Factors influencing consumers' to Take Ready-made Frozen Food

Abstract

Consumers perceive the Ready-made Frozen Food (RMFF) as nourishing, healthier and delicious. Consumers, therefore, are switching to this substance item and willing to pay the premium cost. The investigation had been coordinated to know the most affecting factors that affect purchasers to purchase Ready-made Frozen Food. Literature reviews are available that the food habits of the people are promptly being changed in the way women are being involved in the economic activities of our society. Individual habits, attitudes, beliefs and values, age, education, income, marital status, etc. are some socio-demographic factors that influence a consumer in the time of buying RMFF. Besides these social demographic influencing factors, results have confirmed that consumers are interested in buying this food as it is easy to cook, delicious, easy to find, quality product, low price, etc. This examination concluded by gathering data from 150 respondents through a questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed through the Factor Analysis Process. It had also been detected that working individuals are essential clients of this sustenance. In addition, gender; age; education level; family income; profession demonstrate a positive impact on purchasing RMFF. It had also been identified that RMFF is currently very expanding because it is easy to cook (as indicated by 94% respondents) and safe (as indicated by 73% respondents). Moreover, the brand image (indicated by 84% respondents), quality (68%), low pricing (77%), advertising (64%), appearance (69%), availability (59%), and taste (78%), likewise influence clients to purchase this kind of food. Through this research, an interesting topic had been found that "time-saving (according to 38% respondents)" and "packaging (indicated by 49% respondents)" factors do not have any significant impact on the purpose of buying RMFF.

Full text

Factors influencing consumers’to Take Ready-made Frozen Food
Shuvro Sen
1
&Neel Antara
2
&Shusmita Sen
3
#Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract
Consumers perceive the Ready-made Frozen Food (RMFF) as nourishing, healthier and delicious. Consumers, therefore, are
switching to this substance item and willing to pay the premium cost. The investigation had been coordinated to know the most
affecting factors that affect purchasers to purchase Ready-made Frozen Food. Literature reviews are available that the food habits of
the people are promptly being changed in the way women are being involved in the economic activities of our society. Individual
habits, attitudes, beliefs and values, age, education, income, marital status, etc. are some socio-demographic factors that influence a
consumer in the time of buying RMFF. Besides these social demographic influencing factors, results have confirmed that con-
sumers are interested in buying this food as it is easy to cook, delicious, easy to find, quality product, low price, etc. This
examination concluded by gathering data from 150 respondents through a questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed through
the Factor Analysis Process. It had also been detected that working individuals are essential clients of this sustenance. In addition,
gender; age; education level; family income; profession demonstrate a positive impact on purchasing RMFF. It had also been
identified that RMFF is currently very expanding because it is easy to cook (as indicated by 94% respondents) and safe (as indicated
by 73% respondents). Moreover, the brand image (indicated by 84% respondents), quality (68%), low pricing (77%), advertising
(64%), appearance (69%), availability (59%), and taste (78%), likewise influence clients to purchase this kind of food. Through this
research, an interesting topic had been found that Btime-saving (according to 38% respondents)^and Bpackaging (indicated by 49%
respondents)^factors do not have any significant impact on the purpose of buying RMFF.
Keywords Ready-made frozen food .Customer attitude .Purchase behavior .Influencing factors
JEL Classification C83 .L66 .N35
Introduction
The idea of food has been changed altogether continuously.
Previously, individuals were used to eating homemade food.
As this pattern had been changed, the act of eating food at the
restaurant had been begun. Afterward, it has changed once
more. Individuals have begun taking food at home these days,
yet it is Ready-made Frozen Food (RMFF) bought from mar-
kets or super shops. It occurred because of westernization.
Additionally, with the pace of globalization, regular individ-
uals have turned out to be extremely busy with their profes-
sion. Culture has likewise changed to adapt to globalization.
By and large, the way of life of people has drastically
changed. With male populace, our female populace has begun
to add to the financial improvement. Ladies are winding up more
engaged and the populace all in all is attempting to expand their
way of life and standard. Presently, the considerable segment of
ladies in city zones or some in remote zones is engaged with
administrations, business enterprise, and so on. What’smore,
consequently, ladies can’t contribute enough time to their home
to keep up a wide range of family unit activities. In this way, they
need such sorts of sustenance which is anything but easy to
make, clean, hygiene and saves time in their bustling lives.
Ready-made Frozen Food is such sorts of the item.
