RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Introduction
Background of Various market segments and the food shopping
behavior of individuals in the India have been studied from innumerable
perspectives, and many of the concepts and findings have helped marketers
gain a better understanding of the characteristics of Aurangabad food shoppers
The results have often provided a basis for more effective marketing strategies.
Much also has been written about the need for increasing the general
knowledge of marketing in other countries and how different marketing
systems operate in delivering frozen food products to consumers. In the rapidly
growing cities of India the socio-economic environment of Frozen food
retailers is extremely difficult. With inflation and other health-related
conditions getting sever and prevailing in India. People tend to save themselves
and the market can see more frozen and hygienic brands of groceries appearing
at cost beneficial prices. Cases like cholera and dengue virus have proven to be
quite the thought-provokers for consumers as during this inflation infected age
of today consumers tend to see going to the hospital and getting treatment for
disease to be rather very expensive and hence the preventive approach for
eating healthy has risen for the past few years.
There are acute disparities of income, education, and life style among
the residents of these cities. One of the challenges for marketers in India is to
increase the awareness sand potential benefits for using frozen foods or frozen
products in the consumer’s mind. These disparities make it very difficult for
both government officials and businessmen to design frozen food retailing
systems that can adequately meet the needs of all segments of market.
Institutional elements of a less-developed economy, such as small grocery
stores and public markets co-existing with modern, large-scale, mass
merchandizing frozen food retailers who use marketing and distribution
techniques similar to those found in India are hard on the small operations. It
 has seemingly become difficult for marketers who have immense pressure from
economic variables and other policies that affect their strategies for marketing.
Volatile petrol rates, strikes and other law and order situations affect the cost of
good and cost of quality being delivered to the end-user so yes marketing itself
is a difficult task in India and the promotion of frozen foods has yet become a
challenge in recent times.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To identify how frozen foods is affecting buying behavior trends

2. To identify the things that the consumers look for and think as
preventive or safety options when buying perishable groceries.
3. To identify how frozen foods are superior in quality than traditional
groceries
4. To analyze the advantages and disadvantages of frozen foods

5. To create an effective and better understand of the consumer behavior

towards grocery purchase.

SCOPE OF STUDY

Once completed, this study will prove to be a major addition

to research as well as a major help for modern era marketers to create
effective and strategic plans for frozen food promotion and sales. Having
identified what customers are looking for when purchasing groceries, it will
be clearly understood how to sell frozen foods to consumers. As said by
Chao Chung (2002) one of the biggest challenges marketers face today is
the promotion ad selling of competitive grocery items. Having identified
these challenges and developing alternatives to them as well as studying
consumer behavior it will become rather easy for marketers to promote
frozen foods and their related directly to the consumer. According to
Dominique (1997), the competition in the corporate world is very fierce and
every organization in the market has its eye on the consumer and
corporations are developing strategies to engulf the consumer with their
products.
This study will identify modern day expectations of consumers. It
will determine what consumers want from frozen food products and how
they affect their buying decisions and behavior. This way a marketer would
know exactly how to go about designing customer marketing plans and
retention programs.

Statement Research
As explained above, the subject of frozen food and consumer behavior
comprises of various subtopics and is of very vast nature. In a nutshell
though, the statement being researched in this dissertation is as follows:
―The increasing trend of frozen foods has changed the buying behavior of
customers‖

Hypothesis

H1= Frozen foods has a significant impact on buying behavior

H1a=Frozen foods has insignificant impact on buying behavior

The above Hypotheses will be tested for via linear regression and
correlation on the data set that will be obtained by questionnaire collection.
On basis of results the hypotheses mentioned above will either be rejected
or accepted.
 Research Design
According to Duncan & Harrop (2010), the research design is the action
plan for getting from

―here‖ (the initial problem and objectives of the study) to ―there‖ (the
conclusions and answers to the questions). This was done through a number of
steps like the collection and analysis of relevant data the study identified what
managers and employers of today need to do in order to keep their employees
motivated. It also identifies the steps they need to take to attract the best talent
in the market as well as retain them for the long-term future. This objective lead
to a twofold research design for the study:
 Quantitative – The quantitative research took into account numbers and
percentages of employees who favored certain elements of employee
motivation and vice versa.
 Qualitative – The qualitative part of the research helped to draw
conclusions through the intangible metrics such as opinions, loyalty, needs
and wants of employees.

Population & Sampling

The frame of reference for the study is limited to the grocery consumer market
of Aurangabad. The research was conducted with 100 respondents using
convenience sampling from different super markets in defense. The purpose
was to find out the variation in results and opinions there is from person to
person.
 Measurement / Instrument Selection

 Tools for primary research: Primary research will be conducted through

interviews, and questionnaires designed for collection of data
 Data will be obtained from the questionnaires based on a Likert scale.
Questions 1-6 indicate response for frozen food queries and details and
questions 7-12 indicate response for buying behavior and its constituents. For
each respondent the answers of each segment will be taken as an average (i.e.
answers to [(1+2+3+4+5+6)/6] this will account for as one person’s view to
frozen foods and so will it be for the other segment i.e. buying behavior
[(7+8+9+10+11+12)/6]

It is necessary that the data obtained from the Likert based questionnaire be
analyzed. Linear regression will be used on the following data set while the
results on the questionnaires will be tested for validity and reliability via
Cronbach’s Alpha.

Table 1: Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's N of Items
Alpha
.686 2

The Cronbach’s Alpha statistic indicates that the study Is 68.6% reliable. This
percentage is suitable for research and proves that the response taken from the
sample size of the population is reliable and hence declaring the overall study
to be valid.
Limitation

One of the limitations faced in making this report was time. Frozen
foods and its effect on consumer behavior is a really vast topic and it comprises
of a lot of sub topics that sums up to form consumer behavior like the Val’s
model. But due the time limitation the dissertation only focused on the major
factors and components of frozen foods that affect the purchase decision and
consumer behavior.
Another limitation which was faced was due to the short time the
collection of data was only restricted to questionnaires. Individual interviews
from the organizations head were not conducted which could have helped a lot
in the analysis of the research.
Location was another factor, in terms of research scope as the topic
being a really vast one the survey only was focused in the various super
markets of defense in Aurangabad.