1. Promotional Mix of Insurance Products
Abstract
In some sense we can say that insurance appears simultaneously with the appearance of human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: money economies (with markets, money, financial instruments and so on) and non-money or natural economies (without money, markets, financial instruments and so on). The second type is a more ancient form than the first. In such an economy and community, we can see insurance in the form of people helping each other. For example, if a house burns down, the members of the community help build a new one. Should the same thing happen to one's neighbour, the other neighbours must help Otherwise; neighbours will not receive help in the future. This type of insurance has survived to the present day in some countries where modern money economy with its financial instruments is not widespread (for example countries in the territory of the former Soviet Union). Turning to insurance in the modern sense (i.e., insurance in a modern money economy, in which insurance is part of the financial sphere), early methods of transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, respectively.
Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel's capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen.
Liability insurance is a very broad superset that covers legal claims against the insured. Many types of insurance include an aspect of liability coverage. For example, a homeowner's insurance policy will normally include liability coverage which protects the insured in the event of a claim brought by someone who slips and falls on the property; automobile insurance also includes an aspect of liability insurance that indemnifies against the harm that a crashing car can cause to others' lives, health, or property. The protection offered by a liability insurance policy is twofold: a legal defense in the event of a lawsuit commenced against the policyholder and indemnification (payment on behalf of the insured) with respect to a settlement or court verdict. Liability policies typically cover only the negligence of the insured, and will not apply to results of willful or intentional acts by the insured.
Objectives
To analyze briefly about the companies products and also the promotional strategies following for the development of the company. Through this research we can also know about the customer, competitors of the company.
• Our main objective is to selling the various life insurance policies and creating need to the customer to save their amount.
• To create awareness among the customers about different products of Centrum direct.
To know the promotional strategies of the company and what extent that strategies helped the company to develop in the competitive market
• Up to what extent the people are aware of there policies.
• Which product has increased the company
There is more competition in this industry so there is a need to retain the customer with the organization. So to sustain in the market the company has to follow various strategies by attracting new investors and to retain the existing investors.
• They can able to know for what extent there promotional strategies helping to increase the business.
• They can able to know for extent the customers aware of there products.
• If any necessary changes should be taken if any lacking is there.
Methodology
The objective of the present study can be accomplished by conducting a systematic market research. Market research is the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings that are relevant to different marketing situations facing the company. The marketing research process that will be adopted in the present study will consist of the following stages:
a. Defining the problem and the research objective :
The research objective states what information is needed to solve the problem. The objective of the research is to derive the opinion of the users and opinion of the potential customers.
b. Developing the research plan :
Once the problem is identified, the next step is to prepare a plan for getting the information needed for the research. The present study will adopt the exploratory approach wherein there is a need to gather large amount of information before making a conclusion. If required, the descriptive and casual approaches may also be used.
c. Collection and Sources of data :
Market research requires two kinds of data, i.e., primary data and secondary data. Being a firm in financial services, data gathering will involve usage of both primary and secondary data though there Will be an extensive usage of primary data. Well-structured questionnaires will be prepared for both the existing and potential customers. There will be personal interview surveys mostly in-home (door-to-door) surveys. The questionnaires will contain both open-ended and close-ended questions. Here, open-ended questions will be more useful, as it is an exploratory research being conducted, wherein the main objective is to get an insight into how investors think. Secondary data will be collected from various journals, books and web sites.
d. Analyze the collected information :
T his involves converting raw data into useful information. It involves tabulation of data, using statistical measures on them for developing and calculating the averages.
e. Report research findings :
This phase will mark the culmination of the marketing research effort. The report with the research findings is a formal written document. The research findings and personal experience will be used to propose recommendations to develop the performance of the organization.
Promotional Mix of Insurance Products
Right know company has so many types' products which will suitable for Indian people.
(1) TRADITIONAL POLICIES
(2) PENSION POLICIES
(3) UNIT LINKED POLICIES
(4) HEALTH POLICIES
TRADITIONAL POLICIES
• INVESTMENT GAIN
• CASH GAIN
• CHILD GAIN
• RISK CARE
• TERM CARE
PENSION POLICIES
• SWARNAVISHRANTHI
• UNIT GAIN EASY PENSION
• UNIT GAIN SINGLE PREMIUMEASY PENSION
• UNIT GAIN PENSION REGULLAR
UNIT ILNKED POLICIES
• NEW UNIT GAIN
• NEW UNIT GAIN PLUS
• NEW UNIT GAIN SUPER
• UNIT GAIN PREMIER (SINGLE PREMIUM)
• UNIT GAIN PLUS SINLLE PREMIUM
• CAPITAL UNIT GAIN
HEALTH POLICIES
• HEALTH CARE
• CARE FIRST
2. Green Marketing
Abstract
The promotion of environmentally safe/ beneficial products, green marketing began in Europe in the early 1980's when specific products were identified as being harmful to the earth's atmosphere. As the result new "green" products were introduced that were less damaging to the environment. The concept caught on in the United States and has been gaining steadily ever since.
Green Marketing is also known as environmental marketing or sustainable marketing. Divergent aspect of green marketing includes ecologically safer products, recyclable and biodegradable packaging, energy efficient operations and better pollution controls. Advances produced from green marketing include packaging made from recycle paper, phosphate-free detergents, refillable containers for cleaning products and bottle using less plastic.
As today's consumer become more and more conscious of natural products, businesses are beginning to modify their own thoughts and behavior in an attempt to address the concerns of consumers. Green marketing is becoming more important to businesses because of consumers' genuine concerns about our limited resources on the earth. By implementing green marketing measures in order to save the earth's resources in productions, packaging and operations, businesses are showing consumers that they too share the same concern about environment, boosting their credibility. Government has also taken certain initiatives by making regulations relating to green marketing in order to protect the environment.
Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. It is the process of selling products and services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way .
Green marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that satisfy customers want and need for Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Convenience without having a detrimental impact on the environment. The Obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service's "greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly.
