A Case study on Consumer preference for ready to eat food products
1. CMR UNIVERSITY
CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR READY-TO-EAT FOOD
PRODUCTS
A CASE STUDY IN CMR UNIVERSITY BANGALORE
This is submitted to the University
DR ARCHANA
Master of Business Administration
By
SYED SADATH
17MBAD047
MBA
CMR UNIVERSITY
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2. CMR UNIVERSITY
CONTENT
Sl
No
INDEX PAGE No.
01 Introduction 03-05
02 Review of literature 06-08
03 Research Design 09-11
04 Data Analysis and Interpretation 12-17
05 Findings, Conclusion and References 18-19
06 Questionnaire 20-21
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4. CMR UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
There is nobody in the world that is left out of the class of consumers. The consumer-hood
continues till one’s last breath. The consumer purchases a variety of goods and services to satisfy
his wants and he is always influenced in his purchasing activities by some considerations which
lead him to select a particular commodity or a particular retail store in preference to others.
Hence, consumer buying is more complex. Consumer purchases are likely to be influenced by
physiological, psychological, cultural and sociological factors. The commodities and services are
bought by the consumer to satisfy his basic needs, for comfort, pleasure, recreation and
happiness. Every individual has physiological need such as hunger, shelter, thirst, etc which have
to be satisfied for survival. The psychological factors like status, prestige and social factors like
friends, neighbors, job and relatives influence their purchasing activities.
Consumer behavior in the marketing world is very necessary to judge for the success of the
product. Ready-to-eat food especially market segmentation based on food-related lifestyles can
be Applied to develop proper marketing strategies. Today's companies work in a war zone of
rapidly changing competitors, technological advances, new laws, managed trade policies and
diminishing customer loyalty. In today's world of cutthroat fierce competition, customer
satisfaction is very essential to not only remain but also to excel in the given market
environment. Today's market is enormously more complex in view of the very market structure.
Food processing is a large sector that covers activities such as agriculture, horticulture,
plantation, animal husbandry and fisheries. It also includes other industries that use agricultural
inputs for manufacturing of edible products. The ministry of food processing, Government of
India indicated the following specific segments within the food processing industry.
•Dairy, fruits and vegetable processing
•Grain processing
•Meat and poultry processing
•Fisheries processing
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5. CMR UNIVERSITY
Value addition of food products is expected to increase from the current8 per cent to 35 per cent
by the end of 2025 and fruits and vegetable processing is also expected to increase from around 2
per cent of total production to 25 per cent by 2025. Generally, food is prepared depending on the
habits, tastes, social status, religion, economic factor, availability, traditions, habitats, etc of the
people of that region. The most sought after in the present age are the ready- to- eat foods.
Development of the metropolitan cities due to increase in population, emergence of industries,
evolution of various new factors, time factor, Etc created the need for ready-to-eat foods in the
market. Due to industrialization, the labour category is getting attracted to it because of better
emoluments and hence there is shortage of home maid-servants. Due to this, the housewives, in
order to save time started using ready-to-eat foods
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7. CMR UNIVERSITY
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A review of concepts and empirical studies related to the present study would be helpful to
project the current thinking on the subject matter of study as well as to formulate relevant
concepts and design of the study to draw meaningful conclusion. This would help the researcher
to have better and precise understanding of the current research problem and would also facilitate
to modify and improve the present study.
Awareness of consumers towards branded product:
Jain and Jain (2013) has studied the Relationship amid Consumer Behavior and Consumer
towards Ready-To-Eat Products relationship between consumer behavior such as consumer
awareness, perception and adoption process, and consumer personal characteristics such as sex,
marital status and occupation. And results shown by this research were significant relationship
between these two factors. It also provides the various suggestions and recommendations to the
processed food business that can help the same in its expansion plans and reach to its end
consumers of the product and their perception regarding the same
Purchase behavior of consumers:
Rees (1992), in his study revealed that factors influencing the consumer’s choice of food were
flavor, texture, appearance, advertising, a reduction in traditional cooking, fragmentation of
family means and an increase in ‘snacking’ etc Demographic and household role changes and the
introduction of microwave ovens produced changes in eating habits. Vigorous sale of chilled and
other prepared foods was related to the large numbers of working wives and single people, who
require value convenience. Development in retailing with concentration of 80.00 per cent of food
sales in supermarkets was also considered to be important. Consumers were responding to
messages about safety and healthy eating. They were concerned about the way in which food
was produced and want safe, ‘natural’, high quality food at an appropriate price
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8. CMR UNIVERSITY
Brand preference and factors influencing brand preference
Ali (1992) studied the brand loyalty and switching pattern of processed fruit and vegetable
products in Bangalore city by using Markov Chain analysis. The result of study revealed that
Kissan brand of jam and Maggi brand of ketchup had a maximum brand loyalty among
consumers and less amount of brand switching occurred for these brands
Alternative purchase plans
Rajarashmi and Sudarsana (2004) revealed that, almost all sample respondents preferred
branded products and if their favorite brand is not available in the retail shop, they will go for
another store and purchase their favorite brand. If it is not available in the market, the
respondents were ready to postpone their purchase decision
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10. CMR UNIVERSITY
RESEARCH DESIGN
Statement of problem:
This research is based on "Consumer preference for ready-to-eat food products, a case study in
CMR university, Bangalore". This study is to know the customer behavior of public towards the
ready to eat food products and the benefits and drawback of ready to eat products. There are
problems like lack of advertisements, health conscious etc.
Objectives of the study:
The specific objectives of the study are:
1. To ascertain the awareness of consumers towards branded ready-to-eat food products.
2. To study the purchase behavior of ready-to-eat food products.
3. To evaluate brand preference and examine the factors influencing on ready-to-eat products.
4. To evaluate alternative purchase plans of the consumers.
Hypotheses:
1. The consumers are aware about the branded ready-to-eat food products
2. The consumers frequently purchase the ready-to-eat food products on a regular basis
3. The consumer usually sticks to a particular branded many factors influence the decision for
preferring a particular brand
4. The consumer makes the alternate purchase plan, if a particular ready-to-eat food product is
not available
ResearchMethodology:
Sample Size:
In this research work, a sample of 65, Questionnaires are prepared and distributed to local
communities. Respondents were chosen randomly and according to the convenience of the
researcher, so that a more generation pattern could be obtained. The result provided, generalizes
pattern which would be said to be specified to that time frame the researcher gave each
questionnaire personally to each locals, people filled up to 65 samples for research purpose.
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11. CMR UNIVERSITY
Source of data collection:
Primary Data- The Primary Data is obtained by the researcher who has been collected the
data by interviewing the locals and authority by the direct observation through
questionnaire.
Secondary Data- The Secondary data is obtained from Books, Journals, Newspapers, and
Internet Articles. Secondary Data is information that has already been collected by
another person for other studies.
3.5 Methods of data collection:
The questions were prepared to suit the objectives of the study. This was followed by the data
collections, and the responses of every item in the questionnaire will be interpreted. The
questionnaire has been used as a tool for data collection, direct face to face. Convenient sampling
and Random sampling was used as sampling methods for data collection in this research.
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19. CMR UNIVERSITY
FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONAND REFERENCES
Findings & Conclusion:
Ready to eat food market is the future food shortcut market in India. People being workaholic
they do not have time to cook, so they prefer to either go to restaurants or use ready to eat food
market products. The industry hasn’t set completely yet, but very soon it would be. People are
aware about the product but due to one or other reason they are hesitant to use them. The reasons
are as follows:
Ready to eat packets are not easily available.
People compare the ready to eat products with freshly cooked food and conclude telling
the products are not that good.
Public are more health conscious, they think ready to eat food products are not good for
health so they might get health issues.
They are costly.
Smaller packs of the food products are not available.
References:
Ali, M., 1992, An analysis of fruit and vegetable processing, a comparative study of private and
public sector units. M.Sc (Agri) Thesis, University of Agric. Sci., Bangalore.
Jain Richa and Jain Jyoti Prabal, 2013, Discover the relationship amid consumer Behavior and
consumer towards Ready-to-eat products. Inter. J. Techol. Mngt. Res., 01(1).
Rajarashmi, P.S. and Sudarsana, G., 2004, Buyer Behavior of home appliances with special
reference to microwave products in Bangalore city. Ind. J. Mktg, 34(1):19-24.
Rees, A.M., 1992, Factors influencing consumer choice. J. Soc. Of Dairy Tech.., 45(4):112-116.
Wikipedia
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20. CMR UNIVERSITY
“CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR READY-TO-EAT FOOD PRODUCTS”
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CONSUMER
1. Name of the respondent:
2. Address:
3. Age:
4. Gender:
5. Education
a. Illiterate b. Primary c. High d. PUC e. Degree f. PG
6. Occupation:
7. Monthly income:
8. Food habits
a. Vegetarians b. Non Vegetarians
9. Type of Family
a. Joint b. Nuclear
10. Do you purchase ready-to-eat food products?
a. Yes b. No
11. Monthly expenditure on Ready-to-eat food items:
12. What are the reasons for purchasing ready-to-eat food products?
a. Taste
b. Liked by family members/friends
c. Convenient to use for snacks
d. Saves time of preparation
e. Other
13. What are the reasons for not purchasing Ready-to-eat food products? (If NO-question
no.10)
a. Lack of awareness
b. Dislike of the product
c. High price
d. Low quality
e. Others
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21. CMR UNIVERSITY
14. Sources of Information for brand awareness
a. Television
b. Newspaper/ Magazines
c. Friends/Relatives
d. Shopkeeper/ Sales Person
e. Window display
15. Frequency of purchase
a. Daily
b. Twice a week
c. Once a week
d. Fortnight
e. Occasionally
16. What are the alternative purchase plans, if preferred brand is not available?
a. Go to other shop
b. Postpone the purchase
c. Will buy other brand
d. Place order to get required brand
e. Others
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