Paper Title
Role of Packaging on Consumer Buying Behaviour with Reference to Indian Cosmetics Industry

Abstract
After Liberalization of Indian economy in 1991, rapid market expansion has been observed in all most all the sectors in Indian economy. The information technology revolution in last 30 years is also one of the responsible factors behind globalization of world economy. Today market and consumers are more connected and consumers are having multiple access points to collect information about product and services. The Indian cosmetic industry has also observed paradigm shift in the last two decades. Now the markets are flourished with many multinational brands. The rapid urbanization and expansion of working women cluster are the two main contemporary driving forces presently in this industry. Along with physical attributes of the products, packaging is also vital parameter in success of any cosmetic brand in India. This paper aims to understand consumer’s views about stock keeping unit (SKU) and packaging in Indian cosmetic industry. It also attends to indentify unique marketing strategies pertaining to packaging for the corporates which are operating in Indian markets. The findings mainly highlight consumer’s perception, views of the upstream and downstream channel members of the packaging and role of the media in this industry. Key words - Stock keeping unit (SKU), integrated marketing communication (IMC), AIDA model