share & reducing promotional

costs.

Literature analysis on question under investigation has shown that there is no agreement

on classification of packaging elements as well as on research methods of package impact

on consumer’s purchase decision. Furthermore, the abundance of scientific literature on

this issue do not provide unanimous answer concerning impact of package elements on

consumer’s buying behavior: diversity of the results in this area depends not only a

research models constructed & method employed, but on the context of the research too.

Therefore, it’s very necessary to investigate the issue in more detail.

In this study we will try to find out how important are some design attributes of the

products for its quality perception. Also we are going to find out not only how important

are these attributes but furthermore in which way they affect consumers’ preferences.

There will be an effort to link consumers’ attitudes towards the package design attributes

with their involvement in the particular products as well as their consumption habits.

The final goal of this study is to help marketers to understand consumers’ preferences

about the design of their products. By this study we seek to reveal attributes of packaging

having the ultimate effect on consumer choice, taking into consideration that package

could be treated as a set of various elements communicating different messages to a

consumer; the research model will be developed & tested in order to reveal impact of

visual & verbal package elements on consumer’s purchase decisions.

Methodology

In this study work, after exhaustively surveying the literature on the dependant &

independent variables were jotted down & the questionnaire involving dependant and

independent variables will be administrated to the representative set of population. The

data will be collected through survey will be analyzed by using multiple regression

analysis. The questionnaire will be rated on the five point likert scale. The ratings of the

questionnaire will be ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The strongly

disagree is to be allotted the scale of 1 and strongly agree will be allotted the scale of 5.

The respondents will be asked to fill the questionnaire which will involve 20 questions

that comprises the respondent’s feedback on various variables of the package. The survey

is to be conducted online as well as by the direct interaction at the point of purchase. The

survey will be conducted online to target the respondents on the random basis from the

population from the whole Pakistan, where though, the direct survey will be used as the

primary data collection tool for this study purpose, for which the convenient sampling

technique will be used where respondents are to be selected because of their convenient

accessibility & proximity to the researcher. Many researchers prefer the sampling

technique because it is fast, inexpensive, easy, and the respondents are readily available,

therefore, in this study the respondents will be targeted at the various super stores of the

Hyderabad, where customers experience the shelf impact of the product, therefore they

can better understand & analyze the various attributes of the product, so in return they

will better provide their feedback & experience for this study.

Sampling Design:

Sampling Population: Sampling population consisted of the different

uses of packaging, which use the packaging in their day to day life,

residing within the Hyderabad city. For this purpose, the respondents are

to be targeted at the Delton super market, Zain super store, Haseen mart,

Farhan departmental store, Sakrani super store, Syed brother’s super store,

Pioneer bakery, Garison & various utility stores with in Hyderabad city.

Sampling size: 300 respondents for direct survey by a questionnaire.

Data Collection:

Self designed questionnaires will be administrated to gauge the

preferences of respondents. A Two-part questionnaire will be developed

for use as a survey instrument. In the first part, demographics section

collect information on gender, age, number of adults and children’s per

household, level of education, ethnicity, area of residence and finally they

have to select income group from the multiple options, however, it will not

be compulsory for respondents to provide their complete

demographic/personal information. In the second part, the questionnaires

will be rated on the 5 point likert scale with 1 for strongly disagree & 5 for

strongly agree, where they will be asked questions regarding the various

attributes & variables of the particular products on the likert scale to

measure the influence of various packaging attributes on the consumer

perception.

In this study, an online survey will also be used as internet access is

increasing among consumers across the world. Consumers of all ages are

becoming familiar with the use of this computer network.

Questionnaires might be revised after surveying from 30 initial

respondents to improve question clarity, user-friendliness, and enhance the

quality of they collected data.

Resources

I will use survey method as primary data collection method that would be conducted by

questionnaires. In regard to secondary data, books, journals, newspaper etc. will be used

to determine the solution of research problem. I have access to computer hardware

software’s and internet facility to conduct my online survey. This study takes time and

money, even if I am funding my own research time, I still need to consider the impact on

things such as your subject’s time, travel, equipment needed and any permission required

to access the resources. For this study purpose I will need to use the printer, computer

software’s to analyze data, recommendations and suggestions from the supervisor and

other faculty members to assist in the methodology for this study, and need a prior

permission from the various superstores to let me conduct my survey over there.

