Packaging Development in an Ageing Society: A Case Study Approach in the United Kingdom Fast- Moving Consumer Goods Industry Nicholas Andrew Ford Director of Studies: Professor Paul Trott Second Supervisor: Dr. Christopher Simms This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth. Sponsored by Crown Holdings Submitted November 2014 i Declaration Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. Thesis word count: 78,578. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to offer equal thanks to my Director of Studies, Professor Paul Trott, and my Second Supervisor, Dr. Christopher Simms, for their tremendous encouragement and guidance over the last three years. Their support has been invaluable to both this project and to my career in general. I am extremely fortunate to have worked with such inspiring individuals. In addition, I would like to thank those members of staff within the Strategy, Enterprise and Innovation and Marketing and Sales subject groups who have provided me with valuable feedback during the research process. I would also like to thank Jane Stewart and Sarah Charley for their on-going support. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to those individuals who participated in this project. Were it not for their generous use of their time this study would not have been possible. I would also like to thank my family for their encouragement throughout the research process. Finally, I would like to express great thanks to my partner Liz for her support throughout this project. iii Abstract There is a growing body of research demonstrating the effects of age-related changes on product usability and the value derived from consumption experiences. In particular, difficulties with packaging have been identified as a source of dissatisfaction and a key barrier to older people maintaining their independence. Despite this, marketing literature into older consumers’ packaging experiences is limited. Likewise, packaging development has been afforded scant attention in the new product development literature. Whilst there is extensive design literature exploring packaging openability among older consumers, these studies focus largely on biological ageing, thus overlooking aspects of psychological and social ageing. As such, these studies only capture a small part of the various consumer- packaging interactions. Based on these limitations, the purpose of this study is twofold: to explore how ageing affects packaging needs; and to examine how the management of packaging development affects firms’ abilities to deliver value to older consumers. The findings highlight the importance of packaging development in contributing to older people’s abilities to access, open and consume fast-moving consumer goods products independently. Maintaining this independence is found to positively contribute to quality of life. However, a variety of organisational factors and development team characteristics are found to inhibit firms from targeting older consumers and identifying and exploiting a variety of new packaging opportunities. This study contributes to the literature by providing new insights into the packaging needs of older consumers. The conceptual framework presented contributes to new product development literature by providing a new perspective with which to view fast-moving consumer goods product development; one where packaging development is used to offer value to older consumers. iv Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................ 1 1.1. Rationale and Importance of Research ........................................................ 1 1.2. Research Context and Questions ................................................................. 5 1.3. Overview of the Limitations of the Literature ................................................ 6 1.4. Theoretical Background................................................................................ 8 1.5. Contribution of Thesis .................................................................................. 9 1.6. Overview of Research Approach ................................................................ 10 1.7. Principal Findings ....................................................................................... 11 1.7.1. Ageing and Packaging Needs .............................................................. 11 1.7.2. Understanding the Senior Market ........................................................ 12 1.7.3. Exploiting Packaging Development Opportunities ............................... 12 1.8. Structure of Thesis ..................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 Literature Review Part One ...................................................... 15 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 15 2.2. Marketing’s View of the Senior Market ....................................................... 15 2.2.1. Conceptualisations of the Senior Market ............................................. 15 2.2.2. Size and Growth of the Senior Market ................................................. 16 2.2.3. Financial Wealth of the Senior Market ................................................. 18 2.2.4. Spending Habits of the Senior Market ................................................. 21 2.2.5. A Missed Opportunity ........................................................................... 22 2.3. Industry Inactivity Towards the Senior Market ............................................ 23 2.3.1. Marketing’s Obsession with Youth ....................................................... 23 2.3.2. A Lack of Empathy from Young Managers .......................................... 24 2.3.3. Attempts at Targeting the Senior Market ............................................. 25 2.4 Understanding Older Consumers’ Needs .................................................... 26 2.4.1. Ageing as a Multidimensional Process ................................................ 26 v 2.4.2. The Effects of Biological Ageing on Consumer Needs......................... 29 2.4.2.1. Physiological Decline .................................................................... 29 2.4.2.2. Retail Service Development .......................................................... 30 2.4.2.3. Packaging and Biological Ageing .................................................. 31 2.4.3. The Effects of Psychological Ageing on Consumer Needs .................. 34 2.4.3.1. Changes in Cognition .................................................................... 34 2.4.3.2. Socio-Emotional Selectivity Theory ............................................... 36 2.4.3.3. Innovation Adoption ....................................................................... 37 2.4.4. The Effects of Social Ageing on Consumer Needs .............................. 38 2.4.4.1. Shopping as a Form of Socialisation ............................................. 38 2.4.4.2. Social Ageing and Packaging Experiences ................................... 39 2.4.5. Ageing as an Inseparable Multidimensional Process ........................... 42 2.5. Segmenting the Senior Market ................................................................... 42 2.5.1. An Overview of Approaches to Segmenting the Senior Market ........... 42 2.5.2. Bartos’ (1980) Segmentation Model for Consumers Aged 49+ ............ 45 2.5.3. Moschis’ (1996) Life-Stage Segmentation Model ................................ 47 2.5.4. Sudbury and Simcock’s (2009) Multivariate Segmentation Model ....... 49 2.6. Product Design Strategies for Targeting the Senior Market ....................... 51 2.6.1. Ergonomics .......................................................................................... 51 2.6.2. Inclusive Design ................................................................................... 53 2.7. Summary .................................................................................................... 55 Chapter 3 Literature Review Part Two ..................................................... 57 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 57 3.2. New Product Development Models ............................................................ 57 3.3. NPD Models for the FMCG industry ........................................................... 58 3.3.1. The Efficient Product Introduction Wheel (Ernst & Young, 1999) ........ 58 3.3.2. Asda’s Bullseye Process (Francis et al., 2008) .................................... 61 vi 3.3.3. Procter and Gamble’s SIMPL Process (Cooper and Mills, 2005) ........ 62 3.3.4. New Food Product Development Models ............................................. 63 3.4. Models of Packaging Development ............................................................ 66 3.4.1. Rundh’s (2009) Packaging Supply Chain Model .................................. 66 3.4.2. Gofman et al.’s (2010) Structured Consumer-Driven Package Design............................................................................................................ 67 3.4.3. Raper et al.’s (1998) Quality Function Deployment Packaging