Venkateshwara Hatcheries which went public recently is one of the most modern plants in poultry business inAsia. They have 60 p.c. market share of chicken marketed in the country. Dr.
B.V.
Rao of VenkateshwaraHatcheries expired in 1996. His daughter Anuradha Desai is now the Chairperson and M.D. of VHL. In the beginning they had an Executive Director Gulam Harjanwalla who professionalized chicken marketing. SajidPeerbhoy’s Speer ad agency was chosen. The brief given to Speer was “to market raw chicken in the form of afull bird. Further, to market legs. To market legs and breast. To market curried pieces. And half-bird.”The company also planned to market ready-to-fly pre-spiced chicken and to operate a chain of fast-foodoutlets serving chicken fast food on the lines of McDonald’s.Speer did some marketing research by focus group studies in Mumbai and then in Pune. The qualitativereseaci1 (QR) findings were followed by quantitative research.The following summarises the findings.Occasions to use chicken:
(a)
On special occasions
(b)
On Sundays
(c)
As a special treat
(d)
Cook it for guests
(e)
First non-veg food to which vegetay1ans graduated.
(f)
Each mother cherishes her own special recipe for a chicken dish. She prides herself on it.The ideal chicken was: Freshly chicken.
The convenient option was: Frozen chicken.The following are the demerits of the frozen chicken:(
a)
It does not taste good.
(b)
It does not cook fast.
(c)
It requires a lot of water to cook.The Inconveniences in getting fresh chicken were:
(a)
It is more and more difficult to get it near-by.
(b)
The search consumes time.
(c)
It involves transportation cost.On deep probing, the consumer psychology while buying fresh chicken was one of guilt and disgust. The birdslook so cute, as they are young. Just a minute ago, they were alive. It is so awful. Those poor creatures!Imagine them alive one minute, and then being eaten