cb submission

MKTG 102 Consumer Behavior

Semester 2, AY 2010/2011

Group Project Report

Sunshine G6

Prepared for Professor Seshan Ramaswami

Prepared By:

Jeslin Goh Zhi Lin

Goh Siau Ling

Lim Ting Yong

Lin Yuqian

Mohammad Nazri Bin Sazali

NASTA Aashna

April 2011

Contents1. Sandwich bread Industry background....................................................................................3

2. Background of Sunshine Bread..............................................................................................3

2.1. Sunshine Bread’s current strategy – Nobody bakes it softer!.........................................3

3. Market Research and Methods...............................................................................................4

4. Target Market and Segmentation...........................................................................................4

5. Reasons for Sunshine’s Laggard Status.................................................................................5

5.1 Low effort in Purchase.....................................................................................................5

5.2. Not in the Top of Mind Recall........................................................................................6

5.3 No distinct attractiveness about sunshine.........................................................................6

5.4 Inefficiency in current marketing strategy.......................................................................7

6. Misconception of Sunshine’s perceived quality and taste.....................................................7

7. Inability to distinguish different brands of bread...................................................................8

8. Affecting consumer decision-making process.......................................................................9

9. Recommendation...................................................................................................................9

9.1 Exposure through advertisements....................................................................................9

9.1.1. Main Attribute – Taste..............................................................................................9

9.1.2. Central Theme – Premium Quality.........................................................................10

9.1.3 Tagline – “You will not know, till you taste it”......................................................10

9.2. Exposure though giving back to the community...........................................................10

9.2.1. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)..................................................................10

9.2.2. Sponsorship of events.............................................................................................10

9.2.3. Factory visits to educate primary school students..................................................11

9.3. Exposure Through Points of Purchase (POP)...............................................................11

9.3.1. Shelf Placements & Decorations............................................................................11

10. Limitations.........................................................................................................................12

11. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................12

12. Appendices.........................................................................................................................13

Appendix A : Survey questionaire.......................................................................................13

Appendix B: Summary of Survey Results...........................................................................20

Appendix C: Sunshine advertisement..................................................................................23

Appendix D: Taste Test Questionnaire................................................................................24

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Appendix E: Blind taste test results.....................................................................................26

Appendix F: In-depth interview Questions..........................................................................27

Appendix G: Summary of in-depth interview responses.....................................................28

Appendix H: Secondary Research – Industry Background..................................................29

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1. Sandwich bread Industry background

The everyday sandwich bread makes up 41.62% to 43.86% of the value of all baked goods in

Singapore over the past 6 years. Gardenia Foods, which owns the Gardenia and Bonjour

makes up for about 2/3 of total sales while Auric Pacific Food Ind, which owns Sunshine and

Top One garners most of the remaining 1/3 of market share. In our analysis, we seek to

understand why Sunshine trails behind Gardenia in popularity despite being the older brand

in this market which is effectively an oligopoly with 2 major players.

2. Background of Sunshine Bread

Home-grown manufacturer of sandwich bread, Sunshine Bakeries, is the oldest bakery in

Singapore. It used to be a small humble business with operations confined to a single shop

house but was acquired by Singapore Cold Storage (SCS) to become Singapore’s first

commercial bakery in 1930. Sunshine, an 80-year-old brand is a ubiquitous option when it

comes to purchasing bread in Singapore and has received the Heritage Brand Award for its

success as a long-standing brand.

2.1. Sunshine Bread’s current strategy – Nobody bakes it softer!

Sunshine’s belief in innovation and responsiveness to market needs is evidenced by its full

range of healthier choice bread varieties in response to the increasing consumer preference

for wholemeal variants over white breads. With “Nobody bakes it softer!” as its tagline,

Sunshine aims to target consumers who prefer their bread made softer and focuses on texture

rather than taste in its positioning. Additionally, Sunshine lacks variety of flavours as it only

has 3 types of flavoured bread; this segment is largely catered for by Bonjour’s large variety

of flavoured breads. Apart from this, Sunshine also targets consumers using nutritional value

as its unique selling proposition (USP), resulting in its tagline – Goodness of grains in a soft

hearty loaf.