Importance Of Green Marketing
Since early 1990's,a major concern on ecological impact of industrial house on environment has been surfaced on marketplace. Not only the relations between human, organization and natural environment has been redefined, but the implication thereof are being interpreted, because of these, new perception are being formed or re-evaluated on issues like environmentally product, recycle ability , waste reduction, the cost associated with pollution and price value relationship of environmentalism. Pressure from various stakeholders, govt. environmentalists, NGO's consumer is placed on businesses, which in turn keep them under constant and relentless watch in their daily operations. A direct result can be seen in developing as well as in developed countries where government become more strict in imposing regulations to protect environment at the same time, the consumers of these countries are being more and more out spoken regarding their needs for environmentally friendly products, even though question remain on their willingness to pay higher premium for these products.
So in this era where consumer determine the fate of a company, green marketing imparts a proactive strategies to these companies to cater the market by imparting natural friendly product/ services which otherwise reduce or minimize detrimental impact on environment.
A green marketing approach in productive area promotes the integration of environmental issues on all corporate activities; from strategy formulation, planning re-engineering in production process and dealing with consumers. So to remain competitive within the challenge thrown by environment protectionists, the companies will have to find out the answer through their marketing strategies, product or services redesign, customer handling.
in this endeavour the companies go for new technologies for handling waste, sewage and air pollution; it can go for product standardization to ensure environmentally safe product; by providing truly natural product. In this regard companies should be concerned with what happens to a product during and after its useful life. Companies may manifest these concerns through experimentation with ways to reassess the product life stages.
Moreover, man has limited resources on the earth, with which she/he must attempt to provide for the worlds' unlimited wants. There is extensive debate as to whether the earth is a resource at man's disposal.. In market societies where there is "freedom of choice", it has generally been accepted that individuals and organizations have the right to attempt to have their wants satisfied. As firms face limited natural resources, they must develop new or alternative ways of satisfying these unlimited wants. Ultimately green marketing looks at how marketing activities utilize these limited resources, while satisfying consumers wants, both of individuals and industry, as well as achieving the selling organization's objectives.
Adoption Of Green Marketing
There are basically five reasons for which a marketer should go for the adoption of green marketing. They are -
* Opportunities or competitive advantage
* Corporate social responsibilities (CSR)
* Government pressure
* Competitive pressure
* Cost or profit issues
Green Code
G eneralise with care. Consumer behaviour will not necessarily be consistent across different product types, and particular market segment may respond to certain issues on green agenda but not others.
R emember the validity of piece of market research is not related to degree to which it support your preferred option.
E xplore the context from which the market research data comes. Be clear on the nature of sample used , the question asked the way in which the responses were recorded and time and place from where the responses come.
E nsure that where the market research is crossing international boundaries, that the terminology and interpretations remain consistent.
N eurality is important. Ensure that when you pose questions to consumers that they can made any responses without being made guilty or uncomfortable and ensure that your own preconceptions about green agenda are not encoded with in the questions.
3. Affect of Branding on Consumer Purchase Decision
Abstract
Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the use of the product or service and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it. A brand often includes a logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, and sound, which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality. Brand equity measures the total value of the brand to the brand owner, and reflects the extent of brand franchise. The term brand name is often used interchangeably with "brand", although it is more correctly used to specifically denote written or spoken linguistic elements of a brand. In this context a "brand name" constitutes a type of trademark, if the brand name exclusively identifies the brand owner as the commercial source of products or services. A brand owner may seek to protect proprietary rights in relation to a brand name through trademark registration.
Marketers engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand image may be developed by attributing a "personality" to or associating an "image" with a product or service, whereby the personality or image is "branded" into the consciousness of consumers. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management. A brand which is widely known in the marketplace acquires brand recognition. When brand recognition builds up to a point where a brand enjoys a critical mass of positive sentiment in the marketplace, it is said to have achieved brand franchise. One goal in brand recognition is the identification of a brand without the name of the company present. For example, Disney has been successful at branding with their particular script font (originally created for Walt Disney's "signature" logo) which it used in the logo for go.com. "DNA" refers to the unique attributes, essence, purpose, or profile of a brand and, therefore, a company. The term is borrowed from the biological DNA, the molecular "blueprint" or genetic profile of an organism which determines its unique characteristics
Objectives
Primary Objectives
The main objective of research is to analysis how the brand effects the customer purchasing decision in FMCG goods and durable goods
Secondary Objectives
The sub objective of research is to understand the choice of the customer is branded or non-branded goods
Branding can be viewed as a tool to position a product or a service with a consistent image of quality and value for money to ensure the development of a recurring preference by the customer. It is common knowledge that the consumer's choice is influenced by many surrogates of which the simplest one is a brand name. Although there may be equally satisfying products, the consumer when satisfied with some brand does not want to spend additional effort to evaluate the other alternative choices. Once he or she has liked a particular brand, he or she tends to stay with it, unless there is a steep rise in the price or a discernible better quality product comes to his/her knowledge, which prompts the consumer to switch the brand.
Companies spend a lot of money and time on the branding and thus it needs a careful evaluation on the effect of branding on consumer buying behavior.
Brand energy is a concept that links together the ideas that the brand is experiential; that it is not just about the experiences of customers/potential customers but all stakeholders; and that businesses are essentially more about creating value through creating meaningful experiences than generating profit. Economic value comes from businesses' transactions between people whether they be customers, employees, suppliers or other stakeholders. For such value to be created people first have to have positive associations with the business and/or its products and services and be energised to behave positively towards them - hence brand energy. It has been defined as "The energy that flows throughout the system that links businesses and all their stakeholders and which is manifested in the way these stakeholders think, feel and behave towards the business and its products or services." Attitude branding is the choice to represent a feeling, which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption of the product at all. Marketing labeled as attitude branding includes that of Nike, Starbucks, The Body Shop, Safeway, and Apple Inc.
"A great brand raises the bar -- it adds a greater sense of purpose to the experience, whether it's the challenge to do your best in sports and fitness, or the affirmation that the cup of coffee you're drinking really matters." - Howard Schultz (CEO, Starbucks Corp.)
The act of associating a product or service with a brand has become part of pop culture. Most products have some kind of brand identity, from common table salt to designer clothes. In non-commercial contexts, the marketing of entities which supply ideas or promises rather than product and services (e.g. political parties or religious organizations) may also be known as "branding".
4. Market Survey on Brand Equity
Abstract
Brand is a name or symbol used to identified the source of a product when developing a new product. Branding is on important decision .the brand can add significant value when its well recognized and as positive association in the mind of the consumer this concept is referred to as brand equity. According to American marketing association a brand is defined as the use of name term symbol or design, or some combination of these to identify the product of a certain seller from those of competitors" a brand identifies the product from buyers. A seller can earn the goodwill and have the patronage repeated.
