DECLARATION

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. RESEARCH STUDY

Research Objective

Research Methodology

Limitations

3. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4. FINDINGS

5. RECOMMENDATION

6. ANNEXURE

Questionnaire

Bibliography

CHAPTER-1

Introduction of the project

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

The packaged food industry is probably one of the most promising emerging

markets in India today. Gone are the days when wheat was sent to the local

‘chakki’ to be milled into flour or mustard oil grinded at the local ‘kolu’s’.

People today have become extremely conscious and are willing to pay the

extra rupees in order to ensure that quality product enter their kitchens.

There has been a complete overhaul of lifestyle and traditional

systems in the last decade or so with the emergence and growth of nuclear

families. Meals are no more a family ‘event’ but have been relegated to a

mundane routine. People are hard-pressed for time and are constantly in

need of that magic something will save them an additional minute without

compromising on nourishment.

This must-hallowed gap has been effectively filled by the packaged foods

industry. Starting from instant noodles and soup, packaged rice and flour and

on to frozen peas and meat all of which is contently located under the roof of

the local supermarket. Branded and packaged foods fill this gap not by

saving only by saving time for the consumer but also ensure quality and

consistency. The local supermarket too has come a long way. Today they

door of urban India by the hundreds. Associated distractions

notwithstanding, the supermarket has emerged as the one-stop shopping

solution for families, Where all domiciles necessarily rub shoulders within

each other at prices that are competitive and more often than not even

lower than the local ‘karyana’ store. Through trial and error, intelligent

consumers have realized how very beneficial these ‘alternatives’ are. From

salt to noodles, peas to chicken, every thing is available today treated,

processed and hygienically packaged untouched by hand. Consumers have

started preferring them in spite of the fact that they are offered at a

premium i.e. priced slightly higher than what they would get at the local

sabzi mandi or butcher hop unbranded (and relatively more unclean).

Companies efforts have been aimed further ease the consumer’s

shopping experience and at the same time giving them total value for

money. So in my research I have selected this topic the ‘study of consumer

perception about branded and unbranded items’. In this project I find the

consumer liking disliking their way of thinking & their way of adopting the

thing. I studied what are the various factors that perceive are important

while purchasing and where the branded & unbranded grocery to them.

The Meaning of Brands

Brands are a means of differentiating a company’s products and services

from those of its competitors.

There is plenty of evidence to prove that customers will pay a substantial

price premium for a good brand and remain loyal to that brand. It is

important, therefore, to understand what brands are and why they are

important.

MacDonald sums this up nicely in the following quote emphasizing the

importance of brands:

“…It is not factories that make profits, but relationships with customers, and

it is company and brand names which secure those relationships”

Businesses that invest in and sustain leading brands prosper whereas those

that fail are left to fight for the lower profits available in commodity mark.

What is a Brand?

One definition of a brand is as follows:

“A name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these,

that is intended to identify the goods and services of one business

or group of businesses and to differentiate them from those of

competitors”.

Inter brand - a leading branding consultancy - defines a brand in this way:

“A mixture of tangible and intangible attributes symbolized in a

trademark, which, if properly managed, creates influence and

generates value”

Manufacturers can use their own brands (known as manufacturer’ brand)

a brands of their distributor (distributor brands). Manufacturer/distributor use

brand names for a verity of reasons from simple identification purposes to

having legal

Protection for unique features of the products from imitations and help

consumers recognizes certain quality parameters. In some cases, brands are

just used to endow the product with unique story and character which itself

can be a basis for product differentiation.

How a brand is created

Grocery companies spend enormous sum on building brand equity by way of

1- Advertisements/publicity

2- Free samples

3- Low entry price

4- Promotions

Advertisements/publicity

Advertisement and promotion can induce trials but for sustained loyalty, the

manufacturer has to offer superior quality and value of money. Most

successful brands are founded on chance discovery of a new product/

process or assiduous research and development work. Major players invest

in R&D on their exiting brands and improve the product quality continuously

to maintain their edge over competitors. Advertising is paid communication

through a non-personal medium in which the sponsor is identified and the

message is controlled. Variations include publicity, public relations, product

placement, sponsorship, underwriting, and sales promotion.

Every major medium is used to deliver these messages:

Television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, the internet, and

billboards. Advertisements can also be seen on the seats of grocery carts, on

the walls of an airport walkway, and the sides of buses, or heard in telephone

hold messages or in-store PA systems – nearly anywhere a visual or audible

communication can be placed.