Generally, age; wage; educational level; and inclinations;
have an impact on clients to purchase food (Kotler et al. 2001).
*Shuvro Sen
Senshuvro.du@gmail.com
Neel Antara
Nirobotaneel@gmail.com
Shusmita Sen
Senshusmita.cu@gmail.com
1
University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2
Southeast University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
3
University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Current Psychology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00201-4

Moreover, with the speed of changing in the way of life and
advancement of the conjugal family, individuals began inclin-
ing toward Ready-made Frozen Food. Among 70% of the
Indian family are nuclear families and ladies want to invest
less energy in cooking (Mohan Kathuria and Gill 2013). The
engagement of the spouses in the financial division expands
the interest in obtaining this type of food. 5–6 years prior
individuals favored restaurants to take breakfast, lunch, and
bite significantly supper. In any case, this pattern has changed
as individuals can purchase RMFF which is easily accessible
in a shop or superstore which is not only easy to cook and tasty
butalsosomanythings.
The food pattern of the single living individual i.e. unmarried,
separated, widowed and isolated is varied from those male and
female who live with their family. The larger part of single living
male and female utilized the distinctive kind of preparing to eat
food because of their own reason. The reasons for this sort of
nourishment may be single living people might be work loaded,
no enthusiasm for taking food and principally pressure with some
different causes in life and so forth (Muktawat and Varma 2013).
Moreover, consumers’interest in this type of food is growing due
to their convenience, value, attractive appearance, taste and tex-
ture (Patel and Rathod 2017).
By far most purchasers utilize markets for purchasing their
instant made food shopping. Very nearly 66% utilized expan-
sive general stores and another utilized the nearby shops. Be
that as it may, supermarkets and neighborhood shops assume
as a key part in RMFF shopping. Nearby local shops addition-
ally utilize their outlets for some of this food shopping.
Definition of Ready-made Frozen Food
Ready-made Frozen snacks are a pre-packaged, fresh or fro-
zen meal that only stands in need of heating before being
served.
Merriam-Webste, an American company that publishes
dictionaries, defines Ready-made Frozen Food as a special-
ized food that can be prepared & served quickly. These types
of nutrition are designed for Ready availability, use, or con-
sumption and with little consideration given to quality or sig-
nificance. This type of food is stored at cold temperature.
Ready-made Frozen Food is the sustenance that is sold in a
proper packaged and prepared for utilization. This type of
food is unique in relation to advantageous eatery nourish-
ments. It must be covered by security cover. Manufacture date
and expire date must have appeared on the packet.
Frozen Foodsare one kind of made-up or partially made-up
dishes which have been frozen to 20 °C and can be stored for
at least 1.5 months. Frozen foods have generally been partially
cooked for use prior to freezing, then packaged and rapidly
frozen (Ahuja 2011).
Research Objectives
The examination endeavored to know the buyer states of
mind, information, conduct, and mindfulness with respect to
the patterns of purchasing Ready-made Frozen Food. This
paper, therefore, attempts to understand the following things:
&Purchase influencing factors of people towards Ready-
made Frozen Food.
&The customer segment who usually purchase this type of
food.
Research Questions
The study had been done to find out the answers to the fol-
lowing questions:
&Which group of people are more interested in the RMFF?
&What criteria do consumers think most at first in the time
of purchasing RMFF?
Literature Review
The previous researches provide a clear idea about the reasons
why people purchase Ready-made Frozen Food. There may be
some different reasons or factors. There are many studies found
in the field of identifying influencing factors to customers pur-
chasing a product. But there are very limited studies done by
researchers in the context of Ready-made Frozen Food.
In exploration, it has been distinguished that there are three
kinds of variables that influence buying aim of a customer (Jaafar
et al. 2012). The first is intrinsic elements including the perceived
value, quality & satisfaction from the item. The second one is
extrinsic variables which incorporate pricing, advertising, brand-
ing, packaging, availability, etc. The last one is the demographic
information including purchaser’s age, occupation, sexual orien-
tation, conjugal status, family status, training, and so on.
So, for the convenience, the literature review is discussed
here, in two divisions.
Socio-Demographic Influencing Factors to Purchase
Ready-made Frozen Food (RMFF)
Previous literature review shows that sociodemographic factors
i.e. age, gender, race, ethnicity, and language, for example –and
socioeconomic status (SES), such as income and education, can
influence the consumers’behavior toward RMFF. These findings
are particularly significant.Herearesomeexamples.
