ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the conceptualisation of packaging design in the marketing and consumer research literature. The chapter takes a point of departure by adopting a holistic versus atomistic perspective in studying packaging design. Given the dominance of research based on the atomistic perspective, this chapter focuses primarily on understanding the ways in which individual elements or cues (we use these two terms interchangeably to refer to a unique individual component of a packaging design) of packaging design have been conceptualised and their likely effects on consumer responses. Further, given that technology is inextricably embedded in packaging design, we also elaborate on how consumers make sense of packaging design technologies. Last, we provide a guiding framework that summarises the classifications of packaging design cues and further discuss the key observations derived from related studies.
