Dummy_Project_Report___Mohit_Agarwal

8/7/2019 Dummy_Project_Report___Mohit_Agarwal

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T.A. PAI MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

To Study the Consumer

Awareness & Perceptiontowards Packet ChipsMarket Research Report

Submitted by: Mohit Agarwal8/10/2010



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Executive Summary

The primary objective of our research is “ To Study Consumer Awareness and Perception

towards Packet Chips”. In order to find this, the research objective was further sub -divided in the

following secondary objectives:

To study whether the consumers are aware about the packet chips or not.

To check the awareness level about the packet chips among the consumers.

To find out the factors which the consumers think are important while they are buying

snacks.

To find out how packet chips are rated on the factors which the consumers think are

important while selecting a snack.

Firstly, an Exploratory Research was carried out to provide an insight and to understand the

problem more precisely. There were two methods used in the Exploratory Research:

In-depth Interviews with the Store keepers in and around Manipal.

Focus Group Discussion with the consumers.

The information obtained from the in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used in

further research and in particular it was used in the design of the questionnaire.

Based on the findings of exploratory research, a questionnaire was designed and a Pilot Surveywas conducted. Pilot Survey was conducted to detect the weakness in the data collection

instrument (i.e. the Questionnaire in this case) and also to provide proxy data for selection of a

probability sample.

Based on the pilot survey results, the questionnaire was refined and the final Questionnaire for

carrying out the actual research was designed. Analysis was done based on the data obtained

from Pilot Survey using SPSS and the results obtained were also used in estimating the sample

size for the actual research.

The pilot survey would then be followed by the actual research which would involve collecting

primary data from the respondents through Questionnaire. The data will be analyzed using Excel

and SPSS tools to study the consumer awareness and perception of consumers towards packet

chips.



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Contents

Research Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Description of the Research Objective ......................................................................................................... 3

Industry Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Definition of Constructs ................................................................................................................................ 6

Research Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 6

Scope ............................................................................................................................................................. 7

Exploratory Research .................................................................................................................................... 7

In-Depth Interviews .................................................................................................................................. 7

Focus Group Discussions ........................................................................................................................... 8

Pilot Survey ................................................................................................................................................... 9Questionnaire Design ................................................................................................................................ 9

Results from the Pilot Study ..................................................................................................................... 9

Conclusive Research ................................................................................................................................... 12

Questionnaire Design .............................................................................................................................. 12

Sample Size Calculation .......................................................................................................................... 13

Sampling Method .................................................................................................................................... 14

Data Collection ........................................................................................................................................ 15

Disguise Game ............................................................................................................................................. 15

Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................................... 16

Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 17

A)Questionnaire ...................................................................................................................................... 17

B) Screen shot of the Trading Screen that will be used in the Disguise Game ....................................... 22



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Research Objective

The primary objective of our research is “To Study Consumer Awareness and Perception

towards Packet Chips”.

To achieve this primary objective, the research objective is divided into the following secondary

objectives:

To study whether the consumers are aware about the packet chips or not.

To check the awareness level about the packet chips among the consumers.

To find out the factors which the consumers think are important while they are buying

snacks.

To find out how packet chips are rated on the factors which the consumers think are

important while selecting a snack.

Description of the Research Objective

The Research objective is to study the consumer awareness and perception towards packet chips.

Packet Chips comes under the Snack Food Category . Snack Food refers to the food eaten in

between the meals. The various types of snack food that are available include Biscuits, Namkeen

Packets, Packet Chips, French Fries, Maggi Noodles, Fruits, etc. Hence, our objective is to first

identify what kind of different snacks people generally have in between the meals. After

identifying this, our aim is to analyze whether they are aware about availability of packet chips

as a snack item and to check their awareness level about the packet chips. In order to find out the

perception of the consumers towards packet chips, we will first find out as to what factors the

consumers consider when they purchase snack items in general. Then we will try to analyze how

packet chips are rated by different consumers on these factors. Hence we will get an perception

of the consumers about the packet chips.



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Industry Analysis

According to a study done by McKinsey & Co in 2009, the Indian Food Market is expected to

grow from US$ 155 billion in 2005 to US$ 355 billion in 2025 , thus increasing two folds with

an annual compounded growth rate of 4.1% 1

One of the fastest growing segments within the Food Market is Snack Food Industry, which is

growing at a rate 20 percent higher than the regular food market in India. The average per capita

snack food consumption in India is 500 grams with the ratio of consumption of Snacks between

urban and rural population being 10:1 (the urban Indian consumers eat readymade snacks ten

times more than the rural Indian Consumers). 2

The Snack Food Industry in India is fragmented and the market is highly diversified with over

1000 different varieties of snack products such as Potato Chips, French Fries, Biscuits, Fruits,

etc. The Indian Snacks market was estimated to be worth US$ 3 billion as on 2009. 3

The Indian Snack Industry can be divided into 2 segments:

Organized Segment: This segment, comprising of the branded snack items, was worth

US $ 1.34 billion as on 2009 and is growing at an annual rate of 15-20%. This sector

includes items like packet chips, biscuits, noodles, French fries, etc. The major players in

this sector are Frito Lay, Con Agra, Dabur, HLL, Parle, ITC, Haldirams, Nestle, Bikaner,

Britannia and Cadbury.