Branding is the management process by which a product is branded it covers activities such as giving a brand name to a product, designing a brand mark and establishing and popularizing it. Brand makes it easy for consumer to identify products or services. It is a powerful instrument of demand creation and retention Brand equity is an asset. Brand equity refer tot the power of brand in the market place. A powerful brand has high brand equity and customers will stick to that brand. A weak brand has less brand equity and customer major contributor to customer equity. The proper focus of marketing planning is to extend customer life time value, with brand management serving as a major marketing tool
• Strong brand equity offers the following advantages to accompany.
• The company will have more trade leverage in bargaining with distributors and retailers and because customers except them to carry the brand.
• The company cans a charge a higher price than its competitors because the brand carries high perceived quality.
• The company cans more easily launch extensions because the brand name carries high credibility.
The brand offers the company some defense against price competition.
Objectives of the Study
In order to study the above primary objective the following secondary objective have been proposed
To find out customer preference about spin co
To study awareness of brand switch
To study factor influencing brand power of spin co
To determine the most important factor which influencing purchasing decision
To offer suggestion to the spin co & to improve its activities
Questionnaires are prepared and telephone, personal interview was conducted. Most of the questions are consist of multiple choices. The structured interview method was undertaken. The interview was conducted in English as well as in Tamil. Proper care was taken to frame the interview schedule in such a manner it should be easily understood in view of educational level of the customer & agent. Generally 50 questions are prepared and asked to the customer and agent Secondary data was collected from Internets, various books, Journals, and Company Records.
A sampling plan is a definite design for obtaining a sample from the sampling frame. It refers to the technique or the procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting some sampling units from which inferences about the population is drawn. Sampling design is determined before any data are collected. Convenient Sampling technique was adopted. In this method the researcher select those units of the population in the sample, which appear convenient to him or the management of the organization where he is conducting research.
Findings of the Study
PERCENTAGE METHOD
• surveyed 86%of the respondent (a maximum) had male
• 80%of the total customer. 20% of the agent
• 54% of the respondents brand choice has been spin co brand
• surveyed 44% of the respondents (a maximum)
• Had purchased 5-10 yr
• Most of the respondents may know the brand for agent 32%
• The respondents selecting the brand 44% belong to the quality & price 10% of the respondents
• The above table infers that 52% belong to the spin co brand, 38% belong to the AFT satisfied
• The above table infer that 54% of purchase directly from the company
• The above table infers that 36%of quick sales, 58%of cost benefit
• The most respondents may opinion on price 40% normal, 32%respondents high
• From above table shows that frequency of strong brand image is 56% of yes and 44% of no
• The total number of respondents 50, discount provide they satisfied 48%
• The above table infers that 62% of the respondents belong to the No, 38%of the belong to the yes.
• The above table infers 52% of the others, price will be more 22%,credit belong to the 14%
• The above table infers that 40% belong to the Yes, 38% belongs to the some time 22% belong to the No
From this study we found that most of the customer and agent prefer from cone yarn product because it provides quickly finished product.
Only some of the agent are well-known with the cone yarn product and other customer does not have even the basic awareness about the hank product also those agent who are having the hank product because it gives very slow of finished product while comparing to cone yarn product
Consumer will switch for the reasons for increase in their purchase ability or income, discounts offered by competitive companies
Thus the product shows variety seeking buying behaviors among the consumer and hence the brand switching attitude in high
5. Capital Market
Abstract
The primary role of the capital market is to raise long-term funds for governments, banks, and corporations while providing a platform for the trading of securities. This fundraising is regulated by the performance of the stock and bond markets within the capital market. The member organizations of the capital market may issue stocks and bonds in order to raise funds. Investors can then invest in the capital market by purchasing those stocks and bonds. The capital market, however, is not without risk. It is important for investors to understand market trends before fully investing in the capital market. To that end, there are various market indices available to investors that reflect the present performance of the market.
Every capital market in the world is monitored by financial regulators and their respective governance organization. The purpose of such regulation is to protect investors from fraud and deception. Financial regulatory bodies are also charged with minimizing financial losses, issuing licenses to financial service providers, and enforcing applicable laws.Capital market investment is no longer confined to the boundaries of a single nation. Today’s corporations and individuals are able, under some regulation, to invest in the capital market of any country in the world. Investment in foreign capital markets has caused substantial enhancement to the business of international trade.The capital market is also dependent on two sub-markets – the primary market and the secondary market. The primary market deals with newly issued securities and is responsible for generating new long-term capital. The secondary market handles the trading of previously-issued securities, and must remain highly liquid in nature because most of the securities are sold by investors. A capital market with high liquidity and high transparency is predicated upon a secondary market with the same qualities.
Objectives of the Study
This report is based on primary as well secondary data, however primary data collection was given more importance since it is overhearing factor in attitude studies. One of the most important users of research methodology is that it helps in identifying the problem, collecting, analyzing the required information data and providing an alternative solution to the problem .It also helps in collecting the vital information that is required by the top management to assist them for the better decision making both day to day decision and critical ones.
Research is totally based on primary data. Secondary data can be used only for the reference. Research has been done by primary data collection, and primary data has been collected by interacting with various people. The secondary data has been collected through various journals and websites.
The sample was selected of them who are the customers/visitors of State Bank if India, irrespective of them being investors or not or availing the services or not. It was also collected through personal visits to persons, by formal and informal talks and through filling up the questionnaire prepared. The data has been analyzed by using mathematical/Statistical tool.
The sample size of my project is limited to 200 people only. Out of which only 120 people had invested in Mutual Fund. Other 60 people did not have invested in Mutual Fund.
Data has been presented with the help of bar graph, pie charts, line graphs etc.
Findings
In Ludhiana in the Age Group of 36-40 years were more in numbers. The second most Investors were in the age group
of 41-45 years and the least were in the age group of below30 years.
In Ludhiana most of the Investors were Graduate or PostØ Graduate and below HSC there were very few in numbers.
In Occupation group most of the Investors were Govt.Ø employees, the second most Investors were Private employees and the least were associated with Agriculture.
