AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKET SEGMENTATION AMONG CHILDREN TOWARDS FAST FOOD IN COIMBATORE DISTRICT.

Abstract

The fast food industry in India has evolved with the changing lifestyles of the young Indian population. The consumption behaviour of children started to change because of urbanisation, increases in nuclear families, increase in the proportion of women in workforce, as well as changing lifestyle and eating patterns. Their likes and dislikes change faster than any other consumer group, especially those aged between 8 and 16 years. The primary objective of this study is to understand the consumer behaviour of children on fast food and segment the market. The current study mainly concentrated on the leading fast food outlets in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The researcher has taken 755 respondents as the sample size and empirical research design was adopted. The samples were collected through questionnaire. Cluster analysis is done to study the data. Based on the analysis and results, we can say that there is more acceptability of fast food outlets and change in the consumption behaviour of food. The study classified children into three segments: a) novelty and ambience seeking customer, b) price, value and convenience seeking customer and c) health and nutrition conscious customer. This attempt can help in providing direction to the fast food outlets to target the consumers more effectively and formulate marketing strategies to increase the customer delight.