Marketing Assignment: Ready-to-eat food

category
Submitted To: Prof. Jayasimha K.R.
Submitted By: Section A Group -6

Members:
2016PGP001 A G Nawin Krishna
2013IPM013 Amal Ashraf
2016PGP124 Divyanshu
2016PGP272 Prachi Pant
2016PGP316 Ritwik Moitra
2013IPM100 Suryawanshi Priyanka
2016PGP435 Wandile Nikhil Manoj
INTRODUCTION

The product category chosen was Ready-to-Eat food products. The Ready
to Eat products sector can be categorized into two broad segments, frozen
products and shelf stable products. The products defined in this category
for the purpose of the survey were pre-cooked meals (rice, curries and
desserts) available that can be heated in a microwave and can be served
directly. Ready-to-eat segment is a small part of the total Rs 87,770 crore
packaged food market. Growth in this sector in slowing down in recent
years. Most of them cater to four servings in size and are priced around
rupees 80 to 100. These products are commonly available in retail stores
and are still viewed as a relatively new product due to the pre-cooked
concept behind it. They can directly be used for lunch and dinner and are
available in a specially made aluminum packaging.

To conduct the consumer Survey, we went to the Big Bazaar Outlet in

Treasure Island Mall, Indore on 25th August at around 6pm. We assumed
that evening on weekday is the most preferred time for the consumers to
shop for their daily needs.

We interviewed three individuals with different socio-economic

backgrounds, different age group, gender and tried to gauge their
preferences (if any) towards ready-to-eat meals.

Types of ready-to-eat food available at the outlet chosen

Veg Food: Matar Paneer, Palak paneer, Dal Makhani, Chana Masala, Paneer
Makhni
Non Veg Food: Unavailable
Deserts: Unavailable

BRANDS AVAILABLE:

MTR It is amongst the top five processed food manufacturers in

India. The products are exported to eight other countries,
including USA and UK. Their product range currently
consists of twenty-two Indian curries, gravies and rice.

ITC Aashirvaad Ready Meals has a range of ten Indian dishes,

Aashirvaad carefully preserved in a 4 layer international pouch. The
company emphasizes on the lack of preservatives to
 ensure greater acceptability in terms of the health
concerns surrounding pre-cooked products.

Chokhi Dhani Chokhi Dhani, originally an indigenous tourism concept-

oriented establishment, has now entered the ready-to-eat
segment with a product range comprising of 24 ready-to-
eat products that include gravy, rice and desserts.

Gits Gits has developed a large number of products within its

portfolio including: Instant Mixes (Ready-to-Cook), Ready
Meals (Ready-to-Eat), Savories & Dairy products. Gits in
widely distributed across India and exports to over 40
countries across the globe.

Attitudes and Behavior of the consumers that were identified in the whole
buying process at each stage are as follows:

TRIGGERS FOR PURCHASE:

Reasons:
1. Emergency Situations
2. Children pester parents to try something different after watching
advertisements
3. Shopkeepers suggestion to try something new
4. The family member who cooks not present
5. Exploration of a new dish/cuisine
6. While going for outing and camping
7. Hectic Lifestyle

Attitude/Behavior: People mostly of this generation want to try something

different, want variety in their life look for innovative, fast and easy-to-do
things. Mostly who buy this product can be categorized as thinkers or
experimenters according to VALS

TRIGGERS FOR NOT PURCHASING:

1. Preference of home-made food over packed food
2. Unhygienic
3. Unhealthy
4. Not satisfying the need (e.g. No Jain Food category)

Attitude/Behavior: People with traditional mindset or with low income

generally do not try ready-to-eat foodstuffs. They think them to be
unhygienic, unhealthy packaged foods and hence avoid them .Mostly who
buy this product can be categorized as survivors or believers according to
VALS. Also recently people have become health conscious and keep a check
on their calorie content, sugar and fat consumption which is blocking the
growth of Ready-to-eat Products.

INFORMATION SEARCH:
Once the need for the product is felt and triggered a consumer tries to gain
information on exactly what to choose among varied alternatives in the
same product category through various sources. The information search
sources that we found through our survey were mainly:
Advertisement on TV
Suggestions from Shopkeepers
Family and Friends

EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES :
According to the survey, major factors evaluating alternatives were
availability, brand and taste. There were some more factors like price,
packing and advertisement but they had considerably less contribution in
buying decision. Customers preferred the product available in the local
grocery store in the case of emergency. While buying the grocery from
shopping mall like Big Bazaar, they preferred MTR over other available
brands. Second preferred brand was ITC Aashirvaad. Customers tend to
finalize the product based on the taste in their preferred brand.

PURCHASE DECISION AND PATTERN :

In our market research, we identified that need for ready-to-eat food
products arises primarily because of emergency situations such as
travelling or camping when it is difficult to carry cooked food and secondly
due to working women looking for easy-to-cook options. The convenience in
terms of ordering food has been a big deterrent, often hindering the
conversion of purchase decision to actual purchase. Consumers hardly step
out of their houses just for purchasing ready-to-eat food in the time of need,
rather they order food online. The purchase that actually happens is mostly
during monthly grocery shopping which is not out of necessity.

SUGGESTIONS :
After analyzing consumer insights and through our findings we would like to
suggest some measures that the company can consider to increase their
sales:
1) Change the tone of the advertisement: MTR advertisements highlights
only the taste and the convenience of instant breakfast mix. For the sales to
pick up, they must target the customers who are traveling frequently and
single women who often do not want to cook for themselves.
2) Introduce range of products in Jain food category
3) Introduce low calorie foodstuffs for increasing diet conscious population

Sources:
[1]http://www.livemint.com/Companies/vsR1wpFJsCQx2QXqLlz1EP/Readyto
eat-meals-fail-to-taste-success.html
[2]https://www.scribd.com/doc/58023934/Indian-Processed-foods-industry-
and-the-ready-to-eat-market