engleski

Consumer Perception of Packaging Material in Soft Drinks Context in Croatia

The primary aim of this thesis is to explore and evaluate the importance of packaging material in the context of consumer perception on the consumer market. Findings from the literature review revealed that the field of packaging is not a commonly researched topic among marketing oriented researchers and there are significant gaps in knowledge that need to be filled. It is a rather complex and multidisciplinary field, which takes into account technology, marketing, design, logistics, and other fields. Furthermore, research studies and applicable theories related to the specific topic of this thesis are limited. Therefore, the literature review stage resulted in research propositions which are further refined through the primary research in order to be used as a starting point for the specific research hypotheses of this work. The primary research is comprised of three stages, of which the first two are conducted on the Croatian soft drinks consumers, while the third is conducted on a sample of Croatian soft drinks industry professionals. The first stage of primary research is qualitative, with the goal to explore the research topic in order to provide grounds for the development of the research hypotheses. In the second stage of the primary research which is quantitative in its nature, hypotheses are tested on a large scale sample. The third stage of primary research is qualitative in its nature and provides a different perspective on the research topic. Based on the primary research findings and certain perception related theories, a model of packaging material perception is developed. This model is the main contribution to knowledge of this thesis. It also confirms the overall importance of packaging from the marketing perspective and the complexity of this area. According to the model, consumers consider packaging material compounds of both real and perceived characteristics which enter the perceptual process. The perceptual process itself is moderated by a number of internal and external variables. The outcomes of the perceptual process are changes in attitudes towards a soft drinks product and/or in consumer behaviour. Furthermore, changes in attitudes which resulted from the perceptual process could directly influence consumer behaviour. The findings revealed that in some cases there could also be some gaps between consumer’s attitudes and related behaviour. Due to the nature of the research topic, the implementation of the model of packaging material perception within the theoretical framework of marketing and consumer behaviour should have an impact on both academic researchers and practitioners, enabling a better understanding of packaging’s role in marketing.

consumer percpetion; packaging; Croatia

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