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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of eco-designed packaging on consumers’ responses. It defines the concept of eco-designed packaging, and proposes a consumer-led taxonomy of its cues. Attitudinal and behavioral, positive and negative responses triggered by the perception of these signals are analyzed.

Results were reached through qualitative methods. A phenomenological approach consisting of eight in-depth interviews has been followed by a series of ten Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) interviews. The synergy of these two methods is underlined.

The complexity of packaging ecological cues perception is outlined by expressing the differences in the nature of these cues. A taxonomy is then presented; ecological cues fall into three categories: structural cues, graphical/iconic cues and informational cues. Finally, consumers’ responses to the perception of eco-designed packaging are presented and perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices are revealed.

Packaging is of great importance in consumers’ purchase decision process, especially in situations of temporal pressure and hyperchoice environments. Since consumers take more and more into account the ethicality of the brand in their consumption, the understanding of their attitudes and behaviors toward eco-designed packaging may enable brands to build a competitive advantage.

The literature review reveals that there is no similar research available. The use of two qualitative methods enables to understand consumers’ deep-seated motivations, attitudes and behaviors toward eco-designed packaging. The results of this study can also be used by advertisers, for social marketing campaigns, to encourage consumers to reduce the global ecological footprint of packaging.

The aim of this study is to explore the contextual influences of packaging design and its cues on respondents' preferences.

To explore the contextuality of packaging cues, a multi-attribute valuation technique, conjoint analysis was used for two types of pharmaceutical products (painkiller and sore throat medicine) across seven countries. Data were collected among respondents (N = 461) from Finland, Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, Portuguese, South Africa and the USA.

Similarities and dissimilarities were observed between the product types and countries analysed in terms of the impact of packaging cues. The findings demonstrate the global and local nature of brand cues expressed in retail packaging.

The study implies that some cues may serve global markets, while some cues may need to be localised in order to meet the needs of local markets. Understanding these cues and their influences on consumers' brand preferences and choices at the point-of-purchases may enable companies to enter new markets, help them create sustainable and credible global brands.

The study contributes to the existing retail packaging literature and pharmaceutical branding literature by providing empirical evidence of the multidimensional aspects of sensory packaging cues. Second, it contributes by showing the contextual nature of retail packaging and its associated cues for OTC pharmaceuticals.

The changing health care market is affecting consumers who are now expected to take greater responsibility for their health. Their means for doing this include purchasing self‐medication and medical self‐service, which coincides neatly with an increase in the number of over‐the‐counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals. Additionally, OTC pharmaceuticals are progressively becoming available in a wider range of stores, where the pharmacists' knowledge of the OTC products is absent. This study aims to examine packaging as media that conveys the product message at the point of purchase, and to explore the impact of its extrinsic verbal and visual product cues.

An exploratory conjoint analysis was conducted in Finland, the USA, and Ghana. In total, 89 respondents conducted conjoint tasks for two product types, i.e. a painkiller and sore throat medicine.

The results showed differences and similarities in the impact of the packaging product cues across Finland, the USA, and Ghana. Differences and similarities were also detected across the two different, but related, product types. The study found that the impact of product cues is contextual, varying across the samples and product types.

The results are limited by the exploratory nature of the conjoint analysis. They highlight that medical marketers should recognize the varying impact of salient cues on consumers' product preferences and choices.

The study deals with a mostly unexplored issue and provides exploratory insights into the phenomenon.

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent that consumers prefer the localised packaging over standard packaging, and how the differences may vary across different product types. An ongoing debate facing marketers is whether marketing approaches should be localised as international brands enter foreign markets. In practice, international brands often localise their packaging when sold in foreign markets. This research questions whether and under what conditions is this practice beneficial to foreign brands.

The experiment used a 2 (product type: hedonic versus utilitarian) × 2 (packaging design: standard versus local) factorial designs. Product type was within-subjects, and packaging design was between-subject to minimise learning effects. For each product type, two product categories were used.

