The study was carried out to determine the relationship between packaging attributes and consumer patronage of beverages in Akwa Ibom State. The survey research design was used for this study. Data for the study were obtained through questionnaire administered to 385 respondents across the three senatorial districts in Akwa Ibom State. A multi-stage sampling technique – stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents for this study. A total of 376 copies of questionnaire were retrieved and used for the analysis. Five hypotheses were formulated and tested at the 0.05 level of significance. Data obtained for the study were analyzed using tables, frequency and percentage while hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression. The findings revealed that there is significant positive relationship between design of wrapper, printed information, packaging size, packaging innovation and consumer patronage of beverages in Akwa Ibom State. This implies that when there is an improvement in design of wrapper, printed information, packaging size and packaging innovation, there will be significant positive influence on consumer patronage of beverages. It was concluded that packaging plays an important role in the marketing of beverages and can be treated as one of the vital components of product that influence consumer patronage. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that attention should be given to the overall improvement of design of wrapper, printed information, packaging size and packaging innovation by beverage manufacturing firms in offering their products to the target market.
Keywords: Packaging, consumer patronage of beverages, design of wrapper, packaging innovation, packaging size, printed information
