ABSTRACT

The article talks about Ready to

Eat food products in the country,
the various challenges they face
and how brands can market them
better.

Pavan Maru
Consumer Behavior

READY TO EAT
FOOD PRODUCTS
DM22145
i|RTE Products

Table of Figures
Figure 1: MTR Chana Masala cooked in 5min ......................................................................................... 3
Figure 2: Vidyabalan endorsing Gits ....................................................................................................... 5
Figure 3: Romantic appeal ad ................................................................................................................. 6
Figure 4: Gits Shown as a middle point between 2 options ................................................................... 7
Figure 5: Classical Conditioning .............................................................................................................. 7
ii | R T E P r o d u c t s

Table of Contents
Table of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... i
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1
Adoption Challenges............................................................................................................................... 1
Taste and Nutrition ............................................................................................................................. 2
Price .................................................................................................................................................... 2
Convenience........................................................................................................................................ 2
Culture ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Diffusion Challenges .............................................................................................................................. 3
Relative Advantage - Moderate .......................................................................................................... 3
Complexity - Low ............................................................................................................................... 3
Observability - Low ............................................................................................................................ 4
Trialability - High ............................................................................................................................... 4
Compatibility - High ........................................................................................................................... 4
How Can RTE foods be marketed in a better way? ................................................................................ 4
Using Fishbein model ......................................................................................................................... 4
Elaboration Likelihood Model ............................................................................................................ 5
Improving Consumer Involvement ..................................................................................................... 5
Celebrity Appeal ................................................................................................................................. 5
Romantic Appeal ................................................................................................................................ 6
Fear Appeal ......................................................................................................................................... 6
Distinctive Appeal .............................................................................................................................. 6
Fun Appeal .......................................................................................................................................... 6
IKEA Effect ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Hedonistic Ads .................................................................................................................................... 7
Reference Point ................................................................................................................................... 7
Classical Conditioning ........................................................................................................................ 7
Increasing Product Life Cycle............................................................................................................. 8
References ............................................................................................................................................... 9
1|RTE Products

Introduction

Increase in pace of lifestyle has led to a degradation in traditional and healthy eating habits due

to time constraints. More and more of the youth are turning towards ordering food from

restaurants, choosing Ready-to-Eat (RTE) or Ready-to-Cook (RTC) products to get a homely

feeling. Another reason for this change is the inclusion of women in the workforce.

Traditionally, women in India have been the ones to cook meals for the entire family. While

that is changing and men too have started cooking, historically, irrespective of the gender,

people prefer fresh cooked food or some contribution to cooking and so have been averse to

RTE products. “The sales of all the RTE, or ready-to-eat, brands in India put together are less

than half of the tiny, emerging category of facewash. In fact some of the brands sell more on

Amazon.com, to the Indian diaspora than to Indian upper crust consumers.” – Ambi

Parameswaran.

RTE products are items that belong to the segment of food items that are ready to consume

almost immediately with little to no effort. This industry is predicted to have a CAGR of

around 16% during 2018-2023, and is estimated to reach a value of $647 million by 2023.

Some players in this segment include MTR, TATA, ITC, Gits, Nestle, Haldiram etc. However,

this segment still faces a lot of challenges.

Adoption Challenges

In a consumer behavior study by MTR towards RTE products the following factors influence

the consumer behavior the most and related to adoption of the product:

• Taste and Nutrition

• Price

• Convenience

• Culture
2|RTE Products

Taste and Nutrition

Taste is king and it is not somethings consumers would want to compromise on, especially

when the product advertises itself as having great and authentic taste. RTE foods, however fall

short when delivering this. Self-generated experiences of consumers expecting high quality

and authentic tastes are often disappointed with the experiences offered by RTE foods as they

don’t match the tastes of home cooked or restaurant meals which they claim to. Further, once

the consumer goes through a bad experience, they may not purchase the product again reducing

retention.

There is a general perception that RTE products do not have a good nutritional value. They are

perceived to be high in preservatives and salt while not delivering the nutrients that a freshly

cooked meal would provide. Further, there are many instances where RTE foods are associated

with foodborne illnesses raising concerns about their safety. Thus, there is a strong need to

address health and nutrition related concerns of the consumers when it comes to RTE foods.

Price

There is a perception that RTE products cost more per serving than even food ordered from

restaurants. Further, the thought process is that at least the meal from a restaurant is a freshly

cooked meal unlike RTE foods with preservatives.