Overall, the results show that the role of packaging is more pertinent for hedonic than for utilitarian products. For hedonic products, participants preferred the standard packaging to the local packaging and brand likeability is also rated more positively in their standard package. However, there were generally no significant differences in rating between standard and localised packaging likeability and brand likeability for utilitarian products. The results for the choice decisions were similar to those for the likeability ratings across both product types.

A better understanding into how consumers perceive these packaging strategies would help international marketers operating in local markets.

Although past studies on international marketing communications have investigated standardisation and localisation of messages in the context of advertising using foreign and local cues, none have examined this issue with packaging. This study also extends past research by examining the differential effects of localisation on hedonic versus utilitarian products.

The aim of this paper is the analysis of teenage consumers with varying degrees of healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits and different healthy and unhealthy eating behaviours and food involvement, and its effects on packaging cues. At the same time, the paper tries to analyse the moderating role of gender.

With a sample of 589 (316 girls and 273 boys) young consumers (14–17 years old) and using SEM methodology, this paper tested a theoretical model related to the association between health, food, packaging cues and gender differences.

Among teenagers, healthy habits (sports) and healthy eating behaviours affect positively food involvement (p < 0.01 in both cases), and food involvement is positively related to informative packaging cues (p < 0.05). There are some differences between girls and boys. For example (1) there is a significant relationship between your consumers' sports activities and food involvement, and young consumers' healthy eating behaviours and food involvement. (2) More food-involved teenagers are those consumers that significantly read more carefully the packaging labels. Or (3) gender could be considered as a variable able to moderate the relationships between health and unhealthy lifestyle habits and eating behaviours, food involvement and packaging decisions.

The present paper tries to fulfil some literature gaps by developing a study with teenage consumers to solve three main questions/objectives: (1) Do healthy behaviours affect teenagers' food involvement? (2) Does teenagers' food involvement affect teenagers' packaging perceptions? and (3) Do girls and boys differ in their food packaging perceptions?

Research has largely disregarded consumer–packaging interaction in contexts other than retail. Focusing on the powerful cue of colour and consumers’ pleas for sustainability and drawing on the customer journey and moments of consumption, this study investigates how packaging colour meanings are redefined from retail to home and how the meaning of sustainability for colour transforms.

A qualitative methodology was employed with 27 informants, who were interviewed in pairs or in small groups of three.

First, colour meanings emerge outside the retail context, confirming the idea of the packaging journey. Colours are dynamic, as meanings are redefined throughout the voyage. In retail, colour conveys brand, product, environmental and origin-related meanings, while at home it conveys product, food- and health-related meanings. At the end of the journey, colour communicates disposal, environmental, health and origin-related meanings. Second, the meaning of sustainability for colour transforms during the voyage from being conveyed by a colour hue to being perceived as a material and, therefore, as a waste and recycling concern.

The study adds insight into the role of colour in the packaging life cycle, wherein colour transforms from a visual packaging cue to an issue of materiality. The recyclability of colours is a prevailing sustainability issue that deserves attention within the packaging industry. The study argues that although the consumer–packaging interaction in the retail context is essential, managers should recognise that the interaction continues with colours from in-store purchase decisions to consumers’ homes (use and recycling).

This paper investigates how to design traditional ready-to-eat food packaging by manipulating its shape, font and slogan to promote consumer buying intention and willingness to pay (WTP).

Two package designs, interplaying the square shapes (vertical vs horizontal), font formality (formal vs less formal/casual) and slogans (ethno-positioning vs short and catchy), were created and tested in an online experiment with 483 participants.

The results revealed that the differed package designs elicited relatively equal levels of attractiveness to consumers and their buying intentions. However, the designs significantly differentiated consumers' WTP. The results further show the significant direct and indirect effects on WTP of packaging attractiveness when it is moderated by package designs and mediated by buying intention. However, the varied package designs did not have significant direct or indirect impacts on WTP when mediated by packaging attractiveness and buying intention.

The vertical square-shaped packaging, written in a less formal font and highlighting a short and catchy slogan, is more financially promising for marketers to get a better price for local food products perceived as hedonic and bought impulsively on casual occasions. Furthermore, besides prominent package design elements such as font, color, size, material and picture, packaging designers or marketing practitioners should consider other supporting factors, such as shelf efficiency.

