Background

Food & beverages sector is experiencing good market growth, globally. India is experiencing  exponential growth in F&B sector. This has encouraged international brands to explore Indian market. Number of home-grown products have started investing on their expansions, branding, franchising, technology, digital tools and promotions. Parameters influencing growth and decline of the sector are innovation, convenience, variety, fun, networking, trustworthiness, visibility of the brand and health-consciousness. Research for identifying the needs , understanding the market cross-section, consumer pulse, sales channel dynamics and competition landscape are very important before investing money, time and resources. We  witness many business houses going awry due to insufficient insights. It is futile to allocate resources without sufficient planning.

For F&B sector, the market survey should capture the reactions and expectations of consumers as well as the sales channels. The consumer survey will give insights on product development, advertisement ideas, packaging and various factors influencing end user preferences. The shop-keepers’ feedback are vital in planning sales channel development. MRP, profit margin, logistics, delivery frequency , stock refilling time, merchandising,  promotions , sales schemes, payment terms and many more key points are to be suitably planned to bridge the product from factory mill to dining room. Capturing a new market is not so easy in the present competitive ambience from leading brands as well as local products. Retaining the customers taste-buds is even more challenging. Alluring advertisements are one of the essentials.

 

Primary Research

AMFA does the primary research to get the latest and  unvarnished information needed for business decision.

 

Survey Questionnaire

Good questions lead to good surveys. Writing clear, concise and unambiguous questions are very important. As far as possible, close-ended questions are preferred. It can be of following types

• Dichotomous
• Multiple choice
• Checkbox
• Rating scale
• Likert scale
• Demographic

Data Collection

Market information floating on internet are mostly speculations or outdated.  The questionnaire preparation must be done with enough care to ferret out the true market pulse. The social protocol  for plateauing out COVID 19 spikes have demanded additional efforts from the survey agents to access the surveyees. The voice of consonance and dissidence shall  be recorded as well as marked on the questionnaire. The survey agents must not be influenced by the market hindsight while interviewing. This will ensure the surveyees to express their unbiased opinion. The evaluator  should plainly accept the bouquets and brickbats in the replies with its gravity. Questionnaire shall contain questions with same meaning but sounding different. Answers by the same respondent to these similar questions will ensure non-dodgy data. The document should be very constructive and the agent never to chase the consumers into rabbit holes in search of irrelevant detail. Mapping the consumers’ economic status is very important without questions transgressing the personal etiquettes.

 

Data Analysis

The survey information need to be a sensible data , categorise under titles derived from the business objectives , plot on a readable tabular form and suitable chart type.

 

Market Survey – The surveyor’s attitude matters !

• The surveying agents must be of fiduciary in mindset as they are part of a key decision making for the clients
• Need to pay great care right from the questionnaire preparation , setting the sequence of questions and limiting number of questions in market survey
• The customers (surveyees) must be taken into good confidence and open mind to share the experience
• The data must be analysed with an unbiased objective to read the market pulse
• The final report to the client must be simple in language, clear on inference, focused on the point to facilitate business decisions

AMFA team has nurtured capacity in business feasibility study and market strategy development for various business sectors.