Food products consumer behaviors: The role of packaging elements

Today, packaging has been acknowledged as a strategic tool for enhancing competitiveness of food products by experts. Despite, the importance of packaging in food industries, it is rather anonymous and has been somewhat neglected in marketing research efforts in Iran. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between packaging and food products consumer behaviors in Refah chain stores in Iran. In this study, we have tried to evaluate and compare the effects of packaging elements on consumer behavior in the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages. The questionnaires filled by participants (n=175) which were analyzed qualitatively to examine the importance of different packaging elements on consumer behavior in the three stages of purchase decision. Results show that all packaging elements are highly important for food products buyers and these elements can highly influence their purchasing decision. © 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information.