Chocolate Consumption Pattern in India

Abstract: Customer opinion is a belief about matters commonly considered to be subjective, i.e., it is based on that which is less than absolutely certain, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts. The main aim of the study is to know about the customer preference regarding the chocolate consumption pattern and attributes that emphasis in preferring a particular brand with respect to Chennai city.The study focused on various factors like (1) The most preferred chocolate.(2) The reason for consuming chocolate (3) The factor influencing to buy chocolate (4) the most preferred brand by customers. The number of samples collected by the researcher is 97 customers, who were consumers of sugar-free chocolates. The study was conducted in Chennai city. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The study concluded that in today’s world youngsters go for branded products and the most preferred brand from the study happens to be Cadbury. Youngsters like to consume chocolates at anytime irrespective whether they are happy or distress. Chocolate occupy as the major part of gift during occasions (Diwali,Raksha Bandhanetc) in India.. They spend a part of the expenditure in buying Chocolates. Nowadays, doctors suggest taking dark chocolates are good for heart and it nourishes the energy of mind and body.

Keywords: Customer opinion, Chocolates, preferred brand, youngsters, Dark chocolates.

1. (a) INTRODUCTION:

Customer opinion is a belief about matters commonly considered to be subjective, i.e., it is based on that which is less than absolutely certain, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts.

The history of chocolate began in Mesoamerica. Chocolate, the fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao, can be traced to the Mokaya and other pre-Olmec people, with evidence of cacao beverages dating back to 1900 BC. Chocolate played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a “tribute”. The Europeans sweetened and fattened it by adding refined sugar and milk, two ingredients unknown to the people in Mesoamerica.

By contrast, they never infused it into their general diet, but compartmentalized its use to sweets and desserts. In the 19th century, Briton John Cadbury developed an emulsification process to make solid chocolate creating the modern chocolate bar. For hundreds of years, the chocolate making process remained unchanged. When the Industrial Revolution arrived, many changes occurred that brought the hard, sweet candy to life. In the 18th century, mechanical mills were created that squeezed out cocoa butter, which in turn helped to create hard, durable chocolate. But, it was not until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution that these mills were put to bigger use. Not long after the revolution cooled down, companies began advertising this new invention to sell many of the chocolate treats seen today. When new machines were produced, people began experiencing and consuming chocolate worldwide. Although cocoa is originally from the Americas, today Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the world’s cocoa.

(b) CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY

Traditionally seen as an indulgence, chocolates are now being increasingly accepted in the Indian society. Of the total confectionary market of 176.9 thousand tons in 2009, 46.8 thousand tons came from chocolate confectionary. This number was much higher in terms of value with chocolates contributing Rs. 1790 crores of the total industry sales value of Rs. 4081 crores in 2009 (Euromonitor, 2009). The table below gives the breakup of the confectionary market in India by sales volume and sales value.

| |Retail Volume (‘000 |Volume % |Retail Value RSP (Rs mn) |Value % | | |tonnes) | | | | |Chocolate Confectionary |46.8 |26.5% |17904.6 |43.9 | |Sugar Confectionary |111.8 |63.2% |18083.5 |44.3 | |Gums |18.3 |10.3% |4830.4 |11.8 | |Confectionary |176.9 |100.0% |40818.5 |100.0 |

MAJOR PLAYERS

• Nestle Milky Bar & Bar One.
• Cadbury’s India Limited
• Nestle India
• Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation
• Cocoa Manufactures and Processors Co-operative (CAMPCO)
• Bars Count Lines Wafer Panned Premium
• Cadbury’s Dairy Milk & Variants
• 5-Star, Milk
• Amul Milk Chocolate
• Treat Perk Gems,
• Tiffins Temptation & Celebrations

2. BRIEF REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

A person, company, or other entity which buys goods and services produced by another person, company, or other entity.

In general, an opinion is a subjective belief, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts. An opinion may be supported by an argument, although people may draw opposing opinions from the same set of facts. Opinions rarely change without new arguments being presented. Opinions are never right or wrong, they are merely a figment of what someone believes. However it can be reasoned that one opinion is better supported by the facts than another by analysing the supporting arguments. In casual use, the term opinion may be the result of a person’s perspective, understanding, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires. It may refer to unsubstantiated information, in contrast to knowledge and fact-based beliefs. The combination of qualities, quantities, acts and tendencies characterizing a community or human group’s use of resources for survival, comfort and enjoyment.

(Hokanson1995),The author said these factors include Pricing, Advertising , Timely availability of the product at the customers place , Packaging . which plays a vital role in the opinion of the customers .

(Anton. J 1996), To be successful, organizations must look into the needs and wants of their customers. That is the reason why many researchers and academicians have continuously emphasized on the importance of customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

Heike C. Alberts and Julie L. Cidell (2006), the authors investigates that why chocolate consumption patterns and understandings of quality vary significantly between the United States and Western Europe on the one hand, and among western European countries on the other hand

Dan BAUGHER, ELLEN Weisbord, Alan EISNER (2011) –
The author investigates that dark chocolate has potent antioxidant
properties. coronary atherosclerosis is promoted by impaired endothelial function and increased platelet activation

3. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis: To identify the significant difference between the demographic variables (GENDER) on preference towards the chocolates

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher has chosen the college goers as sample unit. The sample size determined is 100, but after discarding the missing values and extreme cases, the size is 96. The study was administered using a structured questionnaire, the first 5 questions contains demographic factors and the rest contains questions related to opinion of the respondent on chocolate consumption used optional type of questions. SPSS 14.00 was used to analyze ANOVA, One-sample test and Correlation.

7. MAJOR FINDINGS:

The chart 5.1 shows that 65% of the respondents belong to the age between 20-22 and 30% of therespondents are between 23 -24. From chart 5.3, majority (72%) of the respondents who prefer chocolates are female. And the chart 5.4 shows that most of them fall into the income group ranging 51000 to 1 lakh.

The table 6.1 depicts that the F ratio is 0.271 for 1 degree of freedom, which is insignifacant (p=0.604). So the hypothesis is rejected. Therefore, the researcher conclude that male and female have difference in prefering chocolates.

6. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER SCOPE FOR RESEARCH

This study would help the industry to know the preference of chocolates by the Chennai consumers, so that they can adopt proper marketing and distribution strategies. The study has certain limitations that it was restricted to Chennai city. The study is been confined to chocolate preference; the research can be further extended to know the consumption pattern.

7. SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION

The more of advisement is done through word of mouth after the chocolate is been tasted by the people so, Marketers can tap on these areas and make the quality of the chocolate more delicious and by which the share in market by marketers can zoom up

In today’s world youngsters go for branded products and the most preferred brand from the study happens to be Cadbury. Youngsters like to consume chocolates at anytime irrespective whether they are happy or distress. Chocolate occupy as the major part of gift during occasions (Diwali, Raksha Bandhanetc) in India. Homemade chocolates also been made at every occasions. So it is clear that young Indians are really interested in taking chocolates. They spend a part of expenditure in buying Chocolates. Nowadays, doctors suggest taking dark chocolates are good for heart and it nourishes the energy of mind and body.

References:

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http://www.allprojectreports.com/Project Report on Retail Marketing in India

http://www.asbbs.org/files/2011/JBBS_23.3_Fall_2011.pdf#page=66

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http://edissertations.nottingham.ac.uk/1007/1/Kanika_Dissertation.pdf