Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Master of Business Administration Programme

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS STUDIES

Under supervision
SHOBHA DEVI (MGT.LECTURER)

Submitted by:PRIYANKA SINGH BHU-S-11 SEC-C

Certificate
This is to certify that Miss.PRIYANKA SINGH student of MBA-2nd Semester has completed her Research Project Report titled A study on the customer satisfaction towards (MAGGI NOODLES) in Bangalore city.assigned by Me and under my Supervision. It is further certified that he has personally prepared this report that is the result of his personal survey/observation. It is of the standard expected of MBA student and hence recommended for evaluation.

Supervisor

(Mrs. Shobha devi ) Above statement is endorsed.

Acknowledgement
Behind every study there stands a myriad of people whose help and contribution make it successful. Since such a list will be a prohibitively long. I may be excused for important omissions. I hereby regard our sincere thanks to Prof. Shobha devi of IIBS Bangalore,under whose guidance this project was undertaken.I would like to thank our friends for their generous support and the respondents who gave her valuable piece of time for participating in the survey to complete the study.

. This research was a good exposure that will definitely help me in my professional career.

Table of content

Acknowledgement Introduction Product profile Product mix Organisation structure Definition of market Meaning of market Consumer decision making model Market share Research methodology Analysis and interpretation Swot analysis Questionnaire Conclusion and suggestion Bibliography

INTRODUCTION ABOUT COMPANY

NIL introduced the Maggi brand to Indian consumers when it launched Maggi 2 Minute Noodles, an instant food product, in 1982 (Refer to Exhibit III for the history of the Maggi brand). At that time, Indian consumers were rather conservative in their food habits, preferring to eat traditional Indian dishes rather than canned or packaged food. In fact, NIL was trying to create an entirely new food category, instant noodles, in India. Initially, the company targeted working women on the premise that Maggi noodles were fast to cook and hence offered convenience. However, this approach failed as was evident from the fact that the sales of Maggi noodles were not picking up despite heavy media advertising. To get to the root of the problem, NIL conducted a research, which revealed that it was children who liked the taste of Maggi noodles and who were the largest consumers of the product. After this, NIL shifted its focus from working women and targeted children and their mothers through its marketing. NIL's promotions positioned the noodles as a 'convenience product', for mothers and as a 'fun' product for children. The noodles' tagline, 'Fast to Cook Good to Eat' was also in keeping with this positioning. NIL aggressively promoted Maggi noodles through several schemes like distributing free samples, giving gifts on the return of empty packs, etc. NIL's advertising too played a great role in communicating the benefits of the product to target consumers. Through its ads, NIL positioned Maggi as a 'fun' food for kids which mothers could prepare easily. Taglines like 'Mummy, bhookh lagi hai' (Mom, I'm hungry), 'Bas 2Minute,' (Only 2 minutes) and 'Fast to Cook Good to Eat' effectively communicated

the product's benefits to target consumers. These ads had become so popular that the tagline 'Bas 2-Minute' immediately reminded Indian consumers of Maggi noodles even several years after the ads were taken off the TV. Maggi's first product extension was Maggi instant soups launched in 1988. With the launch of Maggi soups, NIL had become a pioneer in the organized packaged soup market in India.

Product profile

Type

-- Aktiengesellschaft; subsidiary of NESTLE

Industry--- Food Founded ----1890 Founder(s) --Julius Maggi Headquarters --Cham, Switzerland Key people -- Alain Pedersen
Maggi noodles is a brand of instant noodles manufactured by Nestl. The brand is popular in Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil, New Zealand, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,Pakistan, Fiji and the Philippines. In several countries, it is also known as "maggi mee" (mee is

Indonesian/Malay/Hokkien for noodles). Maggi noodles are part of the Maggi family, a Nestl brand of instant soups, stocks, and noodles. In Malaysia, there are fried noodles made from maggi noodles known as Maggi goreng. Maggi noodles recently introduced a new variety of its noodles, to cater for the health conscious like 'No MSG', 'Less Salt', and 'No Trans fat'. A wholewheat flour based noodle variation marketed by the name "Vegetable Atta Noodles" has been introduced in India (Atta flouris used in preparing most forms of wheat based breads in India) and caters to health conscious buyers wary of the refined flour used in the regular Maggi noodles. This move helps the brand in India as suburban mothers, who feed the noodles to children as an afterschool snack, are the primary customers of the brand. Recently, a line of rice noodles and whole wheat with pulses, carrots, beans, and onions has also been introduced in India. In fact, "Maggi" has become a well-known brand for instant noodles in India and Malaysia.