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3. Market Research and Methods

Firstly, we conducted in-depth interviews to give us insights into the consumers’ feelings,

perceptions, and purchasing behaviour on sandwich breads. These interviews shaped the

scope of our surveys and generated our hypotheses for the laggard status of Sunshine bread.

The 4 hypotheses we came up with are:

1. Sunshine is perceived as a brand with lower quality bread than Gardenia.

2. Sunshine bread does not taste as good as Gardenia bread.

3. Buying bread is a low effort, habitual buying behaviour.

4. Sunshine has an unfavourable strong yeasty smell, which deters some consumers.

We conducted a structured survey in order to collect primary quantitative data to validate our

hypotheses. It was conducted using Qualtrics, via the convenience sampling method, for a

sample size of 95 – 69 non-health conscious and 26 health conscious respondents.

We also conducted a blind taste test to compare the taste, texture and smell preferences for

white sandwich bread among the 4 brands (Sunshine, Gardenia, Bonjour, and Top One) on

our 13 participants - 6 females and 7 males. Participants were offered product samples in

identical presentations and were asked to taste and evaluate the samples according to 5

attributes, which spanned across taste, texture and smell. It helped us to determine if

Sunshine bread was under-performing as a product, and we obtained valuable insights on the

aspects in which our laggard brand could improve on.

4. Target Market and Segmentation

As bread is seen as a staple food product and commodity, the target market is made up of

consumers who are generally indiscriminate of demographics. Although there are distinctions

between the purchaser and the end consumer, our in-depth interviews showed that the end

consumers have the power to influence the buying decisions of the purchaser. Together with

this, the increasingly distinct positioning of Sunshine portraying nutritional value as its USP

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in recent advertisements prompted us to segment the market psychographically. In our

research, we then segmented the market into those who are health conscious and those who

are not. In our surveys, this classification was determined by whether the respondent

indicated a preference for wholemeal bread or other types of bread.

Secondary research data showed that wholemeal bread had an increasing market share of

sandwich bread sales in Singapore and reached 28%1 of total sandwich bread sales in 2010:

indicating that consumers are slowly switching to healthier alternatives.

Although price segmentation was considered, the retail prices of bread differed by less than a

dollar and were deemed by some interviewees as nearly negligible. The effect of lower prices

to provide greater value was also manifested in the frequent price promotions by various

brands instead of being constantly dominated by a single brand. Thus, we found price

segmentation unsuitable for our product.

5. Reasons for Sunshine’s Laggard Status

5.1 Low effort in Purchase

Bread is a commodity with low effort in its purchasing behaviour, which is often

unconscious. Bread buying behaviour invokes the use of heuristics based on choice tactics

such as price and brand loyalty. These schemas are often conditioned using experiential

attributes such as taste, rather than its search and credence attributes such as nutritional value.

As such, most of the manufacturers compete on price promotions to entice bargain-seekers

and new product launches to target taste preferences. The key to unlock consumer

preferences for bread is through the interference with existing schemas, which can be done

either by targeting the purchaser or consumer. Our in-depth interviews found that most

consumers had chosen their bread based on brand and price promotions. Coherent with that,

our surveys found that 71.6%2 of consumers bought their usual brand of bread or the cheapest

1 Refer to Appendix H

2 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 9

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brand of bread available. However, it is notable that our surveys found that most consumers

(88.4%)3 would be swayed by price promotions and freebies. Consumer research also found

that there was psychological value in price promotions and the bundling of products for

greater perceived value by the consumer. Thus, there is evidence that it is difficult to

establish strong brand loyalty and there may be low value in brand loyalty in the case of

bread purchasing behaviour.

5.2. Not in the Top of Mind Recall

Given the low effort in purchasing behaviour, the aim should be to attain a higher level of top

of mind recall. With only 2 main players in the market, improving the recall of Sunshine to

affect the evoke set would encourage buying behaviour more than improving recall in the

consideration set. Among the 95 respondents, Sunshine had a low top of mind recall of

11.60% as compared to the market leader, Gardenia, of 42.10%4. This reduces the possibility

that Sunshine will be chosen when making purchase decisions outside of the store despite

being in the consumer’s evoke set as measured by the uncued recall. This recall gap closes up

from 30.5% as we move from top of mind to 17.9% uncued and -5.3% cued brand recall. It is

likely that top of mind recall has severe impact on Sunshin sales as compared to Gardenia

because it encourages choices made through availability heuristics. 82.10% of consumers

have purchased Gardenia bread in the past three months, while 67.40% purchased Sunshine5.

