CONSUMERS PREFERENCE TOWARDS WATERMELON IN SEMARANG

Abstract

Consumer buy product and service to fulfill their needs. Need is natural,
while pretension is unnatural need. The objective of this research is to find out
the consumers preference towards watermelon in Semarang, the factors that
influence the consumers in choosing watermelons in Semarang, the alternative
fruit that replace watermelon, and kinds of watermelons mostly sold in
Semarang. Research method used is descriptive method, the technique of
location and respondents sampling use purposive sampling with the locations
are on three main markets in Semarang and there are 90 respondents. Kind of
data and data resources used are primary and secondary data by interviews and
questionnaires as the data collection method. The primary and secondary data
in this research are analyzed with tabulation and percentage analysis technique.
This research has been conducted on July  – August 2008. The result of this
research shows that watermelon has not become the most preferred fruit for
Semarang consumers, in choosing watermelon, the consumers have preferences
in the taste and seedless. However, the alternative fruit chosen by the
consumers is orange. And, preferred watermelon in Semarang is as follows:
weight of 2 – 4 kg, red fleshed, and seedless.

Keywords: consumer, preference, watermelon