“CONSUMER BEHAVIOR”

REPORT ON

SUBMITTED BY

Sara Sohail Final (MPA-C)

SUBMISSION DATE

SUBMITTED TO

DR.Ghazal Khuwaja
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page | 1
 TOPIC Pg No

Executive Summary........................................................................................3
Company Description......................................................................................4
Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning.......................................................5-6
Organization Research Program.....................................................................7
Marketing Mix............................................................................................8- 9
Branding........................................................................................................10
Product Mix............................................................................................11- 12
SWOT Analysis.......................................................................................13-15
Recommendations.........................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................16

Page | 2
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report is on the Consumer Behavior of the Shan Foods Private Limited. Shan Foods is the
leader in branded packed spice category. Shan Foods is a brand identified by its Quality and
Taste that has been delighting the growing culinary needs of urban/rural population. In this
report we identified the brief description about some factors of Consumer Behavior as well as
how Shan Foods is managing their inventory and fulfill the demand of their customer on time.
The marketing mix of Shan Foods includes the traditional, taste and quality products which are
produces to meet specific needs of demographics, the pricing strategy, and promotions. Shan
Foods is effectively managing their inventory and they have removed all the barriers and
problems with the help of their effective plans. Shan foods have become synonymous with
authentic traditional cuisine of good quality and taste. Shan Foods has capitalized on the
changing market trends and consumer tastes and through product trials, it has made sure to churn
out offerings that are best in line with consumer tastes. It maintains global presence primarily
through exports and follows more than one growth strategy simultaneously.

Their main focus is to produce ingredients for local people who close to food taste and quality
that are why recipe mixes found their way in international market.

Page | 3
 COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Shan Foods Private Limited is a multinational company of Pakistan in the field of spices and
foods department. The Company was started in 1981 as a cottage industry by Sikandar Sultan.
This company produces spices of two types, i.e. simple and recipe-mix. These spices are being
used in so many dishes that include Pakistani and as well as other South Asian recipes.

Apart from its mother country Pakistan, its products are being exported to so many other nations
of the world. These nations include almost 60 other countries around the globe including 5
continents. Today, the brand is exported to UK, USA, and Middle East and now to Far East
regions as well. Company is also slowly and gradually expanding their operation throughout the
globe. There are three manufacturing plants of the company that are located in three different
countries of the world. These three countries are Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi
Arabia. Apart from these manufacturing plants, it also owns two offices in the United Kingdom.

Its products became famous because of its nature, as the instant food which is easy to cook, just
like that instant food, its recipe mix spices enables its users to easily make difficult traditional
dishes without any difficulty and within short period of time. The name of Shan Foods has
become synonymous with highest quality and exquisite taste. Shan Foods is one of the largest
exporters of premium quality packaged spices, recipe mixes, pickles and desserts with products
adding taste and flavors.

Page | 4
 SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND
POSITIONING (STP)

 SEGMENTATION
The market segmentation can be explained by defining demographic, geographic,
and behavioral factors that are most important for Shan Foods.

Demographic Factors:

The basic demographics that Shan caters to are the women of today belonging to age group of
18 years and above with socio-economic class of middle lower of  above. Her marital
status can be married or single, cooking for the household or  just trying out new things

Geographic Factors:

Shan food has not segmented itself on the basis of geographical segmentation. Their distribution
ranges from valleys of Quetta to the Khyber Pass and to these as of Karachi. It has more than 500
distributors in its supply arsenal. However some recipes are more famous in particular areas of
the country than others because of sub-culture preferences. For e.g. the white Nihari, Sindhi
Biryani, &Qorma mix are in huge demand in Karachi and the demand in Lahore
consists mainly of Pulao, Murgh Choley & BBQ mix.

Behavioral Factors:

Being born Pakistani, loving food is in our blood. Spicy and delicious food is a main part of our
lives. Be it the celebrations of Eid or marriage ceremony of a beloved, it’s the food that give
colors to the events and that bring the relatives for a quality time, Another behavioral factor is
related to the double income phenomenon that is growing every day. Both the man and the
woman of the house are earning to support the family and they require ease and convenience
when it comes to cooking factor.

The purchase behavior changes according to the seasons. If on one occasion Fruit chart masala
is in demand because of Holy Ramadan, BBQ mixes could be in demand on Eids or in
summers when families invite friends over on BBQ parties. The Haleem & BBQ mix are in
greater demand during the winter season while Chana Chat mix is purchased more often
in summers.

