1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: “Another project!!!” --- Bizarre expressions loomed over the faces of all the students as this term was mentioned. However as the details of the project that was supposed to be a Business Research conveyed to us, we were all geared up to work on it. We were asked to form groups and get on with the research. The different research topics were given to all students and were to assign on first come first get basis, we decided to tap on some different kind of industry and after a lot of discussions and conflicting arguments we all agreed on “Ghee Industry”, keeping in mind its decreasing market share. Next comes the stage of submission of the “Research Proposal.” All of us worked relentlessly on the proposal as it was supposed to entail all that we were planning to do while conducting our research. As soon as the proposal got approved, we started on with the data 1
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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
“Another project!!!” --- Bizarre expressions loomed over the faces of all the
students as this term was mentioned. However as the details of the project
that was supposed to be a Business Research conveyed to us, we were all
geared up to work on it.
We were asked to form groups and get on with the research. The different
research topics were given to all students and were to assign on first come
first get basis, we decided to tap on some different kind of industry and after
a lot of discussions and conflicting arguments we all agreed on “Ghee
Industry”, keeping in mind its decreasing market share. Next comes the
stage of submission of the “Research Proposal.” All of us worked
relentlessly on the proposal as it was supposed to entail all that we were
planning to do while conducting our research. As soon as the proposal got
approved, we started on with the data collection. Since our project was using
the technique of a quantitative research, data collection was quite a
cumbersome task. Questionnaires were personally administered by the five
of us at the various residential localities all over Lahore. To gain a better
insight we conducted regular meetings of the groups & consulted our course
instructor at every step and applied all that practically in the field. It was the
most interesting stage as it gave us the chance of one to one communication
with the ghee & oil consumers. Data collection was followed up by the data
entry and analysis. Various analytical tools were applied and the findings
were presented graphically and statistically to give a better understanding.
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Another learning aspect of this research was the use of SPSS for the
conducting meetings in a professional environment, trying to meet our
project requirements and adhering to the respective privacy of respondents
simultaneously were some of the tactics that we mastered our skills on. As
the research was taken forward more interest was mobilized and we were
motivated to analyze the findings from more dimensions.
Overall “How to increase the usage of ghee, a declining category in
comparison with oil” has been a very interesting and a highly enriching
experience.
2. BACKGROUND
“Ghee” a very familiar thing to all of us, which has always been associated
with health, strength and purity. A decade ago “ghee” was the most popular
medium, which was used for cooking. There was no major competition
against it, and all the social classes were using it. “ Desi Ghee” was being
struck by packed branded ghee, the pioneer companies involved were Dalda,
Sufi etc.
In rural or sub urban areas unpacked ghee was in demand due to high prices
of branded ghee and large pack sizes launched by them. Ghee has been used
widely all over Pakistan since the country was established, but as we all
know, the last decade which been the most growing decade in technology,
medium, education and health.
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Now ghee has lost its major share to oil. Day by day it is loosing its market
position, especially in the urban areas of Pakistan. Previously ghee was used
to cook every meal and it was part of life but now its use has also been
limited t occasions and dishes. Now all ghee manufacturers have extended
there business to oil manufacturing due to decline in ghee industry overall
and increase in demand of oil.
3. INFORMATION SOUGHT
As stated in the background section, Ghee is now not being used as it was
previously in our society. It uses has been significantly dropped and limited
to specific occasions & dishes. Ghee is now mostly used on special
occasions or only for the dishes where it is concerned as a prerequisite for
that dish or is a part of its recipe. So, a need for the research study to know
the reasons to decline the usage of ghee exists.
Therefore the research objective can be defined as “How to increase the
usage of ghee, a declining category in comparison with oil”. The
questionnaire has been designed to get information about current uses of
ghee that will give us percentage of ghee users and different uses of it.
It will also generate exact information about that how people are using it.
The first section of
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Questionnaire is composed of uses of ghee, which will identify the
following: -
- What people used to cook
- Why ghee
- Using ghee since when
- Up till when ghee was used
- Consumption period of ghee
- Demand of ghee
- Purchasing pattern of ghee
This section also includes questions to identify reasons to use ghee, when &
how used, which will generate the following: -
- For what purpose ghee is used.
