Categorization of chocolate

Abstract

Introduction. The confectionery market in Ukraine is well-established and highly competitive. There is a significant number of companies that for a long time produce, supply and sell a fairly wide assortment of products, which, taking into account the needs and requests of consumers, constantly undergoes market transformations.

Problem. Taking into account the consumers opinion in the formation of the goods assortment is one of the numerous factors of ensuring the profitability of enterprises. Therefore, identifying the opinions of consumers regarding the formation of a product category of chocolate, developing an assortment matrix to meet the needs of the target audience is expedient and does not lose its relevance.

The aim of the research is to identify the consumer preferences of chocolate through the establishment and ranking the importance of consumer needs, determining the motivation to purchase it while forming a product category

Methods. The methods of internet survey, analysis, synthesis and forecasting were used.

Segmentation, as a process of dividing the target audience into groups, is carried out according to the following characteristics: gender, age, marital status, education, frequency of chocolate products consumption, location of the trade company, etc. The distribution of the target audience of chocolate consumers was based on geographic, demographic, psychographic, socio-economic and behavioral principles.

Results. While analyzing and summa­rizing the obtained results, the main directions for impro­ving the assortment and consump­tion properties of chocolate were determined, in particular, the introduction of lactose-free milk chocolate, vege­table milk chocolate, vegan chocolate, and the increase of the share of nuts in the ingredient composition of chocolate.

The results of the study confirm that consumer surveys are a fairly effective means of commu­nication, which positively affects the performance of production and trade enterprises. Thanking to the use of open questions in the survey and the analysis of the answers, it is possible to establish the significance of the problem, consumer awareness about the tasks to be solved.

Conclusions. The most important principle of marketing is consumer orientation, which is ensured by a number of measures, important among which are market segmentation and the formation of an assortment matrix.

By identifying the demand on chocolate through an Internet survey, it was established how the systematic activity of production and trading enterprises contributes to the improvement of the assortment, affects the motivation of consumers to purchase chocolate.