Perception of Sft Drnks

Prepared For

Ms. Nayeema AhmedLecturer

Dept. of Business Administration

Prepared By

Dewan Imran AhmedID: 2003-1-10-043

Sayem RaisID: 2003-1-10-188

Md. Jamiul IslamID: 2002-3-10-011

Esfar Ahmed ChowdhuryID: 2002-3-14-005

Aashna Dilnaz ID: 2002-3-10-054

Sharmin Akhter ShovaID: 2003-3-10-087

Ayesha KhanID: 2003-3-30-003

Date of Submission: 19 August 2006

East West University

August 19, 2006

Ms. Nayeema Ahmed

Lecturer



43 Mohakhali C/A, Dhaka-1212

Sub: Letter of Transmittal

Dear Madam

We are pleased to submit the following report you had asked us to develop with a given

guidelines. For this purpose, we made “Perception about soft drinks in Bangladesh”,

to be the subject matter of our report.

We are glad to submit it as part of completion of the requirements for our Consumer

Behavior (MKT-410) course with you.

We have tried our best in trying to put up a good report with as much information as we

could gather during the limited span allotted for writing the report.

Thanking you for your kind support and help throughout the course, we remain.

Sincerely yours

Sayem Rais Dewan Imran Ahmed Jamiul Islam

Sharmin Akhter Shova Aashna Dilnaz Ayesha Khan

Esfar Ahmed Chowdhury

Sub: Letter of Authorization

Dear Students

As part of your Consumer Behavior course, you are requested to do a report on

“Perception on soft drinks in Bangladesh” .You are requested to collect and analyze

data and prepare a report with conclusion.

Submission date of the report is August 19, 2006.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

MS. Nayeema Ahmed

Lecturer



Dhaka

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At first we present our due regards to the Almighty, who have provided us the brilliant

opportunity to build and complete this report successfully with good health & sound

mind. In this course, we are required to prepare a report. So, as per our course instructor’s

(MS. Nayeema Ahmed) recommendation we have decided to prepare a report on

“Perception on soft drinks in Bangladesh”. It has been a pleasure and an honor to show

our heartiest respect to MS. Nayeema Ahmed for giving us the opportunity to work for

this report. Her enriched and powerfully structured discussion has been a great help in

each step of this report writing.

During the working of this report would not have been realized without the support and

encouragement of many people. We would like to express our feelings and great

affections with our heartiest appreciation to all people who are given valuable

information for preparing the report. We would like to thank our peers and senior

brothers and sisters who have helped us by giving valuable advices and experiences. Last

of all we would like to thank the readers who have given their valuable times to read this

report.

We would like to acknowledge our classmates for helping us in this report. All the

classmates who have helped us lot and supported us to make it possible to lead the

research into a standard form.

We are also thankful to the Delta school for providing us the physical arrangements and

allow us to conduct FGD.

Finally, we thank our dear parents for encouraging us throughout the work. Their

information has helped us in ways that cannot be expressed in few words. We thank them

all with our deepest feelings.

Executive Summary

With the change in the lifestyle of people and modernization getting in trend,

Bangladeshi market place has become a battlefield for various soft drinks brands. There

are some popular soft drinks brands ruling their operation in Bangladesh. These are Coca

Cola, Sprite, Pepsi, RC Cola, Uro, Virgin Cola, and Mojo and so on. As the weather now

is hot and humid, the war seems to be more intense among soft drink brands. In this

particular project, we are trying to see the perception of consumers about soft drinks. We

have seen that introduction of band-roll in soft drinks has created an uneven competition

in the Bangladesh market with the largest local beverage companies enjoying a field day

at the cost of others.

We have conducted two Focus group Discussion (FGD), from FGD we have develop

hypothesis. Based on the Hypothesis we established few questionnaires and then we have

taken the survey of 100 people and our target group is mainly universities and school

students. Our aim is to find out what people think about soft drinks and what they feel in

terms of price, advertisement, flavor, package, taste etc.

Background

There is saying –“Behind every action there is a reason”. So our report has a reason to

arise. At first during our Consumer Behavior our course instructor Ms. Nayeema Ahmed

told us that we have to submit a group report. She has given us the opportunity to choose

our own topic. We have discussed our topic with our respectful teacher and she has

approved. The topic of our report is- Perception about the soft drinks in Bangladesh. So

this is the whole story of assigning the report to us. By choosing this topic we can know

how people perceive about different soft drinks in Bangladesh.