5.3 No distinct attractiveness about sunshine

When respondents were asked about their belief of each of the stated attributes, Sunshine was

consistently ranked 2nd and 3rd for most attributes and is not the most strongly rated in any

attribute. While the compensatory Fishbein model has indicated the 2nd placing of Sunshine

for the non health-conscious and 3rd placing for the health conscious, decision could be based

3 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 104 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 45 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 6

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on a lexicographical order as well6. Going by this order, most consumers would buy what

they perceive to be the tastiest, followed by bread with the best texture and then nutritional

value. Health conscious consumers on the other hand, would buy only the bread with the

highest nutritional value, followed by taste then texture if the breads did not noticably differ

in the first attribute. For most, Gardenia dominates all 3 attributes, Bonjour dominates flavor

and fragrance, and Top One dominates price and size, leaving Sunshine with no USP lower

sales to these customers.

5.4 Inefficiency in current marketing strategy

Sunshine’s current marketing strategy strongly emphasizes nutritional value of their bread

and can be seen as an attempt to craft out a USP based on nutritional value. However,

according to our Fishbein analysis, Sunshine has a score of 6.59 and lags behind Gardenia’s

score of 7.10 in this attribute.7 As nutritional value is a search and credence attribute, crafting

out a USP based on it could be much more difficult than establishing taste as a USP. As

Sunshine is a laggard brand in the industry, it may be very difficult to garner this trust from

consumers due to Sunshine’s relative lack of credibility compared to Gardenia; promotional

efforts may instead benefit Gardenia. Through trial samples and noticeable differences in

taste scores, it would be more possible for Sunshine to carve out a market advantage.

6. Misconception of Sunshine’s perceived quality and taste

In the blind taste test, respondents were unaware of the brands. Respondents then rated each

brand’s attribute with 5 being the most desired level

and 1 being the least desired level of the given

attribute. Results in figure 1 showed that respondents

rated Sunshine as having significantly better taste,

smell and texture than the other brands, including

6 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 77 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 7

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market leader Gardenia8. As such, the hypothesis on Sunshine bread being lower quality,

poorer tasting and having an undesirable yeasty smell are all unfounded based on our taste

test results.

7. Inability to distinguish different brands of bread

As seen in Figure 2, results from our blind taste test

showed that 61.54% of our respondents ranked Sunshine

as their preferred first choice while only 23.08% of

respondents ranked Gardenia as their first choice.

These results are contrary to popular belief that Sunshine

is a lower quality brand as compared to the market leader,

Gardenia. Respondents mistook Sunshine for the market leader, Gardenia when asked to

identify the brands of bread they had tasted.

Respondents were unable to distinguish the brands of

bread correctly as seen in Figure 3. 70% of respondents

identified Sunshine as Gardenia, while 49% of

respondents mistook Gardenia as Sunshine. Hence, the

reason why Sunshine is a laggard brand is due to brand

familiarity and consumers’ misconception. Due to low purchase effort of buying bread,

consumers could be inclined to think of Sunshine as being lower quality than Gardenia

because of lower mere exposure rates and poorer brand image of Sunshine as compared to

Gardenia. With such a huge percentage of misattributions, it is likely that debunking the myth

of the original brand perceptions would greatly boost the image, and eventually the sales

figures of Sunshine.

8. Affecting consumer decision-making process

In our determination of the consumer

8 Refer to Appendix E

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behaviour in bread buying, we illustrate the gaps that discourage consumers from purchase

with the hierarchy of effects model. Based on our analysis, the gaps are: Sunshine is not in

the top of mind recall, a lack of a USP for Sunshine bread and the perception of a lack of

freshness. With that, we came up with our marketing strategy that seeks to address and bridge

these gaps.

