Influence of packaging elements of ready to eat food products on buying behaviour

Packaging is a whole package that becomes an ultimate selling proposition, which stimulates impulse buying behavior. Packaging increases sales and market share and reduces market and promotional costs. Competitive environment has changed the role of package due to increasing self-services and changing consumers’ lifestyle. Ready-to-eat food is actually the processed food items being ready for immediate consumption at the point of sale. India's packaged food business has grown manifold and it was calculated as $50 billion by 2017. The global ready-to-eat food products market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.2 percent during the forecast period (2018–2026) and is estimated to be valued at US$ 195.3 billion by the end of 2026. In the packaging category, the frozen or chilled segment is likely to expand at a CAGR of 8.0 percent over the forecast period. In the distribution channel category, the Hypermarket/Supermarket segment is estimated to account for the highest value share of 34.3 percent and is expected to gain significant market share by the end of 2026 (IBEF, 2017). Marketing personnel are constantly analyzing the patterns of buying behavior and purchase decisions to predict the future trends. The research was carried out on the basis of primary as well as secondary data.150 respondents from Jammu city were selected for the study. The purpose of the present study was an attempt to study the influence of packaging on RTE food products in Jammu city. The results of the study revealed that 45 percent of the respondents feel packaging of ready to eat food items to be important, 43.0 percent feel valuable, and 53 percent needful respectively. The study also found that packaging material, picture of the product, design, label, shape, type of packaging, information and brand appeared to be essential elements for the packaging of ready to eat food products. The study also depicts that red color is found to be most influencing factor (71 percent, (57 percent) respondents choose square shape and (74.50 percent) respondents selected image in graphics of packaging in terms of consumer behavior is concerned.