Advertising clients are predominantly, but not exclusively, for-profit

corporations seeking to increase demand for their products or services.

Low entry price

Establishing a relatively low price for a product or service, usually to

stimulate demand and acquire market share. This makes the most economic

sense for the seller when there are significant economies of scale achievable

from high volume production, or when the buyers are price sensitive and the

seller has few competitive advantages

Free samples

A free sample is a portion of food or other product which is given out in

shopping malls, grocery stores, and other venues. Sometimes samples of

non-perishable items are included in direct marketing mailings.

The purpose of a free sample is to acquaint the consumer with a new

product.

The concept of a free sample is not unlike that of a test drive, in that a

customer is able to try out a product before purchasing it.

There are lots of free samples online. Often, people will create forums to

share free samples they find, such as the Slick Deals

Establishing a relatively low price for a product or service, usually to

stimulate demand and acquire market share. This makes the most economic

sense for the seller when there are significant economies of scale achievable

from high volume production, or when the buyers are price sensitive and the

seller has few competitive advantages

Promotion

Single element of an advertising campaign. A promotion might be a short-

term price reduction, contest or sweepstakes, package giveaway, or free

sample offer. A promotion might also be a single mailing within a direct mail

campaign or series of advertisements that make up part of an ongoing print

advertising campaign. The Milk Advisory Board has employed celebrities with

milk mustaches in a series of magazine ads. These "Got Milk?" print ads are

a promotion within an overall campaign to increase milk consumption.

Promotional Objectives

There are a number of promotional objectives, some of the most common

being information dissemination, product demand, product differentiation,

product highlights, and sales stabilization. Regardless of the promotional

objective selected, the company's goal is to inform and convince consumers

to buy the product.

Brand value to consumers

Brands, in fact, influence consumer behavior in a number

1. Reassurance: A brand is stamp of authenticity. It adds value by

promising ‘reliability’ and help to establish repeat purchase patterns. In a

foreign country, people seek the reassurance of familiar brands, even though

they are presumably traveling to find new experiences.

2. Value expression: We choose brands that reflect the individual values

that we possess as individual. We do this to communicate the desire singles

in the highly social environment we inhabit.

3. Usage: A strong brand increases a consumer’s usage and spends over

time, either within a category or as abridge into other categories. It has been

successful in every category, because the perception has been the

same-“consistent valve delivery to the same”.

4. Brand switch: in FMCG markets, experimenting less with competition

means that the brand achieve larger proportion of the category spend by the

consumer. For example, maggi soup is always bought by the consumer, and

is not being substituted by other soup brands.

BRANDS - BUILDING A BRAND

1. Quality : Quality is a vital ingredient of a good brand. Remember the

“core benefits” – the things consumers expect. These must be delivered well,

consistently. The branded washing machine that leaks, or the training shoe

that often falls apart when wet will never develop brand equity. Research

confirms that, statistically, higher quality brands achieve a higher market

shares and higher profitability that there inferior competitors.

2. Positioning: Positioning is about the position a brand occupies in a

market in the minds of consumers. Strong brands have a clear, often unique

position in the target market. Positioning can be achieved through several

means, including brand name, image, service standards, product

guarantees, packaging and the way in which it is delivered. In fact,

successful positioning usually requires a combination of these things.

3. Repositioning: Repositioning occurs when a brand tries to change its

market position to reflect a change in consumer’s tastes. This is often

required when a brand has become tired, perhaps because its original

market has matured or has gone into decline. The repositioning of the

Lucozade brand from a sweet drink for children to a leading sports drink is

one example. Another would be the changing style of entertainers with

above-average longevity such as Kylie Minogue and Cliff Richard.

4. Communication: Communications also play a key role in building a

successful brand. We suggested that brand positioning is essentially about

Customer perceptions – with the objective to build a clearly defined position

in the minds of the target audience. All elements of the promotional mix

need to be used to develop and sustain customer perceptions.

5. First-mover advantage: Business strategists often talk about first-

mover advantage. In terms of brand development, by “first-mover” they

mean that it is possible for the first successful brand in a market to create a

clear positioning in the minds of target customers before the competition

enters the market. There is plenty of evidence to support this. Think of some

leading consumer product brands like Gillette, Coca Cola and Sell tape that,

in many ways, defined the markets they operate in and continue to lead.