Problem Statement

Management Decision Problem:

We are conducting our research on such a topic; through which all the soft drink

companies available in Bangladesh, will be able to know what people thinks about their

brands, what are the features they like or dislike, what aspect of promotion influence

them & how it can be make more effective.

Broad Objective

“To identify the consumer perception

about soft drinks in Bangladesh.”

Specific Objective

The objectives of this report are the followings:

To see whether consumers go for brand because of taste & flavor.

To find out whether advertising plays an important role in brand selection.

To see whether sales promotion can motivate consumers to consume more.

To find out whether consumers think price is an important criterion.

To see whether consumers believe that packaging can influence purchase.

Packaging with product information will attract more consumers.

To see whether taste is the most important factor to create brand loyalty.

To see whether new flavor will gain consumer attention.

To see whether Inefficiency in distribution will create dissatisfaction among the

consumers.

Approaching the problem

For approaching the problem, we have undertaken the Focus Group discussion (FGD).

We have undertaken two FGDs, one in the university, which consists of seven people,

and the second one has been taken place in Delta school and that FGD consists of 6

people. All of these respondents are students. Basically our focus is on young generation.

We have identified quite a few problems by doing these FGD. In both FGDs we have

identified that they have different type of perception about soft drinks, such as some said

they are brand loyal, some also said that they were influenced by an effective

advertisement. Some also said that they are price sensitive and so on so forth. After that

we have developed the questionnaire to see what the population thinks about soft drinks.

We have taken survey of 100 people and all of them are of young ages. Our intention to

approach the problem so we have taken FGDs programmed as well as the Survey

technique. From FGD we have developed hypothesis and from hypothesis we have

identified the problem statement.

Frequency Table

We have used SPSS software to develop the frequency table:

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

PercentValid Male 71 71.0 71.0 71.0

Female 29 29.0 29.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Age


PercentValid 12-19

years6 6.0 6.0 6.0

20-29 years

94 94.0 94.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

How often do you drink a soft drink in a week?

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

PercentValid 1-3 times 48 48.0 48.0 48.0 4-6 times a

week32 32.0 32.0 80.0

7-9 times 11 11.0 11.0 91.0 more than

99 9.0 9.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

What is your brand preference?


PercentValid Coca

Cola37 37.0 37.0 37.0

Sprite 31 31.0 31.0 68.0Pepsi 8 8.0 8.0 76.07-Up 10 10.0 10.0 86.0RC Cola 3 3.0 3.0 89.0Mojo 6 6.0 6.0 95.0Uro Cola 1 1.0 1.0 96.0Others 4 4.0 4.0 100.0Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Advertising play an important role in selecting a brand


PercentValid Strongly

Agree48 48.0 48.0 48.0

Agree 42 42.0 42.0 90.0Neutral 5 5.0 5.0 95.0Disagree 5 5.0 5.0 100.0Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Brand personality may influence you to choose a brand


PercentCumulative


Agree29 29.0 29.0 29.0

Agree 51 51.0 51.0 80.0 Neutral 14 14.0 14.0 94.0 Disagree 5 5.0 5.0 99.0 strongly

Disagree1 1.0 1.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Sales promotion can attract your attention towards a particular brand


PercentCumulative


Agree26 26.0 26.0 26.0


Disagree2 2.0 2.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Price can be an important factor in selecting a brand


PercentCumulative


Agree29 29.0 29.0 29.0


Disagree2 2.0 2.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Increase in price can influence you to change your preferred brand


PercentCumulative


Agree19 19.0 19.0 19.0


Disagree6 6.0 6.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Colorful packaging attracts you to taste a new brand


PercentCumulative


Agree21 21.0 21.0 21.0


Disagree1 1.0 1.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Packaging should contain product information



Agree58 58.0 58.0 58.0


You will stay your prefer brand even if the color changes



Agree22 22.0 22.0 22.0

Agree 31 31.0 31.0 53.0Neutral 25 25.0 25.0 78.0Disagree 17 17.0 17.0 95.0strongly Disagree

5 5.0 5.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Taste is the important factor in creating brand loyalty



Agree53 53.0 53.0 53.0


If a soft drink brand came up with a new flavor that will gain your attention



Agree23 23.0 23.0 23.0


Lack of distribution efficiency can create dissatisfaction towards your preferred brand


PercentCumulative


Agree35 35.0 35.0 35.0

Agree 42 42.0 42.0 77.0 Neutral 17 17.0 17.0 94.0

Disagree 5 5.0 5.0 99.0 strongly

Disagree1 1.0 1.0 100.0

Total 100 100.0 100.0 100.0

Hypothesis

Consumers go for brand because of taste & flavor.