Individual factors like individual habits, attitudes, beliefs,
and values play an important role in food choice. Socio-
demographic factors (age, education, and income) also found
Curr Psychol

to have an impact on actual buying behavior (Singh and
Ve r m a 2017). Food choice has been demonstrated to be de-
pendent on demographic characteristics such as age, gender,
educational level, and income (Ahuja 2011).
Among the many factors that can influence a customer’s
decision-making behavior, one of the major factors is gender.
Men and women do shopping considering different motives,
perspectives, rationales, and considerations. The influence of
gender on shopping behavior has become a prominent topic in
the field of marketing (Hernández et al. 2011). Previously,
shopping was a stereotypically female activity which has
changed now (Buttle 1992). Currently, men are engaging
more in shopping activities (Otnes and McGrath 2001). In
terms of food choice, gender can be a considerable factor.
User’s age analysis has become a very important topic
nowadays (Harrison and Rainer Jr 1992). Young people &
aged people have a different opinion in their lifestyle.
Generally, with the increment of maturity, people become
more aware of the benefits to health that come with eating a
balanced diet (Chambers et al. 2008). In a previous study, it
has been found female persons with age 30–45 years having
children and high income are willing to purchase quality food
products (Dettmann and Dimitri 2009).
Occupation is one of the considerable factors. People food
choice behavior depends on profession also. Housewife, ser-
vice holder, businesswomen or engaged in a different profes-
sion may have different perception regarding food. The in-
creasing demand for frozen food is related to the increment
of female participation in the labor force activity and house-
hold incomes, more use of household technologies, longer
working hours and increasing consumer incomes (Ahuja
2011). Women’s participation in both private & public sectors.
The demand for RMFF is expanding with the increment of
the salary; education; worldwide trade & globalization and so
on. Higher income people buy RMFF more frequently
(Loureiro et al. 2001; Govindasamy and Italia 1999).
Educated consumers are more interested in purchasing
Ready-made Frozen Food than those with less education
(Dettmann and Dimitri 2009).
Marital status affects the purchase behavior of RMFF. In a
previous study, it has been found that unmarried individuals,
who live alone and the family in which both spouse and wife
carry out the activity expend Ready to eat food in particular
(Nirmalraj 2014).Thestudents,wholivealone,havetospend
44% of their monthly cost in the food sector (Sen and Antara
2018). So, to minimize the cost, students also prefer RMFF.
The key drivers for increased demand in RMFF products
are: growth in consumer class; change in lifestyle character-
ized by expanding urban population; increased number of
nuclear and dual-income families; change in attitudes and
tastes with increasing modernization and to a lesser extent
westernization of tastes, particularly, of the youth; and low
penetration rates (Ahuja 2011).
Extrinsic & Intrinsic Attribute of Ready-made frozen
Food (RMFF) that Influence a Customer to Purchase
this Food
The request and attention to the RMFF are expanding.
Clients are widely mindful of this item. Beside socio-
demographic factors, few other factors also affect a con-
sumer to purchase RMFF.
With the relative decrease in conventional food & change
in eating patterns, the interest for expending prepared to eat
food has been ascending with the relative significance of com-
fort, efficient (Vijayeta 2015). In a recent survey, surveyed on
parents by Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior in
2017, the researchers used a psychosocial survey to assess the
motivation of parents in buying prepackaged, processed
foods. It has been identified majority (57%) of parents use
time savings as a reason for purchasing frozen dinners.
Nearly half (49%) of parents reported their families really
liked the frozen meals, one third chose processed foods be-
cause children could help prepare them, and more than one
quarter (27%) preferred the cost savings of frozen foods
(Behavior 2017).
‘Convenience or Ease of use’and ‘Saving of Time’
are the two most vital elements that influence purchasers
to purchase instant food (Hawa et al. 2014). Because of
the convenience, most parents buy frozen dinners to save
time on preparation (Horning et al. 2017). It has also
been found in a recent study that convenience and clean
nourishment items occupied way of life and equivalent
support of workforce ladies (Prasad and Aryasri 2008).
Purchasers give most priority to the brand image at the time
of buying Ready-made Frozen Food (Islam and Ullah 2010).
Consumers’negative perceptions of branding of a product can
drive to the quality image of the product (Richardson et al.
1996). Moreover, consumer previous knowledge can also cre-
ate an impact on purchase behavior (Bettman and Park 1980).
