consumers. The respondents were given the following instructions for expressing their opin-ions towards the most preferable use occasopin-ions: “Choose the two which you consider to be the most preferable, and rank them by writing number 1 in the box in front of the most pref-erable option, and number 2 in the box in front of the second most prefpref-erable option.”
The most popular use occasion was clearly the option “At home with family and friends”, as in more than 56 percent of all the responses this option was ranked as number one. Another popular use occasion ranked as number one was clearly the option “With soups or salads”, which was ranked as the first choice in more than 18 percent of all the responses given. The remaining options received only a few rankings as number one: “At a party”, “In the movies”, and “On the First of May, Midsummer or New Year’s Eve, or the like” each received less than 10 percent of the responses. “With alcohol” was chosen in slightly more than 8 percent of the responses, ranked as first choice. Only in slightly more than 2 percent of all the responses the option “None of the above” was selected as the first choice.
The second most preferable use occasion for RIPS rye snacks was the option “On the First of May, Midsummer or New Year’s Eve, or the like” as in more than 21 percent of the responses it was ranked as number two. The other remaining options received nearly an equal number of rankings as the second choice; at least the differences were small. For the second most preferable use occasion, “At home with family and friends”, “At a party”, “In the movies”,
“With soups or salads”, and “With alcohol” each received responses ranging from 11 percent to nearly 19 percent of all the responses, ranked as number two. “With soups or salads” was clearly the second most selected option for the second most preferable use occasion. Only in slightly more than one percent of the responses “None of the above” was ranked as the sec-ond choice. See Appendix 4: “The Most and the Secsec-ond Most Preferable Use Occasions” for the bar charts.
In order to perceive an even more complete overview of the most preferred use occasions, they can be viewed by combining the results (multiple responses). Table 3 below presents a synopsis of all the responses given, combining the responses for the most preferable use occa-sions and the second most preferable use occaocca-sions. The table presents, which use occaocca-sions received the most selections all in all, regardless if they were ranked as “1” or “2”. In all, a clear majority of the respondents chose the use occasion for RIPS rye snacks to be at home with family and friends, either as their first or second choice, totalling nearly 40 percent of all the responses. Another use occasion which was frequently selected either as first or sec-ond choice was with soups or salads, totalling nearly 20 percent of all the responses given. In all, the other use occasions were selected somewhat equally, as can be seen from the table below. In total, in only less than two percent of the responses the option “None of the above”
was selected as first or second choice. It is a good result as it means that most of the respon-dents perceived the provided options as suitable use occasions for RIPS rye snacks.
Table 3: Summary of the most selected use occasions, either as first or second choice
5.2.3 Question 8. Different statements concerning RIPS rye snacks
Since the seventh question “Which of the following features, in your opinion, best suit for RIPS rye snacks?” is related to the brand as person perspective, it is analyzed further below, separately from the brand as product-related questions. The eighth question is mostly related to the brand as product perspective, which is presented with the following instructions: “Be-low is presented different statements concerning RIPS rye snacks. Choose the option that most closely matches your opinion on each statement by circling the number from the scale of 1-5, in which: 1= Completely disagree, 2= Somewhat disagree, 3= Undecided, 4= Somewhat agree, 5= Completely agree.” This five-point scale can also be characterised as a scale rang-ing from negative to neutral to positive, where “1= Completely disagree” and “2= Somewhat disagree” describe a negative opinion towards the statement presented, “3= Undecided” de-scribes a neutral opinion, and “4= Somewhat agree” and “5= Completely agree” describe a positive opinion towards the statement presented. See Appendix 5: “The Different Statements Concerning RIPS rye snacks” for the tables for each statement.
The first statement states that “RIPS rye snack differentiates successfully among competing snack products in the market”.
In all, the overall response to this statement was positive, as a clear majority of all the re-spondents had chosen either “Somewhat agree” or “Completely agree”. “Somewhat agree”
was chosen in 41 percent of all the responses given. “Completely agree” came close to 40 percent (38, 1 percent) of all the responses. A small number of the responses were neutral, as
in 13, 3 percent of the responses the option “Undecided” was chosen. Only a small minority of the respondents had chosen “Somewhat disagree”, totalling 7,6 percent of all the re-sponses given. None of the respondents had chosen “Completely disagree”, which is a positive result.
In the second statement, it is stated that “RIPS is a snack product for the Finnish taste”.
Again, the results concerning this statement can be interpreted as very positive, as large ma-jority of all the respondents had chosen either “Somewhat agree” or “Completely agree”, in all more than 80 percent of the respondents. “Somewhat agree” was chosen by the majority, totalling 41, 9 percent of the responses given. “Completely agree” was chosen in 40 percent of the responses, which is relatively equal. Again, the neutral and negative options received few responses. “Undecided” was chosen in 9, 5 percent of the responses, “Somewhat dis-agree” was chosen in 6, 7 percent of the responses, and “Completely disdis-agree” was chosen in only 1, 9 percent of the responses given.
