SPECIAL-FEATURE:SURVEY-BASED-STUDENT_RESEARCH
CONSUMER PREFERENCES WITH REFERENCE TO
BRANDED FAST
FOODS AND SOFT DRINKS
“Mummy,
bhook lagi hain”… “Bas do minute” ... Later.. lip smacking, piping hot Maggi
noodles is served to be savoured by the hungry children.
Even
though the above scene is a TV commercial, the same holds true in reality in
most of the homes. Maggi noodles was seen as one of the breakfast and / or
snack items on account of its effortless preparation. Not only Maggi noodles,
similar instant food, ready to eat, fast foods have become a part of one’s busy
life. Hence the ban on Maggi noodles, few months back, caused quite a mayhem in
our country. It was hard to believe that the favourite snack of most Indians
was not safe. However, after a gap and some more tests, Maggi is back. But now
that it has returned the response is mixed.
To
understand how dependent we are on these fast food items, we have to expand our
canvas and shed some light on branded fast foods and soft drinks. For this we
conducted a survey reaching out to people to find out their mindset about
branded fast foods and soft drinks. We took a sample size of 80 respondents in
the age group of 18-60 to get a broader perspective. The questionnaire consists
of questions related to different perspectives of branded fast foods and
drinks. The questions were categorised as follows:
a) Consumption
pattern
b) Influence
of promotions
c) Safety
standards
d) Opinion
on Maggi
Responses
in different categories are as follows:
a)
Consumption
pattern
Keeping in mind the monthly income of people we
tried to decode the consumption pattern of people. Chart 1 shows the response.
Chart 1: Monthly Income
Majority of the families have monthly income of more
than 30000. It is safe to say that the purchasing power of the families is
high.
Chart 2 and chart 3
shows the consumption pattern of fast foods and drinks respectively
Chart 3: Consumption pattern of
soft drinks
From
the above charts, it can be seen that in case of fast foods, people consume
them thrice / twice or at least once in a month where as soft drinks are
consumed twice/ thrice a week.
a)
Influence
of promotions
To understand how promotional schemes
and advertisements influence the buying of the product, few questions were
asked.
Chart 4 shows whether people look for
discount schemes while purchasing such products.
Chart 4: Discount schemes
From
the figure, it is observed that majority of the respondents are interested in
discount schemes. Further probing reveals that the 57.5% respondents who said
yes to the discounting schemes prefer price off followed by coupons and extra
quantity as their preference.
When
asked whether they would switch the brand, if they get promotional schemes in
another brand, nearly the same percentage said no thus showing brand loyalty.
(Chart 5)
Chart 5: Switching brand
The
reasons for switching and not switching are surprisingly same- cost, quality
and satisfaction. Here we can observe a sense of brand loyalty amongst
customers.
We
also asked how they came to know of these brands, it is observed that TV /
radio (35.90%), is the major medium of brand awareness followed by friends and
relatives (29.20%). The results are shown in chart 6.
Chart 6: Brand Awareness
Often
it is believed that advertisements have questionable influence on people.
Advertisers say that advertisements are there to only to give people
information about the product. It is in customer’s hand whether to buy the
product or not. Chart 7 proves that statement right because approx. 33% of
people agree that advertisements provide exposure.
Chart 7: Influence of advertisement
Most
of the respondents said that they themselves prefer their brands and does not
get influenced by others. (Chart 8)
Chart 8: Influence the preference of brands
However,
when specifically asked about advertisements, majority of the respondents said
that advertisements do play a major role towards brand preference (Chart 9).
Chart 9: Role of advertisements
Next question was to know the major
factor one looks for while purchasing under the influence of advertisement.
Chart 10: Prime factor in advertisement
As
against popular belief, brand ambassadors have very little influence on people
to choose a particular brand. Still both manufacturers and customers believe in
delivering and consuming good quality products.
b)
Safety
Standards
Few
questions were asked to know respondent’s view on safety standards being
followed. The results are shown in chart 11 and chart 12.
Chart 11: Safety standards in India
Approx.
68.5% of people think that safety standards are not maintained in India. When asked about developed countries, the
results were almost opposite where 68% believe that the standards are
maintained and 32% believe that they are not. Coming to the awareness among
people with regard to health hazards caused by the consumption of ready to eat
foods, 86% of people are aware and 14% of people are not. Though the percentage
is less for people who are not aware of health hazards, we should not be
content with it. We have to put in our efforts and reduce this percentage. When
asked if they would still be ready to buy ready to eat foods and soft drinks
despite warnings about health hazards, the results are alarming (Chart 12).
Chart 12: Would you still buy
We
even asked them to list out the items that they consider safest and most dangerous-
Products that topped the safest list
are- Soups, Ready to eat oats, Sandwiches, Biscuits, cornflakes and Sausages.
Products that topped the most dangerous
list are- Chips, Noodles, Pizza, soft drinks and deep fried
branded food.
We
also observed that Maggi is present in both the lists. We know that In May 2015
Maggi was banned in UP and the other states followed suit in the following
months but Nestle saw the light of the
day when In August 2015, the
Bombay High Court overturned the ruling, calling it "arbitrary" and
ordered fresh tests. Soon Maggi was back in the market.
c)
Opinion
on Maggi
Now
let us see what people’s perspective is on maggi is. The following charts (13 –
16) will tell you what they had to say
Chart 13: Consumption
of Maggi
Chart 14: Maggi is
healthy
Chart 15: Maintenance
of brand image
Chart
16: Association of Maggi
The response is seen as mixed. While the
diehard fans of Maggi are rejoicing over the return of Maggi, there are people
who have a different opinion. It is believed that the taste of the new Maggi is
different, there is a price increase and also the packaging is not up to the
mark.
How far Maggi will survive and whether
it can achieve the same value, recognition and market of the past, only time
will tell. However, as long as man is busy with work and has less time, fast
foods and soft drinks are here to stay.
Ms. Simran Soni
Ms. Akansha Udandravu