However, being first into a market does not necessarily guarantee long-term

success. Competitors – drawn to the high growth and profit potential

demonstrated by the “market-mover” – will enter the market and copy the

best elements of the leader’s brand (a good example is the way that Body

Shop developed the “ethical” personal care market but were soon facing stiff

competition from the major high street cosmetics retailers.

6. Long-term perspective: This leads onto another important factor in

brand building: the need to invest in the brand over the long-term. Building

customer awareness, communicating the brand’s message and creating

customer loyalty takes time. This means that management must “invest” in

a brand, perhaps at the expense of short-term profitability.

7. Internal marketing: Finally, management should ensure that the brand

is marketed “internally” as well as externally. By this we mean that the

whole business should understand the brand values and positioning. This is

particularly important in service businesses where a critical part of the brand

value is the type and quality of service that a customer receives. Think of the

brands that you value in the restaurant, hotel and retail sectors. It is likely

that your favorite brands invest heavily in staff training so that the face-to-

face contact that you have with the brand helps secure your loyalty.

Understanding what is brand equity

Over 21,000 new products were introduced in 2004 alone yet

history tells us that better than 90% of them won’t be on the shelf a year

later. Why such a high failure rate and why this been a historical trend. The

development of a successful product-, which includes the product, the

package, the product name and identity, is a challenging. But not

insurmountable task. The like hood for success can be greatly enhanced if

one focuses on certain critical issues. Clear product definition and proper

execution and implantation that definition can lead to success and longevity

in the market.

Through the 1980’s and 90’s there has been a growing corporate on

increasing shareholder value. Typical heading-grabbing story of these

decades have included waves of layoffs, corporate restructuring and an

emphasis on operating efficiencies.

One solution is to grow the brand. This serves to build consumer and

investor confidence in and loyalty to the company. A strong brand acts as a

promise, leading faithful customers to pay a premium over competitive

products. Like wise the stock of highly reputed companies’ trade at

premiums to other in their respective industries. The most important assets

of any business are intangible: the company name, brand, symbols, and

slogans, and their underlying associations, perceived quality, name

awareness, customer base, and proprietary resources such as patents,

trademarks and channel relationship

These assets, which comprise brands equity, are primary sources of

competitive advances and future earning. Yet, research show that manager

cannot identify with confidence their brand association, level of consumer

awareness, or degree of customer loyalty. Moreover, in the last decade

manager desperate for short-term financial result have often unwittingly

damaged their brands through .Price promotions and un wise brand

extensions, causing irreversible deterioration of the value of the brand name.

Although several companies, such as Hindustan Lever Limited and other

companies have recently create an equity management position to be

guardian of the value of the brand names, far too few manager really

understand the concept of brand equity and how it must be implemented.

In a fascinating and unsightly examination of the phenomenon of

brand equity, it is extremely important to know how to avoid the temptation

to place short-term performance before the health of the brand and instead,

to manage brands strategically creating, developing and exploiting each of

the assets in turn, likewise companies can increase their new product’s

chances an d maximize the potential rewards, by understanding what their

target market desires. For instance, it’s tempting to short-cut market

research and rich a product idea to market.

Large sum of money become invested in the process. Even if poor

consumers result occur, companies may continue on when they should

postpone or cancel the launch.

Companies must first listen to the voice of the consumer is a critical one to

hear but one that many firms have difficult in translating into products. Many

companies hear the words spoken by the consumers and work hard to

deliver on them but, as is often the case, what is says is actually meant (by

the consumer) may be very, very different.

Branding and Brand Equity

In today’s environment, building strong brands

establishing brand equity is becoming more and more challenging. Increased

pressure to complete on price, increased competition through product

introductions and store brands, and the fragmentation of advertising and

market segments are just a sample of the pressure being faced by

companies in today’s highly competitive environment.

What is Brand Equity?

“Brand equity” refers to the value of a brand. Brand equity is based

on the extent to which the brand has high brand loyalty, name awareness,

perceived quality and strong product associations. Brand equity also includes

other “intangible” assets such as patents, trademarks and channel

relationships.

There are different definitions of brand equity, but they do have several

factors in common:

: These are as follows

Monetary Value: The amount of additional income expected from a

branded product over and above what might be expected from an identical,

but unbranded product. For example, grocery stores frequently sell

unbranded versions of name brand product. The same companies produce

the branded and unbranded product, but they carry a generic brand or store

brand label like Hawkins. Store brands sell for significantly less than brand

counterparts, even when the contents are identical. This differential is the

monetary value of the brand name.