In addition, customers focused on the availability of the
sustenance. Nutritional value, quality, tidiness, and cleanli-
ness, fat and cholesterol level are being considered by con-
sumers (Machado 2003). Most of the Indian people give em-
phasize on nutrition, tasty, purity, quality, low priced, avail-
ability, and proper packaging in the time of purchasing RMFF
(Mohan Kathuria and Gill 2013).
The packaging can also influence the consumer’spurchase
decision criteria. Ornateness, use of foreign language and
graphics were taken as important factors taken by consumers
in the time of purchasing a product (Gluckman 1986).
These existing studies clarified that there is a huge demand
for Ready-made Frozen Food in those places where women
also engaged in economic activities. Nowadays, in the whole
world, consumers don’t have enough time to prepare food from
scratch. The most common feature for eating this type of meal
is in the time of Dinner, and Breakfast is the least likely.
Curr Psychol

Why People Prefer RMFF
From the previous literature review & other researches done in
this sector, the following conditions might be the reasons for
preferring RMFF by the customers.
&The main reason for the growth of the RMFF industry is
increased awareness among consumers in the country.
Previously, frozen food was mainly being exported. But
over the last couple of years, the domestic market has also
started growing.
&Western culture goes into our way of life.
&Food culture has been changed nowadays. Previously,
people used to eat food in restaurants. As the pattern has
been changed, the act of eating food at the restaurant has
been converted to taking food in the home but it will be in
Ready-made basis.
&Women freedom, flexibility & involvement in business or
administrative sector are becoming to extend. So, they
can’t give enough time in-house because of taking part
in the financial area.
&Retail shops are developing in the local area, and they are
built up in an advantageous area. So, people can get easy
access to any retail shop to buy RMFF.
Theoretical Framework
After reviewing different literature related to buying behavior
of RMFFs, the own theoretical framework was formed (Fig. 1).
This study designed the framework in consideration to three
main factors that have an impact on the attitude of customers.
These are demographic factors, intrinsic factors, and extrinsic
factor. Demographic factors are socioeconomic characteristics
of the targeted population expressed statistically, such as age,
sex, education level, income level, marital status, occupation,
religion, birth rate, death rate, the average size of a family, the
average age at marriage & so on. Intrinsic factors are physical
attributes of the product though extraneous elements are item
related properties (Collins-Dodd and Lindley 2003).
Understanding these factors is vital for this examination since
they affect purchasing conduct of a customer.
Materials & Methods
Research Approach
This study followed the deductive process where existing
knowledge and theories were used to explain certain phenom-
ena. From the theoretical framework, the study tried to find
out the factors that influence the buying behavior of RMFF
products. Both qualitative & quantitative data were used as
qualitative data help to understand consumer behavior &
quantitative data help to measure consumer behavior.
Sampling Method & Sample Size of the Study
The sample of this study was selected by following
Convenience sampling method as it allows the researcher to
achieve basic data regarding the study without any complica-
tions. A total of 175 questionnaires were distributed and 150
respondents provided their responses. All information was
collected from the BChittagong City^of Bangladesh.
Chittagong city is one of the largest cities in terms of popula-
tion, income and so on.
Questionnaire Design
Most of the data has been collected through a questionnaire.
The survey questionnaire was drafted from the literature re-
view done by other researchers to identify the influencing
factors of purchasing RMFF. Questions asked in the question-
naire were anchored on the 5-point Likert scale. The respon-
dents were asked to rate the factors according to importance
while making purchases of frozen food from stores. The
scores were assigned from 1 to 5 for the degree of satisfaction
(5 for highly satisfied, 4 for satisfied, 3 for neutral, 2 for
dissatisfied, 1 for highly dissatisfied). Frequencies were mul-
tiplied with their respective weights and aggregate values
were found out.
A dummy study was conducted on 25 respondents to en-
sure that the questionnaire format was clear. The results of the
study were tabulated and determined the actual test to be con-
ducted. Minor amendments were do based on the feedback
received from the pilot study.
Data Collection
It’s the best option to conduct the primary research, where
secondary data is also available. So, both primary & second-
ary data were used to furnish this study.
Primary data was collected with the help of a predesigned,
structured and non-disguised questionnaire. The primary date
was collected relating to various parameters of attitude like
belief, emotion, attitude, feeling and intention to buy RMFF.
The main sources of the secondary data were previ-
ous journals, articles, & internet such as annual report,
blogs and so on.
