Saturday, January 30, 2016

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  
Copyright © 2025 YUVAAN All Right Reserved
Designed by Jay @ Open w3