Not all research proposal require a budget (such as thesis proposals for academic

institutions), however if researcher is intended to apply for funding for research, it is

important that researcher must be able to show how much money you require, and justify

the amount asked for. However, as I will arrange financial assistance from my personal

sources, that’s why I have estimated my financial expenses up to 69500.

The following expenses are an outline of expenses that will be required while

undertaking this study:

Expenses Description Cost in Rupees (PKR)

Travel Cost (Petrol) 20000

Phone and internet charges 8000

Refreshments 10000

Stationary 5000

Photocopying & Binding 3000

Postage 2500

Computer Software/ Printing/ Ink Cartridges 6000

Miscellaneous/ Unforeseen costs 5000

Statistical Services (If Required) 10000

Total Estimated Cost: 69500

Limitations

Although this research is carefully prepared, I am still aware of its limitations and short

comings. For the purpose of this study, an experiment will be conducted on particular

food products. The package design includes four attributes which vary in two particular

levels. Other products, other attributes & different levels may lead more or less in

different results. Furthermore, the design of the experiment as well as the illustration of

the participants will be done with my & my supervisor limited skills. Also the sample of

the study comes from the urban population of the Hyderabad region. Hyderabad is a

second most big city & economical hub of the Sindh province, with its particular social,

economic, & cultural characteristics. Therefore, the results cannot be over-generalized.

Duration

The proposed time duration for completing this study is over a 24 Weeks period. A table

presented below outlines the estimates duration of each process.

Time Scale

Duration (Weeks)

Description

2 Review of Literature: Start Thinking about research ideas & objectives clearly defined with reference to literature.

2 Draft Literature Review: Collection of secondary data from books, journals, articles.

2 Compile, pilot, & Review Questionnaire: Design & testing of questionnaire, if appropriate.

4 Administer Questionnaire: Design of a final questionnaire.

6 Final Collection of Questionnaire: Editing of completed questionnaire, grouping, and coding of data.

3 Data Analysis: Entering data into a computer, analyze data, draft findings chapter.

5Final Writing of Project: Complete remaining chapters, submit to supervisor & await feedback, revise draft, format for submission, print, bind, submit.

24 Weeks Total

Findings

It is expected that the study will make at least two contributions to the field of marketing.

First, the study will contribute to the expanding knowledge base of packaging concepts.

As more is known about the relationship between various packaging attributes and their

effects on the brand image, it will be possible to more clearly understand the importance

of visual and informative elements in influencing the consumer decision, which might be

affected by the level of education among the various customers, as it is already witnessed

from the past researches that if the customers are educated, than they are probably less

influenced by the visual elements of the packaging, as they are more likely to be

influenced by the informative elements such as usage information, nutrients facts, etc.

The proposed research study is viewed as a piece of this puzzle. The study should

contribute toward a better understanding of these facts.

I anticipate the impact of the results of the research to be useful for understanding the role

of packaging in the brand promotion. Marketers are always keen to adopt new tactics to

promote their products, so through this study, they will find a new and various interesting

facts regarding the peoples from the selected population. Therefore, the marketers can

interpret and use the finding of this study to further enhance their product attributes. This

study is important because it will show light on the general trends of the packaging in the

food products.

References

Ampuero, O., & Vila, N. (2006). Consumer perceptions of product packaging.

Journal of Consumer Marketing, 23(2), 102-114.

Fitzgerald Bone, P., & Russo France, K. (2001). Package graphics and consumer

product beliefs. Journal of Business and Psychology, 15(3), 467-489.

MacInnis, D. J., & Price, L. L. (1987). The role of imagery in information

processing: Review and extensions. Journal of Consumer Research, 13(4), 473-

491.

Meyers-Levy, J., & Peracchio, L. A. (1995). Understanding the effects of color:

How the correspondence between available and required resources affects

attitudes. Journal of Consumer Research, 22(2), 121-138.

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