In family Income group, between Rs. 20,001- 30,000Ø were more in numbers, the second most were in the Income group of more than Rs.30,000 and the least were in the group of below Rs. 10,000.
About all the Respondents had a Saving A/c in Bank,Ø 76% Invested in Fixed Deposits, Only 60% Respondents invested in Mutual fund.
Mostly Respondents preferred High Return whileØ investment, the second most preferred Low Risk then liquidity and the least preferred Trust.
Only 67% Respondents were aware about Mutual fundØ and its operations and 33% were not.
Among 200 Respondents only 60% had invested inØ Mutual Fund and 40% did not have invested in Mutual fund.
Out of 80 Respondents 81% were not aware of MutualØ Fund, 13% told there is not any specific reason for not invested in Mutual Fund and 6% told there is likely to be higher risk in Mutual Fund.
60% Investors preferred to Invest through FinancialØ Advisors, 25% through AMC (means Direct Investment) and 15% through Bank.
The most preferred Portfolio was Equity, the secondØ most was Balance (mixture of both equity and debt), and the least preferred Portfolio was Debt portfolio.
Most of the Investors did not want to invest in SectoralØ Fund, only 21% wanted to invest in Sectoral Fund.
Running a successful Mutual Fund requires complete understanding of the peculiarities of the Indian Stock Market and also the psyche of the small investors. This study has made an attempt to understand the financial behavior o Mutual Fund investors in connection with the preferences of Brand (AMC), Products, Channels etc. I observed that many of people have fear of Mutual Fund. They think their money will not be secure in Mutual Fund. They need the knowledge of Mutual Fund and its related terms. Many of people do not have invested in mutual fund due to lack of awareness although they have money to invest. As the awareness and income is growing the number of mutual fund investors are also growing.
“Brand” plays important role for the investment. People invest in those CompaniesØ where they have faith or they are well known with them. There are many AMCs in Punjab but only some are performing well due to Brand awareness. Some AMCs are not performing well although some of the schemes of them are giving good return because of not awareness about Brand.
Distribution channels are also important for the investment in mutual fund.Ø Financial Advisors are the most preferred channel for the investment in mutual fund. They can change investors’ mind from one investment option to others. Many of investors directly invest their money through AMC because they do not have to pay entry load. Only those people invest directly who know well about mutual fund and its operations and those have time
6. Buying Behavior of Customers
Abstract
As customer's tastes and preferences are changing, the market scenario is also changing from time to time. Today's market scenario is very different from that of the market scenario before 1990. There have been many factors responsible for the changing market scenario. It is the changing tastes and preference of customer which has bought in a change in the market. Income level of the people has changed; life styles and social class of people have completely changed now than that of olden days. There has been a shift in the market demand in today's world. Technology is one of the major factors which is responsible for this paradigm shift in the mark. New generation people are no more dependent on haat market and far off departmental stores. Today we can see a new era in market with the opening up of many departmental stores, hyper market, shopper's stop, malls, branded retail outlets and specialty stores. In today's world shopping is not any more tiresome work rather it's a pleasant outing phenomenon now.
My study is based on a survey done on customers of a hypermarket named big bazaar. Big bazaar is a new type of market which came into existence in India since 1994. It is a type of market where various kinds of products are available under one roof. My study is on determining the customer's buying behavior of customer's in big bazaar and the satisfaction level of customers in big bazaar. My study will find out the current status of big bazaar and determine where it stands in the current market. This market field survey will help in knowing the present customers tastes and preferences. It will help me in estimating the customer's future needs , wants & demands.
Objectives of the Study
1. To find out the buying behavior of the customers coming in to Big Bazaar in NCR.
2. To determine the current status of Big Bazaar.
3. To find out the customers response towards Big Bazaar.
4. To study the satisfaction level of customers in different attributes of Big Bazaar .
5. To identify main competitors of Big Bazaar.
Scope of Study
The scope of this research is to identify the buying behavior of customers of Big Bazaar in NCR area. This research is based on primary data and secondary data. Due to time constraint only limited number of persons contacted. This study only focuses on urban buying behavior of customers because the research conducted in NCR area. The study does not say anything about rural buying behavior of customer because rural norms/status/attitude & acceptance of the rural customers differs with urban customers. The scope of research is limited for NCR area. It provides help to further the research for organized retail sector in NCR area. It aim to understand the skill of the company in the area like technological advancement, competition in management
The study shows customers buying pattern with Big Bazaar in NCR area. Its provide guideline for further research in NCR area for organized retail. Research says about customer buying behavior towards Big Bazaar in NCR area. The study rate of customer satisfaction level with Big Bazaar for NCR area. The research is also important to identify Market size, growth and Market Potential of Big Bazaar in NCR area. The research shows future Scenario of Big Bazaar in current perspective. The study shows Opportunities and challenges for Big Bazaar respect of internal & external environment. Research say about main competitors in the field of organized retail sectors. The study provide guideline to further extension of Big Bazaar in NCR area .The study provide help to know the customers satisfaction with Big Bazaar stores.
Data is collected from various customers through personal interaction. Specific questionnaire is prepared for collecting data. Data is collected with mere interaction and formal discussion with different respondents. Some other relevant information collected through secondary data
The market survey about the techniques of marketing and nature of expenditure is carried out by personally interacting with the potential customers in Big Bazaar.
Findings
1. Most of the customers buy their requirement in Big Bazaar on the basis of Weekly and monthly basis. Customers realized that Big Bazaar stores provide qualitative products/service with reasonable price.
2. At present time Big Bazaar provide different types of product assortments to the customers.
3. Continuously opening of Big Bazaar chains in different major cities, increasing quantities of the customers & profit show that Big Bazaar most accepted name in organized retail chain in India.
4. Big Bazaar mainly deal with middle income group people who want qualitative product with reasonable cost.
5. Big bazaar has a good reputation of itself in the market.
6. Big bazaar has positioned itself in the market as a discounted store.
7. Big bazaar holds a huge customer base. The majority of customers belong to middle class family.
8. Impulse buying behavior of customers comes in to play most of the times in big bazaar.
9. There are more than 50 big bazaars in different cities of India, it seems that there is a vast growth of big bazaar lying as customers demand is increasing for big bazaars.
10. Big bazaar is a hypermarket as it provides various kinds of goods like apparels, grocery, stationary, food items, electronic items, leather items, watches, jewellery, crockery, decorative items, sport items, chocolates and many more. It competes with all the specialty stores of different products which provide goods at a discounted rate all through the year.
