A case study of consumer preferences towards different brands of palm oil in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

• Main Authors: Abdul Fatah, F. (Author), Ibrahim, M.I.S (Author), Saili, A.R (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rynnye Lyan Resources, 2020
• Subjects: adult; advertising; aged; aliff; Article; attitude to health; awareness; Awareness; buruh; consumer; consumer attitude; Consumer preferences; convenience sample; economic development; educational status; Elaeis guineensis; factor analysis; female; food packaging; food preference; household income; human; human experiment; knife; Likert scale; Malaysia; male; marketing; Marketing; occupation; oil industry; palm oil; Palm oil; perception; principal component analysis; purchasing; Quality; questionnaire; red eagle; saji; seri murni; socioeconomics; supermarket; vesawit
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 The palm oil industry has played a vital role in the economic development of Malaysia and the economic expansion in developing countries primarily drove the growth in palm oil consumption. However, consumer preference towards palm oil products is changing due to the population increase, rapid urbanisation, rising income levels, development of communication tools, and negative campaign towards palm oil. Hence, this study was conducted to identify consumers’ preferences towards palm oil to understand this predicament further. In this study, the data were obtained from 107 respondents through convenient sampling from different supermarkets in Shah Alam, Selangor. Moreover, factors such as socioeconomic, marketing, and non-marketing factors were investigated, which employed descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that majority of the respondents were Malay females, married, and were in the age range between 31 and 40 years old. Most of these respondents completed secondary schools and were now working in public and private sectors with a monthly income between RM2001 and RM3000. It was found that most of the respondents purchased the bottled “Saji” brand palm oil at least once a month, and advertising was the primary source of brand information for the respondents. Furthermore, the multiple regression analysis of marketing factors revealed that product and price were the most significant factors that influenced consumer preferences towards palm oil. Meanwhile, non-marketing factors indicated that the quality of products, as well as advertising or campaign, were the significant determinants which affected consumer preferences towards palm oil. On that basis, this article proposed a few recommendations to enhance consumer preferences towards palm oil in the future. © The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources.