THE IMPORTANCE OF PACKAGING ATTRIBUTES OF TAKE-OUT FOOD: A CONJOINT ANALYSIS APPROACH Dyah Lestari Widaningrum Industrial Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Binus University Jl. K.H. Syahdan No. 9, Palmerah, Jakarta Barat 11480 [email protected]

ABSTRACT This research aimed to investigate the importance of take-out food packaging attributes, using conjoint analysis approach among consumers of take-out food products in Jakarta, Indonesia. The conjoint results indicated that perception about packaging materials (such as paper, plastic, and polystyrene foam) took the most important role in overall consumer perception. The clustering results showed that there were strong segmentations for take-out food packaging material considered most important by consumers. Some consumers were mostly oriented to the colour of packaging, while some concerned on packaging shape and packaging information. Segmentation variables based on packaging response could provide very useful information to maximize image of products through the package’s impact. Keywords: packaging, take-out food packaging, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis

ABSTRAK Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pentingnya atribut kemasan makanan yang dibawa pulang, menggunakan pendekatan analisis conjoint pada konsumen produk makanan di Jakarta, Indonesia. Hasil conjoint menunjukkan bahwa persepsi tentang bahan kemasan (seperti kertas, plastik, dan busa polystyrene) berperan paling penting dalam persepsi konsumen secara keseluruhan. Hasil pengelompokan menunjukkan bahwa ada segmentasi yang kuat untuk bahan kemasan yang dianggap paling penting oleh konsumen. Beberapa konsumen sebagian besar berorientasi kepada warna kemasan, sedangkan sebagian lain memperhatikan bentuk kemasan dan informasi pada kemasan. Variabel segmentasi berdasarkan respon kemasan dapat memberikan informasi yang sangat berguna untuk memaksimalkan citra produk melalui efek yang timbul dari kemasannya. Kata kunci: kemasan, makanan yang dibawa pulang, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis

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INTRODUCTION Fast food industry keeps growing in Indonesia especially in Jakarta as an urban area. Usually fast food restaurants provide take-out food service. This may include both direct purchase at restaurant (or special stall provided by restaurant) and order by phone/fax/internet. The increasing array of take-out food indicated a changing in consumer needs. With record numbers of customers buying food for carry out – or more than the number who eat on premise today – packaging is key to an operation’s success (Castagna, 1997). Packaging concept determines what should be fit or what should be done by the packaging for a particular product. The marketers have to design packaging reasonable, economical, and environmentally friendly for their products. They must also pay attention to the environment and safety related packaging, and make decisions that meet the interests of the community as well as customers and company objectives (Kotler et al., 2000). The characteristics of the food product packaging as described in the results of a qualitative study of Boyce et al. (2008) and Binkley et al. (2008) are important to consider, as seen in Table 1 and Table 2. Tabel 1 Desired Packaging Characteristics, Type of Packaging, and Type of Information (Binkley et al., 2008) Desired packaging characteristics • Leak proof (95,3%) • Keep the food hot/cold (91,9%) • Keep the food from becoming soggy (84%) • Packaging with compartment to separate food items (74.2%) • Microwavable (55%) • Recyclable (51.3%) • Oven-safe (13.8%)

The type of packaging • • • • •

Foamed-polystyrene containers (91%) Corrugated-paperboard containers (85,2%) Aluminium-foil wraps (54%) Non-microwavable plastic containers (41%) Aluminium containers (37,9%)

The type of information on packaging • • • • •

Information regarding reheating information (22,5%) Cooking instruction (14,4%) How to store the food or leftovers (4,7%) How long to keep the product in refrigerator (2.3%) Amount of time food should be un-refrigerated (1%)

Tabel 2 The Most Important Feature of a Take-out Food Container (Boyce et al., 2008) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

It kept the food hot Separate food compartment Well-sealed lids Ability to be re-heated in a microwave Recyclable Transparant lid

While such convenience seems irresistible to consumers, widespread purchase of take-out food brings about concerns for several problematic factors: the amount of time from purchase to