11. The major players in retail industries are Big bazaar, The Tata Groups (Croma), Vishal Retail Group, Reliance Retail, Kirana stores & Sabka Bazaar etc.
Big bazaar is a major shopping complex for today's customers. It is a place where customers find variety of products at a reasonable price. Big bazaar has a good reputation of itself in the market. It has positioned itself in the market as a discounted store. It holds a huge customer base. The majority of customers belong to middle class family. The youth generation also likes shopping and moving around big bazaar. Volume sales always take place in big bazaar. Impulse buying behavior of customers comes in to play most of the times in big bazaar.
Big bazaar is a hypermarket as it provides various kinds of goods like apparels, grocery, stationary, food items, electronic items, leather items, watches, jewellery, crockery, decorative items, sport items, chocolates and many more. It competes with all the specialty stores of different products which provide goods at a discounted rate all through the year. It holds a large customer base and it seemed from the study that the customers are quite satisfied with big bazaar. As of now there are 34 big bazaars in different cities of India , it seems that there is a vast growth of big bazaar lying as customers demand is increasing for big bazaars.
Big bazaar is a hypermarket store where varieties of products are being sold on different product category. It has emerged as a hub of shopping specially for middle class people.
Different types of products starting from a baby food to pizzas all are available under one roof. In Delhi it is the middle class people who mostly do marketing from big bazaar. Even most of the people do their monthly shopping from big bazaar. People not only visit big bazaar to do shopping but also visit for outing purpose as it provides a very nice ambience to its customers. As people go to malls they just tend to move around big bazaar whether it is for shopping purpose or for outing purpose. Grocery, apparels and food items are the products which are demanded most by the customers of Delhi in big bazaar.
The major drawback of big bazaar is that it lacks in providing enough parking space for its customers. This may discourage the customers to come to big bazaar and shop as they face difficulty in parking their vehicles. Even though some customers say that they don't feel problem in parking their vehicle, it is because of the parking space available to them by the mall. As it is surveyed it seems that the biggest competitors of big bazaar are the kirana stores, discounted specialty stores like Vishal mega mart, Delhi bazaar Big bazaar, The Tata Groups (Croma), Reliance Retail, & Sabka Bazaar etc.
7. Current Trends in Internet Marketing
Abstract
Internet marketing involves the usage of the Internet to market and sell goods or services. In this thesis I wished to seek answers for the following questions with the help of secondary data obtained from the News Papers, Business Magazines, Online articles along with web, email surveys and e-questionnaires taking into consideration consumer perspective, and see if they are moved by the internet marketing done by the companies or not, and if they are then up to what extent. The survey results helped me in predicting the trends in Internet marketing.
In 2008, if you’re not on a social networking site, you’re not on the Internet. It’s as true for advertisers as it is for consumers. Social networking is the ultimate manifestation of user generated content, and as such, holds more potential for growth than any other form of content on the Web today. User Generated Content (UGC) and Social Networks are transforming the media ecosystem. Gone are the days when power rested in the hands of a few content creators and media distributors. Gone are the days when marketers controlled the communication and path between advertisement and consumer. Today’s model is collaborative, collective, customized and shared. It’s a world in which the consumer is the creator, consumer and distributor of content. Today there are over a billion content creators and hundreds of millions of distributors. The proliferation of quality, affordable technology during the past 5 years, one of the most profound social effects of the Internet has been the democratization of media. Nowadays, anybody with a computer and an Internet connection is ready to start broadcasting to the whole world, for free. Online tools such as the well known Blogger make publishing on the Internet extremely easy and accessible to people with hardly any technical knowledge.
7 P'S Of Internet Marketing
The four P's - Product, Price, Place and Promotion have long been associated with marketing, but things have changed on the Internet. So along with a change in the nature of the four P’s there are three new P’s which are relevant to the internet marketer: Presentation, Processes and Personalization.
1. Product
Product on the Internet usually changes form online, and the user experiences it electronically, in the form of text, images and multimedia. Physical goods are usually presented in the form of a detailed online catalogue that the customer can browse through. Technology allows the user to virtually touch and feel the product on the Internet - rotate it, zoom in or zoom out and even visualize the product in different configurations and combination. Content and software are two avatars of digitized
products that can be even distributed over the Internet. On the Internet, E-marketing will be based more on the product qualities rather than on the price. Every company will be able to bring down the cost of its products and hence competition will not be on price. It will rather be on the uniqueness of the product. To be able to attract the customers and retain them, the company will have to provide nouvelle and distinct products that forces the net users to purchase and come back for more.
2. Price
Price has been drastically changed over the Internet. It lets the buyer decides the price. Also it gives the buyers information about multiple sellers selling the same product. It leads to best possible deal for the buyers in terms of price. Pricing is dynamic over the Internet.
3. Place
Place revolves around setting up of a marketing channel to reach the customer. Internet serves as a direct marketing channel that allows the producer to reach the customer directly. The elimination of the intermediate channel allows the producer to pass the reduced distribution cost to the customer in the form of discounts.
4. Promotion
Promotion is extremely necessary to entice the customer to its website, as there are currently more than one billion web pages. Promoting a website includes both online and offline strategies. Online strategies include search engine optimization, banner ads, multiple points of entry, viral marketing, strategic partnership and affiliate marketing. Presently, the cyberspace is already cluttered with thousands of sites probably selling similar products. For the customers to know of the Company’s existence and to garner information on the kind of products or services that the company is offering, promotion has to be carried out. There can be traded links or banner advertisements for the same. Also the traditional mediums like print, outdoor advertising and television can be used to spread awareness.
5. Presentation
The presentation of the online business needs to have an easy to use navigation. The look and the feel of the web site should be based on corporate logos and standards. About 80% of the people read only 20% of the web page. Therefore, the web page should not be cluttered with a lot of information. Also, simple but powerful navigational aids on all web pages like search engines make it easy for customer to find their way around.
6. Processes
Customer supports needs to be integrated into the online web site. A sales service that will be able to answer the questions of their customers fast and in a reliable manner is necessary. To further enhance after sales service, customers must be able to find out about their order status after the sale has been made.