9. Recommendation

The strategy would be to establish quality awareness to the consumers through print

advertisements instead of TV commercials. Despite the low ad recall rates of 10% uncued

and 44 % cued recall on average across the sandwich bread industry, there is still value in

advertisements as we are rectifying past misconceptions instead of attempting to increase

brand awareness for Sunshine. As costs of TV commercials may be much higher than the

amount Sunshine can afford, print advertisements would probably bring about more sustained

ad coverage throughout the campaign period. As we have not detected significant differences

between the 2 psychographics segments in terms of beliefs and buying behaviour during our

research, we will employ a strategy to target our consumers as a whole.

9.1 Exposure through advertisements

9.1.1. Main Attribute – Taste

Sunshine’s print advertisements should refocus on the taste attribute as compared to its

current strategy of texture and nutritional value. Evident in our blind taste test result,

Sunshine scored 4.5/5 in terms of taste while Gardenia scored 2.5/5. Although Sunshine’s

strength was in its taste, respondents were unable to distinguish Sunshine as having the best

taste attribute but instead mistook it for Gardenia. By focusing on this taste attribute,

Sunshine can encourage consumers to focus on Sunshine’s strength in the market.

9.1.2. Central Theme – Premium Quality

Our in-depth interviews have shown that Sunshine is perceived as a lower quality brand as

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compared to their competitors such as Gardenia and Bonjour. The central theme of “premium

quality” could help reduce the consumer misconception of Sunshine being a low quality

brand. Furthermore, it fits well with the society’s notion of status in the social hierarchy.

9.1.3 Tagline – “You will not know, till you taste it”9

It is crucial for Sunshine to change the negative perceptions that consumers have for its

breads. The marketing tagline proposed will be the first step in attempting to change the

negative brand image in consumers’ mind. This will reiterate the importance of trail and gain

the consumer trust in our breads. Using different retrieval cues in our advertisements like the

Sunshine Factory would help prevent habituation to our ads and aid consumers in ad recall.

9.2. Exposure though giving back to the community

9.2.1. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Sunshine can target environmental campaigns such as recycling and introduce recycling

programs for its plastic bread wrappers. Consumers can bring back 5 pieces of the bread’s

plastic wrapper to exchange for a free loaf of bread. This will give the consumers an

additional reason to make repurchases and the redemption scheme could double up as a

loyalty rewards program. In addition, the notion of doing their part for the environment

appeals to their emotions. This is a form of positive reinforcement (a loaf of free bread)

scheduled at fixed interval used to induce consumers into buying Sunshine bread. We strive

to strengthen the positive associations with our bread and this will prompt decisions to

purchase.

9.2.2. Sponsorship of events

Sunshine can specifically sponsor family days of businesses in corporate partnership schemes

to increase its exposure to the public. Samples of bread can be given out in goodie bags to

encourage participants to try Sunshine bread. From our in-depth interviews, we found that

many purchase decisions were influenced by a simple search heuristic – word of mouth.

9 Refer to Appendix C

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Thus, in this sponsorship, we decided to target the family structure rather than just

individuals. Exposing Sunshine to non-decision makers in the family, we can alter the family

choice since bread is purchased for family consumption and would not be strictly decided by

any member.

9.2.3. Factory visits to educate primary school students

Sunshine can partner with primary schools to organize

factory visits to expose children to the idea that Sunshine is a

premium brand with high quality bread. As the trip would be

conducted in the formative years of these children, they are

more likely to switch to Sunshine and have high lifetime

customer value. At the end of the trip, students would be

given a loaf of Sunshine bread to enhance trial in their families. Sunshine will not only

increase its brand exposure, but also indirectly influence the purchasing decisions of the

family. This may eventually translate to liking for the Sunshine brand and close the gap

between “liking for the brand” and “top of the mind recall”. Also, for consumers whose

“prior beliefs” about Sunshine was untrue due to reasons such as negative perception of

Sunshine or lack of familiarity, providing students with a loaf of bread to induce trail would

lead to a “revised beliefs” of Sunshine according to the model of learning from experience.

