Abstract:
The main purpose of this study is to present the consumer decision making with respect to soyoil. The issues that are being discussed here are the decision making criteria employed in purchase together with respective degrees of importance that the consumer assigns to these criteria; the general perceptions of consumer about health with respect to particular fast moving consumer goods - including soyoiJ; purchasing patterns for certain food items; the level of consumer awareness considering soybean derivative products; consumers' information sources for soybean derivative products -particularly about soyoil; general consumer attitude towards various types of vegetable oil; level of awareness for brands within the vegetable oil categories; and the degree of innovativeness with reference to usage of a new type of vegetable oil -soyoil. After the literature on consumer decision making has been reviewed, an . empirical research has been conducted with consumers, both users and non-users of soyoil. A questionnaire has been given to a sample of 60 respondents, which was a convenience sample, selected by nonprobabilistic judgmental sampling method. In order to support the findings. of this quantitative study, further qualitative research has been carried out. One focus group interview has been conducted with 6 female participants in order to have a deeper insight into their decision making criteria ahout soyoil. Another qualitative study has been carried out, which was structured as a store survey with the consumers, who were purchasers of soyoil. The objective in this fieldwork has been to determine their choice criteria during their purchase behavior. The program used for data entry is Excel4, and for data processing SPSS PC. The analyses used in analysing data were chi-square, difference of means test, and oneway analysis of variance. In the last part of the study, implications have been derived from the main findings of the study, which addresses to producers, consumers, governments, organizations, and the researchers.
