CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a

product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and

economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both

individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as

demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also

tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference

groups, and society in general.

The aim of the project is to study the behavior of consumers or buying decision involved

in purchasing Fortune oil.

FORTUNE OIL
Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is usually liquid at room temperature

(saturated oils such as coconut and palm are more solid at room temperature than other

oils).

Some of the many different kinds of edible vegetable oils include: olive oil, palm oil,

soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut

oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil. Many other kinds of vegetable

oils are also used for cooking.

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All marketing starts with the consumer. So consumer is a very important person to a

marketer. Consumer decides what to purchase, for whom to purchase, why to purchase,

from where to purchase, and how much to purchase. In order to become a successful

marketer, he must know the liking or disliking of the customers. He must also know the

time and the quantity of goods and services, a consumer may purchase, so that he may

store the goods or provide the services according to the likings of the consumers. Gone

are the days when the concept of market was let the buyer’s beware or when the market

was mainly the seller’s market. Now the whole concept of consumer’s sovereignty

prevails. The manufacturers produce and the sellers sell whatever the consumer likes. In

this sense, “consumer is the supreme in the market”.

As consumers, we play a very vital role in the health of the economy local, national or

international. The decision we make concerning our consumption behavior affect the

demand for the basic raw materials, for the transportation, for the banking, for the

production; they effect the employment of workers and deployment of resources and

success of some industries and failures of others. Thus marketer must understand this.

Preference (or "taste") is a concept, used in the social sciences, particularly economics. It

assumes a real or imagined "choice" between alternatives and the possibility of rank

ordering of these alternatives, based on happiness, satisfaction, gratification, enjoyment,

utility they provide. More generally, it can be seen as a source of motivation. In cognitive

sciences, individual preferences enable choice of objectives/goals.

Consumer preferences is used primarily to mean to select an option that has the greatest

anticipated value among a number of options by the consumer in order to satisfy his/her

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needs or desires. Preferences indicate choices among neutral or more valued options

available. The preference of the consumer is the result of their behavior they show during

searching, purchasing and disposing the products.

Consumers normally implement preferences when they go for comparing different

alternatives and choices. Preference based on scientific evaluation is always a reasonable

one. Real-life marketing primarily revolves around the application of a great deal of

common-sense dealing with a limited number of factors, in an environment of flawed

information and limited resources complicated by vagueness. Use of traditional

marketing techniques, in these circumstances, is inevitably partial and unequal. Now a

day the role of marketing has becoming an essential part for any product. Marketing

plays the pivotal role after establishing target specifications, concept generation, and

concept selection through concept screening matrix and concept scoring matrix, and

finally testing of concept selection. Marketing has been comprehensively classified into

two categories such as product selling and concept selling. The marketing of any product

might be reached only because of concept selling. The role of the concept selling is to

sell the concept to the customers after getting their feedbacks through face to face

interactions, Electronic mails, panel discussions, interaction with extreme users, end

users, lead users, written survey and word of mouth advertising. Above described

methods might be congruous and helpful for concept generation too. It will help the

marketers to market the product more gullible, notable and plausible.

Overview of Fortune oil

Fortune oil in the pulses, Fortune oil order, 1977 by ministry of food says Fortune oil

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means any oil used directly or after processing for human consumption and include

hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Indian vegetable oil economy is the 4th largest in the world after USA, china and Brazil.

Being the largest importer and 3rd largest consumer of Fortune oil, India is a major

player in the international Fortune oil markets. Each year India consumes over 10 million

tones of Fortune oil. However the per capita consumption of Fortune oil is around 10.4

kg per year. This is considerably lower than most developed countries. Palm oil &

soyabean oil account for almost half of the total Fortune oil consumption in India

followed by mustard & groundnut oil.

• India - one of world’s leading producers of oil seeds (9.3 %) and oil

• Technology Mission on oilseeds set up in 1996

• Oilseeds have support price mechanisms

• India - second largest importer of Fortune oils (2 million MT)

• Vanaspati - a substitute for ghee, formed by hydrogenation of crude vegetable oil.

• Free pricing in vanaspati since 1989; delicensed in 1992

• Oil season - November to October.

Characteristics

• Oils : primarily a commodity market :- price sensitive.