9.3. Exposure Through Points of Purchase (POP)

9.3.1. Shelf Placements & Decorations

Sunshine can collaborate with supermarkets, which have the highest purchase rate of 91.6%10

for sandwich bread according to our surveys, for product placement on eye level shelves.

Decoration of shelves with the premium theme can increase the POP exposure. This would

reach out to customers who make purchase decision in the stores. Pop-outs from the store

shelf also can be used to dispense information booklets about their products.

10 Refer to Appendix B – Survey results question 8

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9.3.2 Salesperson Promotion

Sunshine can hire salespersons at supermarkets like NTUC to offer customers free bread

samples for tasting. Our taste tests have shown that Sunshine was the most preferred in terms

of taste despite the consumer perception otherwise. A personal touch is added to trial

promotion efforts, which will go a long way to establish the position and quality of the brand.

10. Limitations

We made several assumptions in our report. Firstly, we assumed that there were no noticeable

differences in bread products aside from taste, texture and smell. Taste test results were solely

based on the taste of white bread and were conducted with a small sample of 13. We also

assumed that a survey respondent was health conscious, if he preferred wholemeal bread over

other types of bread.

11. Conclusion

Sunshine main reasons for being a laggard brand is not due to its inferior product in terms of

a lack of quality or poor taste. Instead, Sunshine’s greatest obstacle is the confirmation bias

caused by the innate desire of the consumer to remain congruent with their past actions – to

retain a negative perception of its quality and taste. Although current promotional efforts

have identified Sunshine’s lack of a USP, the target attribute being carved out as its new USP

lacks in support, especially from a laggard brand. Therefore, Sunshine should strengthen its

position in the industry by using the various marketing recommendations to increase its brand

and quality awareness, and beliefs in the minds of the general consumer.

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12. Appendices

Appendix A : Survey questionaireWe are a group of students from Singapore Management University working on a research project on sandwich breads. Please be assured that information provided by you is strictly for research purposes and will be treated with confidentiality. Your participation in this survey is greatly appreciated.(Screening questions)Have you bought sandwich bread (pre-sliced loaf of bread) in the past 3 months? Yes No

Do you prefer white bread and/or flavored bread or wholemeal bread? White and/or flavored bread Wholemeal bread

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1. Which brand(s) of sandwich bread have you heard of? 2. Which brand(s) of sandwich bread have you seen advertisement for? (Type in "Nil" if you

can't recall any brand.)3. In addition to the above-mentioned brand(s), which brand(s) of sandwich bread have you

heard of? (Please tick the above mentioned brand(s) too.) Gardenia Sunshine Bonjour Top One High 5 First Choice Fair Price Sheng Siong Prima Deli Bread Talk Q Bread DJ Bakery Four Leaves Crystal Jade Bakery Swiss Bake Provence Barcook Bakery Others (You may key in more than one brand in the blank provided.)

4. In addition to the above mentioned brand(s), which brand(s) of sandwich bread have you seen advertisement for? (Please tick the above mentioned brand(s) too.)

Gardenia Sunshine Bonjour Top One High 5 First Choice Fair Price Sheng Siong Prima Deli Break Talk Q Bread DJ Bakery Four Leaves Crystal Jade Bakery Swiss Bake Provence Barcook Bakery Others (You may key in more than one brand in the blank provided.)

5. Which brand(s) of sandwich bread have you purchased before? (You may select more than one brand.)

Gardenia Sunshine Bonjour

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Top One High 5 First Choice Fair Price Sheng Shiong Prima Deli Break Talk Q Bread DJ Bakery Four Leaves Crystal Jade Bakery Swiss Bake Provence Barcook Bakery Others (You may key in more than one brand in the blank provided.)

____________________

6. Which brand(s) of sandwich bread do you currently consumer? (You may select more than one brand.)

Gardenia Sunshine Bonjour Top One High 5 First Choice Fair Price Sheng Shiong Prima Deli Break Talk Q Bread DJ Bakery Four Leaves Crystal Jade Bakery Swiss Bake Provence Barcook Bakery Others (You may key in more than one brand in the blank provided.)

