Market Sizing Research for Breakfast Cereals

The client wanted to enter into breakfast cereals segment with Cornflakes, Chocos, Muesli and Oats product lines. The study was targeted at both consumers and retailers to assess the demand and supply side of the market for target products.

From consumers the objective was to understand consumption and buying behaviour. While on the retailer front, the client wanted to do market sizing, target products’ presence mapping as well as brands’, flavours’, pack sizes’ & price points’ share.

 Approach

• All types of heterogeneous consumer profiles like students, working professionals & senior citizens were covered. Consumer profiles who are self-decision makers vs who are decision makers for others (like housewives for children) were also covered to understand their behavior.
• Consumers who eat breakfast cereals were only surveyed for the purpose of this study. Moreover, a general perception about health was also identified and linked to their eating habits.  
• Retailer research was conducted with stores of mid-high size grocery stores selling all target categories.
• Retailer research involved a mix of both observational research as well as personal interview with retailer. Observational research included brand availability & brand facings, in-store promotion and branding. Personal interview included sales mapping, market share and trade terms with manufacturers/distributors.  

Outcome

The research helped generate insights around:

• Current adoption as well as future interest of consumers for each product category, thereby helping client plan which products to prioritize in which markets
• Competition intensity in terms of availability and sales
• Buying behaviour of Consumers
• Expectations about various type of product variants and packaging
• Trade terms & Operational models of other brands in the similar industry
• Branding & Promotion
• Market gaps & consumer expectations