ABSTRACT
The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of packaging and branding on consumer buying behaviour of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: examine the effect of packaging elements (colour, size, wrapper design) on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria: ascertain the effect of brand name, brand image and brand association on customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria; examine the effect of consumer brand awareness, brand experience and brand knowledge on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria; and to determine the effect of package label, brand benefit and brand equity on customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria. AH customers of the selected pasta products in Umuahia, Abia State of Nigeria formed the population of the study. The sample size for the study was 380 customers of the selected pasta product in the study area. The study analysed field data according to the stated objectives of the study. AH analyses and test of hypotheses were done with multiple regression, model. The electronic software used was the SPSS software version 20.0. Findings revealed that packaging colour, packaging size and wrapper design are significant and positive factors affecting customer patronage of selected pasta products in the study area. The study also revealed that brand name, brand image and brand association affect customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in the study area. Brand awareness and brand knowledge were positive and significant factors affecting customer patronage of selected pasta products in the study area. The study recommended that pasta products manufacturers should develop innovative packages. They should also lay more emphasis on visual package elements and aesthetic components which should be soothing for the eyes. Pasta products manufacturing firms should strive to build strong brand equity through their brand names. All pasta manufacturing firms should pay attention to good product packaging using a combination of enticing elements. They should remember that poor packaging is one of the causes of product failure in the market. Thus, necessary packaging standards must be set and implemented accordingly for better protection and promotion of pasta products.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
Abstract x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study 1
Statement of Problem 5
Objectives of the Study 6
Research Questions 6
1.5 Research Hypotheses 7
1.6 Significance of the Study 7
1.7 Scope of the Study 8
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Conceptual Framework 10
2.1.1 Concept of packaging 10
2.1.2 Package design 11
2.1.3 Packaging design 12
2.1.4 Roles of packaging 15
2.1.5 Concept of branding 16
2.1.6 Brand equity 20
2.1.7 Sources of brand equity 21
2.1.8 Characteristics of a brand 21
2.1.9 Brand impact on consumer behaviour 22
2.1.10 Concept of consumer behaviour 23
2.1.11 Approaches to the buying behaviour of consumers 23
2.2 Theoretical Background 28
2.2.1 The theory of attractive quality - kano (2001) 28
2.2.2 Sustainable packaging design model - rozenfeld (2006) 30
2.2.3 Brand equity theory – davcik, da silva and hair (2015) 31
2.2.4 Packaging development c-k theory -hatchuel and weil (2003) 32
2.3 Empirical review 34
2.4 Summary of literature review 34
2.5 Gap in Literature 35
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research design 37
3.2 Study area 37
3.3 Population of the study 37
3.4 Sample technique/ sample size 37
3.5 Sources of data collection 38
3.6 Validity of the instrument 39
3.7 Reliability of the instrument 39
3.8 Method of data analysis 40
3.9 Model specification 40
CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 Presentation of data 44
4.2 Effect of packaging elements 51
4.3 Effect of brand name, brand image and brand association 52
4.4 Effect of consumer brand awareness, brand experience and brand
knowledge 54
4.5 Effect of package label, brand benefit, and brand equity 55
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of findings 57
5.2 Conclusion 58
5.3 Recommendations 58
REFERENCES 57
APPENDIX 64
LIST OF TABLES
4.1 Distribution and return of questionnaire 43
4.2 Sex of the studied Respondents 43
4.3 Age group of the studied Respondents 44
4.4 Marital Status of Respondents in the Studied Organizations 45
4.5 Educational Background of studied respondents 45
4.6 Responses of respondents that purchase packaged and branded pasta
products 46
4.7 Responses of respondents when purchasing such products 46
4.8 Responses on how the packages of preferred pasta brand are recognized 47
4.9 Responses on factors influencing preference for a particular pasta brand 48
4.10 Responses on packaging attributes 49
4.11 Responses on branding attributes 49
4.12 Responses on packaging and branding features effect on customer
patronage 50
4.13 Analysis of the effect of packaging elements 51
4.14 Analysis of the effect of brand name, brand image and brand association 52
4.15 Analysis of the effect of consumer brand awareness 54
4.16 Analysis of the effect of package label, brand benefit, and brand equity 55
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 1: Conceptual framework of the effect of packaging ad branding on consumer
buying behaviour of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria 27
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The twenty first century age represents key changes in the marketing strategies employed by organizations and institutions in order to help them be very competitive and sustainable in the turbulent market that they find themselves. Today’s consumers live in a world where purchase of products and services is enormous and continuous (Rindell, 2008). The survival or success of companies is now dependent on the amount of information that is carefully gathered by the former with regards to the purchasing habits displayed by consumers. In order to survive in the market, companies are keenly interested in developing strong brands that lead to long term and customer relationships (Hess, Story & Danes, 2011).