____________________

7. We would like to know your evaluation and preference for sandwich breads in terms of the following properties.

Very bad (-3)

(-2) (-1) (0) (1) (2) Very good (3)

Price (Cheap)

Nutritional Value

(Nutritious)

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Texture (Soft)

Taste (Tasty)

Size (Jumbo Pack)

Flavour (Huge

variety of flavour)

Smell (Fragrance)

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We would like you to tell us your opinions of these brands of sandwich breads on the different dimensions of price, nutritional values, texture, taste, size, flavour and smell. Let us start with Gardenia. How would you rate Gardenia on price, nutritional values, texture, taste, size, flavour and smell?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Expensive:Inexpensive

Low nutritional value:High nutritional

value

Dry:Soft Taste bad:Tasty

Small pack:Jumbo Pack

Small variety of flavour:Huge variety

of flavour

No fragrance:Strong fragrance

Let us continue with Sunshine. How would you rate Sunshine on price, nutritional values, texture, taste, size, flavour and smell?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Low Nutritional value:High Nutritional

value


Small Pack:Jumbo Pack


of flavour


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Let us continue with Bonjour. How would you rate Bonjour on price, nutritional values, texture, taste, size, flavour and smell?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Low nutritional value:High nutritional

value




of flavour


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Let us end with Top One. How would you rate Top One on price, nutritional values, texture, taste, size, flavour and smell?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Expensive:Inexpensive Low nutritional

value:High Nutritional value




of flavour


8. Where do you usually purchase your bread(s) from? (You may choose more than one option.)

Minimarts Mama shop Coffee shop Supermarkets Convenience Stores (7-11, Cheers)

Others: ____________________

9. Which of the following best describes the way your buy your bread? Buy the same brand of bread Buy the same brand of bread, then buy other brands if the desired brand is not available Indifferent to a few brands which you rotate around and buy Buy the cheapest available brand of bread available No fixed way of buying bread

10. Which of the various promotion schemes would entice you to buy a brand of bread that is different from your usual brand? (You may select more than one option.)

Substantial price discounts of about 20% off Free condiments such as Nutella or Kaya Free bread of other types such as hotdog bread Would not be enticed to buy other brands of bread

11. What is something that you LIKE about SUNSHINE bread?

12. What is something that you DISLIKE about SUNSHINE bread?

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Appendix B: Summary of Survey ResultsResults for Q1 – 4:Based on the findings for the above questions, we have summarized the important information into the following table.

Top of mind recall %

Uncued brand recall

%Cued brand

recall %Uncued ad

recall % Cued ad recall %

Gardenia 42.10% 48.40% 82.10% 15.80% 54.70%

Sunshine 11.60% 30.50% 87.40% 13.70% 41.00%

Bonjour 0.00% 17.90% 72.60% 6.30% 37.90%

Top one 2.10% 9.50% 57.90% 0.00% 0.00%

Results for Q5-6

Triers Users Retention rate

Gardenia 82.10% 67.3220% 82.00%

Sunshine 67.40% 43.1360% 64.00%

Bonjour 49.50% 33.6600% 68.00%

Top one 27.40% 10.9600% 40.00%

Results for Q7Overall (scaled) Weights Sunshine Gardenia Bonjour Top one

Price (Cheap) 1.21 6.40 5.59 5.29 7.36

Nutritional Value (Nutritious) 1.95 6.59 7.10 6.38 5.45

Texture (Soft) 1.86 6.62 7.16 6.30 5.37

Taste (Tasty) 2.12 6.76 7.05 6.71 5.45

Size (Jumbo Pack) 0.76 5.99 6.48 5.80 6.85

Flavour (Huge variety of flavour) 1.20 6.18 6.67 6.82 4.65

Smell (Fragrance) 1.54 6.27 6.49 6.84 5.17

Overall scoring 68.85 71.74 67.90 59.82

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Not health conscious(scaled) Weights Sunshine Gardenia Bonjour Top one

