Labeling, Packaging And Country Of Origin Australia

The Importance of Labeling, Packaging, and Country of Origin in Marketing Campaigns

Describe about An Essay Labeling, Packaging and Country of Origin.

The subject of marketing is multi faceted and there are number of components which go together on to make a marketing campaign effective. Marketing is a perennial process and continues to work for a company. It is important to mention that most of the bigger companies focus on working on different marketing strategies in order to gain competitive advantage in the market. There are different strategies which are being used by the leading multinational companies and this has helped them to understand the nerve of the market effectively (Berry et al., 2015). Marketing has also become one of the key subjects for the companies nowadays since there is also an aspect of ethics which work to make marketing campaigns successful. Packaging, labeling and country of origin has become some of the key aspects not only for marketing but also to establish one company as a brand (Kaynak et al., 2000). In the wake of the internet civilisation and the introduction of numerous other technologies common mass have become highly informed as well as ethical in purchasing their regular items and hence it becomes extremely important that labeling, packaging and country of origin is discussed effectively (Murphy, 2010).

What has made labeling, packaging so important for companies nowadays? It is one concept that most of the management researchers and scholars have researched upon in the recent past and the answer to it is ethical consumerism. The concept of ethical consumerism is not completely different and is interwoven with the development of the packaging, labeling concepts. It is important to note that the concept of labeling and packaging has become essential and is given paramount importance by a lot of contemporary companies (Lencucha & Drope, 2015). In Australia some of the bigger organisations like Coles which has been now taken over by the biggest company in Australia that is Wesfarmers, Woolworths Ltd et cetera all have focused on getting effective packaging in order to make good impression among the consumers. Packaging and labeling has become key issue for the company since nowadays consumers have become highly concerned about the environment and hence the concept of green packaging and labeling has come in the market. While packaging has been there in existence for more than centuries but labeling has emerged as important in the recent past (Spielmann, 2015).

One of the new concepts which the consumers are now concerned with is the country of origin. Country of origin is basically the information about the food which the consumers want to know. It could be said that in the recent past this has become another key aspect which the companies has to focus on as consumers have become highly concerned about the daily items they purchase and all the information relevant to the product they are purchasing. With the increasing concerns for making businesses green and with consumers becoming highly concerned there are number of issues that have emerged in the regarding packaging, labeling and country of origin and the present study will take an opportunity to discuss these issues in this study (Lencucha & Drope, 2015).

The Emergence of Ethical Consumerism and Its Impact on Labeling and Packaging

There are some key issues that have rose to the occasion in the recent past regarding packaging, labeling. It is important to mention that with the world undergoing globalisation the world has faced number of crisis and one of the biggest problems is pollution (Lupien., 2005). This issue has emerged as initially packaging was not taken seriously. Plastic has always been the preferred material for packaging and this has been one of the key issues. Plastic is a material is a poor quality carbon material which affects the environment badly and eliminating this substance from use has been one of the problems for the company as it is one of the easiest way of packaging and also comes cheap (Gracia & de-Magistris, 2016).  Since packaging is one of the ways the consumers are attracted by the companies it is given paramount importance nowadays, and with the focus of attracting consumers companies often forget to be sustainable with the packaging systems. In the recent past there have been problems with packaging and hence the Australian Government has become proactive in eliminating the issues with packaging and make sure that the packaging is sustainable, green and favorable for the environment. Ethics has always been related to packaging problems (Smith, 2015). Another key issue that is related to packaging is the thought process of the company. Most of the companies nowadays try to lure customers with posh packaging and as well as labeling but often consumers are deceived with the products. Often what is exhibited through packaging is not given to customers and this is one of the key issues that have to be eliminated in order to get that much needed trust of the consumers (Skaczkowski et al., 2016).

Nowadays consumers not only want to see effective packaging but also want freshness of the foods and often through packaging the consumers are cheated and hence this will have to be worked upon. Often to create brand, packaging is used to establish that but in order to compete in the market companies in Australia have failed to keep that promise. Recently this problem has become a key problem as the companies have not been able to handle it. On the other hand labeling has become one of the key marketing techniques especially through the labeling in the packaged products (Miller et al., 2016). Companies like Woolworths, Coles and Dick Smith Electronics have all focused on labeling their products effectively through which they have been able to attract consumers effectively. The present Australian Labeling law does not even allow the consumers to know all the information regarding the product which is also a key ethical issue (Del Giudice et al., 2016). The companies often fail to provide all the information which is a strategy that often misleads customers. These companies develop the graphics, labels and safety is not exhibited. For instance in Beverages sold in the stores do not share the information regarding the nutritional content, its size et cetera which is hardly displayed. This not only affects the consumers as it creates significant questions regarding the transparency of the companies. On the other hand it also poses serious threat to the safety as the packaging is focused on looking great but not securing the product and its supply (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2012).