Intangible: The intangible value association with a product that cannot be

accounted for by price or features. Pepsi and coke have created many

intangible benefits for its product by associating them with film stars.

Children and adult want to consumer their product to feel some association

with this star. It is not the ingredients or the features that drive demand for

their products, but the marketing image that has been create. Buyers are

willing to pay extremely high price premium over lesser-known brands,

which may offer the same or better, product quality and features.

Perceived Quality: The overall perception of quality and image attributed

to a product, independent of its physical features. Mercedes and BMW have

established their brand names as synonymous with high- quality, luxurious

automobiles. Years of marketing, image building and quality manufacturing

have lead to perceive Mercedes and BMW as providing superior quality to

other brand name automobiles even when such a perception is unwarranted.

In short, brand equity is asset of assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its

name, and symbol that add to or subtract from the value provide by the

product or service to a firm and/or that of firm’s customers.

The overall description of brand equity incorporates the ability to

provided added value to your company’s product and service. This added

value can be used to your company’s advantage to charge price premium.

Lower marketing cost and offer greater opportunities fir customer purchase.

A badly mismanage brand can actually have negative brand equity, meaning

that potential customers have such low perception of the brand that they

prescribe less value to the product than they would if they objectively

assessed all its attributes/features.

One of the examples of brand equity is in the soft drink industry.

Without a brand name and all of the marketing dollars that have gone into,

coca-cola would be nothing more than flavored water. Due to the company’s

long-term marketing efforts and protection, enhancement and nurturing of

their brand name, coke is one of the most recognizable brands the world.

This includes lost sales, lost marketing dollars and lost promotions, additional

marketing costs to promote a new brand, and significantly lower awareness

and trial rates forms their new brand.

BRANDING PROMOTIONS

Developing a promotion as a brand can provide a powerful tool for

building additional brand awareness and positive associations. An excellent

method to achieve this is through linking the promotion to the actual brand.

For example, consider a promotion to win a trip to Disney world for a product

with no link to Disney world or travel. The contest participants will most likely

forget except the actual product associated with the prize.

Compare this with a company’s brand promotion that directly on the

association of the product thus power of the brand. A promotion such as this

affects non-participants as well as those inv loved, creating a platform to be

built on each year.

Furthermore developing a tight link between and the brand avoids the

possibility of promoting other brands. In effect, it is recommended to brand a

promotion so that it cannot a linked to anther brands.

BRANDING IN GROCERY

Historically, traditional food items were the domain of small local

players. Grocery item earlier were sold loose and unbranded. Then some

progressive traders started the cleaning, grading and primary packaging.

And the next stage of development was branding so primary food such as

Atta (wheat flour). But those were mainly regional brands. Popular among

these were “rose” and Shakti bog” brands in northern India.

Whereas in traditional food items such as spice vand pickles there

were host of local brands with regional strong-holds such as spice power in

east “Bedkar” pickles in west, MDH-Masala in north east. The food

ingredient-nobody though of only food ingredients that was there tomato

purees and paste in cans which in the recent times godrej introduced in tetra

pack.

Edible oil in tin pack and later on in polyester jar and tetra pack

were the first major step in branding grocery item. Today we get Varity of

edible oils and Marco are the leading players in this sector. Amongst MNC’s

we have corn oil from COC and “Sun drop” from ITC agro—a sunflower oil

which subsequently has been acquired by CONAGRA- the fastest growing

food company in American.

The next major attempt to market a branded grocery item was

done about a decade ago by Tatas by introducing the first refined iodized

salt in poly bag by brand name “Tata Salt” and that was a success.

The next big brand in this category is “Captain Cook” from DCW chemicals

that had plans in branded grocery items and thus the company introduced

other items including wheat flour under the same brand name. But that was

short lived.

During 1997 DCW chemical s suffered a major setback and the company

decides to divest this food business. The acquirer is Corn Product Co. (India)

Ltd-a wholly

Owned subsidiary of CPC-international a nine billion US dollar American

multinational in food and grocery business. The company recently changed

its name to Best Food ltd. CPC was a sleepy company operating in India for

over fifty years and their performance was lackluster. With their limited

range of Rex and brown and Polson brands of convenience foods globally did

not have any commitment in India? In late seventies and early eighties when

I was heading their project department many investment proposal were send

and notably among those were dextrose manufacturing project as CPC has a

flavored glucose brand in the portfolio and known soup project.