In the branded snacks market, it was observed that chocolate, potato chips and nuts &

seeds were among the fastest growing snacks. The following graph illustrates the annual

growth rate of the various branded snack food items over the past few years and the

expected growth over the period 2009-2013 4.

1 Report by US Department of Agriculture.2 Report by McKinsey & Co done in 20093 Report by McKinsey & Co done in 20094 Report “Brief of Snack Food Market in India 2008” by Global Agriculture Information Network



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Unorganized Segment: This includes the unbranded items like the Indian Chaat items,

potato chips (like Hot chips), Popcorn, South Indian Items (Dosa/Uttapam), etc. This

segment was worth US$ 1.56 billion as on 2009 and is growing at an annual growth rate

of 7-8% per year.

The major growth drivers for the Indian Snack Food Industry are as follows:

Increase in the consumption of ready to cook or ready to eat food products.

Changing societal trends.

Increase in number of nuclear families.

People looking for more convenience and pleasure food.

Changing Lifestyles of the people.

Thus snack food is slowly becoming a daily necessity for people and with a growing population

and rising per capita income; the demand of snack food is continuously increasing.





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Based on the pilot survey results, the questionnaire was refined and the final Questionnaire for

carrying out the actual research was designed. The results from Pilot Survey were also used in

estimating the sample size for the actual research.

The pilot survey would be followed by the actual research which would involve collectingprimary data from the respondents through Questionnaire. The data will then be used to analyze

the consumer awareness and perception of consumers towards packet chips.

Scope

The data that would be obtained through the primary research will be limited to the responses

given by the residents and students in and around the city of Manipal.

Exploratory Research

The Exploratory Research mainly comprised of two methods i.e. In-depth interviews with the

Store keepers and Focus Group Discussions with the consumers.

In-Depth Interviews

Four in-depth interviews were conducted with vendors in Manipal. One shop owner was

interviewed each at Tiger circle, Kamath circle, store outside MIT College and store in TAPMI

campus. This was done in order to find out the how these shops sell packet chips and to analyze

the behavior of customers when they come to buy chips and other snacks. The various factors

which came from the interview were following:

These types of shop carry different types of snacks such as biscuits, namkeen, samosa,

puffs, packet chips, kurkure, chocolates etc.

Packet Chips are generally placed outside the shop so that it can catch the eye of a

consumer

When he buys a packet of chips, he only picks the packet and makes the payment. The

Store keeper has no influence on his buying behavior.





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Pilot Survey

Pilot Survey was conducted to detect the weakness in the Questionnaire designed and also to

estimate the sample size for the final research to be carried out. A survey of 30 respondents was

done as a part of pilot testing. The sampling technique that was used during the Pilot Survey was

Convenience Sampling which involved picking the set of respondents which were convenient to

use.

Questionnaire Design

Based on the factors and findings obtained in the exploratory research (In-depth Interviews and

Focus Group Discussions), a Questionnaire was designed which was used as the Data CollectionInstrument for the Pilot Survey.

Results from the Pilot Study

1) Regression Analysis:

Regression Analysis was carried out to find the most important factor that the consumers

consider while selecting a snack. The dependent variable for the regression analysis was

the average weekly expense which the consumers make on the snacks and theindependent variables where the various factors considered while buying a snack. These

factors were specified in the Questionnaire (Refer Question 4) and the respondents were

asked to rate each of the factor on a scale of 1 to 5, where “1” indicates “Very High” and

“5” indicates “Very Low”. From the below table we see that TASTE was considered as

the most important factor by the respondents.



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Canonical Discriminant Function Coefficients

Function

1 2 3

Taste -.024 1.104 -1.703

Quality .723 -.376 .469

HungerSatisfying .362 -.148 -1.032

Hygeine -.535 -.371 .678

HealthNutritious -.052 .095 -.322

Varieties .687 -.495 .216

Brand .200 -.231 -1.072

Price .151 .141 .587

Availability .324 -.840 .477

VisisbilityinStores .571 -.025 -.274

Packaging -.165 .358 .329

Advertisement .117 -.058 .423

Mood -.278 .094 .922

TimeOfConsumption .660 .844 -.621

Readinesstoeat .152 .213 .227

(Constant) -6.971 -.261 .515

2) Factor Analysis:

The number of factors specified in the Questionnaire was 15 and while getting the

questionnaires filled, it was observed that rating 15 factors was difficult for the

respondents. Hence a Factor Analysis was carried out to check if the number of factors

could be reduced. The following were the components identified after doing the Factor

Analysis:





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Another important observation was that the factor “Health and Nutritious” was not

classified into any of the components. The result of regression analysis also showed that

this was the least important factor while buying a snack. This means that people in India

are still not conscious about the snacks they eat and give a lot of other factors such as

Taste. Hence this factor was excluded from the Questionnaire.

