The role of packaging for consumer products: understanding the move towards ‘plain’ tobacco packaging

The Australian Government intends to introduce plain tobacco packaging in 2012. We consider whether such a move appears justified by examining the wider marketing literature in order to understand the role that packaging has for consumer goods. Packaging is often called the fifth ‘p’ of the marketing mix. It is an effective marketing medium for all consumer products and helps build consumer relationships through possession and usage. Common packaging strategies to promote the product, distinguish products from competitors, communicate brand values and target specific consumer groups include innovative, special edition, value and green packaging. These strategies, combined with the visual and structural aspects of packaging design, such as colour, size and shape, influence consumer perceptions and purchase and usage behaviour. This gives packaging an important role at point-of-purchase and also post-purchase. Packaging also has a close relationship with the product, influencing perceived product attributes, and is a key representative of the brand. We conclude that plain tobacco packaging appears justified, based on the importance of packaging as a promotional tool, and will fundamentally restrict the opportunity for tobacco companies to influence consumers through package design

Consequences of microbial diversity in forest nitrogen cycling: diverse ammonifiers and specialized ammonia oxidizers

We tested the ecosystem functions of microbial diversity with a focus on ammonification (involving diverse microbial taxa) and nitrification (involving only specialized microbial taxa) in forest nitrogen cycling. This study was conducted on a forest slope, in which the soil environment and plant growth gradually changed. We measured the gross and net rates of ammonification and nitrification, the abundance of predicted ammonifiers and nitrifiers, and their community compositions in the soils. The abundance of predicted ammonifiers did not change along the soil environmental gradient, leading to no significant change in the gross ammonification rate. On the other hand, the abundance of nitrifiers and the gross nitrification rate gradually changed. These accordingly determined the spatial distribution of net accumulation of ammonium and nitrate available to plants. The community composition of predicted ammonifiers gradually changed along the slope, implying that diverse ammonifiers were more likely to include taxa that were acclimated to the soil environment and performed ammonification at different slope locations than specialized nitrifiers. Our findings suggest that the abundance of ammonifiers and nitrifiers directly affects the corresponding nitrogen transformation rates, and that their diversity affects the stability of the rates against environmental changes. This study highlights the role of microbial diversity in biogeochemical processes under changing environments and plant growth