Most of the consumers prefer non-cola rather than cola.

The advertising plays an important role in brand selection.

Brand personality can influence consumers in choosing a soft drink brand.

Sales promotion can motivate consumers to consume more.

Consumers think price is an important criterion.

Consumers believe that packaging can influence purchase.

Packaging with product information will attract more consumers.

Color change in soft drink brands may create dissatisfaction.

Taste is the most important factor to create brand loyalty.

New flavor will gain consumer attention.

Inefficiency in distribution will create dissatisfaction among the consumers.

Scope of the research

Resources:

To fulfill the purpose of our project we have conducted two Focus group Discussion

(FGD) sessions, in which we have used Voice recorder, Video Camera, pen, paper &

physical arrangements like table, chairs, and refreshment materials. We have also taken

the help of computer, printer & photocopier in every step to complete our report.

Limitation:

We faced some limitations while preparing this report. Most importantly we were hard hit

by time constrains which prevented us from doing a more elaborate study. We could not

prepare this assignment more elaborately for our limited knowledge. We found that many

people are skeptic in reveling information. Despite all this limitations, we tried our best to

make it a concise study.

Research Design

Data Collection from secondary sources:

We have searched the internet websites to find out whether there is any previous study

conducted on the same topic. We have also searched in the research site ‘Jstor’ held in

East West University, websites of all local & the selected international soft drink brands.

Data collection from primary sources:

We have conducted two focus group interview sessions to collect the fresh response of

our respondents who were mostly university & A-level students.

Method:

We have used self administered questionnaire to collect information from our target

group. We used this method as we have used SPSS to identify frequency distribution.

Scaling technique:

In our questionnaire, we have used nominal & interval scale. We have used nominal scale

as we were asked to find only the frequency distribution. We used interval scale as it is a

higher-level scale, it will enable us to find frequency distribution as well as other

analysis.

Questionnaire Development

Dear Respondent, For official use

We are the students of East West University, conducting a Consumer Behavior

Project on the “Perception on Soft Drinks in Bangladesh”. We are trying to

see the perception of a consumer about soft drinks. To serve that purpose, we need

some information from you; your correct information is extremely valuable for us.

We will need your attention only for 10 to 15 minutes to fill this questionnaire. Any

information provided will be kept confidential and used for project purpose only.

Thanks for your valuable time and cooperation.

1 Gender: For official use

o Maleo Female

2 Ages:

o 12- 19 yearso 20- 29 yearso 30- 39 yearso 40- 49 yearso above 49 years

3. How often do you drink soft drinks in a week?o 1-3 timeso 4-6 times a week o 7-9 timeso more than 9

4 What is your brand preference?

o Coca Colao Spriteo Pepsio 7- Upo RC Colao Mojoo Uro Colao Pran Colao Others

5. Advertising play an important role in selecting a brand

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Agree (2) (3) (4) Disagree

(1) (5)

6. Brand personality may influence you to choose a brand


(1) (5)

7. Sales promotion can attract your attention towards a particular brand


(1) (5)

8. Price can be an important factor in selecting a brand


(1) (5)

9. Increase in price can influence you to change your preferred brand


(1) (5)

10. Colorful packaging attracts you to taste a new band


(1) (5)

11. Packaging should contain product information( Ingredients, manufacturing & expiring dates)


(1) (5)

12. You will stay with your prefer brand even if the color changes.


(1) (5)

13. Taste is the important factor in creating brand loyalty.


(1) (5)

14. If a soft drink brand come up with a new flavor that will gain your attention


(1) (5)

15. Lack of distribution efficiency can create dissatisfaction towards your preferred brand.


(1) (5)

16. I like my brand because ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For Official Use Only

1. Name of the interviewer:_________________________________

2. Start Time:____________________________________________

3 .End Time:_____________________________________________

4. Signature:______________________________________________

5.Name & Signature of Supervisor:___________________________ 6.Date:__________________________________________________

Sample size:

The sample size has been determined on the basis of two crucial components-time and

money. We have been able to conduct our survey over one hundred respondents who are

mostly the students of East West University. Our time constraint did not allow us to go

for rigorous sample size. Therefore we believe it will represent our population of interest.

