RESEARCH WORK

ON
SHOPPERS BUY MORE FMCG ITEMS AT CHEMIST STORES WITH SPECIAL
REFERNECE TO CHOCOLATE-RELATED PRODUCTS

SUBMITTED TO:

SUBMITTED BY:
Harshita Wadehra (C-02)

Dr. Supriti Agarwal

Garima Abrol (C-22)

Assistant Professor

Sahaj Madan (C-56)

Department of Marketing

Karan Malik (C-57)

Shriyanka Singh (C-62)

INTRODUCTION

The consumer behaviour plays an important role in marketing of fast moving consumer goods.
This behaviour is affected by various factors. In the present era of globalisation needs and wants
of consumers changes with time. The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector contributes a
lot to the growth of Indias GDP. Therefore it is necessary to identify the changes in consumer
buying behaviour towards FMCG products.
Consumer behavior is defined is activities people under take when over taking, consuming and
disposing of product and services (et.al. Blackwell 2001). The study of consumer behavior does
not only include reason for buying but also the consumption process of the consumer at large. In
the entire process of buying consumer get driven by influences such as felling, motivation,
income, lifestyle, opinion, culture, personality etc.
The Indian consumer market has higher disposable income, the development of modern urban
life style and increase in consumer awareness have affected by buyer behavior in cities, town,
even rural areas. According to 2007 report by McKinsey & company, India is set to grow into the
fifth largest consumer market in the world by 2025. In this scenario, creating customer loyalty is
now a whole new challenge. These demographic shifts have also created the need for leader who
can keep pace with change and identify with and predict future demand.

FMCG sector in India

Fast moving consumer goods are popularity names as consumer packaged goods (CPG). Items in
this category include all consumable (other than grocery and pulses) people by at regular
intervals. The most common in the list are bath soaps, toilet soaps, detergent, shampoo,
toothpaste, shaving products, shoe polish, packaged food stuff and house hold accessories and
extends to certain electronic goods. These items are meant for daily or frequent consumption and
have a high returns.
The Indian FMCG sector in the economy has a total market size in excess of US $ 13.1 billion. It
has a strong MNC presence and is characterized by a well stabilized distribution network, intense
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completion between the organized and unorganized segment and low operational cost.
Availability of key raw material cheaper labor cost and presence across the entire value chain
gives India competing advantage.
The FMCG market is set to travel from US $11.6 billion in 2003 to US $ 33.4 billion in 2015.
Indian population, particularly the middle class and the rural segments, presence and opportunity
makers of branded products to convert consumer to branded product.

Major categories in FMCG Sector

Some of the categories include household care fabric, bath soap, laundry soap, and synthesis
detergent, household cleaner, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, toilet cleaners , mosquito repellents,
cakes, biscuits, chips, chocolates, ice creams, tea, coffee, soft drinks, branded rice, flour, canned
fruits, vegetables, dairy products, personal care products, oral, hair, skin care products etc.

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A brief about Indian Chocolate Industry

Indian Chocolate Industry as today is dominated by two companies, both multinationals. The
market leader is Cadbury with a lion's share of 70%. The company's brands like Five Star, Gems,
Eclairs, Perk, Dairy Milk are leaders in their segments. Untill early 90's, Cadbury had a market
share of over 80 %, but its party was spoiled when Nestle appeared on the scene. The other one
has introduced its international brands in the country (Kit Kat, Lions), and now commands
approximately 15% market share. The two companies operating in the segment are Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and Central Arecanut and Cocoa Manufactures
and Processors Co-operation (CAMPCO). Competition in the segment will soon get keener as
overseas chocolate giants Hershey's and Mars consolidate to grab a bite of the Indian chocolate
pie.The UK based confectionery giant, Cadbury is a dominant player in the Indian chocolate
market and the company expects the energy glucose variant of its popular Perk brand to be
singularly responsible for adding five per cent annually to the size of the companys market
share.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Mr. Ankit Katiyar, Mrs. Nikha Katiyar (2014) in their research paper titled An Empirical
Study of Indian Consumer Buying Behavior of FMCG Products provided us with insights
as to how chocolates have emerged as fast moving consumer goods that have seen a surge in
their sales in the past few decades in India and, how more and more people are opening up to the
idea of experimenting and trying out new chocolates and chocolate-related products. Their study
attempts to cover the various factors that influence the buying decision of consumers who plan to
purchase and consume chocolates and chocolate-related products. (Research Publish, 2014)

Dr. Vibhuti, Dr. Ajay Kumar Tyagi, Vivek Pandey (2014) in their research paper
titled A Case Study on Consumer Buying Behavior towards Selected FMCG
Products intended to study the factors affecting consumer buying
behaviour towards FMCG products and affecting their decision
making process. Additionally their objective was to understand how
consumer behaviour is largely affected by place, product, price, and
promotion, physiological and psychological factors. (International
Journal of Scientific Research & Management, 2014)