- Identify those special occasions & dishes.
Then later in the questionnaire ghee has been ranked on different attributes
and significance level of each attribute with ghee, which will generate the
following: -
- Taste rating
- Aroma rating
- Purity preference
- Nutrition rating
- Packaging rating
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After doing this section some of the emphasis was given to know the usage
of oil, so that it can be identified why ghee is loosing its sales to oil. This
will generate following information:
- Difference in ghee & oil uses
- Why oil is preferred
- When & why people switched to oil
- Which attribute are factors of oil success and ghee’s gradual
decline.
In the end we can have tried to generate information about consumer
perception, which has great significance and reflects the buying decisions of
customers. These questions are open ended will generate the following: -
- Ghee persona
- How consumers think about ghee
- How they perceive ghee
- Have ghee manufacturers been able to make positive strong
perception
- Are they aware of the negative perceptions
- Identify the suitable position for ghee, so that its sales can be
improved.
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All these questions combined together will help identify the following in the
below mentioned order: -
- Previous uses
- Current uses
- Reasons to use
- Reasons to switch
- Reasons of declining sales
- Weak areas
- Strong areas
- Future threats
- Areas of opportunities targeted for future decisions
- Areas to concentrate on to increase sales of ghee eventually.
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4. RESEARCH DESIGN
The research will be quantitative and ad-hoc in its type and the data will be
collected via field survey.
4.1. Target respondent
Target respondents will be females (DMUs), SEC A, B & C, age ranging
from 20 to 50 years.
4.2. Sample design
Universe
The universe can be defined as “All household users of branded ghee and
cooking oil in Lahore”
Sampling type
The sampling technique used here will be disproportionate stratifies
random sampling. The stratification will be done on the following basis
- age
- SEC
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4.3. 0
Age / SEC A B C Total
20 – 30yrs 13 12 10 35
31 – 40 yrs 14 11 10 35
41 – 50yrs 13 12 10 35
Total 40 35 30 105
4.4. Recruitment criteria
Not working in Marketing, sales and advertising (none of the douse hold
member)
The respondent should be the DMU for ghee or oil used in the household for
cooking purposes
4.5. Substitution procedure
In case of getting no response from the respondent for the three consecutive
days, the respondent will be replaced with another respondent who will fall
in the recruitment criteria and will belong to the neighborhood of the non
responded respondent.
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5. RESEARCH FINDINGS
5.1. Analysis of the Findings
The research after being conducted reveals the results that show the
consumption pattern of the ghee users, their percentage, different uses and
what are their preferences nowadays.
Ghee is now not being used as it was previously in our society. It uses has
been significantly dropped and limited to specific occasions & dishes. Ghee
is now mostly used on special occasions or only for the dishes where it is
concerned as a prerequisite for that dish or is a part of its recipe. The
emerging trend of using oil has rapidly taken over the major market share as
it is considered to be most healthy and better then using the traditional ghee.
Some families still prefer to use ghee but their number is also declining.
People have made oil as the primary object for cooking purposes and it is
being preferred mostly in all the areas of Pakistan.
Through proper and in depth analysis of the results it has been concluded
that Ghee is now not being used as it was previously in our society. People
have changed their lifestyles, which have immensely influenced their
choices, and they have included oil in their daily cooking. Most of the
people’s response in Figure 8.1 suggests that they like using ghee as well as
oil as a cooking medium.
A very interesting thing that was revealed in the analysis was that most
people have been have using ghee for more than ten years which shows that
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ghee has been with them since long and people still trust in their age old
choice.
The people who were included in this research showed that ghee is quite
frequently used in their daily cooking, as most of the respondents had used it
a day before, so the frequency of usage is quite high but the quantity used is
not that much because it is not mainly used for cooking daily meals. Table
7.22 shows that ghee is either only used to put “Tardka on karee” or to make
parathas, choori & halwa, which does not involve significant amount of ghee
consumption because these dishes are not made on regular basis.