Fieldwork:

We have conducted our survey in the classrooms of East West University. As our

population of interest was basically the young generation we felt that we could easily

complete the survey by delivering the questionnaire within our campus.

Data Analysis

Methodology:

We have developed questionnaire by using nominal & interval scale. We have used SPSS

software to identify the frequency distribution & descriptive statistics. By using the SPSS

we construct frequency table for each of the variable, through which we can easily

predict consumer preference, impact of advertisement and packaging, price sensitivity

etc.

Cost and Time:

As we mentioned earlier we had very little time to complete our report. If we could do

our research over at least 1000 respondents then our confidence level might have

increased to a certain extent. But conducting a survey over 1000 people requires lot of

time and money. Never the less we tried our level best to put all the necessary materials

to make it a fruitful report.

Results

Interpretations of the Findings:

Table 1

Gender: From our analysis we found that 71 percent of our respondents were

male and 29 percent were female.

Table 2

Age: Our analysis shows among the 100 respondents 6 percent belongs to 12-19

years age group and 94 percent belongs to 20-29 years age group.

Table 3

Consumption per Week: 48 percent of the consumers said they take their

preferred soft drink 1-3times per week. 32 percent said they take 4-6 times a week.

11 percent said they consume7-9 times a week. Only 9 percent said they consume

more than 9 times a week.

Table 4

Brand Preference: 37 percent said they are brand loyal of Coca Cola, 31 percent

preferred Sprite, 10 percent choose 7-up, 6 percent preferred Mojo, 3 percent liked

Rc Cola, only 1 person choose Uro Cola and the rest 4 percent preferred other

available soft drinks.

Table 5

Importance of Advertisement: 90 percent respondents agreed that

advertisement plays an important role in selecting a brand; among the 90 percent 48

percent strongly believe that they go for a certain brand after watching the

advertisement.

Table 6

Brand Personality: 29 persons strongly agreed that they are influenced by the

brand personality, 51 percent agrees that brand personality is important in

choosing a brand. 14 percent were neutral and 5 percent disagreed on this

statement.

Table 7

Sales Promotion: 26 percent of consumer strongly agreed that they are

influenced by the sales promotion, 51 percent agrees that sales promotion is

important, 18 percent were neutral, and 5 percent disagreed on this statement.

Table 8

Price: In case of price, 29 percent strongly believes that price is very important in

selecting a brand. 45 percent agrees that price is important. 16 percent were neutral

and 8 percent disagreed.

Table 9

Price Variation: 19 percent strongly agreed that if the price increases, they will

shift to other brand. 39 percent agreed and 24 percent were neutral on this fact.

Table 10

Colorful Packaging: 21 percent of consumers strongly agreed that colorful

packaging attracts them to taste a new brand. 44 Percent agreed, 21 percent were

neutral and 13 percent disagreed.

Table 11

Packaging including information: 58 Percent of consumer strongly agrees that

packaging should contain product information. 34 percent agreed, 7 percent were

neutral and 1 percent disagreed with this fact.

Table 12

Impact of Color Change: 22 percent strongly agreed that they will stay with

their preferred brand even if the color changes, 31 percent agreed and 25 percent

remain neutral and 17 percent disagreed.

Table 13

Taste: 53 Percent of the consumer agreed that taste is an important factor in

creating brand loyalty. 36 Percent agreed, 7 percent were neutral and 4 percent

disagreed with this fact.

Table 14

Impact of New Flavor: 23 percent of the respondents strongly agreed that they

will taste the new flavor, 49 percent agreed and 24 percent disagreed. Only 7

percent were disagreed on this statement.

Table 15

Lack of Distribution Efficiency: 35 percent strongly agreed that effective

distribution is very important. 42 percent agreed and 17 percent were neutral.