This study complements existing studies of “cue utilization theory” and “packaging design theory” by demonstrating the importance of extrinsic packaging cues, such as shape, font style and slogan, in improving consumers' WTP for traditional food products. The study also fills some gaps in the literature by exploring the direct, mediating and moderating relationships between package design, packaging attractiveness, buying intention and WTP, especially in an emerging market such as Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the positive effect of packaging transparency on purchase intention is moderated by product quality risk (PQR) associated with the product category.

Two separate experiments were conducted. Study 1 was designed to test the mediating role of perceived quality to account for the positive effect of transparency on purchase intention. Two types of packaging (opaque vs transparent) for a product associated with a high level of PQR were examined. Study 2 extended the findings by introducing the moderating role of PQR. A 2 (type of packaging: opaque vs transparent)*2 (PQR: low vs high) between subjects design was used.

The moderating role of the product PQR level is established: transparent packaging improves the product perceived quality and brand purchase intention when the product is associated with a high PQR, whereas there is no such preference for transparent packaging when the product is associated with a low PQR.

The results offer insights to better understand the potential gains from adopting transparent packaging. If a brand manager's main goals are to develop sales, costly investments in research and development of transparent packaging appear to be fruitful only for products associated with high PQR.

This paper contributes to packaging, cue utilisation and perceived risk literatures by evidencing the moderating role of PQR to explain the positive effect of transparency on purchase intention.

The common market practice by foreign marketers is to sell their brands in standard or localised packaging or sometimes both in the context of Pakistan. By examining the differential influence of standard (Western) and local (Urdu) packaging on Pakistani consumers’ perceptions and choice under conspicuous and inconspicuous situations, this study aims to examine whether the localisation strategy is effective or even necessary.

A pre-test first identified suitable products and brands. The main survey was conducted using convenience sampling in popular shopping precincts of the Lahore district in 2015. Participants first rated the packaging of hedonic and utilitarian products. After rating the packaging likeability, the respondents were asked to assume the two consumption situations. Their choice of standard versus local packaging under conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption situations for the same brand was recorded.

Overall, findings suggest that for hedonic products, localisation is not an effective strategy particularly for well-known Western brands such as M&M’s. For utilitarian products, packaging localisation does not render a Western brand more competitive as consumers did not like one packaging type over the other. Mode of consumption did not change the preference for standard packaging in case of hedonic products, whereas in case of utilitarian products, the mode of consumption did moderate the results for the choice of packaging; standard packaging is chosen more often under conspicuous a situation but not under an inconspicuous situation.

The findings of this research show that indiscriminately localising the packaging of any products as they enter foreign markets may not be the most effective strategy for international marketers.

This is first study to question the common market practice of packaging localisation and investigate the differential effects of standard versus local packaging of foreign products on consumers’ perceptions and choice under varying consumption modes.

The common market practice by global consumer brands to create localised packaging for foreign markets conflicts with findings that cast doubt on this strategy. By examining the differential influence of standard (Western) and local (Chinese) packaging on Chinese consumers’ perceptions and choice behaviour, this study aims to examine whether this strategy is effective or even necessary.

A pre-test first identified suitable products and brands. Using a multiple methods approach, online participants in China first rated the brands and packaging of hedonic and utilitarian products. The ratings were then validated by triangulating with the results of a discrete choice experiment that captured participants’ choice behaviour.

For hedonic products, standard packaging is rated more positively and chosen more often than local packaging. For utilitarian products, there are no differences in ratings and choice. For hedonic products, brand likeability is higher for standard packaging than for local packaging. For utilitarian products, brand likeability does not differ between the two packaging types.

These findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of indiscriminate packaging localisation. International marketers need to rethink their approach, particularly in non-Western markets. Interviews with five brand managers in charge of major consumer brands in China revealed their actual market practice and further illuminate this study’s findings.

This is first study to question the common market practice of packaging localisation and investigate the differential effects of standard versus local packaging of foreign products on consumers’ perceptions and choice behaviour.