A STUDY ON

EXISTING MARKET FOR BRANDED ORGANIC TEA AND CONSUMER

PREFERENCE TOWARDS IT IN GREATER GUWAHATI

A Summer Training Project Report

Submitted In Partial Fulfilment Of The Requirements For The
Award of Degree of MBA
2015-17.
Organisation guide :

Academic guide:

Dipankar Sarmah,
Sr. Field Manager and Branch Head,
IMRB, Guwahati.

Dr. Rinalini P.Kakati

Associate Professor
Dept. of Business Administration
Gauhati University.

Prepared for

Submitted by:
Usham Deepika Devi
Roll no- 432/15
rd
3 semester,MBA
Gauhati University.

Acknowledgement

A summer project is a golden opportunity for learning and self development. It is

absolutely impossible for single individual to complete the assigned job without help and
assistance from others. . It would be incomplete to submit this report without acknowledging
the people behind this endeavour and without whose support I wouldnt have able to achieve
this. It gives me immense pleasure to express my gratitude to everyone who shared with me
their precious time and effort during the project.
First of all, I thank IMRB International for granting me the permission to work with
esteem organization.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank and express my deep sense of gratitude
towards Mr. Dipankar Sarmah, Sr. Field Manager and Guwahati Brand Head, IMRB for
entrusting upon me confidence and providing me a chance to work in the field of marketing. I
am thankful to him for providing continuous guidance to help build an understanding of the
practical aspects of the work, gain knowledge and valuable experience. Without your
willingness, suggestion and insight this project would not have been completed.
I would also take this opportunity to thank the Department of Business Administration ,
Gauhati University to put the theoretical inputs gathered at the institute to practice. I also feel
a sense of gratitude towards Dr. Rinalini P. Kakati, Associate Professor, Deptt of Business
Administration ,Gauhati University who took personal interest in the progress of this report..
Lastly, I thank God for his blessings without which I would not have been able to
complete my project.

Usham Deepika Devi,

Student of MBA 3rd semester,
Gauhati University.

Certificate of Originality

This is to certify that the report entitled Existing market for branded organic tea
and consumer preference towards it in greater Guwahati submitted herewith by Name:
Usham Deepika Devi, a student of the Department of Business Administration, Gauhati
University in the partial fulfilment of the award of the degree of Master of Business
Administration under Gauhati University is a bonafide presentation of her work carried out
under my supervision and guidance .
The report is the result of her own investigation and the report neither as a whole nor as a part
was submitted to any University /Educational Institution work for any research, degree
diploma .
And I wish her success in life.

Date:
Place: Guwahati

Dr. Rinalini P.Kakati

Associate Professor
Dept. of Business Administration
Gauhati University.

Certificate Of Declaration
I , Ms.Usham Deepika Devi, student of the Department of Business Administration, Gauhati
University hereby declare that the project titled Existing market for branded organic tea
and consumer preference towards it in greater Guwahati is an independent work of mine.
To the best of my knowledge and believe it is an original and is an own outcome of my effort.
This has been undertaken for the purpose of the partial fulfilment of the award of the degree
of Master of Business Administration under Gauhati University

Date :
Place : Guwahati

Usham Deepika Devi

Student of MBA 3rd semester
Department of
Business Administration,
Gauhati University.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERS

PAGE NO

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1-7

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE TOPIC

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
CHAPTER 2: DETAILS OF THE TOPIC
2.1 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIC TEA
2.2 DETAILED STUDY OF ORGANIC TEA BRANDS
CHAPTER 3: ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE
CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

8-12
13-16
17
18-39

CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 FINDINGS
6.2 CONCLUSION
6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
QUESTIONNAIRE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

40-44

1. NAME OF THE ORGANISATION: IMRB International, Guwahati.

2. TITLE OF THE PROJECT: Study on Existing market for brand of organic tea and
consumer preference towards it in greater Guwahati.
3. DURATION : Two months (8 weeks)
4. ORGANISATIONAL GUIDE: Mr.Dipankar Sarmah
5. INSTITUTIONAL GUIDE: Dr. Rinalini P.Kakati
6. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:
1. To identify consumer preference towards organic tea.
2. To study the effect of various factors influencing the
purchase of the product.
3. To study the effect of various promotional schemes that influences shifting of brands.
4. To gain an insight about the perception of retailers towards organic tea.
7. METHODOLOGY:
DATA SOURCE:
Primary Data: This data is collected directly from field survey through questionnaire
and personal interaction with households and retailers.
Secondary Data: This data are collected through the help of websites,
magazines, journals, books and articles.
RESEARCH APPROACH:
Researcher applied Survey Method as a research approach.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENT:
In this research project the researcher used questionnaire as an instrument for
collecting the respected data and fact.

SAMPLING METHOD:
Researcher used Convenience Sampling Method for collecting data as it was easy for
the researcher to get the required data at hand.
RESEARCH TOOL:
SPSS software
SAMPLE SIZE: In this research project, the researcher took a sample of 100

respondents for consumer survey and 80 respondents for the retailer survey.
LOCATION OF THE STUDY:
Data were collected from east, west, north and south zones of greater Guwahati.
8. FINDINGS:
The findings of the survey are summarised separately for consumers as well as retailers.

