In Taiwan, about 60% of RTE cereal market is occupied by young children, whose decision makers are mostly their parents. In the present study, respondents were segmented into two groups (parents and young adults), and the number of parents constituted about 59% of the total of samples. In other words, the segmentation corresponded to the actual condition that children have reached 60% of customers. Among all 303 participants, 179 showed their willingness to buy RTE cereal, while the other 124 decided to reject. The usage ratio was as high as almost 60% because, at the beginning of this study, the ideal samples had been targeted on consumers that coincided with the majority of concurrent and potential customer base.
Table 4-1 describes respondent characteristics.
Table 4-1
Respondent characteristics
Gender Group
Male 127 Parent 179
Female 176 Young Adult 124
RTE cereal usage
User 179
Nonuser 124 Total 303
Figure 4-1 Respondent characteristics Respondent characteristics by gender
Male 42%
Female 58%
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Respondent Characteristics by Age
Parent 59%
Young adult 41%
Respondent characteristics by usage
User 59%
Nonuser 41%
Breakfast choice factors (need recognition)
To assess the motivational dimension of breakfast, FCQ was proposed to be an underlying prototype for each inquiry. All FCQ items were scored between one and five, and for each factor, a score based on the unweighted average of all items that contribute to that factor was derived. The mean scores of each item were computed.
Table 4-2 and Table 4-3 describe the results.
Table 4-2
Mean ratings (range: 1-5) of the importance of each breakfast choice factor; n=303
Factor 1 Health Factor 2 Mood
is high in fiber 3.248 keeps me awake 3.990
keeps me healthy 4.277 cheers me up 4.168
contains a lot of nutrients 4.248
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Factor 3 Convenience Factor 4 Sensory Appeal
is easy to prepare 4.020 tastes good 4.132
can be bought in shops close to where I live or work
4.026 looks nice 3.518
Factor 5 Natural Content Factor 6 Price
contains no addictives 3.617 is cheap 3.201
contains natural ingredients 3.743 is good value for money 4.083
Factor 7 Weight Control Factor 8 Familiarity
is low in calories 3.274 is what I usually eat 3.096
helps me control my weight 3.416 is familiar 3.383
Factor 9 Ethical Concern
is packaged in an environmentally friendly way 3.373
has the country of origin clearly marked 3.657
Table 4-3
Rank order of top ten most important breakfast choice factors
Statement Factor
1 keeps me healthy Health
2 contains a lot of nutrients Health
3 cheers me up Mood
4 tastes good Sensory Appeal
5 is good value for money Price
6 can be bought in shops close to where I live or work Convenience
7 is easy to prepare Convenience
8 keeps me awake Mood
9 contains natural ingredients Natural Content
10 has the country of origin clearly marked Ethical Concern Needless to say, Health was rated the most important by participants, and the result corresponded to the trend that ideas about what is healthy or good have played a profound role in food choice. Following Health, Mood was rated very important as well, suggesting that respondents attached such importance to breakfast that they expected to be pepped up at the beginning of a day. The third most important factor was determined to be taste or sensory appeal relevant to the product’s own property, and following it were Price, Convenience, etc.
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Health and Mood are both deemed as so called credence attributes that are different from search (e.g. Price) and experience (e.g. Sensory Appeal, Convenience) attributes in that their “true” values cannot be verified by the average consumer not even upon normal consumption of the food (Heuvel et al., 2007). Therefore, these results demonstrated that gradually, consumers have replaced Sensory Appeal with other attributes that deliver specific benefits, such as Health and Mood, to be the most important factors governing breakfast food choice.
What is worth mentioning is that even though one of the Price factors was rated the fifth most important, the other one, i.e. the statement “is cheap” was rated much less important. In other words, respondents wanted their breakfast food to be good value for money, suggesting their apprehension over the quality of what they eat for breakfast rather than on the price itself.
