Project Report

On
“Consumers’ perception regarding branded and
unbranded grocery items”

Submitted to:
Punjab Technical University,
Jalandhar.
In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of
Master of Business Administration
(SESSION – 2007-09)

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Mr. Raman Kumar Sanjay Verma
(Lect. In Mgt.) MBA IVth Sem
Roll no 7043221465

CT INSTIUTE OF MANAGEMENT & IT

JALANDHAR
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report entitled “Consumers perception

regarding branded and unbranded grocery items” submitted by SANJAY
VERMA is a bonafied piece of work conduced under my direct supervision and
guidance. No part of this work has been submitted for any degree of any other
university. It may be considered for evaluation in partial fulfillment of the Degree
of Master of Business Administration.

DATE:- PROJECT GUIDE: -

Mr. Raman Kumar
(Lect. In Mgt.)
 PREFACE

A person learns to understand business from a realistic angle. With the help of
major project an individual show the practices of business.
I have done my project on the topic “Consumers perception regarding branded
and unbranded grocery items”. In my research I studied firstly what is brand,
importance of brand for company & about the branded grocery items. Then I
collected the data through questionnaire to know what consumer perceive about
branded grocery. Do they accept the branded grocery items or the prefer to buy lose
or unbranded grocery, in my research I also have tried to find out the factors that
pushes a customer from unbranded to branded & also the factor that stop them top
buy unbranded items. In today’s world of cutthroat competition the theory “survival
of the fittest” prevails. A comparison has to be made and weak points should be
overcome in order to meet customer’s demand with more efficiency.
 STUDENT DECLARATION

I Sanjay Verma has prepared the report titled “customer Perception

towards online shopping”.
I have not copied from any report submitted earlier this or in any
university. This is purely original work.

Sanjay Verma
MBA-4thSem,
Roll No. 7043221465
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A project report takes a lot of efforts and labor for its completion. It
can never get completed without the toil. But in addition to, a lot of help is
requiring from sources also. This project could never had completed without the
endeavors of my project guide, Asst. Prof. Raman Kumar. His insight and
valuable suggestions helped me in every phase of making of the project, be it data
collection, data analysis or representation of the information. I express deep
gratitude to Asst. Prof. Raman Kumar. Besides, acknowledgements are also due
to the worthy director of the institute, Ashwani Kansara Under whose able
leadership such projects reach the level of refinement and polishing that is required
of them. During this project numerous other people helped me but mentioning those
entire names, here is not possible. To all those unnamed helpers, I extend my
heartiest thanks, as without their help this project would not have materialized.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapters Title Page no

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study 1
Chapter 2 Objectives of the study 35
Chapter 3 Research 37
Chapter 4 Limitation of the study 41
Chapter 5 Data analysis and 43
interpretation
Chapter 6 Conclusion & 60
Recommendations
Bibliography
Annexure
 CHAPTER-1

Introductionof theproject

1
 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,
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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.

3
 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.

4
 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.

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 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.

6
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.

7
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.

8
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.

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 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.

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BRANDS - BUILDING A BRAND

What factors are important in building brand value?

Professor David Jobber identifies seven main factors in building successful

brands, as illustrated in the diagram below:
 11

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.

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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.
 13

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.
 14

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
 15
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.
 16
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.
 17
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:
 18
: 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.
 19
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.
 20
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.
 21

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.
 22
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.
 23
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.
 24

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.

25
 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.

26
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.

27
 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.

28
 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.

29
 CONSUMER DECISION MAKING AND BUYING PROCESS

Marketing have go beyond the various influences on buyers and

develop an understanding of how consumers actual make their buying
decisions. Mainly the buyer plays these roles in buying decisions:

Initiator: a person who first suggests the idea of buying the product or
service.

Influencer: a person whose view or advice influences the decision.

Decider: a person who decide on any component of a buying decision.

Buyer: the person who makes the actual purchase.

User: a person who consumers or uses the product or service.

30
 Decision Making Process

Need Recognition: The buying process starts when the buyer

recognizes a problem or need. The need can be triggered by internal or
external stimuli. In the former case, one of the person normal needs –
hunger, thirst and sex- rise to a threshold level and become a drive. In the
relative case, a need is roused by an external stimulus.

Marketers need to identify the circumstances that trigger a particular

need. By gathering information from a number of consumers, marketers can
identify the most `frequent stimuli that spark and interested in a product
category. They can develop marketing strategies that trigger consumer’s
interest.