7. Personalization
Using the latest software it is possible to customize the entire web site for every single user, without any additional costs. The mass customization allows the company to create web pages products and services that suit the requirement of the user. A customized web page does not only include the preferred layout of the customer but also a pre selection of goods the customer may be interested in.
Understanding the Internet Customers
Now to be able to use the seven P’s effectively in order to achieve the predefined goals of any organization it is imperative to understand the customers. Customization will only be truly effective if we understand our customers and their true needs.
Before adapting marketing practices to the Internet, the marketer needs to understand the characteristics of the online customers. The Net users can be classified into five categories depending upon their intention of using the Internet. The five categories of users are:
Directed Information Seekers: They require specific, timely and relevant information about the products and services being offered.
Undirected Information Seekers: These users require something interesting and useful. Something that can give them an edge, advantage, insight or even a pleasant surprise.
Bargain Hunters: They are of two kinds: One who look for free items on the internet and other who are seeking better deals, higher discounts etc.
Entertainment Seekers: They see the Web as an entertainment medium of vast breath and potential and want to explore the medium before the mass gets there.
Directed Buyers: They want to buy something - now. They are sure what they require and just log on to the Web to purchase the item.
8. Business Process Outsourcing
Abstract
Outsourcing is more like a marriage than a transaction. The key to success are confidence, trust and relationship. Successful BPO results in win-win situation. The Company get excellent services at reasonable cost while contractor/service provider makes a fair profile."Outsourcing system [Knowledge Process Outsourcing and Business Process Outsourcing] allows companies to contract for services that are not with in the scope of their expertise, so that they can focus their time, money and energy on wasting valuable resources trying to gain understanding of areas that are somebody else's example". y A. Campbell and K.S. Luchs in Core Competency Based Strategy. The modern management thinking in the global area, puts Outsourcing as one of he key strategy to remain cost leader in the Industry. All the core areas are manned by own employees whereas other areas including non-conventional area for outsourcing are taken care of through contractors.
"Outsourcing is more like a marriage than a transaction. The key to success is confidence, trust and relationship. BPO results in win-win situation. The Company gets excellent service at reasonable cost while contractor/service makes a fair profile." No contemporary business organization can ignore the power of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). Most companies adopt outsourcing of various processes as one of the key strategy including remaining.
a) Cost competitive.
b) Flexible organization.
c) Less capital intensive.
d) Focused Attentive in the core area.
BPO Benefits and Limitations
One of the most important advantages of BPO is the way in which it helps to increase a company’s flexibility. However, several sources have different ways in which they perceive organizational flexibility. Therefore business process outsourcing enhances the flexibility of an organization in different ways. Most services provided by BPO vendors are offered on a fee-for-service basis. This helps a company becoming more flexible by transforming fixed into variable costs. A variable cost structure helps a company responding to changes in required capacity and does not require a company to invest in assets, thereby making the company more flexible.
Outsourcing may provide a firm with increased flexibility in its resource management and may reduce response times to major environmental changes. Another way in which BPO contributes to a company’s flexibility is that a company is able to focus on its core competencies, without being burdened by the demands of bureaucratic restraints. Key employees are herewith released from performing non-core or administrative processes and can invest more time and energy in building the firm’s core businesses. The key lies in knowing which of the main value drivers to focus on – customer intimacy, product leadership, or operational excellence. Focusing more on one of these drivers may help a company create a competitive edge. A third way in which BPO increases organizational flexibility is by increasing the speed of business processes. Using techniques such as linear programming can reduce cycle time and inventory levels, which can increase efficiency and cut costs. Supply chain management with the effective use of supply chain partners and business process outsourcing increases the speed of several business processes, such as the throughput in the case of a manufacturing company. Finally, flexibility is seen as a stage in the organizational life cycle. BPO helped to transform Nortel from a bureaucratic organization into a very agile competitor.
A company can gain the advantage of maintaining ambitious growth goals while sidestepping standard business bottlenecks. BPO therefore allows firms to retain their entrepreneurial speed and agility, which they would otherwise sacrifice in order to become efficient as they expanded. It avoids a premature internal transition from its informal entrepreneurial phase to a more bureaucratic mode of operation. A company may be able to grow at a faster pace as it will be less constrained by large capital expenditures for people or equipment that may take years to amortize, may become outdated or turn out to be a poor match for the company over time. Although the above-mentioned arguments favor the view that BPO increases the flexibility of organizations, management needs to be careful with the implementation of it as there are a few stumbling blocks, which could counter these advantages.
Among problems, which arise in practice are: A failure to meet service levels, unclear contractual issues, changing requirements and unforeseen charges, and a dependence on the BPO which reduces flexibility. Consequently, these challenges need to be considered before a company decides to engage in business process outsourcing. A further issue is that in many cases there is little that differentiates the BPO providers other than size. They often provide similar services, have similar geographic footprints, leverage similar technology stacks, and have similar Quality Improvement approaches.
Threats
Risk is the major drawback with Business Process Outsourcing. Outsourcing of an Information System, for example, can cause security risks both from a communication and from a privacy perspective. For example, security of North American or European company data is more difficult to maintain when accessed or controlled in the Sub-Continent. From a knowledge perspective, a changing attitude in employees, underestimation of running costs and the major risk of losing independence, outsourcing leads to a different relationship between an organization and its contractor. Risks and threats of outsourcing must therefore be managed, to achieve any benefits. In order to manage outsourcing in a structured way, maximizing positive outcome, and minimizing risks and avoiding any threats, a Business Continuity Management (BCM) model is setup. BCM consists of a set of steps, to successfully identify, manage and control the business processes that are, or can be outsourced
9. Advertising Effectiveness
Abstract
Advertising is an art not a science. Effectiveness of which cannot be measured with a mathematical or empirical formula some advertisers argue that advertising efforts go to waste, but every advertiser is keenly interested in measuring or in evaluation of ad. effectiveness. Testing for the effectiveness of ad. will lead advertisement testing must be done either before or after the ad has done in the media. It is of two types, pretesting which is done before the ad. has been launched and one is referred to as cost testing which is done before the ad. has been launched and one is referred to as cost testing which is done after launching the advertising campaign. The basic purpose of advertising effectiveness is to avoid costly mistakes, to predict the relative strength of alternative strength of alternative advertising strategies and to increase their efficiency. In measurement of ad. effectiveness feed back is always useful even if it costs some extra expenditure to the advertiser.