Rallabandi Srinivasu (2014) in his research paper titled Fast moving consumer goods retail
market, growth prospect, market overview and food inflation in Indian MarketAn
Overview has talked about the fact that fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector is a very
critical contributor to Indias GDP. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) constitute a large part
of consumers budget in all countries. The study has shed light on the high competitive
conditions in the FMCGs retail trade sector. The FMCG Industry is characterized by a well
established distribution network, low penetration levels, low operating cost, lower per capita
consumption and intense competition between the organized and unorganized segments. It is
currently growing at high rate and is expected to grow even more. Previously Indian buyers were
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a bit conservative in spending which can be attributed to the fact of lesser disposable income
and partly due to fewer competitive and of products variety. (International Journal of
Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2014)
Fazlollah Kazemi and Malihe Esmaeili (2010) in his paper titled The Role of Media on
Consumer Brand Choice-A case study of Chocolate Industry has talked about the rapid
growth of various brands in India has led to a tight competition and consumers are faced with
brand choice in the market, it becomes necessary for manufacturers to understand the major
factors attracting buyers to his own brand due to which chocolate are no more restricted to
departmental stores. The research papers indicates that 37.7% of the consumers prefer Cadbury
Dairy Milk more than other brands of chocolate. The major reason for brand preference is
advertisement (52.6%). TV advertising was most preferred by78.8% of the respondents of all the
media used. High preference for advertisement is highlighted for companies that want to not only
retain their market but to increase their market share. (International Journal of Business and
Management Vol. 5, No. 9; September 2010)

Arthi Balasubramanian, Elizabeth Thomas, Tina Bhatia and Chirag Chavda - in their
research paper briefed about the FMCG products occupancy in medical stores. India is currently
the twelfth largest consumer market in the world and is likely to join the premier league of the
worlds consumer market by 2025 improving its position to the fifth (McKinsey). The growth in
the consumer market in India is led by the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, which
is the fourth largest sector in the economy. The Indian FMCG industry grew by 22 per cent in
2006 (India Brand Equity Foundation) and is further set to witness a growth of more than 50%
in rural and semi-urban India. With this increasing demand for FMCG goods, a significant trend
that is being observed is that most medical stores also are increasingly stocking and selling
FMCG products. FMCG companies are also now selling to medical stores to give them an edge
in the invincible war of increasing market share; but what do the consumers prefer in this
scenario? Thus our study is aimed at observing consumer preferences in buying FMCG products
from grocery stores and chemists shop. This along with the information provided by chemists
shop and grocery stores, can provide FMCG companies critical information, which facilitates

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them to make their products available at the right place, at right time and in right quantity. (Arthi
Balasubramanian, 2007)

Krishna Mohan, chief executive officer, sales, supply chain & human capital, Emami Ltd. Business standard- Chemists play larger role in FMCG firms' sales strategy. Chemists stock a lot
more than medicines, consumers trust them and this channel expands yearly at 20% for
consumer goods. Besides medicines, most of them stock packaged and health foods, juices,
beverages, cosmetics, personal and home care products. This makes them an attractive trade
channel for most fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. Another reason why theyre
an important and growing channel for FMCG companies is the dominance in the country of
traditional trade in distribution of consumer products. It is unlike international markets, where
the retail segment is dominated by modern trade. The latter, in India, constitutes six to seven per
cent of sales for an FMCG company; in urban areas, the average is about 10 per cent. Traditional
trade contributes the rest. With the rise of chemists as a channel within traditional trade,
companies are excited. "Chemists as a trade channel for FMCG products are an interesting
avenue because they offer more display area. Also, the profile of shoppers coming there is
different from general trade. You can also push premium products, which you can't in the case of
general trade,"
Selling through a chemist outlets does add credibility to the sales exercise because consumers
tend totake them seriously. In that sense, they act as key influencers. Chemists increasingly are
also offering free home delivery, resulting in repeat purchases by customers. (Krishna Mohan)

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
We have done a descriptive research, where there were clear objectives in mind, but wanted to
obtain a better understanding of the situation and wanted to know the current behavior of the
respondents.
Descriptive research designs help provide answers to the questions of who, what, when, where,
and how associated with a particular research problem; a descriptive study cannot conclusively
ascertain answers to why.
DATA SOURCES
The project is based on both primary data, i.e. the structured questionnaire used for getting the
responses and secondary data through the use of official websites, research journals and
published articles.
RESPONSES:
The responses were collected by handing out the questionnaire in the chemist shops in different
areas of Delhi and Ghaziabad, which was then filled on the internet. The project is done by the
method of convenience sampling where the sampling unit is a customer. The total number of
responses collected is 20. The name and address of the chemist shops are written below.
1) Real Value Chemist Shop- Chamber No. 6-7, Kanchenjunga Apartments, Kaushambi.
2) Nagpal Chemist-N-83, Kirti Nagar,New Delhi.
QUESTIONNAIRE
As the topic was decided earlier and also what findings were to be obtained, a structured
questionnaire was designed. A structured questionnaire is used when we want to obtain
statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly

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administered, vital statistics about specific groups, or even populations, can be found out.
(attached in the appendix)

REFERENCES
Arthi Balasubramanian, E. T. (2007). 2007. FMCG occupancyin medical stores .
International Journal of Scientific Research & Management. (2014, August 8).
Retrieved September 29, 2014, from International Online Journal of Scientific
Research & Management: http://www.ijsrm.in/index.php/13-volume-2-issue-8august-2014/63-a-case-study-on-consumer-buying-behavior-towards-selected-fmcgproducts
Krishna Mohan, c. e. (n.d.). Chemist plays larger role in FMCG firms sales strategy.
Chemist plays larger role in FMCG firms sales strategy .
Research Publish. (2014, August). Retrieved September 30, 2014, from Research
Publish: www.researchpublish.com/download.php?...AN%20EMPIRICAL%20ST...

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