Not keeping a specific ghee brand in mind the results still reveal that people
mostly like to purchase 5 kg packs which is basically on monthly basis so it
shows that people are still fond of using and buying ghee as a preferred
medium for the cooking purposes along with the purchase of oil. Figure8.4
shows the demand of different skus of ghee, which supports this argument.
So here is some hope or opportunities, which can be used to increase the
sales of Ghee.
Addressing to the next section that deals with the reasons why people use
ghee and what are the reasons they have not shifted to a different medium.
This section also addresses to the question of when and for what the ghee is
being consumed.
Previously ghee was considered as an integral part of our daily routine lives,
it was used on the daily bases for cooking regular dishes, but the analysis
shows that as the times have changed so has the preferences and the purpose
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of using ghee. Table 7.22 shows that now days the trends have changed and
people mostly use ghee for the purpose of cooking special dishes and not for
the daily cooking. It is also true that some families are still using ghee for
the purpose of daily usage but their number is not as high as people who use
it for cooking special dishes and this number seems to be declining. While in
comparison as we can see in table 7.31 that oil consumption is on rise and
more educated people prefer to use only oil, they don’t even fall in
conjunction users.
As the purpose of using ghee has changed so has the choice. People now like
to make different dishes with ghee rather than cooking ordinary and daily
food. People want variation so to adopt that variation in dishes they use ghee
for mostly making PARATHAS. This shows that to bring a hint of the
traditional taste people still want to use ghee in making parathas followed by
tardaka on “daals” and for the purpose of making halwas. This shift in the
usage of ghee shows the demand of customers and their preferences.
A very important and insightful thing that is revealed through this research is
that people has restricted the usage of ghee to certain occasions and festivals.
Rather than using ghee on daily bases people mostly prefer to use it when
they arrange family gatherings. People mostly like to use ghee on family
gatherings followed by family get together. This reveals the fact that the
association of ghee is being restricted to occasion’s rather then intimate and
personal family life.
Attributes are considered to be very important among the people today.
Attributes help in developing band association as well as band recognition
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and brand loyalty. People focus on the attributes in relation to the product
and rate it according to that. This objective approach helps in making
purchase decisions and developing a consumption pattern.
The third section of the research focuses on the attributes of ghee and how
people prefer certain attributes to others and how they give weight age to
them.
Talking about food people like to eat food that tastes and smells good as
well as which is presented in a good way. Ghee plays a major role in making
the food delicious as well as making it smell tempting. Table 7.20 reveals
that most people who use and buy ghee would consider taste as the most
important attribute. Taste is considered to be the thing which people keep
into consideration while choosing ghee. Followed by that the aroma of the
food is considered to be the second preferred attribute of ghee.
While rating the importance of the attributes, people responded in a very
conscious manner. As taste is considered as the most important attribute,
while making their choice people consider taste to be more important in
preference. Going for the smell of the food, which is aroma; people give it
the same rating as taste, which is more important. As far as the purity is
concerned people in their preference consider it to be neither important nor
this important. People who prefer the nutrition level of ghee give it more
importance in ratings. Lastly packaging, people who give prefer ghee on the
attribute of packaging give it a moderate rating which is neither important
nor this important that means that they are concerned with the product not
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the packaging and that now oil and ghee packaging are more or less quite
similar. The table 7.22 supports the findings.
These rating indicate that the preference on attributes varies from person to
person because people give weight age to one attribute more then the other.
So now from these attributes section new opportunities for future ghee
positioning can be determined.
Going for the cross tabulation analysis, while comparing the educational
level of the respondent and the cooking medium for daily meals it was
clearly revealed that with the increase in educational level the awareness and
usage of oil also increases. The table 7.32 supports this analysis and shows
that the preference and consumption of oil is greatest for the postgraduates,
which is 21%. This indicates that as people are becoming more educated
they are going more towards the use of oil and letting go of using ghee.
To analyze the consumption pattern of the respondents, while comparing the
average size used by them and the average pack life it is clearly identified
that on a monthly bases the pack, which is mostly used by the ghee
consumers, is a 5 kg pack. As the average life of the pack mostly is one
month, people think that the 5 kg pack of ghee is most convenient as it
fulfills the requirements effectively per month, but oil is consumed more in
comparison to ghee.
