The Effect of Product Packaging and use of Brand Mascots in Promoting Unhealthy Food: Product Preferences of Children and Buyer'S Behavior

Neelam Sadruddin Hirani*, Mohsina Hussain Gujrati **
*-** Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
Periodicity:December - February'2020
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jmgt.14.3.16678

Abstract

Emphasis on the importance of healthy eating is ongoing for many reasons, including the growing concern about childhood obesity resulting in the ban on advertising of unhealthy foods to children. The attractiveness of children as consumers and influencers of consumption resulted in children being increasingly attractive targets for marketers. The study used views of parents in examining the effect of packaging on children's product preferences and its ability to influence parents' buyer decision in-store. A quantitative approach is used in collecting data from 150 parents using a 28 item Likert scale questionnaire. The data was analyzed by SPSS v.17, which illustrates that bright color packaging and cartoons in the advertisement does affect the product preferences of children. The study also claims that children tend to buy confectionary (r=0.538), snack foods (r=0.532), and cereals (r=0.381), which showed a relationship between the child request and the purchases parents make in-store. However, parents within the study claimed that they do not listen to their children's requests and the purchase of food, which is low in nutritional value is also low. Results from the study can be used in designing effective marketing strategies within the retail and service marketing sector that would help in the buyer's decision and tackle the issue of a child's obesity and awareness of wrong marketing strategies that would appeal children in buying unhealthy food. The paper validates that there is a relationship between packaging and children's product preferences and children's impact on parents' buyer decision in-store.

Keywords

Food Packaging, Consumer Behavior, Unhealthy Food Marketing, Children Preferences, Parents.

How to Cite this Article?

Hirani, N. S., and Gujrati, M. H. (2020). The Effect of Product Packaging and use of Brand Mascots in Promoting Unhealthy Food: Product Preferences of Children and Buyer'S Behavior. i-manager's Journal on Management, 14(3), 47-56. https://doi.org/10.26634/jmgt.14.3.16678

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