ABSTRACT
This study investigated the influence of packaging elements on consumer buying behaviour of selected fast moving consumer goods in Umuahia North L.G.A of Abia State, Nigeria. The study focused on six key elements of packaging which are product colour, background image, font style, wrapper design, printed information and packaging material. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study is 220,660 which is the population of Umuahia North, Abia State. The sample size for the study amounted to three hundred and ninety nine (399) respondents which were estimated using Taro Yamane formula. Only three hundred and sixty-two (362) questionnaires were filled properly and then used for the analysis, which gave a response rate of 90.7%. The statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 20) was used to analyse the data collected. Data collected were analysed using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) Multiple Regression Analysis, ANOVA Test and Pearson Correlation Coefficient used for testing the formulated hypotheses at 5% level of significance. From the analysis, the multiple regression of the packaging elements on consumer behaviour reveal that background image influences the consumer buying behaviour more than other variables. Further, the result reveals that printed information is not statistically significant to influence the consumer buying behaviour. ANOVA test gave BSP (F = 4105.215), RPP (F = 219.282), AWP (F = 1594.964), BUP (F = 1312.476), and BEP (F = 1018.777) which were significant. The correlation test on the packaging elements and consumer behaviour resulted to the following; colour (0.943), background image (0.912), font style (0.925), wrapper design (0.940), printed information (0.389), and packaging material (0.889) which were also significant. Findings showed that packaging elements such as colour, background image, font style, wrapper design and packaging material of the selected products significantly influenced consumers’ behaviour to a high extent; while printed information weakly influences the consumer buying behaviour. The finding of the study also revealed that the packaging elements positively influenced consumer buying behaviour of fast moving consumer goods. The study recommends that manufacturers of fast moving products should be innovative towards product packaging to win consumers’ attention. They should be aware that if they adopt poor packaging for their products, their products failure in the market is certain.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification Page ii
Declaration Page iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Abstract xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Objective of the Study 4
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Research Hypotheses 6
1.6 Significance of the Study 6
1.7 Scope and Delimitation of the Study 7
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Conceptual Frameworks 8
2.1.1 Concept of packaging 8
2.1.2 Objectives of packaging 9
2.1.3 Packaging elements 10
2.1.4 Concepts of consumer products 14
2.1.5 Stages of consumer buying behaviour 15
2.1.6 Factors influencing consumer behaviour 16
2.1.7 Impact of packaging on consumer buying behaviour 19
2.2 Theoretical Review 21
2.2.1 The Howard Sheth theory of consumer behaviour 21
2.2.2 Nicosia model of consumer behaviour 24
2.2.3 The Engel Kollat Blackwell model of consumer behaviour 26
2.2.4 The Classical conditioning theory 29
2.3 Review of Empirical Studies 30
2.4 Summary of Empirical Literature 35
2.5 Identified Gap in Empirical Literature 38
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design 39
3.2 Theoretical Framework 40
3.3 Population/Area of the Study 40
3.4 Sample Size Determination 41
3.5 Sampling Technique and Instrument for Data Collection 42
3.6 Validity and Reliability of the Instrument 43
3.7 Method of Data Analysis 44
3.8 Model Specification 44
3.9 Estimation Technique 46
CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 Questionnaire Administration 52
4.2. Socio-demographics Characteristics of Respondents 53
4.3 Data Presentation 55
4.3.1 Research question one 55
4.3.2 Research question two 57
4.3.3 Research question three 60
4.3.4 Research question four 63
4.3.5 Research question five 66
4.3.6 Research question six 69
4.3.7 Research question seven 72
4.4 Analysis of Research Questions 75
4.4.1 Research question one 75
4.4.2 Research question two 76
4.4.3 Research question three 78
4.4.4 Research question four 79
4.4.5 Research question five 80
4.4.6 Research question six 81
4.4.7 Research question seven 82
Evaluation of Research Hypotheses 83
4.5.1 Hypothesis one 83
4.5.2 Hypothesis two 87
4.5.3 Hypothesis three 88
4.5.4 Hypothesis four 89
4.5.5 Hypothesis five 91
4.5.6 Hypothesis six 92
4.5.7 Hypothesis seven 93
4.6 Discussion of findings 95
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of Findings 104
5.2 Recommendations 106
5.3 Conclusions 108
5.4. Suggestions for Further Studies 110
Reference 111
Append
LIST OF TABLES
Page
1:1 Elements of packaging by different researchers 14
3.1: Presentation of population and sample size 42
3.2: A Priori expectation of the parameters 45
3.3: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) Table 51
4:1: Response rate of respondents 52
4.2: Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents 53
4.3: Packaging element’s influence on consumer buying behaviour 55
4.4: Mean rating of the response of the respondents I 57
4.5: Extent packaging colour relate to consumer behaviour 58
4.6: Mean rating of the response of the respondents II 60
4.7: Extent background image relate to consumer behaviour 61
4.8: Mean rating of the response of the respondents II 63
4.9: The Extent font style relate to consumer behaviour 64
4.10: Mean rating of the response of respondents III 66
4.11: Extent wrapper design relate to consumer behaviour 67
