Degree
Master of Business Administration
Faculty / School
School of Business Studies (SBS)
Advisor
Dr. Farah Naz Baig, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing
Client
EBM
Committee Member 1
Dr. Farah Naz Baig (Assistant Professor) Department of Marketing Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi
Project Type
MBA Research Project
Keywords
https://ir.iba.edu.pk/do/search/?q=Market%20Research&start=0&context=8598587&facet=">Market Research, Marketing, FMCG, Snacks
Abstract / Summary
Over the years EBM has dominated the biscuit market with a dominating share of 45%. English Biscuit Manufacturers is ranked as the 3rd best company of packaged food in Pakistan. Following the success of cake products introduced by the competition, EBM entered the baked snacks market with much hope to succeed in this industry as they did in the biscuit industry. EBM has established a plant in Hattar dedicated to production of bakes products. However, EBM has not been able to capture the market as the management had hoped to. Hilal leads the packaged cupcake market while other brand such as Good goodies, Bisconni, and the rest enjoy a comfortable market. Imported product especially from Iran have also disrupt the market.
However, in order to penetrate the market successfully, EBM must understand the industry at large and bridge any gaps which EBM can use to dominate. To understand the industry EBM must understand what the customers what as well as examine every step the product goes through before reaching the end consumer. To do that this report dwells into this problem and aims to fill those gaps with extensive primary market research whilst also backed up by secondary research and data to highlight strategic areas that EBM can capitalize to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Detailed interviews of retailers and wholesalers, questionnaire from customers and in-depth interviews of the target consumers were used as primary data. Statistical techniques were used to analyze the data collected. Statistical techniques included descriptive statistics to learn about column stats like central tendency, dispersion, and variability. Moreover, bivariate analysis was also performed to gauge how two columns were in relationship to one another. Moreover, tree analysis was used to highlight the drivers that were important for the study.
The results showed a clearer picture of the markets and highlighted some issues and gaps which EBM needed to overcome if they want to improve their market share. It was clear that wholesaler was only to sell a certain product if the margins were good whereas the retailers made their purchase decision as per consumer demand. Moreover, purchase decisions and demand vary between the customer and the consumer. Kids who are the majority consumer of EBM’s cake products had higher demand for the product to fulfil their snacking needs while the customer who are usually adults showed that their purchase decisions is subject other factors such as availability, variety of favors, convenience and more. Using the data and analysis from the study conducted few suggestions were put forward to the EBM management addressing their distribution strategy, pricing, packing, and branding. A few key recommendations include carrying out ATL and BTL activities, introducing an EBM exclusive bakery outlet to interact with the customer and create brand awareness, air quality advertisement on all media channels to appeal to the with the generation and well as to keep a connection with the older generations and introducing innovative and attractive packaging in order to appeal to the children who are the primary consumers of the product.
Recommended Citation
Imran, D., Imran, N., Beg, S., Hasan, S. M., & Ahmed, Z. (2021). EBM - market research (Unpublished graduate research project). Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/research-projects-mba/270