Convenience

RTE foods are very convenient as they are ready to consume immediately with little to no

effort. However, they may need a microwave to heat. The penetration of microwaves is low in

the Indian market. Another factor is that many households that may have a microwave may

also have a house help who does the cooking and such families may be evolved enough to be

wary of the fact that anything that needs just a couple of minutes of heating in a microwave to

be ready to eat may not really be nutritious food.

3|RTE Products

Culture

India is a nation with an enormous diversity in culture, language, and food habits that change

with every few hundreds of kilometers. Hence, the Indian palette is considered as a very

challenging case to crack. It may be difficult for brands to provide such varied foods with

unique spices and ingredients in each and every state with such different cultures.

Also, Indian families value home cooked meals. Indian mother prefer are very conscious of the

kind of ingredients that go into a particular dish and like to have control over the cooking. They

also always want to serve freshly cooked meals to their respective families. RTE takes this

control away from them. Even students who live in hostels keep reminiscing meals cooked by

their mothers. However, RTE is not able to trigger the memories and experiences of a home

cooked meal for them.

Though RTE products are displayed in major stores, it is to send a signal to the consumers that

they sell RTE foods and are a big store. RTE products are considered to be a novelty and

shoppers generally skip the RTE shelves and buy raw materials to cook fresh home cooked

meals.

Diffusion Challenges

There are various factors that drive the diffusion of a new product or an innovation. They are:

Relative Advantage - Moderate

This is because RTE foods save time and thus hold an edge over home cooked meals. However,

they are priced higher than the per serving cost of take-outs and also possess health concerns.

Complexity - Low

They are ready to consume immediately after just heating them

in hot water or a microwave oven. They hardly take 5 minutes to

be ready which is lower than most other food products. Figure 1: MTR Chana Masala
cooked in 5min
4|RTE Products

Observability - Low

The observability is low since they are used pre-dominantly in households.

Trialability - High

Trialability is high since they are very easy to try.

Compatibility - High

Thorough market research goes into determining for what dishes RTE variants are made. These

are based on the cuisine of the particular region generally. Further, these dishes are also the

ones being consumed daily. Since food habits of consumers are not expected to change

drastically, the compatibility is high.

How Can RTE foods be marketed better?

Using Fishbein model

Because of reasons mentioned above, consumers may need to be stimulated to consume RTE

foods by highlighting how it can benefit them. An example is when a working Indian mother

may not have been able to cook a hot dinner for her family, the family may end up ordering

food from a restaurant or have left overs from afternoon. The brands can justify consumption

of RTE food here by stating and highlighting benefits such as eating a hot meal with the entire

family, having different variety of foods to eat which would also please children and in turn

make their mother happy.

A market research should be conducted to understand the important attitude norms like health

conscious, variety seeking, value for money, preservative free foods, etc. and subjective norms

like family dinner, demand of children to have new and tasty food frequently, family’s

perception of cooking effort that went into RTE food, etc. Market research would help to

understand whether attitude norms are important or subjective norms. Based on this, the brands

can advertise their RTE foods as conforming to those aspects.

5|RTE Products

Elaboration Likelihood Model

RTE products have low involvement. Thus, brands can use the peripheral route to market and

advertise them. Since this is not working successfully, there may be a need to improve and

increase consumer involvement so that later when the involvement is high, the central route

can be activated. This is especially important because Indian mothers like to have control over

the food being served to their family and so increasing involvement would amplify the

peripheral cues for future purchases.

Improving Consumer Involvement

This can be achieved with the help of co-creation. The brands can improve and increase

consumer involvement by including consumers when creating something of value. This can be

done by various campaigns where the brands consult their consumers in order to present more

varieties of their choice and vote one as the favorite. They can have cooking competitions

where the consumers can cook and present their favorite traditional dishes online and get

featured on the company’s various media channels and a chance to win goodies of the brand.

They can hold votes to let consumers decide which was their favorite flavors and post the

results on their media channels. Further, consumer involvement can be improved using

celebrity appeal and fun appeal too.

Celebrity Appeal

A celebrity associated in any way to the culture of the particular

food, a chef or with sports, fitness, etc. can be especially useful as

consumers connect with those celebrities and tend to trust them as

well. Figure 2: Vidyabalan endorsing

Gits
6|RTE Products

Romantic Appeal

Gits Heat and Eat Ready meal products puts the focus on

young adults who are professionals, homesick, much-in-love

and actively seek convenience. Figure 3: Romantic appeal ad

Fear Appeal

Brands can highlight the dangers of a fast-paced lifestyle. Irregular eating habits, not having

proper hot meals, missing meals, no variety for children, inhibited growth in children due to

lack of proper nutrition, etc. Here, RTE can be introduced as the solution to these problems by

providing convenient hot and nutritious meals.

