Asim Ayaz, Karthikeyan, Vignesh S, Sunny Teotia, Sunwinder Pal Singh Perceptual Mapping of Beverages Coffee and Tea

Perceptual Mapping of Beverages - Coffee and Tea Asim Ayaz, Karthikeyan,Vignesh S, Sunny Teotia, Sunwinder Pal Singh ____________________________________________________________________________________ To survive the onslaught of cut throat competition of the market it has become imperative for the organizations to understand and acknowledge the preferences and perceptions of the consumer and adapt accordingly. Hot beverages form an integral part in daily consumption of Indian consumers which has been a critical element in the flourishing tea and coffee industry. This paper attempts to comprehend the consumption pattern as well as how certain varieties of tea and coffee are perceived by the consumers. The premise for the research was to reveal the difference in perceptions regarding specific varieties of tea and coffee as perceived by the consumers vis-a-vis as projected by the marketers. Basic statistical tools were used to derive the result for the empirical study and results were formulated based on that. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords: Multidimensional Scaling, Perceptual Mapping, Tea and Coffee Perceptual Mapping

INTRODUCTION
Perceptual mapping has been used extensively in marketing. This powerful technique is used in new product design, advertising, retail location, and many other marketing applications where the manager wants to know the basic cognitive dimensions of the product being evaluated and more importantly the relative positioning of the product relative to the ones present in the market. The empirical study attempts to provide an insight on the consumer perception regarding selective varieties of tea and coffee. The study aims to quantify the sensory perceptions of the consumers by virtue of the survey conducted for the specific purpose and then provide conclusions and inferences basis the same. India has a huge tea and coffee consumption which provides ample opportunity for the marketers to encash on the opportunity but the core issue with devising marketing strategy on these products is that it solely is driven on sensory stimulation of the consumers. Though, it is to be understood that the marketing messages only work out be the initiating point and any variation in the actual experience of the product to that of as was perceived by the consumers would lead to the non acceptance of the product. Despite the availability of umpteen numbers of beverages, coffee continues to occupy an important place among all. Such is the appeal of this drink that despite the global recession, coffee consumption has maintained a robust annual growth of around 2.4% across the world. Traditionally coffee is known as a south Indian drink, but growing demand for coffee in non-southern states over the past few years has started pushing up overall coffee consumption in the country. In India, tea is one of the most popular hot beverages. It is consumed daily in almost all homes, offered to guests, consumed in high amounts in domestic and official surroundings, and is made with the addition of milk with or without spices. It is also served with biscuits dipped in the tea and eaten before consuming the tea. The more appealing or attractive consumers find the product the more likely that they are going to consume it. The comparison procedure we use is practical and is based on usage of multidimensional scaling which represents the preferences of respondents spatially by means of the visual display. The process began with the defining the scope the research and zeroing on the target respondents, which was taken to be urban and

Asim Ayaz, Karthikeyan, Vignesh S, Sunny Teotia, Sunwinder Pal Singh Perceptual Mapping of Beverages Coffee and Tea

metro population. The dimensions basis which the respondents response were evaluated was defined and the survey was conducted.

METHEDOLOGY The primary objective of the research work is to analyze the perceptual mapping of various varieties of tea and coffee in India. The target group of the research is focused geographically on the population residing in urban and metros and demographically it is focused on respondents belonging to 18-60 years of age. The data was collected by conducting an online and personalized survey. The semantic differential rating scale was used to evaluate the response and the connotations are used the attitude towards the given object, event or concept.

Asim Ayaz, Karthikeyan, Vignesh S, Sunny Teotia, Sunwinder Pal Singh Perceptual Mapping of Beverages Coffee and Tea