Key Issues with Packaging and Labeling in Australia

In the recent past in Australia the attribute of origin of the country and environmental safety is stated as one of the biggest problems for marketers. Environmental issues with the packaging is companies in Australia in fact most of the companies in the world state the product is environment friendly but often the products do not have environment friendly attribute which is completely a wrong way to advertise a product and this is  pretty common nowadays ( Van Sickle et al., 2003). In order to compete in the market the companies have failed to put up a good show with the material that they use for packing products. Plastic and paper are two mostly used components for packing and when on one side plastic is a non decomposable substance, on the other hand constant deforestation taking place for paper creation is also a problem (Nickxenophon.com.au, 2016). There have been number of initiatives that have been taken to stop this but when the organisations are not taking it seriously. Waste products created through this kind of packaging creates trouble for effective waste management programs. In certain occasions the companies are not able to handle the ethical dilemma of packaging as in the recent times the consumers in Australia have become a concerned and aware. Origin of country of a product is not exhibited is a big offense which some companies including Woolworths have faced in the recent past. The origin of country in the labeling helps the consumers to let know where the product is actually from. In Australian Labeling law there is no clause which allows the consumers to know where the product is coming from (Skaczkowski et al., 2016). Under the current product law in Australia a product could be described as “Made in Australia” if around 51% of the product is transformed in Australia which includes packaging as well which means if a beverage has 90% liquid concentrate from Brazil or USA or UK it doesn’t create any problem. As per Australian Competition and Consumer Commission it is a legal offense to mislead consumers regarding origin of the country but it has been a consistent problem and issue (Carter et al., 2006). Hence it could be said that the key issues that is related to packaging and labeling are mainly ethical issues which some companies deliberately or some of them unintentionally do in order to grab customer attention and this has been a prevalent problem in Australia which has to be handled with strict laws and legislations (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2012).

To conclude the essay it is important to mention that Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been optimistic with their initiatives for instance the organisation has laid down defined new labeling and country of origin strategy which is likely to change the scenario in the country regarding this prevalent problem related to issues of packaging and labeling and country of origin (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2012). Hence finally it is important that since the market has grown rapidly and consumers have also become ethical it is important for the companies working in Australia to handle their labeling, packaging and country of origin successfully to gain competitive advantage (Goldsmith, 2016).

References

Berry, C., Mukherjee, A., Burton, S. and Howlett, E., 2015. A COOL effect: The direct and indirect impact of country-of-origin disclosures on purchase intentions for retail food products. Journal of Retailing, 91(3), pp.533-542.

Del Giudice, T., La Barbera, F., Vecchio, R. and Verneau, F., 2016.Anti-Waste Labeling and Consumer Willingness to Pay. Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 28(2), pp.149-163.

Goldsmith, E.B., 2016. Consumer economics: Issues and behaviors. Routledge.

Gracia, A. and de-Magistris, T., 2016. Consumer preferences for food labeling: What ranks first?. Food Control, 61, pp.39-46.

Lencucha, R. and Drope, J., 2015. Plain packaging: an opportunity for improved international policy coherence?. Health promotion international,30(2), pp.281-290

Miller, S., Driver, T., Saunders, C. and Dalziel, P., 2016. High Value Nutrition: Country of Origin.

Murphy, P.E., 2010. Marketing, Ethics of. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.

Skaczkowski, G., Durkin, S., Kashima, Y. and Wakefield, M., 2016. The effect of packaging, branding and labeling on the experience of unhealthy food and drink: A review. Appetite, 99, pp.219-234.

Smith, S.A., 2015. Evaluating Consumer Response to Environmental Labels on Packaging Using Eye-Tracking (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Tech).

Spielmann, N., 2015. Anything but typical: how consumers evaluate origin products based on their cues. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 27(1), pp.23-39.

Gruère, G.P. and Rao, S.R., 2007.A review of international labeling policies of genetically modified food to evaluate India’s proposed rule.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

In-text: (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2012)

Your Bibliography: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (2012). Country of origin. [online] Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/groceries/country-of-origin [Accessed 21 Aug. 2016].

OOD LABELLING SCANDAL | NICK XENOPHON - INDEPENDENT SENATOR FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA

In-text: (Nickxenophon.com.au, 2016)

Your Bibliography: Nickxenophon.com.au. (2016). Food Labelling Scandal | Nick Xenophon - Independent Senator for South Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.nickxenophon.com.au/campaigns/food-labelling-scandal/ [Accessed 21 Aug. 2016].