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22-6-2009

Home Made Chocolates getting more popular among Ludhiana citizens


“Home made chocolates are getting more popularity among Ludhiana citizens. The reasons behind this popularity are customised shape of the choclates, lesser price, easy availability and variety of taste. Weddings, Valentine day, Diwali, Lohri, are some of the occasions when home made chocolates are bought at large quantity” this is as per the study conducted by Swati Narang MBA final year student of Punjab College of Technical Education under the guidance of Ms. Asha Sharma, Faculty, Deptt. Of Business Management, PCTE, Ludhiana. The title of the study was “Consumer Behaviour of Ludhiana citizens regarding Home Made Choclates” and the study was carried out to know the consumer behaviour regarding home made cholclates including buying capacity of the consumer, frequency of purchase, reasons of purchase, factors affecting their decision of purchase, preferred price and flavours of the home made chocolates. The study undertook the seller’s point of view as well for Home Made Choclates. The sample of the study was 100 consumers of home made chocolates and 20 selected retailers from selected retail outlets in different parts of Ludhiana. The primary data was collected through structured questionnaire from consumers and retailers.

Dr. K.N.S.Kang, Director General remarked that consumer and its preferences change faster now days. Such studies keep you abreast with consumer psychology and behaviour. Dr. Kang congratulated the student and faculty guide for doing such an indepth study consumer behaviour regarding Home Made Choclates in Ludhiana.

The study found that majority i.e. 68% of the respondents like to buy home made chocolates. As per the study the reasons for buying the chocolates were were: customised shape of the chocolates followed by attractive designs, various kind of flavours, exotic packaging and economical were the major reasons for buying home made chocolates by these respondents. The study also found that Nuts (Almonds, cashew) was the most preferred choice in home made chocolates by the customer followed by the soft centered chocolates like butterscotch, been etc. Least preferred flavour was dark chocolate with mean score 0.095.and very less number of people favoured dark chocolates. As per the study, Large number of people used to buy home made chocolates for their friends, followed by people that preferred to buy home made chocolates for their family members. Comparatively lesser number of people preferred to buy home made chocolates for themselves and for kids. As per the study about 34% of people used to buy chocolates once in a month, 26% of respondents preferred to buy once in a fortnight, and about 16% of people used to buy once in a week. The study revealed that Major number of respondents buy home made chocolates for gifts purpose on valentines day, friendship’s day, Diwali, Lohri, Raakhi and other festivals. Least number of people buy home made chocolates for the weddings.

The study also revealed that for regular use 50% of respondents buy Home Made Choclatess from bakery and another major chunk i.e. 43% buy from confectioneries. For gift purpose 60% people prefer buying home made chocolates from gift shops itself, and very less number of repondents i.e. 6% prefer buying from bakeries for gift purposes. For occasions like Valentine’s day etc. more than 50% respondents prefer buying from gift shops and 20% from confectioneries.. For Wedding orders, 47% of respondents buy the chocolates from private manufacturers. During festivals like Diwali etc, more than one third people buy chocolates from confectioneries and only 10% of people buying on festivals buy from private manufacturers. The study found that majority of respondents got to know about private manufacturers from family friends i.e. word of mouth and rest of respondents got to know from other sources like newspaper, boards, pamphlets etc. The study has also revealed that about more than one third of respondents would prefer to buy home made chocolates at Rs 7 – 10. The study found that Majority respondents have replaced their earlier choice of gifts on occasions like Valentine’s Day, friendship day etc. to Home Made Choclates and least number of people have replaced branded chocolates with usage of home made chocolates.

The study has also highlighted that The foremost reason for which respondents do not buy home made chocolates is that, branded chocolates are more easily available than home made chocolates. Another reason with second highest mean score is that branded chocolates are more hygienic. Another chunk of respondents are aware of home made chocolates but have never tasted them. Very less number of respondents are not yet aware of Home made chocolates.

Out of all the retailer respondents, 50% of people owned bakery, 25% had confectioneries, 15% of respondents were gift shops owner. Majority of the retailers were found manufacturer of the chocolates as well and they were found in this business from last 3-5 years. The study found that majority of the respondents dealing in home made chocolates were manufacturing the home made chocolates in their own premises because they used to feel that its an easy process. As per the retailers, youngsters and Adults are major customers for home made chocolates. Even retailers informed that Nuts chocolates were most preferred, 85% of respondents keep nuts chocolates on their shops.. According to retailer respondents maximum number of customers buy home made chocolates during festivals (like Diwali, rakhi etc). Then good sales come from wedding orders . Loose Chocolates are lowest on the scale of mean scores. As per the retailer respondents 60% of them keep home made chocolates in their outlet for whole of the year. Rest 40% of the respondents do not keep them for whole of the year. As per the retailer respondents maximum demand for home made chocolates arise in the months of August, October, November, December, January and February. As these months includes festivals like Diwali, occasions like rakhie, Friendship’s day, valentine’s day, and also the wedding season i.e. is mainly November to February.