The Nigerian pasta market as we have it today is replete with a variety of products from different companies that have found their ways into many homes. Pasta, commonly known as spaghetti or noodles, is a meal to relish when prepared in a way that appeals to the taste and delight of the consumer. Also termed a fast food when one is in a hurry to fill up the stomach and move out to accomplish targets for the day, pasta as food commodity transcends age and gender.
A cursory look at the daily meal box of an average toddler from 18 months to four years will reveal that their breakfast or lunch is incomplete without noodles of various type. This shows how strong and lucrative the pasta brand market has grown and as such, manufacturers have never ceased to introduce one form of promotion or the other, geared towards increasing sales and positioning as big competitors.
This is vigorously sustained even as the product is well consumed and in hot demand. Little wonder they also sell very cheap in the markets and most retail stores. So many manufacturing companies account for the different brands of pasta product that abound in Nigerian markets. Companies like De United Foods are the brain behind the popular brand, Indomie Noodles, which has been in existence in about two decades. Dangote Group of Industries produces Dangote Spagetti and Noodles.
Golden Penny Flourmills Nigeria Limited has also done its best in seeing that Golden Penny Noodles remained in the market this long despite stiff competition from rivals in recent times. One important thing is that despite the entire shout for attention, it is the customer who finally does the haggling and takes the product home.
Market research according to International Pasta Organization (2012) revealed the pasta variants in the market to include Golden Penny Spagetti, Dangote Slim Spagetti, Bucantini Spagetti, Power Pasta, Indomie Noodles, Chiki-Chiki and Tummy Tummy, among others.
The above mentioned are brands from different companies which are seriously pushing their products into the market with all manner of adverts and commercials, ranging from radio jingles and Vehicles branding, which are always on the move on the major highways.
Companies inject heavy resources and time into the study of behavioural and sociological factors in order to gain much insight and to understand consumer purchasing patterns. Thus brands represent key assets to companies (Rindell, 2008). Branding has emerged as part and parcel of modern day marketing strategies and now considered a key organizational asset (Kotler, 2000). Organizations shifting their focus or orientation from a product or market point of view to consumer or customer focus reflect the evolution of marketing. As an implication to this paradigm shift, companies are relentlessly injecting huge resources into understanding their consumers in relation to the 4 p’S (product, price, place and promotion) and the additional 3 p’S (people, process and physical evidence), (Kotler,1999). They further resort to underpinning the relationship that exist between consumers spending and the key variables involved in consumer preferences in terms of attitudes, cognition, perception and learning (Von Moos, 2005). They want to know who their customers are, what they think and how they feel, and how they buy a specific brand instead of others. Companies go to the extent of employing a separate brands manager who sees to the management of the brand. That is serving as a link between the company’s brand and consumers. In today’s turbulent market place where consumers have enormous amount of information with regards to products and services at their disposal, yelling louder is not what that will make your voice to be heard or recognized in the market place, instead, creating an outstanding brand that appeal to consumers (Ahuvia, 2005).
Consider the chaos that would be at the point of purchase if manufacturers have no means of distinguishing their products from those of competitors. Consumers would definitely be put through the rigors and time consuming task of determining what product to choose from the list of unbranded products. The likely event of choosing the wrong product among the several unbranded products is there, given the unscrupulous behaviour of some middlemen. This assertion is buttressed by Okafor (1995) quoting Morden, (1987), who posited that “Consumers seeing a favoured brand (to which they may exhibit loyal behaviour), may cut short the analysis of alternatives prior to the purchase decision, and proceed more rapidly towards the purchase. Moreover, a realization of the fact that branding as a marketing tool affects other product management decisions, confronts one with the fact that its impact on marketing activities and consumers cannot be over emphasized. Okafor, (1995) captures the very essence of branding when he opined that “apart from the herculean task that will be associated with trying to decide what manufacturers’ product to buy from all the unbranded products, other product management decisions, based on market segmentation, promotion, product positioning, pricing etc, would have been practically impossible”.