 TARGET MARKET
Females aging from 18 to 45 years compose the main target market of Shan Foods. This is
because of the reason that in our part of the world, women are mostly related to
the food and cooking. Hence, Shan Foods develops products that are according the needs and

Page | 5
wants of these women no matter if they are stay-at-home or working, single or
married one.

 POSITIONING
Shan Foods position statement is “To the confident and convenience seeking woman of today,
our wide range of Shan spice mixes offer premium quality products, made with the finest
ingredients like no other.” It is just for the fact that the consumers should be provided with
solution of having a tasty meal in no time with homemade mixes of recipes and spices

Page | 6
 ORGANIZATION RESEARCH PROGRAM

Shan has great r a n g e o f v e g e t a b l e m i x e s f o r c o u n t r y l i k e I n d i a a s t h e t a r g e t

m a r k e t h i g h l y p r e f e r s vegetable. Similarly in Pakistan Shan has wide range of meat
mixes as people are meat lovers and highly prefer meat diet. Shan is currently present in over 60
countries and is performing to maximum of its potential to become the global leader. Therefore,
based on conceptual understanding form the Strategic Marketing Management course, it can be
called a ‘transnational’. Shan Foods has the competitive edge of technology and innovation.
Company develops new methods and techniques to test its new products and generate trials in
the market to measure the market response before they formally launch any product. So we can
say that research is an integral part of the company and the new product is brought in keeping in
view the customer preferences and needs. The spices mixes at Shan’s production plant are
created with the exquisite and genuine flavors having the cultural and traditional touch. Shan
believes in the best as it never compromises on standards of finest quality and engraves the old
age recipes into modern packaging keeping the freshness intact. The raw material is an initial and
important part of whole product strategy. Shan strongly holds the belief that excellent quality is
majorly dependent on the first-class quality raw material processed with the help of state of the
art technology. For this very reason the purchase department at Shan Foods thoroughly selects
the best quality spices from fields, local bazaars and international markets. Raw material is also
procured from number of countries such as black pepper is imported from India, Africa, Thailand
and various other countries. Shan Foods pays special attention in obtaining raw material as
different spices are imported from the places where those spices are grown best.

Page | 7
 MARKETING MIX

Shan foods have premium quality in food and its drives products especially in market of spices.
Shan foods are one of the leading food industries in Pakistan. Shan foods have developed a
complete distinctive name of food industry in Brand Marketing.

PRODUCT
The products of Shan foods itself are the key component to our marketing mix.

Shan foods is the only spice company in Southeast Asia with cryogenic technology that
preserves the taste of 1600-1700 tons of spices when it is ground, by maintaining freezing (0
degree Celsius) temperature and killing heat produced from friction.

The products are defined with their specifications are following:

Recipe Masala: 50gms & 100gms

Spices: 50gms & 100gms

PLACE
 Product placement and its availability is the most effective way of an advertisement.
 Shan foods products are consumed daily.
 They are available from Karachi to Kashmir.
 They are placed in from Kiryani store to Hyper Markets.

PRICE
 Pricing Strategy for Shan food is very similar to National foods because there is the only
food industry that is national foods has the largest market share in this sector and it is the
actual competitor of Shan foods.
 The pricing of 50gms pack is Rs.50 (including all applicable taxes) & 100gms is Rs.80
(including all taxes)

PROMOTION
 Shan foods have adopted BTL as well as ATL activities for promotion purpose to their
products.
 ATL Activities: Develop thematic campaign for increasing Shan spice category
awareness, highlighting the entire range and product usage.
 BTL Activities: To create trial generation through product demonstration in
hotels/restraunts, content branding in cooking shows.

Page | 8
PEOPLE
 Housewives
 Working women
 Restraunts

Page | 9
 BRANDING

The Shan Food brand communicates the complete taste of pickle, building up an outstanding
standardized statement.

“The brand embodies the values that we believe and focuses on bringing out the Inner
Freedom and Self Confidence in the customer.”

There are six broad categories of varieties Shan deals in including recipe mixes, plain spices,
dessert mixes, basmati rice, pickles and salts. In pickle Shan has broad category in which mango,
lemon, mix, carrot pickles packages are included.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR TOWARDS THE BRAND:

Despite Pakistani people being fond of food still there are varying consumer preferences that is
seen across the country. With better literacy rates in the country in recent times and because of
increasing tradition of nuclear families in the country, consumers have started switching towards
packaged spices such as that of Shan's.