Product mix of maggi

Organizational structure

Key people----Peter Brabeck-Letmathe(Chairman), Paul Bulcke (CEO)

Definition of Marketing
The following definitions were approved by the American Marketing Association Board of Directors: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved October 2007) Marketing Research: Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information--information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the method for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, analyzes the results, and communicates the findings and their implications. (Approved October 2004)

MEANING OF MARKETING
Marketing is defined by the AMA as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." --Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. It is a process by which -one identifies the needs and wants of the people. - One determines and creates a product/service to meet the needs and wants. [PRODUCT] - one determines a way of taking the product/service to the market place. [PLACE] -one determines the way of communicating the product to the market place. [PROMOTIONS] -one determines the value for the product.[PRICE].

-one determines the people, who have needs/ wants. [PEOPLE] and then creating a transaction for exchanging the product for a value. and thus creating a satisfaction to the buyer's needs/wants.

Consumer Decision making Process Internal and External Influences of Maggi Noddles
Consumer Decision Making Process, this basic psychological process plays an important role in understanding how consumers actually make their buying decision. Marketers must understand every facet of consumer behaviour in terms of who, what, when, where, how and why. Smart companies like MAGGI try to fully understand the consumers buying decision process all their experiences in learning, choosing and using of the product. Maggi has always considered the following steps: 1 Problem Recognition This is the first stage of the Buying Decision where the buyer recognizes a problem or need. The need can be triggered by internal or external stimuli which a marketer must identify by gathering information from number of consumers. They can then develop marketing strategies that trigger consumer interest. Nestle after carefully analyzing the market, identified the need for a quick snack in India. They adopted the first mover strategy and launched Maggi in India in the year 1982 as an instant fast food. Thereafter, Nestle recognized the consumers need for Maggi in different sizes and introduced the 50gms, Double Pack and Super Saver Pack (s). Later on in the years 2005 and then 2006, consumers need for a healthy instant food was catered by launching Maggi Atta Noodles and Maggi Dal Noodles. These again emerged as successful products and were widely accepted by masses.

Further to suffice the need for different taste, Maggi Rice Mania was brought in the market in Shahi Pulao, Chilli Chao and Lemon Masala flavors. 2 Information Search An aroused customer will be inclined to search for more information. At this level, a person simply becomes more receptive to information about a product. There are four major information sources which are of key interest to the marketer. These are the personal sources (family, friends, and acquaintances), commercial sources (advertising, websites, packaging and displays), public sources (mass media, consumer rating organizations) and experiential sources (handling, examining and using the product). MAGGI has over the years well established itself in the market and has now become a household name. This has helped the brand gain popularity through word of mouth. Maggis Mass Advertising Campaigns targeted consumers of all ages. Their advertisements have highlighted that Maggi is a good alternative available with the consumers when it comes to having a quick snack.

3 Evaluation of Alternative Once all the consumers gather all the information he then evaluates the various option available to him. When evaluating the potential alternatives, consumer uses two types of information the first is the list of brands from which they plan to make their selection and the second is the criteria from which they plan to make their decision. Beliefs and Attitude: Evaluations often reflects beliefs and attitudes. And these are acquired by experiences and learnings. MAGGI has always provided its consumers with something new from time to time which has developed a good belief in the brand and thus has helped them to choose them from their other alternatives. Their competitors like top ramen always find it difficult on the evaluation front with magi because of strong association of consumers with it. Awareness set is Maggi Tom Ramen Wai Wai

 Cup of Noodles Chings So out of the above awareness set the consumers decides to choose Maggi because after analyzing the different parameters of the brand Maggi was chosen as the best alternative among the rest leading to its maximum market share. 4 Purchase Decision In the evaluation stage the consumer forms preferences among the brands in the choice set, the consumer may also form an intention to buy the most preferred brand .In executing a preferred intention the consumer takes up five sub decisions Brand Dealer Quantity Timing Payment Method In some cases consumer may decide not to formerly evaluate each and every brand; in other cases intervening factors may affect the final decision. Because of the strong consumer awareness about the brand MAGGI, consumer generally prefer Maggi out of all the available brands , due to the mass distribution strategy adopted by Maggi, any consumer can easily purchase it from their local grocery store without wasting much of his/her time in searching for the product , Maggi comes in various sizes like single , double and the supersaver packs so depending upon each individuals need Maggi is catering each and every segment of the society not to mention that as the size increase the saving on each pack increases. 5 Post Purchase

