ABSTRACT
One reason for this is that packaging serves several purposes, such as protecting the merchandise during distribution and storage, encouraging a shopper to buy the product, and informing the consumer of its content and potential use. It must accomplish all of these functions within a variety of constraints including legal (the law governs what must and may be said on labels), economic (such as the cost of packaging in relation to the cost of the goods, or a supermarket’s requirements for display and merchandising), practical (such as the size and shape of the goods) and cultural (including the need to draw on discourses of consumer desire and to take account of social patterns of consumption). What might be perceived as its main function (that of persuading purchasers to buy) must be accomplished within a time constraint – the packaging must hail the potential purchaser from the shelves, draw attention to its presence among competitors’ products, and communicate desirability both at a distance and on closer inspection.