By contrast, it was reported that Weight Control and Familiarity were not included in the top ten most important breakfast choice factors. The absence of Familiarity could indicate not only Taiwanese consumers’ willingness and courage to try new products, but also their demand for various breakfast contents instead of for a monotonous staple every day.
Nevertheless, it is surprising to find that Weight Control fell beyond what consumers regard as important breakfast choice factors, especially the fact that almost 60% of the studied subjects are females, whose apprehension about weight control has always been taken for granted. Respondents’ indifference towards calories during breakfast could result from some claim from government public health organization that it is not healthy to diet during breakfast or even to skip it.
In addition, the statement “is packaged in an environmentally friendly way” was rated unimportant by respondents, suggesting that environmental awareness has not yet become a major concern in Taiwan, while this concept has been ingrained in certain developed countries.
Information search
It was not surprising to find that TV commercial was still a major means of marketing, followed by direct mail (DM) and print advertisement. Table 4-4 describes how respondents obtain information regarding food purchase.
Table 4-4
Mean ratings (range: 1-5) of the importance of information source of food; n=303
newspaper and magazines 3.205 TV commercial 3.865
outdoor (OD) advertisements 2.805 the Internet 2.812 my relatives and friends 3.132 direct mail (DM) 3.472
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The second most important source, that is, DM is noteworthy. DM is the most commonly used medium for “direct marketing” focusing on driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific "call-to-action". DM permits marketers to design marketing pieces in many different formats and to send to customers using the postal service. Advertisers often call it "targeted mailing", as mail is usually sent out following database analysis. To some extent, however, DM has been related to junk mail, especially in many developed countries where DM represents such a significant amount of the total volume of mail that wastes a large quantity of money and paper.
The result demonstrated that when it came to food information, respondents valued DM sent by supermarkets and hypermarkets.
In comparison, the Internet was regarded as an unimportant medium when obtaining food information. This could result from the low-involving characteristic of food purchase that customers would rather seek information in a quicker way (e.g.
asking their friends and relatives) than spend time surfing the Internet.
Motivation to consume RTE cereal (evaluation of alternative)
Respondents’ motivations to buy RTE cereal include, by rank order, the easiness to prepare, health aspect, and the convenience to purchase. Similarly, price and familiarity factors were still rated low.
As summarized in Table 5, respondents did not view deliciousness as a motive for RTE cereal. This result somewhat contradicts the general impression that RTE cereal is tasty because it is usually baked and sweetened. Further on, the low rating of weight control motive demonstrates that even though many RTE cereal producers have made a lot of efforts to promote new categories of low fat products, respondents do not seem to receive this kind of marketing message. This result corresponded to the phenomenon that RTE cereal is mostly consumed by children, who are still growing up and thus need more calories than adults. Besides, most low fat RTE cereal produced in the United States have never been exported to Taiwan due to their low acceptance.
Table 4-5
Mean ratings (range: 1-5) of the importance of RTE cereal choice motives; n=179 it is good for health 4.011 it is easy to prepare 4.134 it is convenient to purchase 3.939 it helps weight control 3.341 it is what I am familiar with 3.201 it is safe and clean 3.894
it is cheap but good 3.363 it is delicious 3.670
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Reasons to reject RTE cereal
Respondents’ main reasons to reject RTE cereal include (by rank order) 1. it is not delicious,
2. it lacks flavor variety, and
3. I have no time for breakfast home
According to these results, it is the product’s own properties that lead to the unwillingness to purchase. In other words, consumers reject to try RTE cereal because they are not fond of its taste and monotonous flavor. This finding corresponds to the earlier assumption that some Taiwanese consumers still prefer having warm Chinese-style foods for their breakfast to drinking cold milk with RTE cereal.
In addition to the product’s own property, the shortage of time to prepare and eat breakfast at home was rated as important, suggesting that some consumers have been accustomed to buying their breakfast on the way to their workplace. The omnipresence of convenience stores, Western and Chinese fast food restaurants, and other types of breakfast vendors allows Consumer to have access to various choices.