To further analyze the consumption and purchase pattern of the consumers
we will analyze the average size mostly used and the frequency of purchase.
The table 7.4 provides us with an in-depth insight that mostly people prefer
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to purchase the 5 kg pack on monthly basis. Referring to the average life of
the pack one month seems to be the most suited time for most of the
households for the purchasing of ghee packs. As it seems to be economical
and fulfills there needs.
To understand the purpose of using ghee as a cooking medium, we will
compare the purpose of using ghee and the units purchased at a time. This
information in table 7.29 reveals that as the as the use of ghee as a medium
of cooking daily foods is reducing so is the number of units purchased. Now
day’s ghee is mostly used for the purpose of preparing special dishes so its
consumption is reducing. So as ghee is affiliated to cooking of special dishes
the number of units purchased at a time is reduced to one that means that on
a monthly bases only one pack of ghee is consumed by a family and mostly
for the purpose of cooking special dishes rather then for daily purposes.
To analyze the data we cross tabulated the variables of monthly household
income and the size of the pack purchased. The information in table 7.30
revealed the fact that the people earning a monthly household salary of Rs.
50,000 to 70,000 mostly consume the 5 kg pack of ghee this shows that the
use of 5 kg of ghee is mostly by people belonging to B+. This shows that as
the monthly income increases the consumption pattern for the ghee
decreases. The use of oil is also characterized as a status symbol and people
take that into consideration while making their purchase decision.
As information gathered in the table 7.25 many facts has been identified as
important reasons for switching to oil from ghee usage. One of the major
factors is the “Low cholesterol” that is a prominent feature of the product
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category. This attribute is one key reason for the increasing preference of
cooking oil over ghee. The other two interrelated attributes are the “health
factor” and the “transparency factor” found in cooking oil. The other
identified reasons for increasing usage of oil are the purity and ease of use.
So over all it can be concluded that the replacement of oil in place of ghee as
cooking medium for daily meals is mainly because of the low level of
cholesterol in oil.
Another interesting fact found in the study is related to the time when
respondents switched to oil from ghee or started using oil with a conjunction
use to oil. It is clear from the figure # that respondents who are using oil in
comparison to oil are using it for the time more than 10 years. And there is a
relatively increasing trend in switching of oil from ghee as one move from 5
years time period to 1 year. This shows the increasing awareness of the
respondents about their health as well as it shows the brand loyalty found in
the oil users.
As talking about the preference reasons of oil over ghee, a rating of
attributes of oil was asked from respondents in comparison with oil. It was
found that out of total oil users 34.5% prefer oil due to the reason that it
contains low level of cholesterol (table 7.25). The other 18%, 15% and 14%
prefer it for taste, purity and nutrition respectively. This supporting data to
the rational of using oil in preference to oil clearly states that now
respondents want their daily meals to be more healthy rather than fattening.
As we proceed towards knowing the perception of ghee in the eyes of
targeted respondents, it has been shown that mostly respondents has very
negative perception of ghee, with respect to its product attributes and brand
personality. As in it’s better to explain in their words, e.g. ghee has
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- Fattening ingredient
- high cholesterol
- strong link with cardiac problems
- Obesity factor and that’s why not good for health especially
for kids
- Stickiness and “ghee made” dishes are not easily digestible
Similarly, talking about the so called brand personality of “ghee”, the
general consensus of the majority of the respondents can be defined as
Ghee is a fat, short highted, middle aged man. Who looked more of a rural
area person with dark complexion.
But at the same time many respondents rate ghee as important reason for
good health and internal strength of body. They also commented that ghee
gives a special aroma to meals and makes it more tasty and nutritious. But
ratio of these “positive perception” respondents is very low.
Examining the positive personality image of ghee, where many respondents
were grading it as a rural not very educated man, there some of them
perceived ghee as young, active and energetic person who is very caring,
strong and muscular. This positive image opens many new opportunities for
ghee manufacturers to promote and build their brands by associating the
attributes of strength and health with ghee.
