Outline Dissertation Proposal Framework

OUTLINE ______________________________________ _ Research problem area: The problem of my research area is where by the consumer goes to buy juice at retail store having no knowledge of any brands but what influences his decision to buy a particular brand of juice for example packaging. Hence a consumer’s behaviorism in this situation is my research area and problem

Research Question: What is the impact of packaging on a consumer buying habits of juices?

Research Objectives: The Goal of this research is to understand and study in depth how packaging of a particular brand of juice attracts a consumer and influences him to buy the product by doing this what I am going to achieve is the impact of packaging on a consumer and how packaging helps to sell the product and how it creates and long term impact on a consumers mind. Some of the objectives are as follows Consumer’s priority towards packing: When the consumer is selecting the product to what percentage is packaging important in his mind when he is taking the buying decision. In this I want to know what actually goes on in a consumers mind when he sees varieties of juices on the shelves and is he considering packaging as his ideal factor for consuming the product or some other factors like quality, price etc . 1) Is packaging influencing the customer to switch form one brand to another: Usually a good packaging helps the customer to go for the product and buy it. But here what I am trying to study is if a one brand has better packaging than another brand will it force the customer to switch his brand and go for another brand. In short a long lasting impression of packaging. 2) To find out consumer attitude towards new packaging: Here what I want to know is will improvements in the packaging of a existing brand attract the consumer to buy the particular brand of juice over other juices and to what extent will it influence them to do so.

3)

To know if packaging helps to covert a potential buyer to actually end up buying the product: In this I want to really know how helpful it is by creating a very attractive packaging for the juice and weather to what percentage the consumer under the influence of packaging lands up buying the product.

Research Hypothesis: MY observation on my topic is as follows. 1) A very attractive packaging helps buying decision of a consumer up to 28%. 2) Packaging is very influential in decision making in the European market according to the study. 3) Consumers go for products which are more colorful and have celebrities from various areas.

Proposed approach to primary research: Research Philosophy: Realism because here I am doing the study of a human mind and my topic is more based on realistic approach.

Research approach: Deductive because here there is a relationship between 2 variables packaging and consumer behaviorism.

Research Strategy: Experiment because I need to know how a person behaves with two similar products but with different packaging and this can be done only with an experiment. 2.) Survey: In order to understand consumers buying habits I have to conduct surveys and questionnaire.

Time Horizon: Cross sectional because of time constraints the research couldn’t not be researched for a long time hence the results are short term based hence cross sectional.

Data collection method: Secondary data because the statistics and percentages of choice are difficult to measure hence must be referred to them from outside material.

2.) Observation: because understanding the buying behavior and customer perception observation is the best medium to attain fully fledged results and most of the times what you see is what u believe. 3.) Interviews: Cause interviews need to be in death interviews so that I can understand their perceptions and know how they get their influence to buy the brand. 4.) Questionnaires: in this I will include various brands and ask them to rate their preference starting from 1 to 10 and then to give a brief reason as to why they have rated their preference accordingly. 5.) Peer group: I will formulate and accumulate 2 to 3 peer groups and understand their ideas and beliefs and talk to them my peer groups would be customers, managers of retail stores. Will try and gain as much information as possible to get an in depth knowledge of what their idea is on packaging and behaviorism.

Key words associated with research: Consumer behavior (Google); packaging objectives of soft drinks (Ebsco data base); packaging in the European marketing.

Key writers associated with research: Robin Tuckerman November 2005, Michael R Solomon, Margaret K Hogg, Harvard Hansen.

Key academic references: http://books.google.com/books? hl=en&lr=&id=CRsuQMWuAx8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR14&dq=consumer+behaviour+vs+ packaging&ots=M2TLE7h0Yn&sig=0lQSdW6AWBAUTtbsp_MTqSMswQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false 2.) www.packagingcovenant.org.au 3.) http://books.google.ie/books? id=hOt8Cud4FMwC&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=packaging+inrelation+to+consumer+behaviou rism&source=bl&ots=zoTi2Wh3Kp&sig=0GKqmrFJbNEHXTeunFr_NovRKas&hl=en&ei=zBXpSt D0Ls6F_AaV4JyZDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=one page&q=&f=false