Packaging Design, Sustainability and the Consumer Perspective

This chapter synthesizes research on packaging design and consumers’ perceptions, in particular through the lens of sustainability. It first establishes packaging as a strategic cue system and identifies core design elements, such as structural (e.g., material, shape), visual/graphic (e.g., color, imagery), informational (e.g., labels, claims), and sensory/haptic (e.g., texture). It then reviews major frameworks and literature on sustainable packaging, identifying some relevant gaps: fragmented treatment of consumer-facing design attributes, generally limited recognizability of eco-cues, knowledge deficits, and trade-offs that hinder adoption. Organizing prior work, the chapter maps four themes: consumers’ knowledge and understanding of sustainable packaging; holistic approach to green packaging; analytical approach isolating specific cues; and, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors toward eco-friendly packaging. Evidence shows that sustainability cues shape consumers’ perceptions, influence attitudes and purchase intentions, and interact in complex ways. The chapter contributes an analytical, cue-based framework that consolidates fragmented insights and directly informs the experimental manipulations employed later in the volume (material for structural cues, texture for haptics, and color for visuals) to compare evaluations in Virtual Reality (VR) and physical reality.