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• Effective distribution chain :- through a complex network of C & F agents,

wholesalers / stockists and retailers (kirana shops, supermarkets).

• Oil sold in bulk (tin, HDPE containers) to institutions; in retail packs (PET

bottles, cans, jars, pouches) to small customers.

• Seasonal demand for oils & vanaspati :- September to November (peak season).

• Regulation :- Under the Fortune oils Packaging (Regulation) Order, 1998,

Fortune oils cannot be sold loose’ but can be sold only in `packed’ form.

• Oil consumption :- North is largest market, followed by South, West & East

zones.

Importance of Fortune oils in the Country’s Economy

Oilseeds and Fortune oils are two of the most sensitive essential commodities. India is

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one of the largest producers of oilseeds in the world and this sector occupies an important

position in the agricultural economy and accounting for the estimated production of

28.21 million tones of nine cultivated oilseeds during the year 2007-08. India contributes

about 6-7% of the world oilseeds production. Export of oil meals, oilseeds and minor oils

has increased from 5.06 million Tones in the financial year 2005-06 to 7.3 million tons in

the financial year 2006-07. In terms of value, realization has gone up from Rs. 5514

crores to Rs.7997 crores. India accounted for about 6.4% of world oil meal export.

Types of Fortune oils commonly in use in India

India is fortunate in having a wide range of oilseeds crops grown in its different agro

climatic zones. Groundnut, mustard/rapeseed, sesame, safflower, linseed,

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nigerseed/castor are the major traditionally cultivated oilseeds. Soyabean and sunflower

have also assumed importance in recent years. Coconut is most important amongst the

plantation crops. Efforts are being made to grow oil palm in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,

Tamil Nadu in addition to Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Among the non-

conventional oils, ricebran oil and cottonseed oil are the most important. In addition,

oilseeds of tree and forest origin, which grow mostly in tribal inhabited areas, are also a

significant source of oils.

There is a large variety of Fortune oil in India. Most of oil are used for cooking and also

for salad dressing, condiments etc. The major Fortune oil in India like:

 Sunflowers

 Rapeseed

 Sesame Seed

 Cotton Seed

 Groundnut

 Soya bean

 Coconut.

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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

This study has following objectives:

• To analyze the demographic profile of customer and its relationship with brand

preferences.

• To identify the factors influencing customers in building their preferences from normal

product to branded products.

• To identify the factors responsible for brand switching.

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Research Methodology

The process used to collect information and data for the purpose

of making business decisions.

The methodology may include publication research, interviews, surveys and other

research techniques, and could include both present and historical information. The

research is many types such as descriptive research ,Analytical research, Fundamental

research, Conceptual research , Empirical research.

This research is based on descriptive research to complete this study primary as well as

secondary source of information is used. To study the consumer attitude & brand

preferences of Fortune oils, primary data is collected by using a detailed structured

questionnaire which was administered to a sampling method. The study has been carried

out in Lucknow city. The secondary data is collected from published thesis, reputed

journals, magazines and related websites. The data so collected is scrutinized, tabulated,

analyzed and finally used for the study purpose.

a) Hypothesis

 Consumers prefer branded products rather than unbranded products of Fortune

oils.

 Healthiness of Fortune oils is significantly more responsible for preference than

other characteristics

 Repetition of brand depends on satisfaction of customers.

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 b) Research design

Descriptive research, also known as statistical research, describes data and

characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research

answers the questions who , what , where, when and how.

Although the data description is factual, accurate and systematic, the research cannot

describe what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research cannot be used to create a

causal relationship, where one variable effects another. In other words, descriptive

research can be said to have a low requirement for internal validity.

c) Defining the universe and sample design

 In this report to identify the marketing strategies of fortune Fortune oils India will

be taken because it cannot be analyze in small universe.

 And for the survey of consumers and traders lucknow will be taken.

 Number of sample size is 80

d) Data collection tools to be used

1) Primary sources-

. Through Questionnaire.

2) Secondary sources-

. Factor analysis

. Analysis of rotated component matrix

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. From the website of adaniwilmar.com

e) statistical tools to be used

. Table show comparison

. Bar graph

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LIMITATIONS

1. This study is only limited to Fortune Oil.

2. This study is limited only in Lucknow city.

3. The study was limited to 120 respondents.

4. Information given by the respondents is assumed to be true and authentic.

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