After the purchase the consumer might experience dissonance that stems from noticing certain disquieting features or hearing favorable things about other brands and will be alert to information that supports his/her decision. Marketer must monitor Post Purchase Satisfaction Post Purchase Action Post Purchase Product Uses 6 Post Purchase Satisfaction Satisfaction is a function of the closeness between expectations and the products perceived performance, if performance falls short of expectations the consumer is disappointed and if it meets the expectation the consumer is satisfied and if it exceeds the expectations then the consumer is delighted. 7 Post Purchase Actions Satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product will influence subsequent behavior if the consumer is satisfied he will exhibit a higher probability of purchasing the product again. The satisfied customer will also tends to say good things about the brand to others, marketers says our best advertisement is the satisfied customer. Post Purchase Use Marketer should also monitor how buyers use and dispose of the product. A key driver of sales frequency is product consumption rate the more quickly buyers consume a product the sooner they may be back in the market to repurchase it. Call a small fraction of it the next day.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

OBJECTIVES of study

 To understand the influence of Maggi as a brand on consumers mind set. Sources of Brand equity of Maggi like Brand awaren e s s , B r a n d i m a g e , B r a n d association, Brand recall To understand the Brand performance of Maggi products. To understand Brand Imagery, Brand Quality percei ved by customers, brand credibility, consideration, superiority and feelings. Brand Extension of Maggi in terms of product diversity. Analyse the repositioning of Maggi brand as a Healthy product and the consumer perseverance towards the same. .

Market share Maggi noodles:

MAGGI NODLES
maggi others

20% 80%

RESEARCH PLAN

Research Design:

A research design is the arrangement of condition s for collection and analysis of data in manner that aims to combined relevance to the research to the research purpose with economy in procedure. A research design is the specification of methods and procedures for acquiring the needed information. It is overall operational pattern or framework of the project that stipulates what information is to be collected from which source by what procedure. There are three types of objectives in a marketing research project: Exploratory Research. Descriptive Research. Casual Research.

1. Exploratory Research:The objective of exploratory research is to gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypothesis.

2. Descriptive Research:The objective of descriptive research is to describe things, such as the market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the product.

3. Casual Research:The objective of casual research is to test hypothesis about casual and effect relationships. Based on the above definitions it can be established that this study is a Descriptive Research as the attitudes of the customers who buy the products

have been stated. Through this study we are trying to analyze the various factors that may be responsible for the preference of Coca-Cola products.

SOURCES OF DATA
The data has been collected from both primary as well as secondary sources. SECONDARY DATA:It is defined as the data collected earlier for a purpose other than one currently being pursued. As a researcher I have scanned lot of sources to get an access to secondary data which have formed a reference base to compare the research findings. Secondary data in this study has provided an insight and forms an outline for the core objectives established. The various sources of secondary data used for this study are: News papers. Magazines. Text books. Marketing reports of the company. Internet. PRIMARY DATA:The primary data has been collected simultaneously along with secondary data for meeting the established objectives to provide the solution for the problem identified in this study. The methods that have been used to collect the primary data are:-

 Questionnaire. Personal Interview. RESEARCH MEASURING TOOLS & TECHNIQUES The primary tool for the data collection used in this study is the respondents response to the questionnaire given to them. The various research measuring tools used are: Questionnaire. Personal interview. Tables. Percentages. Pie-charts. Bar-chart

Sample Design: The target population for our study is households. The sample will be selected by a simple random sampling method

Sample Size: The sampling unit is 150 which are divided as follows:

Number of respondent

150

Age group

10-40

Monthly household income

25000-75000 k

Survey location

BANGALORE ,KARNATAKA.

Salary group

No income

25k 40k

40k 60k

60k 75k

Number of respondents

30

50

70

Age group

10-25

25-35

35-45

Number of respondents

50

50

50

DATA COLLECTION PLAN

Data Gathering: This study involves data collection (primary research) from different households in Bangalore.

