MARKET RESEARCH ON HEALTHY INSTANT NOODLES (CASE STUDY: PT. TASTYFOOD BOGA LESTARI)

• Main Author: Syafruddin
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/53287
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Instant noodle is a packaged food that generally consists of noodle, spices and vegetable oil, which were invented and first produced by Momofuku Ando in Japan in 1958. Instant noodle then began to be produced in Indonesia in 1968 with the first brand that appeared was Supermi. In the last five years, the annual consumption rate of instant noodles in Indonesia is the second largest in the world, after China, with a consumption of more than 12 billion packs per year. On the other hand, public awareness of the food impact on health has been increasing, especially related to artificial additives such as artificial preservatives, coloring agent, and flavor enhancer, all of which are commonly found in instant noodles. Meanwhile in recent years, instant noodles that do not contain artificial additives, trans fat and gluten have begun to emerge, known as Healthy Instant Noodles. PT. Tastyfood Boga Lestari, a private company engaged in the production of packaged food, is also developing healthy instant noodle as its new product. Therefore, PT. Tastyfood need to understand the trends and preferences towards healthy instant noodles, hence it can be utilized to develop healthy instant noodle product that match consumer preferences, so that their new product can sell well in the market. To have an accurate understanding of consumer trends and preferences, PT. Tastyfood conducts market research that will include explorative and descriptive researches. The explorative research is used to develop approaches to the problems and to design questionnaire. The methods used in explorative research are interviews with several experts in food processing technologies and nutritionists, secondary data analysis, and qualitative research. The secondary data are obtained from the consumer and observer reviews on various brands of instant noodles that they have consumed previously. Then the qualitative research used here is a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with several instant noodle consumers who usually consume ordinary instant noodles but also ever consume healthy instant noodles. Meanwhile on the descriptive research, a market survey was conducted using online questionnaire. Furthermore, from the market survey results, the consumer behavior will be studied using Extended Fishbein model, while the consumer preferences of instant noodles will be studied using conjoint analysis method. From the performed explorative research, it is found that consumers believe healthy instant noodles are safer for health than ordinary instant noodles. However, consumers do not like the taste of some healthy instant noodle products on the market, although there are also several taste variants that are considered have the same delicious taste as ordinary instant noodles. Some consumers also feel regret that the price of healthy instant noodles is far above the price of ordinary instant noodles, and mention that it is difficult to find the products at nearby stores. Meanwhile from the descriptive research, it is found that the delicious taste of instant noodles is the main factor for the majority of consumers in choosing instant noodles. It is also found that 34% of respondents possess higher behavioral intent towards healthy instant noodles. This shows that the number of consumers who are interested in buying healthy instant noodles is quite significant. Regarding the interest in healthy instant noodles, consumers prefer instant noodles with no preservatives and MSG which have lower price, compared to healthy instant noodles with no preservatives, MSG, artificial coloring, trans fats and gluten but with a higher price. ii From the performed market research, it is recommended for PT. Tastyfood on this initial stage to focus on one taste variant that is most favored by the consumers, which is fried noodles (mie goreng). Research is needed to formulate seasonings that suit consumer interests in general. During the developing process the recipe for the seasoning, it is necessary to do trials on consumers and ask their opinion after tasting the product sample, until the seasoning recipes that really match consumers’ desire are obtained. Then after the production later on, during the product launch, it needs to do another free trial of the product for the consumers, to introduce this new product. Besides that, PT. Tastyfood shall focus its marketing on certain city, but maximize all marketing channels in the city, including modern stores and traditional stores, hence the instant noodle consumers in the city will be really aware of the new product presence.