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consumption, the type of container being used, and the consumer knowledge as to reheating food product safely (Boyce et al., 2008). Silayoi and Speece (2005) demonstrate that the conjoint study seems to have been an effective way to examine how consumers view packaging. The relationship between consumer choices in various market segments and design characteristics of packaging is a key issue that marketing officer must understand to develop effective marketing strategy. Consumer attention to the packaging for take-out food products shows the importance of food packaging design that fits consumers' perception. Conjoint analysis is one approach that can be done to obtain a combination of attributes desired by consumers. This research examines consumer response packaging using a Conjoint Analysis among consumers for take-out food products in Jakarta, Indonesia. The problems to be discussed in this research are: (1) what are take-out food packaging attributes based on consumers perception? (2) how is the consumer segmentation based on their preferences? The objectives are to identify take-out food packaging attributes based on consumers perception and to define consumer segmentation based on their preferences. Conjoint Analysis is a multivariate technique developed specifically to understand how respondents develop preferences for any type of object (products, services, or ideas). It is based on the simple premise that consumers evaluate the value of an object (real or hypothetical) by combining the separate amounts of value provided by each attribute. Moreover, consumers can best provide their estimates of preference by judging objects formed by combinations of attributes. Utility, a subjective judgment of preference unique to each individual is the most fundamental concept in conjoint analysis and the conceptual basis for measuring value. One of the most common uses of individual-level conjoint analysis results is to group respondents with similar part-worth of importance values to identify segments. The estimated conjoint part-worth utilities can be used solely or in combination with other variables (e.g. demographics) to derive respondent groupings that are most similar in their preferences (Hair et.al., 2006).

METHOD This study consists of three steps as seen on Figure 1. Conjoint Analysis and Cluster Analysis in Step 1 to 3 utilized empirical data obtained from the survey on consumer of take-out food products.

Figure 1 Research Methodology: Conjoint Analysis (Surjandari, 2010)

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The conjoint analysis surveys consist of two stages (Figure 2). First was survey to evaluate consumer perception about take-out food packaging. Second was survey to evaluate consumer preferences for the stimuli.

Figure 2 Conjoint Analysis Methodology (Hair et al., 2006)

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The object of this study was the user consumers of take-out food products from a well-known fast food restaurant in Indonesia. It owned 62 outlets in Jakarta and 85 outlet in other areas (Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Jogjakarta and Bali), but the research focused on Jakarta area to fulfil the convenience of life style. The packaging analyzed in this study was one for packing menu which consisted of rice, main menu/product, side dishes, salad, and sauce. The survey result indicated that 41.27% of take-out food was purchased for family and 33.33% for personal consumption. Taste, price, location, and convenience are the primary factors influencing the decision for purchase. Most participants (80.65%) in this study claimed to return home quickly with take-out food purchase, and consumed the food as soon as possible.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Conjoint Analysis Attributes and levels of take-out food packaging are defined based on data analyzing from first survey (Table 3) and group discussion from various department within the company (Table 4). The design stimuli in this study used SPSS 15.0 software and so did the conjoint data analyzing. Data collected from the respondent of second survey was totally 287, but only 274 were used for the analysis. 13 data were unusable since they were uncompleted or ineligible. Pilot test of 30 respondents conducted to ensure that there was clarity of statement on the questionnaire, and the result indicated that there was no problem with the survey instrument. Table 3 First Survey Result (%) (n=75 respondents) No. 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Desirable Packaging Attributes Leak proof Keep the food hot Keep the food from becoming soggy Packaging with compartment to separate food items Microwavable Recyclable Well-sealed lids Transparant lid Easy to carry Easy to use Packaging type Information: Reheat Instruction Information: How to Store the Food Information: Holding Time Product Label: Producer Name Label: Product Name

Extremely important

Very Important

Moderately Important

96,0 41,3 84,0

1,3 2,7

2,7 4,0

94,7

1,3

1,3

2,7

9,3 61,3 98,7 5,3 97,3 96,0

2,7 1,3

1,3

1,3 1,3

21,3

2,7 2,7

34,7

2,7

1,3 1,3 1,3

94,7 77,3

1,3

76,0

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Neutral

Slightly Important

Low Importance

Not at all Important

25,3 5,3

2,7

17,3 10,7

6,7

30,7 2,7

2,7

94,7 10,7

10,7 1,3 1,3 60,0 17,3

1,3

33,3 22,7 1,3 50,7

29,3

1,3 22,7 34,7

10,7 24,0

20,0

30,7

12,0

2,7

1,3

1,3

4,0

10,7

6,7

5,3

10,7

8,0

2,7

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Table 4 Attributes and Levels of Take-Out Food Packaging Attributes

1

Packaging Material

2

Information on the Packaging

3

Container Shape

4

Container Color

Levels 1

Plastic

2

Paper

3

Polystyrene Foam

1

Detail Information*)

2

Non Detail Information

1

With Compartment

2

Without Compartment

1

Light (White, Beige, etc)

2

Dark (Black, Brown, etc)

*) information consists of brand name, brand logo, name of product, food grade symbol, recycling code.

Goodness of Fit conducted to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the respondents in filling out the questionnaire, with the minimum coefficient of Pearson’s R for individuals is 0.4 with pvalue