The third statement states that “The appearance of RIPS rye snack package is alluring”.
The third statement examines the respondents’ opinion towards the packaging of RIPS rye snacks. The overall results concerning this statement can be seen as positive, as a clear ma-jority of the respondents somewhat agreed that the appearance of the RIPS rye snack package is alluring. “Somewhat agree” was chosen in 49, 5 percent of the responses, which is nearly a half of all the responses given. In addition, “Completely agree” was chosen in 14, 6 percent of the responses. This means that a large majority of the responses were positive opinions towards the package. However, the attractiveness of the RIPS rye snacks package generated also negative and neutral opinions. “Undecided” was chosen in 19, 4 percent of the re-sponses, and “Somewhat disagree” was chosen in 16, 5 percent of the responses. None of the respondents had chosen “Completely disagree” which can also be seen as a positive result.
In the fourth statement, it is stated that “The relation between price and quality is good with RIPS rye snacks”.
Again, the results for this statement can be seen as positive as a majority of the responses were positive opinions, either “Somewhat agree” or “Completely agree”. Clear majority of the respondents chose the option “Somewhat agree”, totalling 41, 9 percent of all the sponses. Other positive responses of “Completely agree” totalled 17, 1 percent of the re-sponses. Even though a large majority of the responses were positive, the second largest group of responses was neutral. “Undecided” was chosen in 31, 4 percent of the responses.
Only a small number of the responses were negative opinions, which can be also seen as a
positive result. “Somewhat disagree” was chosen in 8, 6 percent of the responses, and “Com-pletely disagree” was chosen in only 1 percent of the responses.
There might be several reasons for so many respondents choosing “Undecided”, which indi-cates uncertainty towards either the quality or the price of RIPS rye snacks. When having a clear opinion on both quality and price, it is likely that the respondent is able to form an opinion towards the relation between them. One main reason might be that the respondent has not formed a clear perception about the quality of RIPS rye snacks. In the marketing communication activities and during the sales promotion, the message about a quality snack might not have been clear enough. Also, it is possible that the respondent was not convinced enough about the quality of the snacks after trying the products. As far as price is concerned, even though there was a large price label on the table during the sales promotions when the research was conducted, it is possible that it was unnoticed by many respondents. From the brand identity point of view, RIPS rye snacks can be seen as a quality snack with a relatively low price, which results in a good relation between price and quality. The good relation be-tween price and quality should probably be emphasized more in the marketing communica-tion activities for RIPS, in order to clarify it even more to the target groups.
The fifth statement states that “The name ”RIPS” describes well a rye based snack product”.
The fifth statement is related to the brand as symbol perspective, and is discussed more in detail below with other questions related to the brand as symbol perspective. However, it can be stated briefly that the results can be interpreted as positive, as large majority, altogether more than 70 percent of the respondents, had chosen either “Completely agree” or “Some-what agree”.
In the sixth statement, it is stated that “RIPS is a good product”.
The sixth statement examines the respondents’ overall opinion towards RIPS rye snacks. The results for this statement can be seen as very positive, as large majority chose either “Some-what agree” or “Completely agree”, totalling altogether more than 80 percent of all the re-sponses. “Somewhat agree” was chosen in 51 percent of the responses, whereas “Completely agree” was chosen in 36, 5 percent of the responses. In all, it is a very positive result that more than 80 percent of the respondents agreed in some way that RIPS rye snacks is a good product. The remaining neutral and negative options received few responses. “Undecided”
was chosen in 6, 7 percent of the responses. Of the negative options, “Somewhat disagree”
received 4, 8 percent of the responses, and “Completely disagree” received only 1 percent of all the responses.
The seventh statement states that “The flavour selection of RIPS rye snacks is sufficient”.
In the seventh statement, the respondents’ opinion towards the flavour selection of RIPS rye snacks is examined. Again, the results concerning this statement can be seen as positive, as a clear majority of the respondents chose the option “Completely agree”, totalling close to 50 percent (46, 6 percent) of all the responses. In addition, “Somewhat agree” was chosen in 35 percent of the responses. A small number of the responses were neutral, as “Undecided” was chosen in 10, 7 percent of the responses. In all, very few of the responses were negative, as
“Somewhat disagree” was chosen in 6, 8 percent of the responses and “Completely disagree”
was chosen in only 1 percent of the responses. Figure 12 below presents a synopsis of the results concerning each statement.
Figure 12: Responses for the different statements concerning RIPS rye snacks