With the reduction in restrictions and opening of restaurants, people may want to go out to have

meals with friends and family. Brands can highlight the dangers of dining outside during the

pandemic and provide RTE foods as a delicious solution and alternative to dining outside.

Distinctive Appeal

RTE brands can have unique and creative campaigns to attract new consumers and retain the

old ones. One of the ways to do this could be by being the title sponsor of a cooking show

and/or competition, especially regional ones, since home-makers are the ones who may watch

such shows the most.

Fun Appeal

Having ads that not only promote a product but also entertain the audience is one of the best

ways to improve top of the mind awareness of the product and brand as they will be retained

longer in their memories.

Another way is to appeal to the impulsive behavior of kids to want a product when it has in

some way collaborated with their favorite cartoons or any other toys that the kids may want.

For example, McDonald’s with their happy meals has successfully done it and so have
7|RTE Products

companies like Kellogg’s, Dairy Milk, Kinder Joy, Kwality walls, etc. They have added a fun

element for kids either in ads or in packaging via visuals and/or gifts.

IKEA Effect

Indian mothers prefer having some control in the food they cook for their families and like to

contribute as much as they can. RTE brands can increase the consumer involvement during the

product usage. A few additional steps can be added for the product to be ready instead of just

needing to heat it. Example, adding certain ingredients, frying or roasting the food, serving

additional side dishes, etc. This will reduce the cognitive dissonance in the minds of consumers,

especially, Indian mothers, as their involvement in the end product increases.

Hedonistic Ads

Brands can use creative methods to display hedonic messages related to RTE products like

emotional bonds between family, children’s happiness after consuming RTE foods, etc. Ads

can be used to depict that the brand is family friendly and respects home-makers. This way

they may also be able to change their perception towards the product.

Reference Point

Brands should not market RTE products

as a substitute to any meal. It should

rather be marketed as a middle point that

Figure 4: Gits Shown as a middle point between 2 options
solves the problems of time constraint for

cooking fresh home cooked meals and unhealthy junk food/takeout every day.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning can be used to promote

aggressive learning that helps customers associate

certain behaviors or feelings with brands or

products. This is done by establishing a relationship

Figure 5: Classical Conditioning
8|RTE Products

between a stimulus and a response to recreate a similar response to a different stimulus. This

is highly effective when products involved have low involvement.

By creating positive associations and emotions with their products, brands can leverage

classical conditioning to evoke positive emotions and associations in people’s minds. For

example, by associating a happy, upbeat, and popular song (stimulus) with happy emotions in

an ad and running the ad for some time, consumers will start associating the product with

positive emotions. This will be true even if the stimulus is missing.

Increasing Product Life Cycle

Increasing Usage - Brands can increase the usage of RTE products by advertising them as easy

and quick to cook meals for working mothers who can give their family husbands and children

meals for offices and schools, respectively.

Increasing users – By using various methods like classical conditioning, fun appeal and the like

we can increase the top of the mind awareness of the products. This would help the brands to

acquire new consumers. Also, having some offers on the products would also help brands to

acquire and/or retain old consumers.

Finding new uses for the product - RTE products instead of just being meals can also be

introduced as snacks or as a breakfast meal as well instead of just lunch or dinner. By having

snacks as one of the RTE categories and positioning the offerings as anytime snacks, more

consumers could be enticed to buy the products. By repositioning RTE products from meals to

anytime snacks, various new offerings can also be provided to the consumers. By providing

new varieties for more and more occasions, new uses could be found for RTE products.
9|RTE Products

References

Ready-to-eat brands, not yet a palatable concept – Ambi Parameswaran

Elaboration Likelihood Model Theory – Using ELM to Get inside the User’s Mind | Interaction

Design Foundation (IxDF) (interaction-design.org)

96a099fb300b2f29c59f9f312aaedec9e06d.pdf (semanticscholar.org)

23 Types of Advertising Appeals Most Commonly Used by Brands (visme.co)

https://nptel.ac.in/content/storage2/courses/110105029/pdf%20sahany/module%208l40.pdf