RESEARCH ON CONSUMER TARGET AUDIENCE ADVANTAGES FOR ENRICHING SNACKS AND BREAKFAST BREAKFAST

Abstract

The paper considers the dynamics of today's market development, where a wide range of products of different origin and purpose, focused on consumer preferences, is presented. It is shown that, realizing the dynamics of life and the lack of time, consumers are increasingly inclined to buy healthy products that do not require much time for cooking and are almost ready to eat. This has contributed to the expansion and popularization of snacks and breakfast cereals, which are mainly natural products made on the basis of cereal crops, but are subjected to frying and other types of heat treatment during the technological processing, which leads to the accumulation of unwanted fat and a decrease in the amount of biologically active components and requires the introduction of enriching additives. 
It is noted that in order to realize the intentions of snack and breakfast cereal manufacturers to scale up production and enter the international market, entrepreneurs should focus on consumer preferences and demand by introducing into production an assortment of snacks and breakfast cereals enriched with additives that are preferred by consumers. Using sociological, economic and statistical methods, a survey was conducted to study the opinions of consumer focus groups. 
The research identified the demographic profile of the main consumers of snacks and breakfast cereals. They are residents of cities with medium income (middle price segment), mostly consumers aged 18 to 50, while those over 50 buy such products less often. The priorities of different age groups of consumers when choosing the type of breakfast cereal and snacks that are constantly available in the assortment of most brands and their attitude to changes in the price of their favorite product were studied. 
The attitude of consumers to non-traditional vitamin and mineral natural supplements was determined and the range of supplements whose preferences on average coincide in all age groups of consumers was identified. These supplements include local natural green spices, which received the highest percentage of votes, followed by pumpkin seeds with honey and an amaranth flour-based fortifier. The supplement based on nettle and kiwi leaf powder received between 19% and 23.5% of preferences. Basil and honey additives and tomato and cilantro pastes received an unconventionally high rating among consumers aged 50 and over, which is only 5% less than the number of votes from consumers aged 18-35, where the survey shows a tendency to experiment and buy new products. 
The work carried out allowed us to identify the preferences and needs of the target consumer audience in terms of priorities for enriching additives that should be used in snack and breakfast cereal technologies, which will help popularize new healthy products, increase competitiveness and provide prospects for sales development for years to come.