DUSHANBE, June 2, Asia-Plus — The results of recent market survey of apricot juice in Dushanbe conducted under the Trade Promotion Program in Tajikistan showed that the design and packaging of Tajik juices are inferior to their taste and quality.
It means that although some Tajik companies produce high quality products with good taste, which are in some cases even superior than some Russian brands, but they attract only a limited number of consumers because of poor quality of packaging and design. The results of the survey showed that how packaging design, cap and type of packaging material can influence on consumers’ decision.
Abdulfattoh Shafiyev, National Consultant on Public Relations, Trade Promotion in Tajikistan ITC (UNCTAD/WTO), said that consumer survey had been based on cognitive, external, internal and organoleptic aspects. In other words, respondents were asked about what they believe about the products, what they observe from the outside, what they observe after opening, tasting and smelling.
Apricot juices of two Kyrgyz companies (“Dessert” and “Domashniy Pogrebok”), a company from Russia (“Dobryi”), a company from Ukraine (“Biola”) and two Tajik companies: “Elita Istaravshan” and “Sharbatho” were surveyed in Dushanbe. Based on taste parameters the highest rank was given to the apricot juice of “Sharbatho”, although before tasting the product of this company was ranked as a lowest one based on the packaging and design.
Although, according to the results of the survey the most popular brand among Dushanbe consumers and most well-designed juice is Russian “Dobryi”, but after tasting this juice lost some scores among respondents.
According to the survey, most important for the consumer is naturalness of the product (85 % of respondents), shelf life after opening (81 %) and price (75 %), but the packaging volume and brand popularity is less important for the consumers (44% and 46%, accordingly). Most natural juices were known “Sharbatho” and “Dessert”.
The results of the survey showed that the majority of respondents want to buy apricot juice in glass jar with twist off cap (43, 4%) and cartoon box with screw cap (20, 8 %).
It was advised that in order to improve consumer satisfaction, Tajik companies should take more serious of consumer opinions about their products. In a market economy, sustainable growth of the company’s profit would be very difficult without improving customer satisfaction. Therefore, the customer satisfaction should be the top priority for Tajik juice producers. They should think on producing with good quality at a lowest possible cost.
Trade Promotion Project in Tajikistan is implemented by International Trade Center (ITC) and is financed by the Government of Switzerland. The main objectives of the project are improvement of enterprises export competitiveness in agro-processing sector and strengthening Business Support Services Organizations through increasing the quality and range of their services.