The third brand of salt is “Kissan Annapurna” which is making a

sustained effort to get market share. This brand which is now in Hindustan

level fold through brook bond acquisition who in turn acquired Kissan in early

nineties have reportedly spend Rs18 Crores in advertising and got 14%

market share in a Rs200 Crores branded salt category in a span of one year.

Tata salt still holds 26% market share and Captain Cook share is about 20%

and balance 40% is still with the small players.

With the acquisition of “Captain Cook” in branded salt market MNCs are the

dominant players controlling 60% of the market.

The value addition in branded salt and pepper was really done

successful by a Delhi based local company hi tech Foods belonging to

Dharampal Satayapal of premium “Baba zarda” fame. Hi-tech Foods catch

brand of salt and pepper in dispenser pack is a success story with upper

middle class household and restaurant segments as the main customers.

The first MNC to get into the branded spice business was Brook Bond who

introduced the select premium priced spice range by name “Sona” in late

eighties. The products were priced and packaged for higher income group.

They struggled for couple of years to establish “Sona” brand but failed and

were forced to withdraw in later years.

The first MNC to introduce Indian pickles was Nestlé with their Maggie

brand. The products are still in the market. And as mentioned earlier, the

MNC to introduce traditional snacks is Pepsi under the umbrella of “Leher

namkins”. It can be concluded that in traditional Indian foods MNCs cannot

add much value through the involvement of their principle aboard .on the

contrary, they will have to learn from the locals to derive advantage of their

brand and resource muscle.

Hindustan Level is expected to enter branded grocery items though

Kissan rough in a big way. The company does significant export of branded

rice particular in Middle East market and therefore expected to introduce the

branded rice shortly in domestic market as well.

Otherwise, in India so far branded package rice is limited to Basmati rice

and there are many brands in this category and leading among them is

“KOHINOOR” – but all are from small manufacturers. The grocery business is

basically low margins and high volume business and thus it required multiple

supply sources to be strategically located to reduce he cost of friend and

excellent distribution infrastructure and logistics management capability.

Price and quality are expected to be the major determinate in the

success of grocery items and basic foods. Consumers in India would not be

willing to pay much as the price of convenience.

CONSUMER PERCEPTION

Perception can be describe as “how we see the world around us.” Two

individual may be subject to the same stimuli under apparels the same

condition, but how they recognize them, select them, organize them, and

interpret them is a highly individual process based on each person’s one

needs, values and expectations. The influence that each of these variables

has on the perceptual process, and its relevance to marketing.

DEFINATION

“Perception is defined as the process by which an individual selects,

organized and interpret stimuli into a meaning full & coherent picture of the

world. A stimulus is any unit of input to many of the senses. Examples of

stimuli include products, packages, and brand names, advertising and

commercial. Sensory receptors are the human organ that receives sensory

inputs. All of these functions are called into play- either single or in

combination-evaluation and use of most consumer products. The study of

perception is largely the study of what we subconsciously add to or subtract

from raw sensory input to produce our own private picture of the world.

PERCEPTUAL SELECT

Consumers subconsciously exercise a great deal of selective as to

which aspect of the environment-which stimuli-they perceive. An individual

may look at some things, ignore others and turn away from still others. In

total, people actually receiver perceive only a small fraction to the stimuli to

which they are expose

Nature of stimulus: marketing stimuli include an enormous number of

variables that affect the consumer’s perception such as the nature of the

product, its physical attributes,

the packages design, the brand name, the advertisement and commercial,

the position of a print ad or the time of a commercial and the editorial

environment.

Contrast: - contrast is one of the most attention- compelling attributes

of a stimulus. Advertiser often uses extremely attention getting device

to achieve maximum, contrast and thus penetrate the consumer

perceptual screen.

Expectations: - People usually see what they expect to see and what they

expect to see is usually based on familiarity previous experience or

preconditioned set in marketing context people tend to perceive product and

product attributes according in their own expectation.

Motives: - People tend to perceive thing they need or want the stronger the

need the greater the tendency to ignore unrelated stimuli in the

environment. An individual perceptual process simply attunes itself more

closely to those elements of the environment that are important to that

person.

Important selective perception concepts: As the preceding discussion

illustrates, the consumer’s “Selection” of stimuli from the environment is

based on the interaction of expectation and motives wit the stimuli itself.

These factors giver rise to a number of important concepts concerning

perceptions.