Price (Cheap) 1.26 6.37 5.37 5.04 7.03


Texture (Soft) 1.89 6.59 7.33 6.31 5.70

Taste (Tasty) 2.17 6.79 7.26 6.80 5.77

Size (Jumbo Pack) 0.75 6.06 6.31 5.76 6.57


Smell (Fragrance) 1.65 6.31 6.57 6.64 5.21

Overall scoring 69.71 72.61 67.95 61.86

Health conscious (scaled) Weights Sunshine Gardenia Bonjour Top one

Price (Cheap) 1.08 6.49 6.16 5.93 8.24


Texture (Soft) 1.77 6.70 6.70 6.26 4.50

Taste (Tasty) 2.00 6.70 6.49 6.49 4.61

Size (Jumbo Pack) 0.77 5.83 6.93 5.93 7.59


Smell (Fragrance) 1.23 6.16 6.26 7.36 5.06

Overall scoring 66.62 69.70 67.64 54.42

Results for Q8%

Minimart 25.3%Mama shop 13.7%Coffee shop 3.2%Supermarkets 91.6%Convenience Store (7-11, Cheers) 42.1%Others: 7.4%

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Results for Q9Option

Buy the same brand of bread 21.1%

Buy the same brand of bread, then buy other brands if the desired brand is not available

36.8%

Indifferent to a few brands which you rotate around and buy

18.9%

Buy the cheapest available brand of bread available

13.7%

No fixed way of buying bread 9.5%

Results for Q10Option

Substantial price discounts of about 20% off

52.6%

Free condiments such as Nutella or Kaya 78.9%

Free bread of other types such as hotdog bread

67.4%

Would not be enticed to buy other brands of bread

11.6%

Results for Q11From our survey findings, 30.5% of the respondents commented that they like Sunshine because it is “soft and fragrant”; 17.9% of the respondents commented that they like Sunshine because it is “cheap”; and 17.9% of the respondents commented that they like Sunshine because it is “tasty”.

Results for Q12From our survey findings, 27.4% of the respondents commented that they dislike Sunshine because of its “limited flavors”; 23.2% of the respondents commented that they dislike Sunshine because of its “blend taste”; and 11.5% of the respondents commented that they dislike Sunshine because it “turns dry easily”.

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Appendix C: Sunshine advertisement

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Appendix D: Taste Test QuestionnaireRate the sandwich breads according to the following attributes:

Brand A

Smell of bread Undesired Smell --------------------- Desired Smell

Texture of the bread

Undesired softness ---------------- Desired softness Undesired moisture -------------- Desired moisture

Taste of the bread

Undesired saltiness --------------- Desired saltiness Undesired sweetness ----------- Desired sweetness

Overall impression

Brand B




Taste of the bread


Overall impression

Brand C




Taste of the bread


Overall impression

Brand D


Texture of the bread Undesired softness ---------------- Desired softness

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Undesired moisture -------------- Desired moisture

Taste of the bread


Overall impression

Rank the bread (Brand A – D) in terms of which one you would prefer to eat.

1.

2.

3.

4.Which brands you think the following breads were

BrandABCD

Now that you know which brand of bread you prefer,

If it is different from the usual brand you consume, would you still purchase your usual brand? ________________________________________________________________________

Why?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If it is the same as the usual brand you consume, would you venture out to try other brands bread? ________________________________________________________________________

Why?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How important is the:Not important at all ------------ Extremely Important

The brand of bread to you The packaging of bread to you

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Appendix E: Blind taste test results

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Appendix F: In-depth interview Questions

In order to understand the buying behaviour for sandwich bread’s consumers, we conducted 25 interviews across our 2 segments of 10 health-conscious and 15 non-health conscious consumers.

Our questions were as follows:1. Who buys the bread for the family? 2. Are there any influencers that make you decide on which brand to buy?3. Do you spend a lot of time gathering information through trial, reading labels, discussing with friends, etc.?4. Are there any important differences between brands of bread?5. Do you buy the same brand all the time, switch back and forth among a small set of brands, buy the one that’s on promotion, etc.)?6. What brands do you consider when buying bread?7. What are the perceptions of the image/strengths/weaknesses of the brands you mention? (price, quality , texture, smell ) in this category, especially of the market leader, your target brand and other competing brands?8. What attributes are important in making a purchase? (expiry date, size, etc)9. Do you think the different brands are priced the same of there is a difference in prices? If yes indicate price.10. When the bread is priced high, what does it mean to you?11. When the bread has the healthier choice label, what does it mean to you?12. What does the size of the bread mean to you?13. When the bread packaging is fanciful, what does it mean to you? 14. When a brand of bread has a quality assurance logo what does it mean to you?15. Is the brand decision made in the store or before?16. What are the sources of information that are typically consulted for this category?17. What do people remember of the advertising of different brands in this category? Do people like or dislike the advertisements of your target brand?

