In modern time marketing, if packaging does not sell a product, it is as good as worthless. Packaging has become itself a sales promotion tool for organizations. The consumer’s buying behavior is also stimulated by the packaging quality, color, wrapper, and other attributes of packaging. Packaging is a whole package that becomes an ultimate selling proposition, which stimulates impulse buying behavior. Packaging increases sales and market share and reduces market and promotional costs.

The vital function of packaging comes out clearly in the environment of self service stores, where sales have to be dependent on the strength of packaging. This is achieved by designing a package to attract consumer’s attention at the point of purchase, to furnish consumers with needed information about the product, so as to provide the on-the-spot persuasion and incentive that is often vital to make sales or required to propel consumers into buying. .

According to Kuvykaite (2009) packaging attracts consumer’s attention to particular brand, enhances its image, and influences consumer’s perceptions about a product. Also, packaging impacts unique value to products (Underwood, Klein & Burke, 2001; Silayoi & Speece, 2004), works as a tool for differentiation, i.e. helps consumers to choose the product from wide range of similar products and stimulates customers buying behavior (Wells, Farley & Armstrong, 2007). Thus, packaging performs an important role in marketing and communications and could be treated as one of the most important factor influencing consumer’s preference of purchase. According to Rundh (2005), packaging appeals to consumer’s attentiveness towards a certain brand, increases its image, and stimulates consumer’s perceptions about product.

Cadbury Nigeria Plc is the leading company in Nigeria in confectionary, food drinks, and foods whose quality brands and products are available and enjoyed in all 36 states of the nation and Federal Capital Territory as well as in export market around the world (Adeolu et al., 2005). Cadbury Nigeria Plc engages in the food processing business. Its major product lines consist of food drinks, sugar confectionery chocolate and seasoning cubes (Cadbury Nigeria Plc Annual Report, 2009).

Cadbury’s flagship brand, Bournvita is, no doubt, in a competitive environment with other brands such as Milo, Vitalo, Ovaltine, Nescafe, Toptea, Lipton and other cheaper local brands all of them striving to increase their market share through varying marketing strategies such as sales promotion (such as packaging and so on), personal selling and provision of point-of-sale materials such as T-shirts, Cups. Posters, Shelf strips etc to stir, attract and retain more consumers of their products (Adeolu et al., 2005).

Cadbury Nigeria also developed other product categories, most notably Candy. Introduced in 1970, TomTom - the big, black and white sweet for soothing relief which has sustained market leadership for over 40 years, remains the most iconic brand in the Nigerian Candy market. It now comes in three variants: Classic, HoneyLemon and Strawberry (Ozuru et al., 2014). The other brand in the company’s Candy portfolio is Trebor Buttermint, the delicious sweet with the double pleasure of butter and mint. In 2012, the company expanded its product categories in Nigeria when it launched Tang, the global leader in powdered beverages (Ozuru et al., 2014).

In view of this, effective communication between the firm and the market place through packaging stressing product benefits and brilliant brand management are sure ways of increasing market share, maintaining market leadership and creating brand loyal behaviour in their consumers.