Rural Customer Satisfection of Telecoms in Bangladesh

A Quantitative Report on Beverage Consumption Behavior of Sub-Urban Residents of Bangladesh; with special reference to Ashulia and Savar Thanas of Dhaka City.

A Quantitative Report on Beverage Consumption Behavior of Sub-Urban Residents of Bangladesh; with special reference to Ashulia and Savar Thanas of Dhaka City.

Prepared for

Dr. Jasmine Jaim

Course instructor

Research Methodology

Prepared by

Md. Imran Hossain Sajib

Class ID: 1141

Batch: 21st

Date:29 October 2016

                                                 Executive summary

The village customers, the suburban consumer and the urban customers have different usage patterns for almost all products and services. Due to the different lifestyle of the suburban residents from that of village or urban residents they perceive and uses products in different ways. A product with a very high demand in urban cities or rural areas can have low or no demand in suburban market and vice versa. For example- the demand for crop harvesting tools is very high in the village arena while in urban area their demand is very low and in suburban area the demand is medium.  

It will be wise for a company to take different marketing strategy for village, suburban and urban customers. In Bangladesh the beverage market is highly competitive. One wrong step and any company can realize huge loss and fall out of competition. Although the growth has been static in urban markets there is still chance of market growth in suburban and rural areas .At present due to huge development of transportation and communication system allover Bangladesh the villages are converting into suburban areas. Also some major bridges under construction will connect villages to cities within 2020. Therefore the village will be no longer remote and underdeveloped by then. A huge number of villagers will convert into suburban citizens. This change will open the door of opportunities for many industries as well as beverage industry. It will be a challenge to satisfy the need of neo-suburban consumers. To solve this problem the companies should start with analyzing their consumption behavior. This is exactly what this report intends to do.

Problem statement

• Due to the introduction of new types of beverages in the market in recent time, customers’ updated consumption behavior is unknown or very less known.
• The sub-urban consumers who were neglected by marketers because of their small population, are increasing day by day.
• The marketers are still at jeopardy about some beverages’ future in urban and rural areas.  

Objectives

• To determine overall beverage buying behavior pattern of the sub-urban consumers.
• To create a metrics of demand for different types of beverages in different times of the day, workdays vs. holidays of the month, festivals/occasions and seasons of the year.
• To determine whether there is any correlation between demographic traits of suburban residents and their rate and types of beverage consuming.

Literature review

According to Erin Clifford, from the Metropolitan State College of Denver, “A suburban area is a community outside of an urban center and its outskirts. Common features of these communities are single-family homes interspersed with shopping malls and strips, as well as office buildings. Suburbs often sprawl, making a spread over the area they occupy as opposed to creating prominent skylines such as their urban counterparts. Suburban building often tends to be homogeneous and predictable; residences in the suburbs are sometimes chided as being cookie-cutter and are, in professional terms, for the most part, tract housing.” Dr Nazrul Islam (Professor, Department of Business Administration, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh) and Md. Wahidul Habib (Adjunct Faculty, Department of Business Administration, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh) In their report “A MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTION FACTORS OF CARBONATED SOFT DRINKS IN BANGLADESH” quoted that “University students are the main users of the carbonated soft drinks in Bangladesh. However, the selection of the drinks by these users depends on a number of factors which are important to the distributors and sellers.” But their research was limited within carbonated beverages and university students of Bangladesh only, whether this report intends to cover a large varieties of consumers and beverages. Food safety is a factor for the selection of soft drinks by the consumers. If the brand of the drinks is safe, people will use it more than the unsafe ones. Odwin and Badrie (2008) determined perception and awareness of food safety practices of the consumers in Trinidad and Barbados. They identified many gaps in proper food safety practices in the homes. Meanwhile, Sehrawetand Kundu (2007) established the residential background of consumers has a varying influence on their buying decisions. Hossain et al (2008) has assessed consumer perceptions and attitudes towards contaminated food items and found that the consumers are skeptical to select such food and drinks. There is a portion of the soft drinks markets that prefers stimulant drinks. They are mainly among the young consumers. Sorenson and Bogue (2006) identified new market segments for stimulant beverages beyond the consumer groups who are traditionally targeted with stimulant drinks. All the above mentioned researchers generalized the consumers while the researcher of this report focused on suburban consumers specially and specifically. According to Mohammad A.Arafat (2010) “beverage is very popular in Bangladesh. Among different age groups, young generation (age between16-25) likes to take soft drinks more. 7up is the most favorite beverage among all the soft drinks products available in Bangladesh. Findings of the analysis show that family income of more than Tk.10000 prefer to take beverage daily. Majority of the respondents (70%) prefer to take beverage in lunch time. Students are the main consumers of beverage product.” But all the data is of a previous period of time. Since then many changes occurred in the beverage industry. Many products entered and many has exited. This research is the most updated one with the newest scenario in the beverage market.