SELECTIVE EXPOSURE : Consumers actively seek out messages they

find pleasant or with which they are sympathetic and actively avoid

painful threatening ones. Consumers also selectively expose themselves

to advertisement that reassures them of the wisdom of their purchase

decision.

SELECTIVE ATTENTION : Consumers have a heightened awareness of

the stimuli that meet their need or interest and an owner awareness of

stimuli irrelevant to needs.

PERCEPTUAL DEFENSE : consumers subconsciously screen out stimuli

that are important to for them not to see even though exposure has

already taken place. Thus threatening or otherwise damaging stimuli are

less to be consciously perceived than are neutral stimuli at the same

level of exposure.

PERCEPTUAL BLOCKING : Consumers protect themselves from being

bombarded with stimuli by simply” tuning out”- blocking such stimuli

from conscious awareness. This perceptual blocking –out is somewhat to

the mechanical “zapping” of commercial using remote controls.

CHAPTER-2

Objective of the study

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To check the awareness level of consumers regarding branded grocery

items.

2. To study the perception of consumer about the packaged and brands

grocery items.

3. To know the place from where customer purchase branded items.

4. To know about the factor affecting a customer’s choice of branded

/unbranded items.

5. To know whether is there is impact of income level on the sale of

branded unbranded grocery items.

Chapter –3

Research methodology

RESEACH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology is ways to systematically solve the problem.

The Research Methodology includes the various methods and techniques

for conducing a Research.” Marketing Research is the systematic design,

collection, analysis and reporting of data and finding relevant solution to a

specific marketing situation or problem”. D.Slesinger and M. Stephenson in

the encyclopedia of social sciences define Research as “the manipulation of

things, concept or symbols for the purpose of generalizing to extend, correct

or verify knowledge, whether that aids in construction of theory or in the

practice of an art.”

Research is, thus an original contribution to the existing stock of

knowledge making for its advancement. The purpose of research is to

disco0ver answer to the question through the application of scientific

procedures. Our project has specified framework for collecting data in an

effective manner. Such framework is called” RESEARCH Methodology”.

The research process followed by me consists of following steps:

o Defining the problem and research objective: it is said, “A

problem well defined is half solved”. The step is to define the

problem under study and deciding the research objective. The

objective of my research is to know the consumer perception

towards unbranded & branded grocery items.

o Development the research plan: the second of this study consists

of developing the most efficient plan for gathering data.

o Sampling plan- A sample plan is a definite plan for obtaining a

sample from a given population. It refers to the technique or the

procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting sample items for

the sample. Sample plan may as well lay down the number of items to

be included in the sample. i.e., the size of the sample. The plan helps

in decision making in the following areas.

Universe: All customers of branded and unbranded grocery items

constitute the universe.

Sample size: this refers to the number of items to be selected from

the universe to constitute a sample. The size of sample should neither

be excessively large, nor too small, it should be optimum. The sample

size for my study is -100.

Sampling procedure: It is a way through which sampling is done.

There are various procedures like random, systematic etc. The sampling

procedure for my study is convenience sampling.

Research design: Descriptive in nature.

o Data collection: information will be collected from both primary and

secondary data.

Primary sources: Primary data are those which are collected afresh and for

the first time. I have collected primary data by conducting survey through

Questionnaire, which includes both open ended and close-ended Questions.

Secondary sources: Secondary data are those which already been

collected by someone else and which already had been passed through the

statistical process. I have collected secondary data has been collected

through Magazines, Web sites, and Newspaper.

Analysis of data and interpretations:

After collection of date the analysis of data has been done through various

statistical tools and techniques. The analysis of data required a number of

closely related operations such as establishment of category, the application

of these categories to raw data through coding, tabulation and then drawing

statistical inferences.

Chapter-4

Limitation of the

study

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. Due to constraints of time & financial resources, the scope of study is

limited to few customer of Bhubaneswar only.

2. Smaller sample may not always give better results. Sample may not be

true representative of the whole population.

3. The possibility of biased responses is ruled out.

4. Lack of availability of full information.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

1 Q: - While purchasing grocery items what do you prefer?

Objective: - To know how many people are aware of braded grocery items.

TABLE NO.1

RESPONSE NO. OF RESPONDENTS

Branded 19

Unbranded 14

Both 67

Total 100

GRAPH NO.1

Consumer's purchasing Preference

19%

14%

67%

Branded

Unbranded

Both

Interpretation

The result show that out of 100 respondents 19% respondents prefer

branded items, 14% unbranded items and 67% respondent are those who

buy both branded and unbranded items.