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5.2. The Final Conclusion
While concluding the whole analysis the major results can be summarized as
- The major reason for using the ghee, found in respondents is
that ghee adds taste and aroma to the cooked food that
makes it delicious, As compare to major reason for using oil,
low level of cholesterol (table 7.25 & 7.20 So it can be
concluded that at least ghee manufacturers can promote and
position the product category on the variables like “taste
adding ability” and good aroma. Intelligently utilized these
variables can help restrain the further decrease in the usage
of ghee.
- There exist a strong relationship between the income level
and pack size of ghee usually bought for usage (table 7.26).
The relationship is very much positively correlated. Another
related observation is the relationship between pack size
bought and the purchase frequency. It can be concluded that
on average respondents used to consume 5 to 8 kg per
month. That shows the consumption pattern for ghee.
- Out of total respondents 51.4% use both ghee and oil as
cooking medium, 39% use oil and the remaining 9.5% use
only oil as cooking medium (table 7.1). This observation
shows that majority of respondents are keen towards
conjunction usage of ghee and oil, but at the same time the
threatening increase in the number of only oil users is
alarming for ghee manufacturers. It shows that more
respondents are using oil for cooking their daily meals but
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they are using ghee for making special dishes or use for
special occasion (table 7.22 & 7.23). The tables mentioned
here shows that those respondents who are using only ghee
or both ghee and oil prefer using ghee for making parathas
(40.8%), tardka (28.2%), halwa (22.2%) and choori (8.5%).
A very few number of respondents mentioned that they like
to make “khitchri” for their kids with ghee. Similarly
proposed and preferred occasion for increasing the usage of
ghee are family gatherings (64.7%) and formal get together
(23.5%)
- There are many reasons for decline in the usage of ghee in
comparison to oil. The key factor is the different level of
cholesterol in ghee and oil. At the moment DMUs or
housewives are very much aware of the harmful effect of the
cholesterol over the health of adults and children. There is a
strong relationship found in the education of the housewives
and their perception and switching attitude of the ghee (table
7.26). It has been shown in the table # that as the respondent
become more educated her preference towards usage of oil
start increasing.
- Most of the respondents stated that they perceive “ghee” to
have a very negative image that it is not good for health and
cause cardiac problems. This negative image is further
associated with the poor personality of the product category.
This clearly proves that ghee manufacturers has been
unsuccessful in defining the right kind of positioning for
ghee and developing the positive perception in the minds of
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the target customers. Another interrelated conclusion that
can be drawn is that ghee manufacturers remain unable to
take apace with the changing preference of the target
market, and this is because they are facing such lose of
positive image.
5.3. Suggestions
The conclusions drawn from the research study “How to increase usage of
Ghee? A declining category in comparison with Oil”, lead to certain
suggestions that may prove to be helpful in meeting the research objective.
- The declining usage of ghee can be improved by making the
target market convinced about the benefits of using ghee.
This can be done via an effective promotion campaign to
make customers realize that ghee is not as harmful for health
as it has been perceived by most of them. But ghee also has
many positive points that may provide good health and can
add taste to food.
- Increasing the “usage occasion” can be a beneficial tactic for
ghee manufacturers. As previously explained mostly
respondents who use both ghee and cooking oil as cooking
medium, use ghee for making special dishes on specific
occasions and use oil to make daily meals. This opportunity
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can be availed by promoting the key uses of ghee other than
for daily meals. For example, an aggressive advertising
campaign can be developed that will promote the major
usage occasions for ghee and in away make people
consciously aware at what specific events they can use ghee
or in other words they should use ghee as cooking medium.
This proposed way will help in improving the sharply
declining usage of ghee.
- Ghee manufacturers have to take some affirmative actions to
rebuilt and promote the positive perception of ghee in the
minds of target customers. A positive image of brand is
always good for the health of the product category. As it is
very much clear that most of the respondents perceive ghee
as a fattening ingredient to food and don’t take into
consideration the advantages of using ghee. This is mainly
because of the poor perception. Finally, the right step at the
moment will be to establish an encouraging brand
personality for ghee that may help in the creating and
maintaining the brand loyalty.
- Ghee manufacturers can come up with a promotional
scheme in which they can encourage purchase of the
different pack sizes of the ghee by offering price discounts
and price packs.