Data Analysis
After the collection of data, a master table was constructed.
The data contained in the questionnaire was first transferred to
Curr Psychol

a master table which facilitated the tabulation of data in the
desired form.
For the demographic analysis of the respondents, the col-
lected data was analyzed by constructing suitable tables and
using percentage methods.
The responses were thoroughly checked & coded for the
purpose of analysis. First of all, the coded data was entered in
the BSoftware for Statistics and Data Science (STATA)^ver-
sion 12. To examine the reliability, a factor analysis method
was used.
Analysis & Discussion
General Information Regarding the Respondents
The demographic information of the respondents is giv-
en in Table 1.
The interviewed people living in the area of Chittagong,
Bangladesh. From the interviewed result, presented in Table 1,
shows that 83% of the respondents were female while only
17% were male.
About 60% of respondents were under 21–30 years
old, 31% were under 31–40 age group and the rest were
under 41–50 age group. In terms of family income, the
highest (22%) frozen food buyers’family income was
more than 40,000 BDT while only 5% of respondents
had less than 20,000 BDT. It has been observable that
with the decreasing of the income range, the numbers of
respondents became decreasing.
Additionally, 17% of the sample had a little education, only
to the higher-secondary school level. More than half of the
interviewees were graduate while 1/5th people were post-
graduate. Only 7% of the respondents might be illiterate,
primary-secondary educated people or doctorate. It indicates
the number of educated people has increased over time.
The occupation of the interviewee is characterized as the
housewife, service holder, and business. So, 44% were service
holder, about 40% were related to business while only 16%
were the housewife. Younger women’s participation in em-
ployment has increased day by day.
Source: Own
Demographic Factors:
Gender
Age
Education
Occupation
Extrinsic Factors:
Brand
Availability
Advertising
Price
Intrinsic Factors:
Time Saving
Packaging
Quality
Appearance
Tasty
Favorability
Easy to cook
Safety
Purchase the product
Attitude Positive
Negative
Don’t purchase the
product or reconsider
Fig. 1 Theoretical framework of this study
Curr Psychol

Basically, from the other previous studies, we found
twelve influencing factors that influence a customer to
purchase RMFF. These influencing factors are timesaving,
safety, easiness to cook, favorability, price, brand, tasty,
advertising, appearance, quality, availability & packaging
characteristics. In this examination, we tried to identify
the most influencing factors among all the factors &
how much they can effect a customer to purchase
RMFF. For investigating the gathered information, factor
analysis strategy has been conducted. The factor investi-
gation shows the emphatically related components for
considering instant solidified food. The result of the cor-
relation of factor analysis is given in Table 2.
In this examination, there were 12 factors found with
their eigenvalue value. The initial 3 factors (Factor-1,
Factor-2, and Factor-3) were recognized (utilizing eigen-
value more than one) that clarified 0.8193 or about 82%
of the total variance. These three components with the
factor loading of 0.5 or more have been chosen. The
main reason to choose these three factors is factor load-
ings 0.5 and above are extremely noteworthy to deter-
mine the minimum loading necessary to comprise an
item (Hair et al. 2014). From the aftereffect of factor
examination, factor loading has also found which is given in
Tab le 3.
It has been seen that 10 factors were strongly associated
with some particular factors. Innately, it shows what degree
those factors loaded on the factors. A relatively high commu-
nality indicated that the variable had much in common with
other variables. On the other hand, a relatively low commu-
nality means that the variable does not sustain an established
relationship with other variables. The communality measure-
ment is shown in Table 4.