Information search: An aroused consumer will be inclined to search for

more information. We can distinguish between two levels of arousal. The
milder search state is called heightened attention.
At this level a person simply becomes more receptive to information about
a product.
At the next level, the person may enter active information search: looking
for reading material, phoning friend and visiting stores to about the product.
Consumer information sources fall into four groups
• Personal sources: family, friends, neighbors
• Commercial sources: advertising, salespersons, dealers,
packaging
31
• Public sources: mass media, consumers-rating organizations
 • Experimental sources: handling, examining, using the product

Each information source performs a different function in influencing

the buying decision. Through gathering information, the consumer learns
about competing brands and their features.
Evaluation of alternatives: There is no single evaluation process used
by all consumers or by one consumer in all buying situation. There are
several decision evaluation processes, the most current models of which see
the process as cognitively oriented.
Some basic concepts will help us understand consumer evaluation
processes.

• First, the consumer is trying to satisfy a need.

• Second, the consumer is looking for certain benefits from the
product solution.
• Third, the consumers see each product as a bundle of attributes
with varying abilities of delivering the benefits sought to satisfy
this need.
Consumers vary as to which product attributes they see as most
relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They
will pay the most attention to attributes that deliver the sought
benefits the market for a product can often be segmented
according to attributes that are silent to different consumer
group.
32
Purchase Decision: in evaluation stage, the consumer forms
preferences among the brands in the choice set. The
consumer \may also forms an intention to buy most preferred
brand. However, two factors can intervene between the
purchase intentions and the purchase decision. The first factor is
the attitude of the others. The second, factor is unanticipated
paituationalfactor that may erupt to change the purchase
intention.

A consumer’s decision to modify, postpone or avoid a

purchase decision is heavily influenced by perceptive risks. The
amount of perceived risk varies with amount of money at stake,
the amount attribute uncertainty and amount of consumer self-
confidence.

Post purchase behavior: after purchasing the product the

consumer will experience some level of satisfaction ort
dissatisfaction. The3 marketers job does not end when the
product is bought marketers must monitor post purchase
satisfaction; post purchase action and post purchase product
users.

33
 CONSUMER DECISION MAKING AND
BUYING PROCESS

Need Recognition

Information Search

Cultural,
Social, Evaluation of Alternatives
Individual and
Psychological

Purchase

Post purchase Behavior

 CHAPTER-2

Objective of the study

35
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

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.

36
 Chapter –3

Researchmethodology

37
 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.
38
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.

39
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.

40
 Chapter-4

Limitationof thestudy

41
 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

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

limited to few customer of Jalandhar 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.

42
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

43
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%

Branded
14% Unbranded
Both
67%

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.

44
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
GRAPH NO.2

consumer awarenesws regarding

comapnies offering branded grocery
items Shakti bog Atta
Annapurna
20 Pillsbury
15 Lalkila rice
15 Kohinoor rice
10 Manawa sugar
9 10 10
8 Tata tea
10 7
5 Taj mahal
4 5
5 2 Dabur honey
Coco fruit
0 mother's recipe
Tat salt
NO. of respondents
Annapurna

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.

46

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
 47
GRAPH NO.3

Point of Purchase
20%

40% Near general store

Super Market
12%
CSD Canteen
Any Other

28%

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.

48

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 13
Flour
Rice 06
Sugar 02
Tea 22
Honey 04
 Dry-fruits 07
Pickles 05
Salt 25
Spices 10
Cereals 06
Total 100
GRAPH 4

Prefertence of consumer regarding the items that should

available branded
Atta or
Wheat flour
Rice
12% 25%
20% Suger

13% Tea

3% Honey

Dry-Fruit

50% Pickles
45% Salt

Spices
10% 15% 7% Cerels
NO:

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.

50

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
 51

GRAPH NO.5

Factor influenes buying behaviour

10% Good quality

27%
16% Variety
Assured quality
Packaging
22% 25% Advertisement

Interpretation
From above table it is found that good quality is more emphasis by
consumer then Variety, Assured quality, Packaging,Advertisement.
 Respondents No. Of respondents
52
Yes 50
No 50

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
 Satisfaction Level of Consumers
Regarding unbranded items
50 50
50

No of respondents
0
Yes No

Interpretation
The result for unbranded items show that out of 100 people 50% are satisfied
with unbranded items and 50% of not satisfied.

53
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
 No of respondents Reason Of Dissatisfaction

9 Price
0 Unavailability
13 Impurity
28 Poor quality

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.
54
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 • Atta
• Salt • Rice
• Sugar
 15001-20000 • Atta • Sugar
• Rice • Dry-fruit
• Spices
20001-25000 • Spices • Pickles
• Sugar • Honey
• Dry-fruit
25001 & above Prefer almost
all things
branded

55
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.
 57

Chapter-6

CONCLUSION
 58

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.

59

RECOMMENDATION
 60

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.

61
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

62
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

63
 Annexure

64

QUESTIONNAIRS
Dear Respondent,
I am Sanjay Verma student of CT INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & IT,
JALADHAR Pursuing MBA and conducting project regarding the”
Consumers perception regarding branded and unbranded grocery items
in Jalandhar”. 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 _____________________

65
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?
________________________________________________________
___
________________________________________________________
___
________________________________________________________
___

67