Title: Perceptions and attitudes towards the silent salesman

Authors: Suraj Kushe Shekhar; P.T. Raveendran

Addresses: VIT Business School, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Management Studies, Kannur University, Kannur, Kerala, India

Abstract: Packaging which is often called as the 'silent salesman' is an important component of marketing. Today, the importance of packaging has risen to such an extent that product packaging is rightly called as the fifth 'P' of marketing mix. This paper identifies consumers' perception and attitude towards various packaging cues on a high impulse, low involvement confectionary product, namely chocolates across a wide range of consumers. Data interpretations using SEM approach indicated that when consumers associations with packaging and beneficial dimensions were high, the tendencies to buy chocolates were also high. It was also observed that packaging and nutritional mislead had direct negative effect in buying influence of chocolates. Further, it was also concluded that packaging and attitude towards new designs also had direct negative effect in buying influence of chocolates. The results were significant in all the above mentioned situations.

Keywords: chocolate; consumers; packaging; perception; purchase.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2017.085788

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2017 Vol.14 No.1, pp.104 - 121

Received: 18 May 2015
Accepted: 03 Oct 2015
Published online: 14 Aug 2017 *

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