Consumer survey
The following results has been found
Out of the total number of respondents,
91% of the respondents consume tea as beverage and only 9% are non consumers of
tea.
Out of the total number of respondents who consume tea, 51% of the respondents
mostly consume green tea; 47% mostly consume normal/CTC tea and only 2 %
mostly consume herbal tea.
And 74% of the respondents were aware of organic tea and only 36 % were not aware
of organic tea.
Out of the total number of respondents who are aware of organic tea, 71.7% of the
respondents consume organic tea and 28.3 % do not consume organic tea.
Out of the total number of respondents who consume organic tea
66% of the respondents were influenced by colour, design and better handling of
organic tea packets whereas 34% were not influenced by these factors.
Largest majority of the people 43.4% use 25 tea bags packaging of organic tea; 3.8%
use 10 tea bags; 15.1% use 50 tea bags; 7.5% use 50 grams and the remaining 30.2%
respondents use 100 grams package of organic tea.
39.8% of the respondents are using Organic India; 26.5% are using Eco valley;
10.8% are using 24mantra; 8.4% are using Hathikuli and the remaining 14.5%
respondents are using Makalu.
28.3% of the respondents prefer brand name while making purchase; 22.6% price
and the remaining 49.1% respondents prefer the quality while making purchase.
35.8% of the respondents shift from one brand to another and the remaining 64.2%
respondents do not shift from one brand to another.
Out of the total number of respondents who shifts brand, 52.6% of the respondents
shift from one brand to another on the basis of quality; 31.6% on quantity; 10.5% on
schemes and the remaining only 5.3% respondents shift on the basis of gifts.
Out of the total number of respondents consuming organic tea , 9.4% of the
respondents were extremely satisfied with the pricing of organic tea; 49.1% were
moderately satisfied; 30.2% were satisfied and the remaining 11.3% respondents
were not so satisfied with the pricing.
The average score of affect on purchase of organic tea by colour, taste, aroma , texture
and health benefits are 3.30,3.99,3.84, 3.67 and 4.85 respectively which shows that
all these factors colour have a very good affect on purchase of organic tea.
37.7% of the respondents considers organic tea as refreshing; 17% considers it as a
source of energy; 20.7 considers beneficial for fat reduction; 5.7% considers it useful

for stress relieve and the remaining 18.9 % respondents claims that they acquires all
the above health benefits from consuming organic tea.
21.7% of the respondents prefers lemon flavour; 28.9% prefer ginger flavour; 16.9%
prefer cinnamon and honey; 19.3% prefer ginger, mint and honey; 7.2% prefer tulsi
and the remaining 6% respondents prefer mint flavour.
6.3% of the respondents claims that there is not much package differentiation; 50%
claims that there is almost similar price tags; 31.3% says there is not enough
flavour varieties and the remaining 12.5 % respondents says that there is
unsatisfactory labelling in the packaging of organic tea.
It has been also found from the cross tabulations that
Most of the organic tea consumers are from the age group 16-25years of age and
age group 56 and over years of age.
56.6% of the consumers were female and 43.4% were male.
Majority of the organic tea consumers are service persons followed by housewives,
businessmen, student and self employed.
Majority of the organic tea consumers fall under the income group 5L- 8L followed
by consumers under the income groups 2L-5L ,8L and above and 2L and under.
Retailer survey
Out of the total number of retail stores, 71.3% of the stores stock organic tea and
28.8% of the stores do not stock organic tea.
Out of the total number of retail stores stocking organic tea most of the stores stock
organic tea and eco valley and the least stocked brands are Bharali and Dynasty
green.
33.3% of the stores thinks that price of organic tea is moderate, 45.6% thinks that
the price is high, 17.5% thinks that the price is very high and the remaining 3.5 %
of the retail stores did have anything to say.
The average score of value for money and market entry pricing from retailers point
of view on organic tea is 3.62 and 3.45 respectively which shows that a good
section of retailers consider organic tea as value for money and market entry
pricing.
42.1% of the stores look for brand name while stocking a brand of organic tea; 7%
stores look for brand equity; 12.3% look for ease of doing business and the
remaining 38.6% look for return on investment.
Among the highest selling brands in the retail stores,
and Pukka and Bharali are at the bottom.

Organic India tops the list

 Out of the total number of retail stores, 11.1% of the stores faced problems while
stocking due to untimely distribution; 22.2% faced problems due to uneven
distribution and the remaining due to inconvenient channels.
9. RECOMMENDATIONS:
After analyzing the feedbacks from consumers and searching more information on the
Internet, here are some suggestions which will help any company before launching a
brand of organic tea :
First of all, the company should do good investment in advertisement .The
advertisement is the best way to spread product information and deepened unique
and long-term brand awareness helps increase in sales greatly.
The company should try to position the product as a slimming /fat reduction mantra
and an energy booster or refreshing as many of the consumers mostly consume
organic tea for the mentioned reasons.
The company should come up with schemes like discount and extra quantity etc. it
will be helpful to increase sale.
The company should anyway not give more emphasis on colour, design and better
handling of the tea packets, because it hardly affects the choice of the consumers
but on the other hand , colour, aroma and texture of the tea is very influential
regarding their choice of a particular brand of organic tea.
Consumers were mostly found purchasing tea packets of 25 tea bags irrespective of
any criteria, so the company has the opportunity to come up with such tea packets.
Most of the customers prefer lemon and ginger flavour so the company has the
opportunity to come up with these flavours.
And lastly , the company should have a focus on the product strategy, pricing
strategy, distribution strategy, promotion strategy and other marketing mix, and
through advertising and other communication means to communicate with
consumers in order to convey brand positioning effectively and occupy a unique
position in the consumers minds.
10. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The research was completed within a limited time frame due to academic schedule.
Respondents were reluctant for their responses during the survey.
Awareness level of organic tea is pretty low compared to green tea.

There were instances when respondents were found unaware of organic tea but
made understand by naming the brands of the product, which seriously indicates
lack of promotion.