Cause and Effective Essay
Customer confusion may be defined as the overload that is felt by a consumer when faced with an increasing amount of product or rather when different brands have related information (Simmonds et al.). The market of today has been characterized by a plethora of choices. For instance, a customer may be willing to buy a simple yogurt in a supermarket but may be faced with a lot of options with a large set of categories. It is important to note that each category may have different forms of branding. The first thing to do is to inspect the label to find out the favorable taste. After identifying the different taste of yogurt, the client will check the percentage of sugar in each label. Furthermore, a client has to check the percentage of fat in each label which creates more confusion on which type of brand he may take home. A simple product such as yogurt may end up bringing a lot of confusion which is mostly brought by packaging. The essay is meant to examine some of the reasons why some people are confused with food packaging.
Many people may tend to think that with all the researches and science that has been done on nutrition it is easier to choose a suitable product, but instead, the message which is coming out of nutrition research has given more contradictory report. According to the marketing analysis, it is only 3% of all products that do not need packaging (Simmonds et al.23). One of the main reasons for packaging is to protect the product and also to attract the consumer’s attention. Even though packaging aims to make a product to be more distinctive, many companies dealing with food product have failed to create products that are distinguishable from others. Rather, small companies consciously try to imitate big companies using similar shapes, design, and logos which have ended up creating more confusion to consumers (Simmonds et al.26).
In the present world, people have been faced with freedom of choice which has been associated with an increased standard of living. According to the researcher, choice or too much choice is one of the factors that lead to confusion in packaging. Decreasing the number of available options is an easy way of providing a solution to this matter. In some situations, two products may be packed the same which can create a conflict of choice. Consumers may be provided with a lot of decision-relevant information but at the same time, producers may end up decreasing inter-brand differences (Beitzen-Heineke et.1530 ). As a result, people end up being more confused about which choice to make.
Researchers have argued that consumer confusion on food products is brought by three main variables (i.e. overload, ambiguity, and similarity) (Spiteri et al.559). The effects of these three variables have been attributed to brand loyalty and decision postponement. The factors have been considered to be of great significance since they are connected to a company’s profitability. Research indicates that food products are categorized as high involvement products since everyone requires food to live.
In conclusion, the essay has examined reasons as to why people are confused with food packaging. One of the reasons which have been discussed is the consumer being provided with a lot of decision-relevant information. Another reason is food packaging the food product using the same design .freedom of choice which has been associated with increase standard of living. Finally, product similarities have been cited as another reason that creates more confusion.
Work Cited
Beitzen-Heineke, Elisa F., Nazmiye Balta-Ozkan, and Hendrik Reefke. “The prospects of zero-packaging grocery stores to improve the social and environmental impacts of the food supply chain.” Journal of Cleaner Production 140 (2017): 1528-1541.
Simmonds, Gregory, Andy T. Woods, and Charles Spence. “‘Show me the goods’: Assessing the effectiveness of transparent packaging vs. product imagery on product evaluation.” Food quality and preference 63 (2018): 18-27.
Spiteri Cornish, Lara, and Caroline Moraes. “The impact of consumer confusion on nutrition literacy and subsequent dietary behavior.” Psychology & Marketing 32.5 (2015): 558-574.