Abstract

The study evaluates the consumer choice behaviour towards bakery products in the Nilgiris District by identifying the uniqueconsumption environment influenced by the socio economic status and market oriented challenges. In the everydayconsumption, bakery products in the District play a significant role but empirical studies on how consumers establish andmaintain choice behaviour in the context of the region are scarce. The research follows an empirical research design and isbased on primary data that will be gathered through the use of an interview schedule in form of a structured interview that wasconducted among consumers of bakery products. The sampling method used was a snowball sampling because there was noknown consumer sampling frame and an end sample of 347 respondents was assumed satisfactory to address the multivariateanalysis. The segmentation of patterns of behavioural differentiation and predictive relationship segmentation were analysedusing advanced statistical analysis tools such as discriminant analysis, cluster analysis and multiple regression analysis. Theempirical data show that the consumers of the bakery products are deeply differentiated in terms of the choice behaviour andcan be characterised into meaningful segments of behaviour. The results affirm the fact that the consumption behaviour ofbakery in the Nilgiris District is context dependent and based on behavioural orientation and regional market environment.