2 Q: - What names come to your mind when you think of branded items (if

you cannot recall then please?

Objective: - To know awareness level of the respondents about the

companies offering branded grocery items.

TABLE NO.2

Grocery Items No of respondents

Annapurna Atta 08

Shakti bog Atta 10

Annapurna 15

Pillsbury 2

Lalkila rice 9

Kohinoor rice 10

Manawa sugar 5

Tata tea 7

Taj mahal 8

Dabur honey 7

Coco fruit 4

Mother’s recipe 5

Tata salt 10

NO.2

consumer awarenesws regarding comapnies offering branded grocery

items

10

15

2

9 10

57

4 5

108

0

5

10

15

20

NO. of respondents

Shakti bog AttaAnnapurnaPillsburyLalkila riceKohinoor riceManawa sugarTata teaTaj mahalDabur honeyCoco fruitmother's recipeTat saltAnnapurna

Interpretation:

Every person has their different opinions regarding the companies offering

branded food items. So that only interpretation can be given, therefore the

interpretation is that for Atta or wheat flours the first name strikes to the

mind of respondents is Shaktibhog, Annapurna & Pillsbury. For rice Lalkila &

Kohinoor, for sugar mawana, tea of Tata & tea of Tata 7 Taj mahal, Honey of

Dabur, dry- fruit of Coco, pickles of mother’s recipe, salt of Tata &

Annapurna, spices of MDH. But there are many respondents who do not

know about the companies offering branded Dry-fruit 7 cereals.

3 Q: - From where do you purchase the grocery items?

Objectives: - To know the point of purchase.

TABLE NO.3.

RESPONSE NO. OF RESPONDENTS

Near general store 40

Super Market 28

CSD Canteen 12

Any Other 20

GRAPH NO.3

Point of Purchase

40%

28%

12%

20%

Near general store

Super Market

CSD Canteen

Any Other

Interpretation

The result shows out of 100 respondent 40%respondent buy grocery items

from near general store, 28% go to super market and 12% go to CSD

Canteen to buy grocery because the people only from defense background

are allowed to purchase from the Canteen and moreover they allow two time

purchase in a month and 20% from any other grocery wholesaler or other as

they like.

4 Q: -Which of the following items you prefer to buy as branded ones?

Objective: To know which of the items respondents mainly preferred mainly

to buy as branded ones.

TABLE NO. 4

Response No of respondents

Atta or Wheat

Flour

13

Rice 06

Sugar 02

Tea 22

Honey 04

Dry-fruits 07

Pickles 05

Salt 25

Spices 10

Cereals 06

Total 100

GRAPH 4

NO:

Prefertence of consumer regarding the items that should available branded

25%

13%3%

45%

7%15%10%

50%

20%12%

Atta orWheat flourRice

Suger

Tea

Honey

Dry-Fruit

Pickles

Salt

Spices

Cerels

Interpretation:

From the above, it can be said that 25% of respondents prefer branded salt,

followed by 22.5% for branded Tea, 12.5% branded Atta/wheat flour, 10%

branded Spices, 7.5% branded dry-fruit, 6.5% branded Rice, 6% branded

Cereals, 5% branded Pickles, 3.5% branded Honey, 1.5% branded Sugar.

5 Q: - Which of the following factors induce you most to go for branded

items.

Objectives: -To knows the importance of each factor that effecting the

purchasing decision of customers.

TABLE NO.5

Factors No of respondents

Good quality 27

Variety 25

Assured quality 22

Packaging 16

Advertisement 10

GRAPH NO.5

Interpretation

From above table it is found that good quality is more emphasis by consumer

then Variety, Assured quality, Packaging,Advertisement.

6 Q: - Are you satisfied with unbranded items you have used?

Objective: - To know the satisfaction level of them respondent.

NO. 6 TABLE

GRAPH NO.6

Respondents No. Of

respondents

Yes 50

No 50

Interpretation

The result for unbranded items show that out of 100 people 50% are

satisfied with unbranded items and 50% of not satisfied.

7 Q: - If answer to question 6 is ‘NO’ then what are reason of you

dissatisfaction?

Objectives: - To find out the reason of dissatisfaction.

TABLE NO.7

Response No. Of

respondents

Poor quality 28

Impurity 13

Unavailability 0

Price 9

GRAPH NO.7

Interpretation

The result of question 8 shows that only 40 respondents are dissatisfied from

unbranded items they used. The reasons for dissatisfaction were poor

quality, impurity in the order of importance.