Conclusive Research

The Conclusive Research is done to get the information that is required of the research. The

research process will be formal and structured and will be done by selecting large sample size.

The data obtained from this can be directly used in decision making. The conclusive research

that will be carried will be basically a Primary Research.

Questionnaire Design

The Questionnaire that was used in the Pilot Survey was refined based on the data analyzed from

the pilot surveys and the responses obtained. The following were the changes that were made to

the Questionnaire:

Question Numbers 2, 3 and 7 specify different types of snacks which people consume.All the items given in the options do not carry a Brand Name except the snack

Namkeens. In the Questionnaire Namkeens have been specified as Haldirams Namkeen

in which Haldiram is the brand name and not a type of snack. Hence the appropriate

change was made and this option was replaced by “Namkeen Packets (Ex. Haldirams)” .

Based on the results obtained from Factor Analysis, the number of factors in the

Questions 4 and 5 were reduced to 12 from 15 . The factors Quality and Hygiene were

clubbed into one factor “Quality”. The factors “Mood and Time of Consumption” wereclubbed into one Factor by name “Mood”. Factor by name “Healthy & Nutritious” was

removed from the options.

The following question was removed as it gives the overall rating of the various brands

of chips, whereas the primary objective of the research is to obtain the data only at the

product level.



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- Please rate the following brands of packet chips on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is Very

High and 5 is Very Low.

Brand Very High High Moderate Low Very Low

LaysUncle ChipsBingoHaldiramParlePringlesUnbranded

The Appendix A gives the Final Questionnaire that will be used for conducting the

conclusive research and collecting the actual data that will be used in decision making.

Sample Size Calculation

From the Regression Analysis done on the data obtained from the pilot survey, it was analyzed

that Taste is the most important factor which the consumers consider while they are purchasing

a snack.

Hence the standard deviation and the Standard Error of this variable will be used in estimating

the Sample Size for the final research to be carried out. The following table gives the descriptivestatistics of the Taste variable.

Descriptive Statistics

N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Variance

Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Statistic

Taste 29 1 1 2 1.38 .092 .494 .244

Valid N (listwise) 29

Hence the standard deviation is equal to 0.494 and the Standard Error is 0.092. These values

were substituted in the formula to calculate the s ample size “N”:



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N = (ZS)^2/e^2

N: Sample Size

Z: Assuming a Confidence Interval of 95%, the value of Z is 1.96

S: Standard Deviation = 0.494

E: Standard Error of Estimate = 0.092.

After substituting these values, the sample size N comes out to be 110.76 which can be

approximated to 111 .

Sampling Method

The Sampling Technique that will be used is the Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling .

For this, we have divide the target population into four segments according to their age i.e.

people with the following Age Groups:

5-14 years

15-24 years

25-40 years

Greater than 40 years

After the population is stratified into the above 4 segments, proportionate number of respondentsin each segment will be randomly surveyed. The following table gives the details regarding the

number of respondents that will be surveyed in each segment.

Age Group

%of Total Population in

India 5

Proportion in

Sample

No. of

respondents

5-14 years 24.50% 27.59% 31

15-24 years 20.19% 22.74% 25

25-40 years 19.80% 22.30% 25Greater than 40 years 24.31% 27.38% 30

100.00% 111

5 The Figures are based on the Demographic Survey done by Financial Express in 2009 and the data given in TheWorld Fact Book.



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Data Collection

In this step, the actual data required for carrying out will be collected. This phase is incompleteas the primary data is not collected. The mode of collecting the data will be through a Survey

that will be done in the city of Manipal using the Questionnaire and Sampling Method described

earlier.

Disguise Game

Disguise Game will serve as an alternative method to collect the data. In this method, the

consumers will not be directly surveyed. The data collection will be done in a disguised manner.

The consumers will be asked to play the disguised game and the data will be collected by the

way the consumer plays the game. The game will be designed in such a way that the data

collected can be used to carry out the primary research.

One of the Games that will be used is “TAPMI COMMODITY EXCHANGE”. The game will

be played in the following way:

The consumer will be showed a trading screen in which the various commodities that are

traded in the market will be shown. Here the commodities that will be use are Chocolates,

Packet Chips, Namkeen, Noodles, Chaat items and Biscuits. Appendix C gives the Screen

Shot of the Screen.

The consumer is then asked to trade in the commodity market by selecting one

commodity which he wants to buy and one commodity which he wants to sell.