Table 1 Social demographic
information of the respondents Serial No. Variable Categories Frequency
(n=150)
Percentage Cumulative
1 Gender Male
Female
25
125
17%
83%
17%
100%
2 Age of Respondents <20
21–30
31–40
41–50
>50
0
90
46
14
0
0%
60%
31%
9%
0%
0%
60%
91%
100%
100%
3 Family Income <20000
20001–25000
25001–30000
30001–35000
35001–40000
>40000
8
22
25
30
32
33
5%
15%
17%
20%
21%
22%
5%
20%
37%
57%
78%
100%
4 Educational Level Higher Secondary
Graduate
Post-graduate
Any other*
25
85
30
10
17%
56%
20%
7%
17%
73%
93%
100%
5 Occupation Housewife
Service holder
Business
24
66
60
16%
44%
40%
16%
60%
100%
*Shows illiterate, primary - secondary level and doctorate qualification
Table 2 Factor analysis
Factor Eigenvalue Difference Proportion Cumulative
Factor 1 3.49877 1.80445 0.4553 0.4553
Factor 2 1.69431 0.59118 0.2205 0.6757
Factor 3 1.10313 0.23929 0.1435 0.8193
Factor 4 0.86385 0.35972 0.1124 0.9317
Factor 5 0.50413 0.12335 0.0656 0.9973
Factor 6 0.38078 0.15518 0.0495 1.0468
Factor 7 0.22561 0.21211 0.0294 1.0762
Factor 8 0.01349 0.08843 0.0018 1.0779
Factor 9 −0.07494 0.05991 −0.0098 1.0682
Factor 10 −0.13485 0.02504 −0.0175 1.0506
Factor 11 −0.15989 0.06921 −0.0208 1.0298
Factor 12 −0.22910 −0.0298 1.0000
Curr Psychol

Influencing Factors to Purchase RMFF
The primary focus of this study was to find out the most influenc-
ing reasons for preferring Ready-made Frozen Food. From the
socio-demographic analysis, it had been found that 83% of total
respondents were female, 60% were under 21–30 age, and 22%
of total respondents’family income was over 40,000 BDT. Other
than these, 56% of total respondents were graduate & 44% were
service holder. In summary, maximum RMFF buyers were grad-
uated female service holder whose age were under 30 years &
had over 40,000 BDT as income. So, it is clear that socio-
demographic factors i.e. age, gender, income, education level,
occupation etc. have an effect on the purchasing RMFF.
The factor analysis examination also found that the majority,
about 94%, of the consumers were influenced to purchase
Ready-made Frozen Food as that it is easy to cook. About
84% of respondents have thought the brand of the product had
an impact on their perception to purchase this food. Again, 78%
of respondents also gave priority to taste before buying RMFF.
Similarly, tasty; inexpensive; favorability; safety; appearance;
quality of the food; advertising; and availability also created a
positive impact on the purchaser to buy this type of solidified
food. On the contrary, time-saving & packaging factors didn’t
have enough influence on customers in the time of buying the
product as their uniqueness were not higher than 0.5.
The most influencing factors that affect customers to pur-
chase RMFF is shown in Fig. 2.
From this investigation, it had been discovered that 66% of
men enjoyed Ready-made Frozen Food and 34% didn’tcare
Table 3 Factor loading
Variable Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6 Factor 7 Factor 8 Uniqueness
Timesaving 0.0916 0.5555 −0.4257 −0.1102 0.1042 0.4025 0.0210 0.0118 0.6218
Safety 0.6288 0.1732 −0.1202 0.4792 0.1361 0.2002 0.0644 −0.0019 0.2678
Easy to cook 0.8617 −0.2129 −0.1197 0.160 0.3100 −0.0924 0.0323 −0.0252 0.0639
Favorable 0.4342 0.5666 −0.2073 0.1564 −0.3589 0.0874 −0.1995 0.0002 0.2468
Price 0.6865 0.0522 −0.3303 0.1472 −0.2125 −0.3238 0.1041 0.0405 0.2328
Brand 0.7594 −0.2461 0.0161 −0.2867 0.2493 −0.0784 −0.2216 0.0252 0.1622
Tasty 0.4916 0.5124 −0.0983 −0.5083 0.0438 0.0141 0.0767 −0.0248 0.2191
Advertising 0.3164 0.5872 0.3765 −0.2109 0.0244 −0.0340 −0.0588 −0.0042 0.3636
Appearance 0.6446 −0.1507 0.3482 −0.1087 −0.1979 0.0903 0.2765 −0.0236 0.3044
Quality 0.3358 0.0518 0.6802 0.2883 0.0147 0.1063 −0.0864 0.0224 0.3193
Availability −0.3708 0.5953 0.0515 0.0268 0.2568 −0.0389 0.1634 0.0680 0.4059
Packaging −0.3291 0.4944 −0.0538 0.2602 0.1864 −0.1711 −0.0168 −0.0642 0.5083
Table 4 Measuring communality
Serial No. Variables Uniqueness Communality
∑(loading
v
)
2
or
(1- uniqueness) %
1 Timesaving 0.6218 0.3782 = 38%
2 Safety 0.2678 0.7322 = 73%
3 Easy to cook 0.0639 0.9361 = 94%
4 Favorable 0.2468 0.7532 = 75%
5 Low Price 0.2328 0.7672 = 77%
6 Brand 0.1622 0.8378 = 84%
7 Tasty 0.2191 0.7809 = 78%
8 Advertising 0.3636 0.6364 = 64%
9 Appearance 0.3044 0.6956 = 69%
10 Quality 0.3193 0.6807 = 68%
11 Availability 0.4059 0.5941 = 59%
12 Packaging 0.5083 0.4917 = 49%
It has been observed that easy to cook is in the highest position with