INCOME & PURCHASING RELATIONSHIP

There is great relationship between income & purchasing decision. As well as

income level change their consumer preferences or choice of purchase also

changes, according to my studied consumer with high income level prefer

branded things more than consumers with low income level. The consumer

with low or you can say middle income level prefer only basic thing as

branded but high income level consumer buy every thing branded this is

shown in following table

TABLE NO.8

Income level Branded Unbranded

10000-15000 Tea

Salt

Atta

Rice

Sugar

15001-20000 Atta

Rice

Spices

Sugar

Dry-fruit

20001-25000 Spices Pickles

Sugar

Dry-fruit

Honey

25001 & above Prefer almost

all things

branded

The data shown in table is gathered by matching income level of the

consumer with their buying preference this tables show that as the income

increases demand for branded items also increases. Customer prefers to buy

that goods branded which they buy unbranded former.

Chapter-6

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

1. Customer is having a sense of freedom and choice.

2. Now the market is said to be customer oriented.

3. The preference of consumer is continuously shifted form unbranded to

branded items.

4. Braded grocery items lie on high price scale and consumers want that

price should be reduced where unbranded items lie on a low price scale but

quality is not good.

5. Branded grocery items have a great impact on the unbranded items

because the sale of branded items is increasing and unbranded is decreasing

because of consciousness of customer regarding quality.

6. According to the study, consumers are more aware of companies offering

branded Atta, Tea, and Salt than companies that are offering other branded

grocery items.

7. Purchasing power of consumers is changed due to change in income level.

8. Today’s customer is not loyal to one, they switch to other if they don’t get

brand they want.

RECOMMENDATION

1. Consumers are not very aware about all branded grocery items

available in the market so companies should adopt good promotional

stages to occupy an appealing space on the mind of consumers.

2. Price should be reduced of branded items, companies should charge

reasonable price from customer for branded items.

3. The retailer or wholesaler dealing with unbranded grocery items should

improve quality of the items because these are major reasons of

consumers’ dissatisfaction.

4. Branded items should be easily available.

5. Advertisements have a great impact on buying decision so the ads of

item such as branded dry-fruit, pickles, sugar etc should also be

telecast.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kotler Philip: “Marketing Management Analysis, Planning,

Implementation & Control, 6th edition (New Delhi – Prentice- Hall of

ltd.1999.

Sharma D.D, marketing research process, Marketing research

principles, Application and cases

http://www.iimadh.ernet.in/-satish/teapaper.pd

www.indianline.com

www.google.com

Annexure

QUESTIONNAIRS

Dear Respondent,I am student of IBCS, Bhubaneswar Pursuing MBA and conducting project regarding the” Consumers perception towards FMCG products in Bhubaneswar”. I will be very thankful to you if you provide me the required information.

Personal detail:-

Name: ………………………………………….Gender: ………………………………………….Occupation: …………………………………………..Address : ………………………………………….Contact No: ………………………………………….1. Q: - While purchasing grocery items what do you prefer?

1) Branding items 2) Unbranded items 3) Both

2 Q: - What names come to your mind when you think of branded items (if

You cannot recall then please

1. Atta or wheat flour _____________________

2. Rice _____________________

3. Sugar _____________________

4. Tea _____________________

5. Honey _____________________

6. Dry-Fruit _____________________

7. Pickles _____________________

8. Salt ____________________

9. Spices ____________________

10. Cereals _____________________

3 Q: - From where do you purchase the grocery items?

1) Near general store

2) Super market

3) CSD canteen

4) Any other

65

4. Q: - Which of the following items you prefer to buy branded ones?

1) Atta or wheat 6) Dry-Fruit

2) Rice 7) Pickles

3) Sugar 8) salt

4) Tea 9) Spices

5) Honey 10) cereals

5 Q: -Which of the following factors induce you most to go for branded

Items. ?

1. Good quality

2 Varieties

3. Assured quantity

4. Packaging

5. Advertising

6 Q: - Are you satisfied with unbranded items you have used?

Yes

No

66

7 Q: - If answer to question 6 is ‘NO’ then what are reason of

Your dissatisfaction?”

1) Poor quality

2) Impurity

3) Unavailability

4) Price

8 Q: - What improvements do you recommended for branded items?

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

________________________________

9 Q: -What do you think the future of branded items as well as unbranded

items?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________