As can be seen in Table 6, general mean scores for reasons to reject were above the mid-point of the scale except health and calorie problems. Health consideration was rated as the least important reason why they do not purchase RTE cereal. Weight control factor was rated unimportant as well, confirming again that respondents are not very worried about calories consumption at breakfast.
Table 4-6
Mean ratings (range: 1-5) of the importance of reasons to reject RTE cereal; n=124 it is not good for health 2.653 I have no time for breakfast
home
3.463 it is not convenient to purchase 3.008 it contains too much calories 2.935 it is not what I am familiar with 3.323 it lacks flavor variety 3.492
it is too expensive 3.298 it is not delicious 3.712
Purchase likelihood
Is this part of question, respondents were asked to choose the most impressive, favorable, and desirable brand among four of the main RTE cereal producers in Taiwan. In general, it turned out no matter what question that could possibly lead to real purchase action (i.e. according to the AIDA model, attention, interest, and desire), Kellogg received the most response that 42% regarded it as the most impressive brand, and about one-third as the most favorable and desirable brand. The particularly outstanding ratio of Kellogg’s impression could indicate the success of marketing, while the ratio declined, however, in terms of favorability and desirability.
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Kellogg was closely followed by Cerear, the second largest local RTE cereal producer. Nestle received the least responses in each of the three questions. The reason could be that even though the question was asked about the brand itself instead of particular RTE cereal product, respondents were inevitably led by the bias that the questionnaire was administered about RTE cereal field, in which Nestle obviously did not have a large market share.
It may be important to note that, when it comes to the most favorable and desirable brand, respondents turned dramatically to Quaker in comparison with the most impressive brand. Quaker’s ratio surpassed Cerear in both of these two questions, and almost caught up with Kellogg’s in terms of the most favorable brand.
Respondents’ favorability could probably be attributed to Quaker’s advantages in other product lines, such as oatmeal and formula that created a positive image.
Table 4-7
Frequency and ratio of the most impressive/ favorable/ desirable brand; n=303
Brand name Frequency Ratio
Cerear
the most impressive brand 96 31.68%
the most favorable brand 79 26.07%
the most desirable brand 77 25.41%
Kellogg
the most impressive brand 128 42.24%
the most favorable brand 101 33.33%
the most desirable brand 103 33.99%
Nestle
the most impressive brand 21 6.93%
the most favorable brand 31 10.23%
the most desirable brand 36 11.88%
Quaker
the most impressive brand 58 19.14%
the most favorable brand 92 30.36%
the most desirable brand 87 28.71%
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Figure 4-2
Ratio of the most impressive/ favorable/ desirable brand Ratio of the most impressive brand
Cerear 32%
Kellogg 42%
Nestle 7%
Quaker 19%
Ratio of the most favorable brand
Cerear 26%
Kellogg 34%
Nestle 10%
Quaker 30%
Ratio of the most desirable brand
Cerear 25%
Kellogg 34%
Nestle 12%
Quaker 29%
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Budget for Breakfast
Table 4-8
Frequency and ratio of budget for breakfast each time per capita; n=303
NT$ NT$ NT$
Up to 30 33 (10.9%) 31-50 158 (52.1%) 51-80 51 (16.8%)
81-100 38 (12.5%) 100-130 4 (1.3%) 131 and upward 18 (5.9%) In response to the question “How much money do you usually spend on breakfast each time per capita?” about 52% answered NT$31-50. The following two tables describe the market price of popular brands of RTE cereal and milk. The result showed that RTE cereal along with milk per serving could fall below the range of NT$31-50. The highest expense would be about NT$31, which was still near minimum of the most responded range, even if combining the most expensive brand of RTE cereal (Cerear Cornflakes, $14.91) and milk (Juisui, NT$16.67).
Table 4-9
Market price of popular brands of RTE cereal Kellogg
Source: Carrefour Love River branch in Kaohsiung, May 4th, 2007.
Table 4-10
Market price of popular brands of milk Weichuan
Source: Carrefour Love River branch in Kaohsiung, May 4th, 2007.
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