Communication-effect advertising research helps advertisers assess advertising's communication effects but reveals little about its sales impact. What sales are generated by an ad that increases brand awareness by 20% and brand preference by 10%? Advertising's sales effect is generally harder to measure than its communication effect. Sales are influenced by many factors besides advertising, such as the product's features, price, availability and competitors' actions. The fewer or more controllable these other factors are, the easier it is to measure advertising's effect on sales. The sales impact is easiest to measure in direct-marketing's effect on sales. The sales impact is easiest it is to measure in direct-marketing situations and hardest measure in brand or corporate-image-building advertising.
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of my study is to measure "Advertising Effectiveness". For the purpose of measuring it is to decide some other objectives of my study which are as follows :
1. To know the most effective media of advertisement
2. To find out the reasons for liking the advertisement of cold drinks.
3. To find out the most popular slogan of advertisement regarding cold drinks.
Primary Sources: Primary data has been collected directly from sample respondents through questionnaire and with the help of interview.
Secondary Sources: Secondary data has been collected from standard textbooks, Newspapers, Magazines & Internet.
Types Of Advertising
Broadly speaking, advertising may be classified into two categories viz., product and institutional advertising.
a) Product Advertising
The main purpose of such advertising is to inform and stimulate the market about the advertisers products of services and to sell these. Thus type of advertising usually promote specific, trended products in such a manner as to make the brands seam more desirable. It is used by business government organization and private non-business organizations to promote the uses features, images and benefits of their services and products. Product advertising is sub-divided into direct action and indirect action advertising, Direct action product advertising wages the buyer to take action at once, ice he seeks a quick response to the advertisement which may be to order the product by mail, or mailing a coupon, or he may promptly purchase in a retail store in response to prince reduction during clearance sale.
Product advertising is sub-divided into direct & indirect action advertising & product advertising aims at informing persons about what a products is what it does, how it is used and where it can be purchased. On the other hand selective advertising is made to meet the selective demand for a particular brand or type is product.
b) Institutional Advertising :
It is designed to create a proper attitude towards the sellers to build company image or goodwill rather than to sell specific product or service. Its purpose is to create a frame of mind and to implant feeling favourable to the advertisers company. Its assignment is to make friends for the institution or organization.
It is sub-divided into three categories : patronage, public, relations and public service institutional advertising.
i) In patronage institutional advertising the manufacturer tells his prospects and customer about himself his policies and lives personnel. The appeals to the patronage motivation of buyers. If successful, he convince buyers that his operation entitles him to the money spent by them.
ii) Public relations institutional advertising is used to create a favourable image of the firm among employees, stock-holders or the general public.
iii) Public service institutional advertising wages public support.
c) Other Types :
The other types are as follows :
i) Consumer advertising
ii) Comparative advertising
iii) Reminder advertising
iv) Reinforcement advertising
Advertising Objectives
The long term objectives of advertising are broad and general, and concern the contribution advertising should make to the achievement of overall company objectives. Most companies regard advertisingly main objective as hat of proving support to personal selling and other forms of promotion. But advertising is a highly versatile communications tools and may therefore by used for achieving various short and long term objectives. Among these objectives are the following :
1. To do the entire selling job (as in mail order marketing).
2. To introduce a new product (by building brand awareness among potential buyers).
3. To force middlemen to handle the product (pull strategy).
4. To build brand preference 9by making it more difficult for middleman to sell substitutes).
5. To remind users to buy the product (retentive strategy).
6. To publicize some change in marketing strategy (e.g., a price change, a new model or an improvement in the product).
7. To provide rationalization (i.e. Socially acceptable excuses).
8. To combat or neutralize competitors advertising.
9. To improve the moral of dealers and/or sales people (by showing that the company is doing its share of promotion).
10. To acquaint buyers and prospects with the new uses of the product (to extend the PLC).
Designing Advertising Campaign
The advertising campaign, especially those connected with the consumers aims at achieving these objectives :
i) To announce a new product or improve product.
ii) To hold consumers patronage against intensified campaign use.
iii) To inform consumers about a new product use.
iv) To teach consumers how to use product.
v) To promote a contest or a premium offer.
vi) To establish a new trade regional, and
vii) To help solve a coca regional problem.
The institutional advertising campaign on the other hand, have these objectives.
i) To create a corporate personality or image.
ii) To build a company prestige.
iii) To keep the company name before the public.
iv) To emphasize company services and facilities.
v) To enable company salesman to see top executive consistently when making sales calls, and
vi) To increase friendliness and goodwill towards the company.
Developing the campaign programmes. The advertising campaigns are prepared by the advertising agencies, which work an behalf of their clients who manufacture product or service enterprises, which have services to sell. The word campaign is used because advertising agencies approach their task with a sum Blanca of military fanfare in which one frequently hears words like target audience logistics, zero in and tactics and strategy etc.
10. The Spread of Organized Retailing in Ghana
Abstract
Retail is India's largest industry, accounting for over 10 per cent of the country's GDP and around eight per cent of the employment. Retail industry in India is at the crossroads. It has emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with several players entering the market. But because of the heavy initial investments required, break even is difficult to achieve and many of these players have not tasted success so far. However, the future is promising; the market is growing, government policies are becoming more favorable and emerging technologies are facilitating operations.
Retailing in India is gradually inching its way toward becoming the next boom industry. The whole concept of shopping has altered in terms of format and consumer buying behavior, ushering in a revolution in shopping in India. Modern retail has entered India as seen in sprawling shopping centres, multi-storeyed malls and huge complexes offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof. The Indian retailing sector is at an inflexion point where the growth of organized retailing and growth in the consumption by the Indian population is going to take a higher growth trajectory. The Indian population is witnessing a significant change in its demographics. A large young working population with median age of 24 years, nuclear families in urban areas, along with increasing working-women population and emerging opportunities in the services sector are going to be the key growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India.
Retailing is one of the pillars of the economy in India and accounts for 35% of GDP.The retail industry is divided into organised and unorganised sectors. Over 12 million outlets operate in the country and only 4% of them being larger than 500 sq ft (46 m 2 ) in size. Organised retailing refers to trading activities undertaken by licensed retailers, that is, those who are registered for sales tax, income tax, etc. These include the corporate-backed hypermarkets and retail chains, and also the privately owned large retail businesses. Unorganised retailing, on the other hand, refers to the traditional formats of low-cost retailing, for example, the local kirana shops, owner manned general stores, paan /beedi shops, convenience stores, hand cart and pavement vendors, etc.