Literature Review The research conducted as a part of our study would include Primary as well as Secondary research. Primary research would include a survey that would be conducted in selected localities of Delhi and nearby areas where the responses of consumers would be recorded through a designed questionnaire . Secondary research would include various aspects of Brand management through Internet , Journals, company reports , expert views etc. METHOLODOGY The research will be carried out in the form of a survey. This will include primary research inaddition to secondary research as stated below. The survey research method will bedescriptive research design. Each respondent will be interviewed through a Questionnaire.The sample will be selected by a simple random sampling method.The survey will address the following information area:

Information Areas:
The objective as spelt out can be elaborated into specific information areas to be studied. How do customers perceive Maggi as a stable brand, their perception of noodles andhow do they associate themselves with Maggi? Are the consumers aware of Maggi Brand or they associate noodles with some other brand?

Do they consider noodle as a healthy product or they are aware of the companysstrategy of repositioning it to a healthy product by the launch of some of the newproducts? Which product from the entire basket of Maggi products do the consumers consider asthe best selling product for Maggi and to which the consumers frequently buy?

 Are the consumers willing to accept Maggi brand extensions to some other productslike chocolate, juices, chips etc?

Analysis and interpretation

Brand Associations: Sources of Brand equity like brand association of Maggi as a Brand was found highest with the age group of 10-25 and the product category associated with it was the noodles category( see exhibit 1). Consumers in the age segment of 10 -25 could easily relate Maggi to noodles. In the income wise category the brand association was highest with the income group of 25k-40k. The implications from the findings discussed above seem that Maggi has good brand association in terms of noodles. Consumers presume Maggi as Noodles and the companys philosophy of projecting the brand as noodles brand seem to be viable in this regard.

Brand association (age wise)

45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Noodles Fast Food Snaks None of these 10yrs-25yrs 25yrs-35yrs 35yrs-45yrs

Brand Recall:
From the graph given below it seems a clear trend that Maggi has a good brand recall as compared to its competitors like Top Ramen, Surya noodles, Reliance noodles etc. Consumers could easily associate Maggi with noodles. In the Age wise category, the respondents of the age group of 25-45 were highly cautious of Maggi brand and seemed to be consuming Maggi more as compared to other age segments.

Brand Recall (age wise)

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Maggi Top Ramen Reliance Yipee 10yrs-25yrs 25yrs-35yrs 35yrs-45yrs

Repositioning Maggi as a healthy product:

The companys strategy to reposition Maggi as a Healthy product was not found conducive as per the survey results. The survey showed that consumers did not perceived Maggi as a healthy product with 53% of them consumed Maggis traditional products as compared to the rest who consumed other variants of Maggis brand that were positioned as Healthy products. From the pie chart given below it can be clearly seen that Maggi is still perceived as a non healthy products by the consumers and in spite of the efforts to position Maggi as a healthy product by the company the brand is still perceived as a ready to eat food brand that has a high market share in the noodle category in India.

Repositioning Awareness
Maggi vegitable atta noodles 23% Maggi Masala (Regular) 53% Maggi dal atta noodles 14% Maggi Mania Other 7% 3%

SWOT ANALYSIS OF MAGGI BRAND

The SWOT analysis of Maggi brand clearly indicates the strengths of Maggi as a Brand inIndian market. The Brand was found to be a leader in its category of Noodles, with strongcustomer loyalty. Intensive distribution of Maggi as a Brand was seen in urban areas of thecountry. The major threats of the brand as shown in the figure below indicates that Maggi hasmade several attempts to revamp itself as a Healthy Product but till date its perseverancetowards the tag line is low by the consumers. The brand is in the growth stage of product lifecycle with a strong inclination towards the maturity stage.

strength
market leaders in their segment strong brand loyal oonsumer base wide range of distribution channel product according to the need of indian consumer innovative product.

threats
price war with competitors strong presence of regional competitors.consum er don't perceive it as a healthy product.

swot analysis
opportunity
increasing number of working youth product has been acceptable in youth category.

weakness
product are dependent on each other not so much presence in rural market.