Shan packaged spices have been able to capture a healthy market share. Also, when we talk
about 'opinion leader', film star Shan was in one of the ads of Shan. Now since people look up to
him and Shan belongs to the film industry, one that requires a person to look good and stay
healthy people started preferring Shan packaged spices.

A Shan loyal consumer would simply walk up to a grocery store and ask for Shan Masala and
would pay little attention to any other brand because it has low involvement and the differences
between brands might be categorized as relative because taste buds differ from person to person.
On a number of occasions people tend to make bulk purchases because spices are used in
everyday life. Therefore, they do not account for any other options that they may have and rather
prefer sticking to what they have been using for years.

Page | 10
 PRODUCT MIX

Products of Shan foods

Biryani products Pickle

Lavish fried
food
Product Width of Shan Foods:
SPICES: Pickle
 Chicken Tikka Mix
 Chana Masala Mix
 Chicken White Korma Mix
 Dal Curry Mix
 Liver Curry Authentic Mix
curries
SALTS: Chat Masala
 Nutra Salt Premium
 Nutra Plus Salt Iodine Fortified

PICKLES:

 Shan Mango Pickle

 Shan Mixed Stir fried food Pickle Plain
Page | 11 Sumptuous BBQ
RICE:

 Shan Basmati Rice

TRADITIONAL DESSERTS:

 Shan Badam Kheer Mix

 Shan Kheer Mix
 Shan Gajar Mix

OTHER DESSERTS:

 Delve Desserts

A product line of Desserts from Shan. It contains variety of Custards in different flavors.

SHAN SHOOP NOODLES:

Shan foods came up with simple but brilliant idea that making noodles tasty and nutritious.

Available in six exciting flavors such as:

 Chicken Masala
 Spicy lemon
 BBQ
 Ketchup
 Bombay Biryani

So,everytime your stomach calls for a healthy meal, make your taste buds rock and roll with
yummy shoop noodles!

Because with Shan Shoop-Mita Do Bhook!

SWOT ANALYSIS

 STRENGHTS
Quality And Taste:

Page | 12
The Main Strength Is Quality And Taste, Which They Have Been Providing From
25 Years Within Pakistan And Outside Pakistan. Shan Food Industries As It Belongs
To Food Sector, It Is Necessary For Them To Provide Taste And Quality To The Consumers.

Financial Backup:

Shan Foods Company Has Enough Finance To Survive In The Market In Pakistan Food Industry
Financial Backup Is Necessarily Required For Future Progress And Expansion.

State Of Art Technology:

Every Industry For It Progress Requires Latest Technology Mostly In The Form Of Machinery.
Shan Food Industries As It Is Operating Within And Outside Pakistan. It Has To Meet Up The
Standards Of Technology For Future Progress And It Is Currently Equipped With Latest
Machinery Which Help Them In Going Through Different Phases Of Production.

Brand Loyalty:

Every Company Dealing In Any Industry Pays A Lot Of Importance In Creating Brand Loyalty.
It Is Not So Easy To Create Brand Loyalty. It Requires Several Years Of Dedication. Shan Food
Industries As Its Operating From The Past 25 Years It Has Created A Lot Of Brand Loyalty
Within And Outside Pakistan.

Strong Relationship With Farmers And Suppliers:

Shan Foods As It Belongs To Food Industry It Has Buy Raw Materials From Local Suppliers Or
From Farmers Directly, So It Is Necessary For Them To Maintain Strong Relationship With
Their Suppliers And Farmers.

Customer Relationship Management:

Customer Relationship Management, In Food Industry Is Necessary For Every Company To

Deal With Customers In A Proper Way By Providing Them What They Need At Exact Time
And At Reasonable Price. Shan Foods Industries Has Established Proper Management Which
Deals With Their Customers In A Proper Way And Hence Allows Them In Building Relations
With Their Customers.

Research And Development Team:

Research And Development Nowadays Play A Very Important Role In The Company Whether
For It Progress Or Anything, They Look After Every Aspect. Shan Foods Industries Has
Established A Proper Department That Take Care Of Research And Development And It Is
Considered As Their Main Strength Because Through This Department They Identify The
Changes In Market.

Page | 13
  WEAKNESS
Weak Distribution in Markets of Punjab:

Shan Food Industries Started Its Operation In The Sindh Region And Even After 25 Years .It
Has A Strong Hold In Sindh Region, Despite This Shan Foods Established Good Relations
Throughout Pakistan And Other World, But Currently Their Main Weakness Is Distribution In
Markets Of Punjab. Shan Foods Distribution Channel In Punjab Is Weak As Compared To
Sindh.