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6. APPENDIX A
6.1. Research Questionnaire
Assalam-o-Alikum, my name is _____________. I am student of the National University of Modern Languages. We are conducting a survey to gather and interpret the information related to decrease in the usage of ghee in comparison with oil. We will highly appreciate your participation in this regard.
Screening questions
Q 1. Name of the chief wage earner _______________________________
Q 2.Occupation of Chief Wage earner Education of chief wage earner
Illiterate Less than Primary
5-9 Class Matric F.A Graduate Post Graduate
Unskilled Worker E2 E2 E1 E1 D D CPetty trader E2 E2 E1 E1 D C CSkilled Worker E2 E2 E1 D D C CNon-Executive Staff member E2 E2 D D D C CSupervisor D D C C B B BSmall Shopkeeper D D C C B B A2Lower/Middle Officer/ Executive
D D C C B B A2
Professional (Self Emp. Or service)
B B A2 A2 A2 A1 A1
Medium Businessman B A2 A2 A2 A2 A1 A1Senior Executive/ Officer B A2 A2 A2 A1 A1 A1Large Biz. man/ Factory Owner
A2 A2 A2 A1 A1 A1 A1
Q 3. Respondent’s relation to Chief wage earner
1. Wife2. Daughter3. Mother4. Sister5. Other (Please specify)___________
Q 4. How many family members are there in your household and what are their age and gender starting from the youngest?
Q 5. Do you have a close relative working in a ghee or oil manufacturing company, advertising agency or research firm?
1. Yes [quit the interview]2. No [continue]
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Q 6. Have you participated in any research activity during the last 2 months?
1. Yes [quit the interview]2. No [continue]
Classification questions
Q 7. Marital status
1. Married2. unmarried
Q 8. Educational level
1. Matric2. Intermediate3. Graduate4. Post Graduate5. Other (please specify) ______________
Q 9. Occupation
1. Housewife2. Student3. Professional4. Other (please specify) ______________
Q 10. Monthly household income (in rupees)
1. less than 15,0002. 15,001 – 30,0003. 30,001 – 50,0004. 50,001 – 70,0005. 70,001 – 100,0006. 100,001 – 1,50,0007. 1,50,001 – 2,00,0008. 2,00,001 or above
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Q 11. What do you use mostly for cooking daily meals?
1. only ghee [go to Q 12]2. only oil [go to Q 29]3. both ghee and oil [go to Q 12]
Q 12. Why do you use ghee for cooking?
1. its healthy2. its pure3. it adds taste to the food4. other (please specify) _____________
Q 13. For how long have you been using ghee?
1. less than 6 months2. more than 6 months3. 1 year4. more than 1 year5. 5 years6. more than 5 years7. more than 10 years
Q 14. When was the last time you used ghee?
1. 1 day go2. 2 days ago3. 1 week ago4. 2 weeks ago5. 1 month ago6. more than 1 month ago7. other (please specify) _____________
1. less than a week2. 1 week3. more than 1 week4. more than 2 weeks5. 1 month6. more than 1 month7. other (please specify) _____________
Q 17. How often you buy?
1. daily2. weekly3. every two weeks4. monthly
Q 18. How many units you purchase at a time?
1. 12. 23. 34. 45. 56. more than 5
Q 19. For what purposes you mostly use ghee?
1. for cooking daily meals [go to Q 22]2. for cooking special dishes [go to Q 20]3. at special occasions [go to Q 21]4. Other (please specify) ________________
1. Basant2. Islamic Festival3. Family Gatherings4. Formal Get together5. others(please specify)_________________
[go to Q 22]
Q 22. On which attributes do you prefer ghee in comparison with oil?
1. Taste [go to Q 23]2. Aroma [go to Q 24]3. Purity [go to Q 25]4. Nutrition [go to Q 26]5. Packaging [go to Q 27]6. Other (please specify) [go to Q 28]
___________________Q 23. If taste
|----------------------|------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------| 1 2 3 4 5 Least Extremely Important Important
Q 24. If aroma
|----------------------|------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------| 1 2 3 4 5 Least Extremely Important Important
Q 25. If purity
|----------------------|------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------| 1 2 3 4 5 Least Extremely Important Important