Rationale

A costumers perception of a product or service offered may differ from what the producer

or marketer had intended to offer. This is helpful no favorable fo both the parties in competitive

environment. Also, it is likely to have more serious in seeking consumers attention todays

consumers have greater exposure to the minute, diverse and intensive information. This makes if

very difficult for the offering to gain the complete attention of the consumer especially in situations

where that consumers perception is not the same as that of offering.

Rice is the most important human food crop in the world, rice is also fed more people over

a longer time than any other crop. It is also important for the small farmers who grow it on millions

of hectares throughout the region. NFA rice is an agency of the Philippine government under the

office of the president (formally under the department of agriculture) it is responsible for insuring

the country’s food security supply and price of rice, the staple grain of the Philippines. NFA rice

could be called as premium rice, commercial rice or “cheap rice”.

In Monkayo market, NFA rice is a very well-known for a low quality product. The average

consumer of NFA rice are those people or families that are having enough money or income to buy

their basic needs, in short the lower class.

Product related cues, such as brand or price, can influence consumers taste perception.

Going beyond this observation, we examine the extent to which a stimulus-extrinsic factor, such as

the format of the measurement tool on which consumers describe attribution, overall product

evaluation and willingness to pay (WTP).

Consumers wants good quality, but they also want to know how they are getting good value.

That value isn’t just judge by the product or service they are purchasing but by the availability and
usability of the customer service that supports it. It is not just enough anymore to make brand

recognition consumer want to feel good about a brand.

The study is conducted to determine the Perception of NFA consumers in Municipality of

Monkayo Compostela Valley Province. This answered the following question:

1. What is the demographic profile of respondents in terms to:

1.1. Income

1.2. Family Size

1.3. Consumer behavior

2. What is the vision of NFA consumers in terms of:

2.1. Product Quality

2.2. Price

3. Is there a significance difference to the Product Quality Improvement when NFA rice

consumers are group into their:

3.1. Income

3.2. Family Size

3.3. Consumer behavior

Based on the foregoing study. The researchers have formulated the following hypothesis; it

will be tested with 0.05 level significance.

1. There is no significant difference on the level of perceptions on NFA rice consumers

when they are grouped according to their income.

Review of Related Literature

Consumers use different variables to determine the quality of product. This quality lies in the

eyes of the consumers in question. What may be seemed to be of the high quality to one consumer

may be inferior to another. Even though many consumer uses price as an indicator of product

quality (Kotler 2001), there are doubts in consumers mind whether there is a relationship between
price, value and product quality and further price itself is a strong indicator of product quality in the

absence of any information.

However, some consumers also determine rice quality based on the country of origin whilst

others based quality on producer. It is clear that, consumers evaluate directly attribute by physical

cues such as tasty, smell and size. Others use variables such as place of origin, type of distribution

channel, price, packaging the manufacturer and among others. Perception plays an important role in

life of the consumer. Our environment including business environment is littered with numerous

stimuli trying to attract our attention. The quality of our perception depends on the way we process

and interpret the stimuli or the information reaching our senses. Perception is the process, by which

an individual select, organizes and interpret information inputs to create meaningful picture of the

world. When we interpret a situation or events we are then in position to respond. (Kotler, 1997).

Perception, according to Gregory et al (1995), is a set of process by which an individual

becomes aware of and interpret information about the environment. If everyone perceived

everything the way, things would be a lot simpler, of course, the reverse is true. Moreover, people

often assume that, reality is objective that, we all perceive the same things in the same way.

According to Markin (1995), perception is concerned with the way in which we select and

recognize sensory data presented by our environment. In other words perception maybe defined as a

complex process by which people select, organize and interpret sensory stimuli into meaningful

picture of the world. Markin continues that, a number of stimuli constantly reaching consumers

sensory organs from the environment they select certain stimuli to which the attend, they organize

this stimuli so that they become understandable, but their interpretation of sensory stimuli involves

more than just receiving and processing information by attitudes and beliefs and their past learning

as is by the character of the stimuli themselves.

This is because consumers decision to purchase a product will be influenced to a large extent by the

attribute which the successful marketer is able to give or lend to the product through advertising,

packing, manufacturing, country of origin and other promotional techniques which in a way

determined product quality.

Psychologists have succeeded in identifying a number of factors that are important in

determining the direction of attention.

They can be broadly classified under external and internal factors. External factors relates to

physical characteristics of stimuli, while internal factors include our motives and expectations which

also affect the way consumers determine product quality.

A. Product Quality

As opposed to obejective quality drive preferences and consequently satisfaction,

loyalty, sales, and profitability, but customers’ perception of quality are imperfect and slow to take

into account changes in objective quality. They hypothesize that objective quality does have a

positive effect on perceived quality contemporaneously, in the short term, and in the long term.

They also hypothesize that a decrease in objective quality has a greater effect on customers’

perceptions than does an increase. Further, they suggest that increases in quality will have larger

shor-term effects for brands with good reputation than for brands with poor reputation and that

decreases in quality will have larger short-term effects for brand with poor reputations than for

brands with good reputations.

Courtland L, Bovver and John J. Thrill (1992, P 153) have the view about perception; before

consumers can buy a product, they must be aware that it exist. This is a process that start with being
exposed to the stimuli that represents a particular product, attending to this stimuli and interpreting

them to form an overall perception of the object.

B. Price

Value is the woth that a product or service has in the mind of the consumer. For the

most part, consumers are unaware of the true cost of production of the products they buy; instead,

they simply have an internal feeling for how much certain product are worth to them.

Conceptual Framework

Perception of NFA Demographic Profile

conceptual distinctions and organize ideas. Strong conceptual frameworks capture something real

and do this in a way that is easy to remember and apply. In other words, the conceptual framework

is the researchers understanding of how the particular variables in this study connect with each

other.

The presented graph is conceptual framework of the study. This comprises with 4 focused areas.

The first area focused on the perception of the costumers towards the product or specifically the

NFA rice referred on how the consumers view the product. It is very important because any lack or

problem in first variable will leads to the third variable. Second is the price, does the price fit to the

quality of the rice? The price is important because consumers really matters in terms of price. Third

is the quality improvement centered on how the product itself stands alone without the presence of

the consumers, is there an effect? If the product’s quality will not be satisfied the fourth variable will

be applied. Fourth, is the consumer behavior, consumers has their individual preferences in terms of

purchasing a product especially in food because it also affects one’s health. Every individual has

ways on how to prefer a product.

The result of the study are considered beneficial to the following individuals:
 NFA Retailers. These outlets will greatly benefit from this study since the NFA rice as of

today has negative feedbacks. It would give them some ideas in terms of improving the quality of

the products and somehow its prices.

LGU Monkayo in Business Economy. This might help the Local Government Unit of

Monkayo in promoting better business and products specifically rice as a staple food of every

individual of the Municipality, which they can also consume rice with a better quality.

Future Researchers.

CHAPTER 2
METHOD