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Appendix G: Summary of in-depth interview responses

The answers to the in-depth interview questions have been summarized as follows:

In general, all bread buyers look at the following aspects of bread while making a purchase: texture (i.e. softness and moisture), taste (level of saltiness and sweetness, freshness, and expiry date of the bread.

The recall level of advertisements is almost 0 (Only 1 interviewee remembers an ad of Gardenia: so good… u can even eat it on its own!). Word of mouth and in-store promotions are the most popular promotion methods that affect the buying decision.They all believe that Gardenia is the market leader. Gardenia got 100% uncued recall.

Difference between healthy and non-healthy eaters:Health conscious consumers are willing to pay a higher price for breads that have healthy labels and quality assurance logos on the packs. They believe that such breads are more nutritious and healthier. They also believe that higher priced bread implies better quality, more nutritious and lesser calories. They prefer buying wholemeal and multi-grain bread and switch brands only if their 1st choice of bread i.e. Gardenia is not available. On an average the brand is decided before going to the store. If Gardenia is out of stock, then they look out for promotions on other brands of bread, but they are still particular about buying only the healthy alternatives. They are indifferent to the packaging of the breads, and the number of slices per packet is irrelevant to their decision-making. However, they are concerned about the nutritional information written on the packet. While they don’t recall ads about breads, they would like to see more ads that emphasized on the nutritional information of the bread.

Non-health conscious consumers believe that mostly all breads have similar prices with a difference of 20-30 cents. Healthy labels and quality assurance logos don’t affect their purchase behavior. In fact most of them believe that it is just a promotional tactic and doesn’t actually imply anything about the nutritional content of the bread. Some of them even said that it implies that it tastes bad and will be more expensive. Packaging means nothing to them. In this category there are 2 types of buyers – one type that decides the bread brand before going to the store and the other type that makes the decision in store based on the in-store promotions. Those who buy the same brand, do so because their family has been consuming that brand and don’t want to switch now. Some of the mothers said that their decision depends on the choice of their family members.

Views about Sunshine: Interviewees consider Sunshine to be the next best alternative to Gardenia while buying bread. They feel that the Sunshine hotdog bread is tastier as compared to the sandwich bread. However, they feel that Sunshine bread has a strong yeasty smell; it sticks to the teeth while chewing and turns stale faster. Some also believe that Sunshine bread is priced 20 cents more than other breads. Some also think that Sunshine has a shorter expiry period.

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Appendix H: Secondary Research – Industry Background

$ valuue in milllions 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 201-0 Packaged/Industrial Bread 109.2 112.4 114.7 130.8 136.0 140.1 Baked Goods 262.4 271.0 278.9 303.7 310.5 319.4% of market 41.62% 41.48% 41.13% 43.07% 43.80% 43.86%

White 60.0 59.0 57.5 57.5 57.0 56.5Wholemeal Bread 25.0 26.0 27.0 27.0 27.5 28.0Others 15.0 15.0 15.5 15.5 15.5 15.5Market share of baked goods %-Gardenia Foods (S) Pte Ltd % 28.2 26.3 26.7 27.7 27.4

-Auric Pacific Food Ind % 13.4 13.2 13.0 13.8 13.8NTUC Fairprice Co- 0.6 0.7 0.8 1.3 1.9 operative Pte LtdGardenia 19.7 22.0 23.0 23.3Sunshine 12.1 11.6 12.1 12.5

Bonjour 6.6 4.7 4.7 4.0FairPrice 0.7 0.8 1.3 1.8Top-One 1.0 1.4 1.7 1.3

Source: Euromonitor International from official statistics, trade associations, trade press, company research, store checks, trade interviews, trade sources

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