Online Marketing:

Now A Days In Every Business E-Marketing Plays A Very Vital Role Towards Progress,
Whereas If We Look Towards Shan Foods It Currently Does Not Has Proper Existence On
Internet World.

Strict Credit Policy:

Business Belonging To Any Industry Nowadays Deal With More Credit As Compared To Cash,

But Sometimes The Credit Policy May Affect The Company In Both Ways. Shan Foods Credit
Policy Is Strict Throughout their Existence And This Is Considered As Their Weakness Because
Sometimes Companies Have To Deal In Credit If There Is No Cash And It May Even Lead
Towards The Disturbance In Relationship Of Farmers And Suppliers.

Weak Marketing Communication in Punjab:

Shah Food Industries As Such It Has Not Established Itself Properly In The Areas Of Punjab
And Along With Most Of The Promotional Activities Are Carried In Sindh. So That Is Why It
Considered As A Weaknesses For Them.

 OPPORTUNITIES
Increasing Trend of Women’s Employment in Pakistan:

In Pakistan. Years Ago Women Was Not Preferred To Leave Her House Premises For Working
But As Time Has Passed The Trend Has Also Changed. Women In Pakistan Are Allowed To
Work Now A Days And Due To This They Don’t Have Enough Time To Cook Food In A
Traditional Way.

Availability of Finest Quality of Raw Material:

Page | 14
In Spice Industry As It Is Detailed That Raw Material Must Be Of Highest Quality
For Better Taste. From Recent Years Pakistan Itself Has Started Producing Raw
Material Of Finest Quality For The Spices Industry.

Global Expansion:

Shan Foods Is Currently Operating In Many Countries Across Pakistan But Still There Are Some
Countries Which Are Not Targeted By Them, Hence Giving Them The Opportunity To Expand
Globally.

Increasing Trend of Branded Spices in Pakistan:

Shan Foods Belongs To Branded Industry Of Spices It Has A Huge Opportunity In Pakistan, It
Can Capture This Opportunity Which May Lead Them Towards Growth.

 THREATS
New Competitors:

Pakistan There Are Two Sectors Of Food Industry One Is Branded Industry And The Other One
Non Branded Industry. So Shan Foods Has A Direct Threat From Both The Sectors Whether It Is
Dealing In Spices Or In Ready To Cook Recipes Or Others. Other Important Aspect Is That As
Spice Industry Of Pakistan Is Growing It Attracts More In Competition.

Government Regulations:

Government In Any Country Plays A Vital Role In The Development Or Downfall Of Any
Industry. In Pakistan From Some Years The Government Has Revised Its Policies But The
Reality Is That It Has Not Created A Big Impact On Branded Industry Only Non-Branded Is
Being Affected.

High Rate of Inflation in Pakistan:

Pakistan As It Is Not Economically Stable The Inflation Rate Keeps On Fluctuation , Mostly The
Inflation Rate In Pakistan High And If Inflation Rate Is High The Buying Power Of Consumer
Decreases Hence They Will Start Switching Towards Un-Branded Spices Which Are Cheaper In
Rates As Compared To Branded Spice.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Page | 15
Apart from everything one of the growing sectors in food industry is of frozen
foods, though a news field for Shan foods but with the current performance in
spices and the quality it maintains, Shan has strong chances of making its marks in
the frozen food category as well which is currently led by K&N. Shan Foods should
launch RTEM (Ready to eat meal), a new product range for Pakistan, with different variants. It
provides the convenience of cooked food product, packaged in retorted pouches, which can be
heated directly through microwave and then served. Convenience, environm ental
concerns, increasing acceptance of food as having therapeutic value are some of
dimensions organizations need to study and develop new uses for their spices

CONCLUSION

Shan foods Private Limited is the largest FMCG Company and a Pakistani producer of spices
mix used in Pakistani cuisine and other dishes of South Asia. Shan foods have a large variety of
products as per the needs of their customers and the company is still doing research to find out
the more needs and wants of their customers. Shan packaged spices have been able to capture a
healthy market share. So, consumers have started switching towards packaged spices such as that
of Shan's. Hence, Shan foods are trying to produce more variety of products to attract the other
brand customers as well as to make their brand a threat for their competitors.

“Shan foods have become synonymous with authentic traditional cuisine of good
quality and taste.”

Page | 16