Packaging has become itself a sales promotion tool for the organizations. The consumer’s buying behaviour are also stimulated by the packaging quality, colour, wrapper, and other characteristics of packaging. Packaging is a whole package that becomes an ultimate selling proposition, which stimulates impulse buying behaviour. Packaging increases sales and market share and reduces marketing and promotional costs. According to Rundh (2005) package appeals to consumer’s attentiveness towards a certain brand, increases its image, and stimulates consumer’s perceptions about product. Furthermore, packaging conveys distinctive value to products (Underwood, 2003; Silayoi, & Speece, 2007), Packaging works as an instrument for differentiation, and helps consumers to decide for the product from wide range of parallel products. Packaging also stimulates customer’s buying behaviour (Wells, Farley & Armstrong, 2007). Several researchers attempt to examine all potential elements of packaging and their effect on consumer’s buying decision (Butkeviciene, Stravinskiene, & Rutelione, 2008), however others focus on distinct elements of packaging and their influence on consumer purchasing behaviour (Ampuero & Vila, 2006; Madden, Hewett, & Roth, 2000; Underwood, Klein, & Burke, 2001; Bloch, 1995). Furthermore, some researchers explore the impact of packaging and its features on consumer’s whole purchase decision (Underwood, Klein, & Burke, 2001), whereas, some others – on each step of consumer’s decision making process (Butkeviciene, Stravinskiene, & Rutelione, 2008). Brand image and packaging appear to have strong positive influence and significant relationship with consumer’s buying behaviour. People seem to perceive the brand image with positive attitude. These assumptions will be established after investigation, analysis and conclusions.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Often, when asked the non-price reason behind their choice for a particular brand of product over another, most consumers will readily shout “Quality”. However, one would accept this answer with a lot of ambivalence, given the fact that it is only on rare occasions that consumers would have what it takes to make an objective quality differentiation among alternative product brands. This category of consumers is highly informed and enlightened and their percentage is quite negligible in Nigeria. Furthermore, quality status ascribed by consumers to certain product brands is not real but perceived. It is mostly a figment of their perception. It therefore follows that, those marketers who know how best to manipulate consumer perception and therefore better position their brand in the minds of the consumers will definitely emerge winners in the marketing warfare. In the pasta industry in Nigeria, it may be expected that the issue of “better quality” should not arise. This is against the backdrop that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has stipulated and is seriously enforcing both production and marketing standards for all producers of pasta thereby making every brand of pasta of equal purity and quality, yet most consumers of this product would readily pay a premium price or are price insensitive when it comes to the purchase of a particular brand of regulated product say “Golden penny Spaghetti”. This gets one wondering, could it be that consumers in making choice are merely responding to the outcome of their perception which is a function of such attributes like brand name, mark, package, company-of-make and packaging elements etc. A point to note is the fact that most producers strongly believe that branding and packaging have a very high influence on consumer’s choice (Ogbuji, 2008). However, given the fact that many elements constitute branding, one is not sure if these elements play equal role in influencing choice or if some play a higher role than others. This is the crux of the problem of this study.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of packaging and branding on consumer buying behaviour of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria.
The specific objectives of the study are to:
i. examine the effect of packaging elements (colour, size, wrapper design) on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria;
ii. ascertain the effect of brand name, brand image and brand association on customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria;
iii. examine the effect of consumer brand awareness, brand experience and brand knowledge on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria;
iv. determine the effect of package label, brand benefit, and brand equity on customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions are drawn up to guide this study:
i. What is the effect of packaging elements (colour, size, wrapper design) on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria?
ii. How do brand name, brand image and brand association affect customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria?
iii. What is the effect of consumer brand awareness, brand experience and brand knowledge on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria?
iv. How do package label, brand benefit, and brand equity affect customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses are stated in their null form:
Ho1: Packaging elements (colour, size, wrapper design) do not have any significant effect on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria.
Ho2: Brand name, brand image and brand association do not have any significant effect on customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria.
Ho3: Consumer brand awareness, brand experience and brand knowledge do not have any significant effect on customer patronage of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria.
Ho4: Package label, brand benefit, and brand equity on customer repeat purchase of selected pasta products in Abia state, Nigeria
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The study is very essential as it helps and enable researchers understand why consumers would prefer to purchase a particular brand in preference to other products in terms of difference in their packaging and brand mark. The findings of this study would give clue to other researchers who may want to carry out research in related area by informing them how best consumer’s purchasing behavior affects their choice of pasta products with respect to packaging and branding. The findings of the study would be beneficial to consumers like women, children, home makers, manufacturers, farmers, business executives and others in food production and consumption. The work will be made available to these groups of beneficiaries through seminars, workshop, conferences, publications in journal and textbooks. Lecturers/teachers will benefit from the findings. They would use this work in teaching their students in their various schools on the relevance of consumer’s purchasing behaviour to their sense in respect to branding and packaging. The manufacturers of pasta products will greatly be enriched by the findings because it will provide the manufacturers with available information to the extent the choice for their products could be influenced by consumers purchasing behavior towards their products when properly done. As captains of industries they will know the kind of advertisement strategy, product price, packaging, availability of their products to be used for effective and efficient market information. This will enable them make necessary modifications or charges towards their products in other to attract more customers to their products. The response of the consumers about a particular food item will encourage the manufacturers improve their product. Business executives will benefit immensely from the findings because the findings will give them ideas on how consumers will accept or reject their products based on packaging and branding. This will make them to plan on more strategies that will attract more consumers to their products.
1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this study is limited to studying the effect of Packaging and Branding on consumer buying behaviour of selected pasta products in Abia State, Nigeria. Studying the whole Abia State will be unmanageable therefore the study area is reduced to six local governments, two each from the three senatorial zones in Abia state. The customers of pasta products in Abia State were sampled for the study. Also, packaging and branding elements were limited to colour, size, wrapper design, brand image and brand association. Consumer buying behaviour was measured with patronage and repeat purchase. Golden penny spaghetti, Dangote slim spaghetti, Bucantini spaghetti, Power pasta, Indomie Noodles, Chiki Chiki and Tummy Tummy were selected for the study.
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