Packaging and experiential benefits. The case of probiotic drinks

Currently, the importance of packaging in business strategies is widely recognised in literature. Potential marketing tool, the pack is generally recognized as very complex phenomenon respect its basic function of containment. In fact, it not only involves materials, but it also includes style, shape, special features, graphics and texts. The aim of the work is to analyse the market appeal and communicative function of packaging through the investigation of a successful business: the functional food and specifically, the probiotic drinks. We carried out a case study research to understand the use of packaging made by the three leader company (Danone, Nestlè and Yakult) in the probiotic drinks business in Italy in order to argue the relational role of packaging variable in creating and sustaining experiential benefits for the consumer. We find that all the three companies focuses on "experiential packaging" even if the they propose and evocate s different experience and benefits