While selecting a particular commodity either to buy or to sell, a trader must specify the

criteria on which his selection is based. All these commodities will be traded in the market in quantity of 100 grams / unit of

commodity. Hence the trader is asked to specify the price at which he is willing to buy or

sell the commodity in the market.



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Then based on the price at which he bids or asks, points will be given to the trader as a

reward for playing the game. These points will be rewarded based on the difference

between the actual price of that commodity in the market for 100 grams and the price

which the trader bids or asks.

This trading screen will be linked to an Excel in which the data that is given as an input

on the screen will be directly saved in an Excel Sheet

This game will serve the purpose in the following ways:

First the factors which they consider are important while they buy or sell a particular

commodity (i.e. a snack food item) will be collected. This data can later be used to

identify how much percentage of the population considers each of the factors to be

important. Ex. 35% of the consumers surveyed want to buy packet chips because theyfeel that it tastes good.

The price of the commodity given by the traders can be used to identify two things:

a) To check the awareness level . Generally a snack may not be actually available

in the packet size of 100 grams. So when he quotes the price, we can check

how aware he is about the price of the product. For Ex. Rs. 10-12 of Maggi

Noodles packet contains 85 grams. So if a trader quotes an price of Rs. 13-16

for a 100 gram packet, then we can say that his awareness level about the

product is high

b) It will also measure how much the consumer is willing to pay for the snack.

Data Analysis

The data will be cleaned and used for analysis. For the data analysis, SPSS (Statistical Package

for Social Sciences) and Excel will be used. The following are some of the major analyses that

will be used for this purpose.

Simple Tabulation will be used for Question No. 1 to check whether the consumers are

aware about the packet chips or not.





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We are studying the Consumer Awareness and Perception about the packet chips inManipal.

Kindly fill in the brief survey below.

1) Identify the following snacks? (Tick the Relevant Choices)

Chaat Biscuits

Chips Noodles

Chaat Biscuits

Chips Noodles

Chaat Biscuits

Chips Noodles

Chaat Biscuits

Chips Noodles

2) What are the different types of snacks you eat? (You can tick multiple options)

Biscuits Namkeen Packets (Ex.

Haldirams) Maggi/Cup Noodles Chips

Fast food & Chaat (incl:dosa/uttapam, sandwitches,pizza/burgers, omelets)

Cakes Chocolates

Others (Please Specify) ___________________

3) What are the snacks you store in your home for later consumption? (You can tick Multiple Options)

Namkeen Packets (Ex.Haldirams)

Chips Cup Noodles/ Maggi Kurkure

Cakes Chocolates Biscuits Others (Please Specify)

__________________



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4) What is the importance you give to the following factors while buying snack?

Factor VeryHigh

High Moderate Low Very Low

Taste

QualityHunger SatisfyingVarieties (Flavors)BrandPriceAvailabilityVisibility in StoresPackagingAdvertisementsMoodReadiness to Eat

5) What is the importance you give to the following factors while buying packet chips?

Factor Very High High Moderate Low Very LowTasteQualityHunger SatisfyingVarieties (Flavors)BrandPrice

AvailabilityVisibility in StoresPackagingAdvertisementsMoodReadiness to Eat

6) How much do you spend on snacks in a week? (Tick only one option) None Rs. 1-Rs. 100

Rs. 101 – Rs. 200

Rs. 201-300 Greater than Rs. 300



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7) How much do you spend on the following in a week? (Tick the appropriate cell)Rs. 1 toRs. 10

Rs. 11 -20

Rs. 21 - 50 Rs. 51-100 Greater than100

None

Biscuits

Namkeen Packets(Ex. Haldirams)Maggi / CupNoodlesChips

Fast food & ChaatCakes

Chocolates

8) What are the different packet chips that you are aware of? (You can tick multiple options) Lays Uncle Chips Bingo Haldiram Parle

Pringles Unbranded (including chips

of Hot chips centers) Others (Please Specify)

_____________________

9) How much does a packet of chips generally cost? (Tick One) Rs. 1 – 4

Rs. 5 – 20

Rs. 21 – 50

More than 5010) How often do you consume packet chips in a week? (Tick One)

Never 1-5 times a week

6-10 times a week More than 10 times a week

11) Who all in your family prefer eating packet chips? (You can tick multiple choices) Children Teenagers Parents

Grandparents None

12) What is the packaging size of packet chips that you purchase? (You can tick multiple

options) Rs. 5 Rs. 10 Rs. 20

13) Where do you purchase packet chips from? (You can tick multiple options) Super Markets General Stores Road Side shops

Food Retail Outlets Others (Please Specify)

_____________________





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B) Screen shot of the Trading Screen that will be used in the Disguise Game

Documents

Dummy_Project_Report___Mohit_Agarwal