The Power of Kraft Paper Packaging as a Competitive Advantage for FMCG: Exploration of Consumer Attitudes and Choices

One of the major trends of today, environmental friendliness has been changing business around the world. With the rising demand for ecologically safe goods and production processes, companies are taking actions to reduce their negative impact on nature in different ways, including packaging. Addressing the problem of plastic waste, recyclable packaging has become a widespread phenome-non in the FMCG market. In particular, the release of product packages made from kraft paper is on the rise, announced by a growing number of companies, including global giants. Combining packaging as a role-player in consumer choice and kraft paper as a signal of eco-friendli-ness, the aim was to explore possible effects of packages made from kraft paper on consumer choice. As influencers on purchase decision, consumer perceptions of the product and the brand were studied in relation to kraft paper packaging. A simultaneous critical objective was to generate new practical knowledge on this yet uninvestigated topic. Its novelty justifies adaptation of explora-tory purpose and deductive approach. Collected primary data served as the main source of knowledge, while the secondary data provided the theoretical background and findings from the researches on the most closely related topics. Given the qualitative type of the study, in-depth opin-ions and ideas of consumers coming from 8 countries in 5 world regions were collected through semi-structured personal interviews. The findings indicated that kraft paper packaging has an effect on consumer attitudes towards a product and on the purchase decision. A package made from kraft paper can cause a positive per-ception of product qualities and the willingness to act responsibly to the environment and stimulate consumers towards choosing the product. Nevertheless, the positive effect of the packaging can be dominated by its inappropriate design or product attributes having paramount importance for a consumer. Finally, it was concluded that kraft paper packaging has the potential to differentiate a product on the market of FMCG and stimulate purchase decision if this innovation is implemented wisely, being now a new market trend sparking consumer interest