0.9361 or 94% communality where time-saving is in the lowest position
having 38% communality. Timesaving factorwith 0.3782 = 38% & pack-
aging factor with 0.4917 = 49% don’t include as the most influencing
factors of purchasing RMFF as their communality don’t exceed 0.5%
Purchase
Ready-made
Frozen Food
Gender
Age
Occupation
Income
Education
Branding
Availability
Quality
Appearance
Advertising
Tasty
Low
price
Favorability
Easy to
cook
Safety
Fig. 2 Factors that affect Customers to purchase ready-made frozen food
Curr Psychol

about it. Around 57% of buyers conveyed a favorable attitude
and 20% remained neutral where another 23% remained un-
favorable attitude. As far as effectiveness to cook, around 94%
of buyers had concurred with this announcement, where
others hadn’t concurred. Be that as it may, 61% of respondents
had a perplexity about the wellbeing and health issue with this
sustenance. Likewise, 55% of respondents were settled upon
that this type food saves their cooking time. It had additionally
discovered that 64% of respondents frequently purchase this
sort of food. Once more, 53% of respondents considered this
type of food was vital for their amusements.
Most of the consumers wished to pay the premium
price for Ready-made Frozen snacks with all food but
they wanted an assurance that the food is safe & health.
About 45% of respondents claimed that healthy Ready-
made Frozen Food is important to them, with a strong
feeling that the budget is not a barrier.
Discussion
Food consumption behavior is rapidly changing from cereal-
based food products to high-value food products and slowly
from fresh, unprocessed, unbranded food products to proc-
essed, packaged and branded products. Socio-demographic
factors and product’s intrinsic & extrinsic factors have an ef-
fect on RMFF’s purchase behavior. The results of the study
are also important for understanding the perception of con-
sumers regarding Ready-made Frozen Food.
Gender is a very important factor. Women-they love shop-
ping even when they have a deadline, men-they shop and they
leave - is a common phrase. Between male & female, there are
several different things that affect their buying behavior. They
have different needs in terms of fashion and lifestyle. So, their
consumer behavior can be vastly different. In most of the
households, women influence most of the product choices.
So, in the case of frozen food selection, gender can be an
influencing factor (Ahuja 2011; Saleem et al. 2017).
Age is an important demographic factor in the time of pur-
chasing RMFF. With the growing of age, their needs change
as well as purchase decision-making pattern. Young people
are intended to spend more money on their lifestyle than aged
people. Aged people tend to consume less energy-dense
sweets and fast foods, and consume more energy-dilute
grains, vegetables, and fruits rather than young people. Daily
volume of taking foods and beverages also declines as a func-
tion of age (Drewnowski and Shultz 2001).
Prior research shows that food purchase behavior is related
to marital status. Married men & women are more likely to be
overweight than others in all other marital-status categories
except for those living with partners (Hanson et al. 2007).
So, partnering plays a strong part in food selection.
One of the most interesting thing that economic status &
educational level have a relationship with the food choice.
Generally, educated & solvent people wish to improve the
condition of living. Educated households person purchased
significantly more vegetables, fruit, and less meat relative to
households with the lowest education level (Ricciuto et al.
2006). Changes in lifestyle, opinion, culture, personality etc.
and equal participation of women in the workforce are con-
sidered a major factor in purchasing RMFF (Prasad and
Aryasri 2008).
Convenience is an important factor in taking purchase de-
cision towards frozen food products. Convenience indicates a
consumer is inclined to save time and energy as regards food
preparation. Food preparation is a time- consuming activity.
So, a female person wants to minimize the time that is spent on
meal preparation (Ahuja 2011).
Nowadays, people try different types of foods just to
Bcheck them out^and to Bchange their taste^(Foxall 1993).
Children’s taste sensation differed from that of adults (Negri
et al. 2012). There is a taste difference between homemade
food and purchased Ready-to-Eat product (Hawa et al. 2014).
