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FOOD-RELATED LIFESTYLE AS AN INNOVATIVE METHOD
IN PACKAGING RESEARCH
Agnieszka KAWECKA
Cracow University of Economics,
Products Packaging Department, Cracow, Poland.
Abstract
Innovation in food industry is a very important factor of development of the food market and building a
competitive advantage of individual businesses. Nowadays innovations are led mostly by consumer needs and
expectations which are linked to changes in lifestyle. There is a method of investigating a relation between a
lifestyle and food choices, referred to as a Food Related Lifestyle (FRL) methodology. It is important to verify
also the influence of a lifestyle on packaging preferences what could lead to better adjustment of packaging to
consumer demands.
The review of FRL method has revealed a relationship between food preferences and food product packaging.
However, in order to better assess consumers’ needs related to packaging understanding, it is necessary to
develop a new questionnaire concerning some ecological issues, to define the preferred packaging options in
more detail, and their functionality and design.
Keywords: Food Related Lifestyle (FRL), Food Packaging Related Lifestyle, food packaging, packaging
preferences, food packaging technologies, consumer acceptance.
Introduction
Food industry is constantly changing by introducing innovations in products and packaging.
Innovations are recognized as a key factor for companies to build their competitive
advantage. Therefore, numerous companies are interested in introducing innovations in
their product what might result in individual business growth and development of the food
market. The gap could be identified between what the retail chains offer to their customers
and what the customers want.
Consumers have a massive influence on the product innovation. The technological barriers
are very scarce, that is why consumers play a key role in communicating their expectations
and leading food products innovations. One of the most important factors influencing
innovations is consumers’ lifestyle. The lifestyle of an individual includes all of its activities,
interests, values and opinions. Lifestyle measurement has been widely used in marketing,
namely for guiding advertising strategy, segmentation, and product development. Lifestyle
is potentially a valuable tool for market surveillance.
The main goal of the paper is to theoretically verify the purposefulness of researching the
importance of packaging in buying behaviour with the use of Food Related Lifestyle
instrument. The areas of a questionnaire directly refer to packaging, and its role in
maintaining quality of food.
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