4.12: Mean rating of the response of the respondents IV 69
4.13: The Extent printed information relate to consumer behaviour 70
4.14: Mean rating of the response of the respondents V 72
4.15: The Extent packaging material relate to consumer behaviour 73
4.16: Mean rating of the response of the respondents VI 75
4.17: Regression result of packaging elements on consumer behaviour 84
4.18: Pearson correlation test for product colour and consumer behaviour 87
4.19: Pearson correlation test for background image and consumer behaviour 88
4.20: Pearson correlation test for font style and consumer behaviour 90
4.21: Pearson correlation test for Wrapper design and consumer behaviour 91
4.22: Pearson correlation test for printed information and consumer behaviour 92
4.23: Pearson correlation test for packaging material and consumer behaviour 94
4.24: Reliability analysis of the responses of the respondents 95
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
2.1: Tri-Component attitude model 19
2.2: The Howard Sheth theory of consumer behaviour 24
2.3: Nicosia model of consumer behaviour 26
2.4: The Engel Kollat Blackwell model of consumer behaviour 28
2.5: Ivan Pavlov classical conditioning theory 30
4.1: Respondents’ view on packaging elements 56
4.2: Respondents’ view on the extent of packaging colour 59
4.3: Respondents’ view on the extent of background image 62
4.4: Respondents’ view on the extent of font style 65
4.5: Respondents’ view on the extent of wrapper design 68
4.6: Respondents’ view on the extent of printed information 71
4.7: Respondents’ view on the extent of packaging material 74
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Packaging as a silent salesman is directed toward influencing the point of purchase buying decision through the package design, colour, background image, font style, wrapper design and product printed information. Most companies are involved in packaging primarily to gain a non-price competitive advantage by utilizing the package to present a favourable image of the product which it contains. Packaging is a critical strategic element for brand differentiation and identity, because this helps the producer to differentiate its product and identity from its competitors. Underwood (2003) found that designing packages with product images gain attention for brands, especially brands that are less familiar and that provide experiential benefits.
Packaging really affects the buying behaviour of some individuals looking at the young people. Packaging provides the manufacturer with the final opportunity to persuade prospective buyers prior to brand selection, because shoppers are exposed to packages just as they are in other forms of promotion. Also, consumers can easily overcome the challenge of visually assessing volumes contained within a variety of shapes because most product labels provide the information via packaging (Ampuero & Vila, 2006).
However, in recent times, the marketing environment has witnessed a lot of companies which deliver similar products to the market. Consumers are usually faced with thousands of brands in a single visit to the market. Packaging becomes so useful in capturing consumer’s attention and perhaps their purchase intention in a competitive environment (Ranjbarian, 2012). Each visit to a market leaves the consumer faced with multiple product options, hence the importance of packaging in helping to differentiate the products and achieve adequate positioning for companies.
Packaging is considered to be of major selling importance and induces consumers’ buying behaviour (Mitul and Bhavesh, 2012). Therefore the ability of packaging to succeed or fail depends greatly on how the packaging is done.
Changing lifestyle and increasing self-service at the market place have placed product packaging as an important ingredient in causing more purchase from the buyers and increasing sales from the producers (Suraj and Raveendran, 2012; 2013). Packaging therefore plays a huge role in making the products attractive for more sales and characterize majority of shopping situations.
According to Rundh (2005), packaging has the ability to attract consumer’s attention to a product and ensures continued consumer’s perceptions about a product. Also, packaging has a way of creating and imparting unique value to products which is so appealing to the consumers (Underwood, Klein and Burke, 2001; Silayoi and Speece, 2004. With the above context in mind, seeking to understand how packaging products has affected the decision of consumer buying his needed products becomes imperative.
In recent years, the marketing environment has become increasingly complex and competitive. This has caused organizations to recognize product packaging as an important factor with lots of potentials. More so, it is believed by many market participants that product packaging has greater propensity in inducing consumers.
Therefore, it is necessary to explore product packaging including all other variants like packaging colour, background image of the product, the product’s packaging material, product’s font style, product’s wrapper design and the product’s printed information in more detail, so as to understand how these elements influence consumer buying behaviour of some selected consumer goods that are fast moving in nature, mostly within the location of our case study (Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia state).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Packaging elements are important factors that stimulate consumers’ impulse to buy a given product. The relevance of packaging elements is observed in its role as a sales promotion tool for organizations while stimulating consumer buying behaviour. Thus, the response of consumers to any given product is partly dependent on the potential of its packaging elements to lure and ensure continued retention of the consumer’s business attention.
