Table of Contents

A Study on Noodles Buying Behaviour from Organized
Retail Outlets in Coimbatore City
Uma.k , Dhivya.R. , Chandrakumar.M
Dept. of Agrl. & Rural Management
Abstract— Food retailing in India is the fastest growing segment in
country’s fast paced retail sector. Amongst processed cereal products
in India, noodles constitute the largest segment in the processed food
market and have a share of about 45 per cent in terms of output. This
study examines the consumer buying behavior of noodles. The use of
statistical tools such as ranking and multidimensional scaling
technique concludes that the availability of wide range of products
was the major factor influencing the respondents’ preference
followed by availability of quality products, discounts and offers,
shopping convenience, store image and post purchase satisfaction.
Index Terms—buying behaviour, brand switching behaviour,
noodles, transition matrix
I. INTRODUCTION
Retail is India‟s one of the largest industries, accounting
for more than ten per cent of the country‟s GDP and around
eight per cent of the employment. India has the largest number
of retail outlets in the world. According to industry estimates,
organized retailing in India is estimated to grow from US$ 330
billion in 2007 to US$ 427 billion by 2010 and US$ 637
billion by 2015. Simultaneously, organized retail which
presently accounts for three per cent of the total market is
likely to increase its share to 22 per cent by 2010. Organized
retailing is projected to grow at the rate of 25-30 per cent per
annum (India Retail Forum, 2005).
Food retailing in India is the fastest growing segment in
country‟s fast paced retail sector. The size of the grocery
market in India is huge and worth Rs 4, 00,000 crore. It is
estimated to grow from $236 billion in 2006 to $482 billion by
2020. The penetration of organized retail is about one per cent
in this segment. The food retail sales make up to 77 per cent of
total retail sales (Ernst and Young, 2006). It is estimated that
in Indian consumer shopping wallet about 35-52 per cent is
taken up by food and groceries segment and on an average of
Rs.2500 on food, groceries and personal care items every
month (www.acnielsen.co.in).
Noodles
Amongst processed cereal products in India, noodles constitute
the largest segment in the processed food market and have a share
of about 45 per cent in terms of output. Growth in noodles will
be among the fastest in the various packaged food products in
India. Current value sales of noodles in 2005 stood at slightly
over Rs.9 billion, with pouch instant noodles expected to
account for more than 66 per cent of the total value sales
(Euromonitor Report, 2005).
The most popular brands in India are Maggi by Nestle
and Top Ramen smoodles by Indo-Nissin Ltd. Due to increasing
health consciousness of the consumers, Nestle introduced an
instant noodles made of whole wheat grain flour called Atta
Noodles. India also has a huge demand for unflavored instant
noodles with brands like Bambino and Ching's dominating the
market. Modern retail chains are now concentrating more on
the development of their private labels. Understanding the
consumers visiting the outlet, purchasing pattern, brand
preference, etc. is imperative to formulate suitable marketing
strategies (Jha 2007) for the promotion of noodles
consumption.
Objectives:
To study the consumer buying behaviour of noodles.
To examine the factors influencing the consumer
preference towards particular brand of noodles.
To analyze the factors responsible for brand
switching.
II. METHODOLOGY
The study was confined to Coimbatore city hence
extrapolation of the results may not be possible since there
exists a wide difference in consumer preference, behaviour,
and the factors like socioeconomic, demographic and
psychographic across regions. The study area selected was the
Food retail outlets located in Coimbatore city. So the respondents
would be the customer of the retail outlets and for selection of
respondents convenience sampling technique was used. Population
defined is the active retail shoppers. The sample group will
comprise of heterogeneous consumers numbering 120 retail
shoppers of the Food retail outlets and interviewed personally at
the retail outlets.
The obtained raw data were analyzed using appropriate
statistical techniques and categorized into tables to draw
meaningful inferences. The analytical techniques employed in
this study are 1. Multi Dimensional Scaling Technique for
perception, 2. Rank based quotient technique was used to
analyze the reasons for preferring organized retail outlet for
purchasing food and grocery items, the motives for purchase
of noodles, flavour preference and the reasons for changing a
brand. The reason with highest mean score was ranked first
www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJSSM: Volume: 01, Number: 10, Feb-2012 Page 48