Category dynamics and consumer behavior in the ready to eat meals category

Abstract

The Ready-to-Eat food industry in India is currently valued at slightly higher than $39.5 million. The industry is expected to have a CAGR of 18.97%, such that the market triples in size by 2022. Ready-to-Eat food or RTEs cover all food that requires only minimum heat and cooking time for preparation, such as instant upma, poha, noodles, and those that not those that be consumed immediately after unwrapping, such as biscuits, cakes and chips. Looking at the changing consumer trends, it is observed that the popularity of RTEs stems from the increased convenience seeking nature of people and their increased disposable income. This has led to the rise of brands such as Nestle Maggi, Nissin Noodles, ITC Yippee, MTR 3 Minute Breakfast, ITC Kitchens of India and MTR Instant Curries. This project was undertaken to understand more about the consumer behavior of RTEs and the different parameters that affect an individual’s purchase intent of RTE, especially in the Indian context. A thorough literature review was done prior to the commencement of this project, to understand the approaches taken in other countries. In the article, “Product Attributes and Consumers’ Re-purchase Decision on Frozen Ready-to-Eat Meals”, Richard Dean Lovell organizes the parameters that could affect a customer’s decision to re-purchase into two blocks: product attributes and demographic factors1 . This study primarily focuses on the different factors that contribute to the re-purchase decision of RTEs and was conducted through a survey of 18 questions in Bangkok. The writer, Lovell concluded that gender, occupation and marital status have no impact on the re-purchase decisions of RTEs. In the “The role of attitudes, subjective norm, perceived control and habit in the consumption of ready meals and takeaways in Great Britain” by Denise Mahon, Cathal Cowan, Mary McCarthy a detailed study on the Theory of Planned Behaviour in the British context is done2 . The authors evaluate the beliefs related to the outcome of consumption and the normative beliefs that consumers of RTEs have, to predict one’s purchase intention. In this article, habit was taken as a moderator, and the survey respondents were divided into intenders and non-intenders, depending upon their intent to buy. It was observed that value for money was more important for intenders, when compared to non-intenders. In the paper “Consumer Behaviours towards ready-to-eat foods based on food-related lifestyles in Korea”, by Kisang Ryu, consumers of RTEs are divided into four categories based upon their lifestyle choices3 . These four categories are health oriented, taste oriented, convenience oriented and tradition oriented. It is observed how these four contribute to the overall attitude that consumers have towards RTEs. The author also factored in key demographic variables, focused on the end consumer of the RTE. One of the key findings was that people of a particular category tended to live with those of an opposite segment, and this influenced their decision-making during purchase. The paper also looked into the retail aspect of RTEs, observing the different retail formats that consumers preferred to purchase their RTEs from.