Respondents Reaction on open-ended question

We have provided an open ended question to identify the most critical factor for which

consumers like a brand. Our findings are:

Taste and flavor

Packaging

Color and logo

Advertisements

Emotional attachment with the brand

Effective distribution

Price

Different taste from others

Brand has the capability to match his or her personality

Shape of the bottle

Recommendation

Effective advertisements can increase brand preference and thereby increase sales.

Use of world famous celebrities also influences consumers in selecting a brand.

So in IMC all local and international brands should use celebrities to endorse their

brand.

Price can be an important factor; over pricing can create dissatisfaction among the

consumers & hamper the progression of brand loyalty.

Sales promotion can increase short term sales but for increasing long term sales

companies should come up with innovative features.

Packaging should be attractive as it can entice consumer to taste a brand.

Packaging should contain product Information i.e ingredients, manufacturing and

expiring date, recyclable sign, vegetarian sign and other social and environmental

features.

It is not wise to change the color of an existing brand. As consumers normally

develop an emotional attachment with the brand, they may not like the new look

of their preferred brand. Pepsi Blue can be a lesson for us.

Taste should be the most important factor any soft drink company concentrates

on. If the taste is bad no matter how good the IMC or packaging, the chances are

very low that the brand will be successful.

Soft drink companies car try different flavors to create new market segments or

increase the size of existing market.

Distribution should be effective; all the members in the distribution channel must

be made aware that the products reach the retail outlets in every corner of the

country before the launch of IMC.

Companies should come up with new and innovative IMC campaigns in every

stage of the product life cycle. In introduction they should do awareness building

campaign, in growth stage product features and products differentiation is

addressed the IMC, in maturity stage remainder advertisements should be used.

So that consumers constantly kept in touch with the brand.

Consumer Insight-Thought Process

Target Group: We have decided to choose younger generation in our sample, as this

group occupies the highest proportion of the soft drinks market though out the world.

From our survey, we found what they think about the present soft drink brands, what is

their expectation and what measure soft drink companies should take to influence them.

Current Believe International Brands like Coke,

Pepsi are better than the local brands.

Like the promotional Campaigns of international brands than local brands.

Foreign brand personalities are more influential than local.

Price hike may create dissatisfaction.

Love colorful packaging. Appreciate product information

contained in the packaging. Color change in soft drink

brands is not welcomed. Quite happy with the taste of

present brands. Wants to get their preferred

brand in every convenient retail outlet.

Compelling Future Believe

Hope the local brands come up with new innovative promotional campaigns.

If the taste & flavor of some of the local brands are enriched, they will be delighted to taste those brands.

If the packaging is standardized, local brands will get more preference.

Conclusion

We have conducted our report to identify the consumers’ perception about all the

available soft drinks in Bangladesh. Though we have a small sample size but we believe

it represents our population of interest. From our research we found that still

international brands are more preferred over local brands. If local soft drink brands can

make effective innovative advertisements, introduce sales promotional programs,

improve the packaging, make the distribution effective and most importantly stress

should be given to the taste and flavor because as we know product is the core of brand,

if the taste is poor no matter how good the advertisement or packaging it will not get the

consumers attention. It has also been identified that that consumer is not bother about the

price of their respective brand. If the soft drink companies wants to retain the market

share they have to consider all the factors such as advertisement, price, taste, flavor etc.

Current Behavior Consume a soft drink only

because of taste& flavor. Consume local brands, as it

is cheap & easily available. Consume more during sales

promotional campaigns.

Consumer Insight Love the brands

personalities. Love to get sales

promotions. Happy with the taste &

flavor of present soft drink brands.

Price increase may create dissatisfaction.

Desired Future Behavior Divert the

consumer’s attention from foreign brands to locals through innovative promotional campaigns.

Encourage the soft drink consumption in breakfast, launch & dinner.

www.Google.com

www. Jstor .org

www.partexbeverage.com

www.globesoftdrinks.com

www.akijbeverage.com

www.pepsiworld.com

www.coke.com

www.virgincola.com

www.doublecola.com

http://www.doublecola.com/

http://www.virgincola.com/

http://www.coke.com/

http://www.pepsiworld.com/

http://www.akijbeverage.com/

http://www.globesoftdrinks.com/

http://www.partexbeverage.com/

http://www.Google/

Documents

Perception of Sft Drnks