Questionnaire
Q-1 what product would you associate with the tag line mentioned below? Its different. .. Dont be a noodle, be a snoodle. 2 minute noodles/ Bas 2 minute. Jitna tasty, utna healthy.. Mummy bhook lagi Try it with a twist .. Hearty soups warm you from inside .. Fast to cook, Good to eat Q-2 What comes first in your mind when you hear the word Maggi ? Noodles Fast food Snacks None of these Q-3 what is the brand that comes to your mind when we say the word noodles? Maggi Top Ramen Surya Noodles Anil Noodles Q-4 Rank the following Maggi products w.r.t. frequency of purchase with 1 being the highestrank RANK N o o d l e s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ K e t c K e t c h u p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ S o u p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

P e _ _ C s _ _

i s _ u _ _ _

c _ _ b _ _

k _ _ e _ _

l _ _

Q-4 With what products would you associate the brand Maggi? Ketchup Noodles Soup Masala
Q-5 On a scale of 1 to 5 rate Maggi on the following parameters T _ V o _ H r _ A i _ a _ a u _ y i _ v t _ y _ t _ a _ _ r _ g y _ i s _ r t _ i s _ i _ _ l _ _ e _ e _ _ _ t _ y _ / _ F _ l _ a _ v _ _ _ _ _ _

e _

n _ _ a _ _

e _

/ _

P _

b _

i _

l _

P K _

a U _

c s _

k ) _

a _

g _

i _

n _

g _

( _ _

S _

Q6 Rank the categories which Maggi should look in future in order of your importance : Chocolates _____________ Salted Potato Chips _____________ Fruit Juices _____________ Processed foods(Ready to use pastes, masalas) ____________

Others ( Please mention) _____________ Q-7 how do you rate Maggi brand in terms of following parameters: Expertise (Competent, Innovative, Market leader) Trustworthiness (Dependable and keep customers interest in mind) Liability ( Fun ,interesting) None of these Q-8 How do you perceive Maggi products? Good for health Ready to eat. Junk foodTasty / Fun eating Q9 Which Maggi products in noodles category do you regularl y buy? (Repositioning awareness) Maggi masala Maggi vegetable atta noodles Maggi dal atta noodles Maggi rice noodles mania Q-10 Do you perceive Maggi noodles as a healthy product? Yes NO Q-11 If No then your suggestions for improvement as a healthy product? _ _ _ ______________________________________ _______ _______________________________ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Conclusion:

The food processing business in India is at a nascent stage. Currently, only about 10% of the output is processed and consumed in packaged form thus highlighting huge potential for expansion and growth. Traditionally, Indians believe in consuming fresh stuff rather then packaged or frozen, but the trend is changing and the new fast food generation is slowly changing. Riding on the success of noodles, Nestle India, tried to make extensions of the Maggi brand to a number of products like, sauces, ketchups, pickles, soups, tastemakers and macaroni in the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, the macaroni and pickles didnt pick up as expected. The soups and sauces did somewhat fine, gathering considerable sales volumes and have a satisfactory presence even today. Maggi Noodles itself faced a bit of difficulty with respect totaste, and nearly lost its position in the minds of Indian consumers in the late 1990s. When Nestle changed the formulation of its tastemaker, the ominous packet that came along with Maggi Noodles, a major chunk of consumers were put-off and sales started dropping. Also,Maggis competitor TopRamen took advantage of the sit uation and started a parallelaggressive campaign to eat into Maggis market share. But the company quickly realised this and went back into making the original formula coupled with a free sampling campaign. This helped Maggi to win back its lost consumers and pushed up its sales volumes again.

SUGGESTIONAfter the conducted study following

recommendations could be sited for Maggi Brand. To gain maximum leverage in terms of profit the company should pay emphasiso n s e g m e n t s w i t h a g e g r o u p s 2 5 - 3 5 a n d a b o v e . A d v e r t i s i n g i s t h e k e y t o success. Targeting these segments will not only enhance the companys profitmargins but also it will leverage the brand image of Maggi. The company should advertise its products by depicting attributes related toH e a l t h l i k e N u t r i t i o n v a l u e s , % o f V i t a m i n s , P r o t e i n s e t c . T h i s w o u l d h e l p i n customers perceiving the product as Healthy. Foray into other food products like chips, chocolates etc under its sole brandname would not only help in Brand extension but will also enhance Maggis market share.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:
Marketing Management Kotler Philip. Research Methodology Kothari. WWW.GOOGLE.COM www.nestle.com Journals Magazines