Generally, customers are price sensitive & cautious about
their spending. But it is not always true, particularly in food
consumptions. RMFF buyers are price-seeker who look for
the low price (Zeithaml 1988). Actually, those buyers who
look for a low price are not stable, they switch every time to
other lower priced product (Baltas 1997). In contrary, some
consumers think the price is a signal of quality (Bao et al.
2011). They think quality products’price is high. In a recent
study, it has been found that consumers are more willing to
pay the premium price to ensure good quality of the food
products (Cranfield and Magnusson 2003).
Branding consist of not only a name or logo but also
some other activities done by the manufacturer to a par-
ticular product, service or idea in order to make the prod-
uct unique in the market to compete with other products
(Vraneševic and Stančec 2003). Nowadays, branding be-
comes one of the basic motives for the consumers’choice
of a particular food product. Branding is important to
create an impact on consumers’choice along with their
loyalty through identifying and differentiating quality and
origin. The brand has a direct effect on the perceived
quality because the brand indicates the quality of the
product (Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal 2000). It also helps
to increase consumer trust, and reduce their perceived risk
as well as time and effort put into switching/searching
costs (Nguyen and Gizaw 2014).
We are all live in an advertised era. We can get a clear idea
about advertising from Guy W. D. Cook. In a book named,
BThe Discourse of Advertising^, Mr. Cook uttered, Bwhether
we are alone, with our friends or family, or in a crowd, adver-
tising is always with us, if only on the label of something we
are using, advertising is everywhere.^(Cook 2001). Among
Curr Psychol

all the marketing weapons, advertising has a vast impact on
customers. A company can’t become a market leader unless
they invest lots of their investment in promotional purposes
(Hussain et al. 2008). The major aim of advertising is to create
an impact on purchasers’buying behavior. Consumers be-
come emotionally attached to a product through viewing ad-
vertising (Niazi et al. 2012). So, advertising plays a vital role
to motivate the customers purchasing RMFF.
Packaging is a critical factor in the decision-making pro-
cess. Nowadays, businessorganization acknowledges packag-
ing as a strategic tool for enhancing the competitiveness of
food products (Estiri et al. 2010). Majority of consumers have
awareness about the presence of ‘Food Preservatives’&
‘Flavouring Agents’in the packed foods that they buy (HN
et al. 2013). But very interestingly, it has been found that
packaging doesn’t have enough effect to consumers purchas-
ing RMFF.
Conclusion
The involvement in economic activities of men and
women both are increasing. Rising urbanization, increas-
ingnumberofwomenworkingoutsidetheirhome,and
increasing per capita income are acting as a driving force
behind Ready-made Frozen Food. So, their intention in
household activities becomes simple——————BJust
buy food from the market, bring home, enter oven, bring
to the table and eat with tasty and safety^.
This study tried to find out the reasons for preferring
Ready-made Frozen Foods. Prior studies have reported
that consumers’intention to purchase can dependent on
socio-demographic factors such as age, gender, educa-
tion, income or anything else. As a positive attitude &
purchase intention may not always lead to the actual
buying behavior, the influence of socio-demographic fac-
tors is also tested. The result has revealed that socio-
demographic like gender, age, education level, family
income & occupation etc. have an influence on purchas-
ing RMFF. The result of the test also reveals which
group of people are the main customers of RMFF. The
result shows that working women are the main buyer of
this food. The age group 21–30 years are buying RMFF
than any other age group. However, education level,
family income also have a significant influence on pur-
chasing RMFF.
However, purchase intention towards RMFF is also affect-
ed by other factors i.e. safety, easy to cook, favorability, low
price, brand, taste, advertising, appearance, quality etc.
Results of the factor analysis show that the packaging &
time-saving factors don’t have enough capacity to influence
a person towards purchasing RMFF.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to show gratitude to the stu-
dents of the BUniversity of Dhaka^for providing the necessary informa-
tion. The authors are also immensely grateful to Mr. Hafij Ali, Biology
Lab Manager, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) for his com-
ment in a previous version of the manuscript although any errors in this
paper’s findings, interpretation & conclusion are the authors’own and for
this reason, the reputations of the esteemed person should not fade.
Compliance with Ethical Standards All activities performed
in the study that involved human participants were in accordance with the
ethical standards of the institutional or national research committee and
with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or compara-
ble ethical standards.
Conflict of Interest On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author
states that there is no conflict of interest.
Publisher’snote Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic-
tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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