Need of the Market Information in the B2B Packaging Industry - Insights into the Milk Formula Market in the Asia-Pacific Region at A&R Carton AB

Abstract: As the ultimate demand of packaging is derived from the end- consumer, the packaging industry needs to have comprehensive end-user market knowledge to acquire new customers. The importance of the market information is further emphasized when the potential customer is in the unfamiliar geographical region. Milk formula is a food product that the recent growth comes from the Asia-Pacific; therefore it is advantageous for a packaging company with a strong base in the European market to conduct a market research before entering the new geographical area. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nature of packaging industry to understand the need of market and consumer information in the business-to-business settings. Another purpose of this research is to identify the trends and prospects of the milk formula market in the Asia-Pacific region in response to the need of the market research at the case company. A case study approach with abductive reasoning is used to have an in- depth insight into the business surroundings of the packaging industry. The data collected through interviews and observations were handled by using the thematic analysis. A systematic international marketing research was designed to identify the Asia- Pacific market characteristics. The overall investigation followed the screening and selection method of international marketing research based on secondary data. The case study revealed a clear need of the relevant market information in the business-to-business packaging firm to win the potential customers. The in-depth market research was beneficial for the carton-packaging industry to target the Asia-Pacific region, as it provided valuable remarks particularly for the carton packaging prospects based on the solid data. However, it was problematic for the packaging industry to collect and update such market data in the future due to several difficulties transmitted from the business environment; therefore it leaves a further research area to facilitate the information gathering under the current business environment.