Consumer Goods Packaging Innovation and its Role in the Product Adoption Process

Abstract

Packaging has emerged as an important competitive tool. An innovative package can pre-empt a market position, create a new market and lead to greater sales and profits, just as an improved or reformulated product can. This report investigates the adoption process for packaging innovations in food and food-related items. It seeks to answer certain questions pertaining to the adoption process: Do early adopters differ from the general population? What factors serve to accelerate the rate of adoption of packing innovations by consumers? What kinds of packinging innovations become successes? The results of a small-scale empirical study comparing early adopters of packaging innovations with the general populations provide some answers to these questions. The report concludes with recommendations to management for successful innovative packaging.