Many studies have been carried out, in one form or the other, on the influence of packaging elements on the buying behaviours of consumer product both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria; yet none have been so robust in investigating many packaging elements at the same time. Oaya, Newman and Ezie (2017) investigated the impact of packaging on consumer buying behaviour in Nasarawa State of Nigeria and limited the concept of packaging to labelling alone. Similarly, Ndulue (2020) looked at product packaging and consumer buying behaviour of selected beverage products in Anambra State focusing on packaging colour, packaging material and printed information. In the same vein, Sener, Kinaei and Dogan (2015) investigated the influence of packaging elements (printed information) on the consumer purchase decision. While Ahmed Parmar and Amin (2014) looked at the impact of product packaging (colour, packaging material and wrapper design) on consumer’s buying behaviour, Riaz (2015) evaluated the impact of brand image on consumer buying behaviour in clothing sector in Southern Punjab.
This study was embarked upon to better understand the how the packaging of consumer products could increase the buying behaviour of selected consumer goods characterised as fast moving. Organizations and package design specialists have always had difficulty in arriving at the best fit-for-purpose packaging for fast moving consumer goods which can lure and keep the attention of prospective consumers. This is to enable them to offer products which have been carefully designed to attain market success.
Moreover, the study further investigated which of the packaging elements of packaging colour, background image of the product, packaging material of the product, font style of the product, wrapper design and printed information that has significant influence in eliciting positive consumer buying behaviour towards the selected fast moving consumer goods.
More so, with the increase in educational awareness of consumers, the study sought to know how the printed information is affecting the decision of the consumers on buying the products especially while considering the nutritional or the dietary make-up of the selected FMCG’s.
Mersid (2014) posited that one cannot agree on the overall classification of packaging elements. In other to include many packaging elements, as previous studies reviewed revealed that many authors were not exhaustive in packaging elements, this study aims at evaluating the extent, product packaging colour, product wrapper design, product font style, product printed information, product packaging material and product background image affects FMCGs. Bearing this in mind, this study addressed these aforementioned problems by broadly investigating the extent the packaging elements has affected consumer buying behaviour of selected fast moving consumer goods within the study area (Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State).
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study has its ultimate objective as to determine the “influence of product packaging elements on the buying habits of some consumer goods selected which are considered fast moving in our study area (Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State)”. However, the ultimate objectives are narrowed down into some specifics as below:
i. To examine the extent product packaging elements has affected consumer buying behaviour.
ii. To examine the degree of existing relationship between product packaging colour and consumer behaviour;
iii. To determine the relationship between background image and consumer buying behaviour;
iv. To ascertain the extent of the relationship between product packaging font style and consumer buying behaviour;
v. To evaluate the relationship between wrapper design and consumer buying behaviour;
vi. To determine the relationship between product printed information on consumer buying behaviour;
vii. To ascertain the extent of the relationship between product packaging materials and consumer buying behaviour.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
We ask the following research questions to guide the study.
i. How does product packaging elements influence consumer buying behaviour?
ii. How does packaging colour relate to consumer buying behaviour?
iii. Is there a relationship between background image and consumer buying behaviour?
iv. How does product packaging font style relate to consumer buying behaviour?
v. How does wrapper design relate to consumer buying behaviour?
vi. How does product printed information relate with consumer buying behaviour?
vii. Is there a relationship between product packaging material and consumer buying behaviour?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
We specify our hypotheses in null form as follows:
: Packaging elements do not influence consumer buying behaviour.
: Packaging colour does not significantly relate to consumer buying behaviour
: Background image does not significantly relate to consumer buying behaviour
: There is no positive relationship between product packaging font style and consumer buying behaviour
: Wrapper design does not significantly relate to consumer buying behaviour
: There is no positive relationship between product packaging printed information on the product and consumer buying behaviour
: Packaging material does not significantly relate to consumer buying behaviour.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
When concluded, the result of the study would be beneficial to consumers who will be better equipped to make the informed decisions on their patronage consumer goods that are classified as of fast moving based on the proper information gathered from this study.
The manufacturers of these consumer goods considered as fast moving will benefit from this study as it will provide them with vital information on the extent product packaging strategies could positively change consumers’ behaviour towards their products, hence improved company profitability.
For captains of industries, they will appreciate the impact of product packaging strategy and channels to be used and the volume of investment that is needed for effective and efficient market returns. This will enable them make necessary modifications towards their packaging designs with the intention of attracting more customers to their products. Additionally, the response (positive or negative) of the consumers to particular FMCGs will encourage an improvement on new product development on the part of manufacturers.
The findings of this study would also be of great benefit as a secondary source of information to students or researchers who may want to carry out further research in the same or related area of study.
1.7 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study has as its central focus on the influence of product packaging elements which are product packaging colour, product packaging font style, product packaging wrapper design, product packaging background image, product packaging material and product printed information on consumer buying behaviour of some selected consumer goods like bread, bottled water, beverages and sausage roll in our study area (Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia state of Nigeria).
Furthermore, the study will be delimited to the activities of consumers who actively purchase consumer goods considered as fast moving in the study area. This will be guided by the age bracket of the population considered in the study.
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