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of my study is to measure "To find out the organized retailing in India". For the purpose of measuring it is to decide some other objectives of my study which are as follows :
1. To find out the stocking pattern of the retailers
2. To find out the market shares of various brands.
3. To know which kind of promotion means affect the retailers sale.
4. To know the comparison of various brand's quality & Price.
5. To know the comparison of various brand's availability the product.
6. To know the present status of the retailers in India.
The scope of my study restricts itself to analyze the organised retailer's profitability drivers on the basis of Garments, Gifts, Cards and Music Department where as in the recent trend its seen that the key players in this Industry are more emphasizing on the Garments, Personal Grooming, Home furnishings, Life style and Footwear Departments in their Stores
The study is based on descriptive research design because the data were collected to reveal accurate descriptions of variables related to the decisions being faced, without demonstrating that some relationship exists between variables. For the purpose of present study a related sample of stores were selected on the basis of convenience.
The data, which is collected for the purpose of study, is divided into 2 bases:
• Primary Source: The primary data comprises information survey of "Comparative Study on Profitability Drivers of India 's Retail Industry" . The data has been collected directly from respondent with the help of structured questionnaires.
Secondary Source: The secondary data was collected from internet and references from Library and various journals on retail industry.
Key Points of Indian Organised Retail Industry
Potential to be the third largest economy in terms of GDP in next few years .
It ranks high amongst the top 10 FDI destinations of the world .
Fastest growing tourist market in Asia.
World bank states, India to be worlds second largest economy after China by the year 2050.
Stable and investor friendly Central Government at the helm of affairs.
Introduction of Value Added Tax or VAT and tax reforms.
High degree of professionalism and corporate ethics.
Excellent Investment opportunities in Indian retail sector and in allied sectors; sure and high returns on investments.
To invest US $130 billion for the development of infrastructure, by year 2010.
Bullish stock markets.
Hordes of foreign investors are thronging in to invest in Indian retail markets.
Highly educated English speaking young workforce.
Vibrant and multi cultured cities.
Huge opportunity exists, especially in semi-rural and rural areas.
Till date the second largest employer after agriculture sector, for the huge semi-skilled Indian population.
Offers highest shop density in the whole world.
Having almost 1,20,000 shops, across the length and breadth of the country.
Formats in Indian Organized Retail Sector
1. Supermarkets: A supermarket, also called a grocery store is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store and it is smaller than a hypermarket or superstore.
2. Hypermarkets: A hypermarket is a superstore which combines a supermarket and a department store. The result is a very large retail facility which carries an enormous range of products under one roof, including full lines of groceries and general merchandise. In theory, hypermarkets allow customers to satisfy all their routine weekly shopping needs in one trip.
3. Department Stores: A department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories. Department stores usually sell products including apparel, furniture, appliances, electronics, and additionally select other lines of products such as paint, hardware, toiletries, cosmetics, photographic equipment, jewelery, toys, and sporting goods. Certain department stores are further classified as discount department stores. Discount department stores commonly have central customer checkout areas, generally in the front area of the store. Department stores are usually part of a retail chain of many stores situated around a country or several countries.
4. Shopping malls: A shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings which contain retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit.
5. Specialty Chains: A Specialty Chains is numbers stores which are specialized in a specific range of merchandise and related items. Most stores have an extensive width and depth of stock in the item that they specify in and provide high levels of service and expertise. They differ from department stores and supermarkets which carry a wide range of merchandise.
Limitations of the Study
In attempt to make this project authentic and reliable, every possible aspect of the topic was kept in mind. Nevertheless, despite of fact constraints were at play during the formulation of this project. The main limitations are as follows:
• Due to limitation of time only few retail stores are taken into consideration of this study. So the sample of retailers was not enough to generalize the findings of the study.
• The main source of data for the study was primary data with the help of self-administered questionnaires. Hence, the chances of unbiased information are less.
• Concern person from the organised retail stores were hesitant to disclose the true facts as the data related to strategic secrets.
• The chance of biased response can't be eliminated though all necessary steps were taken to avoid the same.
11. Customer Relationship Management
Abstract
The biggest management challenge in the new millennium of liberalization and globalization for a business is to serve and maintain good relationship with the king - the customer. In the past producers took their customers for granted, because at that time the customers were not demanding nor had alternative source of supply or suppliers. But today there is a radical transformation. The changing business environment is characterized by economic liberalization, increasing competition, high consumer choice, demanding customer, more emphasis on quality and value of purchase etc.
All these changes have made today's producer shift from traditional marketing to modern marketing. Modern marketing calls for more than developing a product, pricing it, promoting it and making it accessible to target customer. It demands building trust, a binding force and value added relationship with the customers.
The process of developing a cooperative and collaborative relationship between the buyer and seller is called customer relationship management shortly called CRM. According to Ashoka dutt head of Citi Bank "the idea of CRM is to know the individual customer intimately, so that the company has a customized product ready for him even before he asks for it."
Objectives of the Study
1. To study the current practices of CRM.
2. To find out the impact of CRM on the profitability of the organization.
3. To study the factors affecting the CRM practices.
4. To study the role of information technology in CRM.
A research design is simply a plan for study in collecting and analyzing the data. It helps the researcher to conduct the study in an economical method and relevant to the problem.
Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a research problem. The methodology should combine economy with efficiency.
Primary data - primary data is that data which is collected for the first time. These data are basically observed and collected by the researcher for the first time. I have used primary data for my project work.
Secondary data - secondary data are those data which are primarily collected by the other person for his own purpose and now we use these for our purpose secondly.
Analysis
The customers of the COMPANY are the wholesalers. It is because the number of retailers is very large as compared to the wholesalers. So it is not possible for the company to approach to the retailers. Therefore the company sells to the wholesalers and then wholesalers sell to the retailers.
Customers are encouraged to give suggestions and complaints so that the company can improve its working and services. If the customer's complaints are not resolved the customers will be dissatisfied and the company may lose its customers.
Different customers have different requirements. So the company customize its product accordingly to satisfy the customers. It also gives more choice to the customers.
To get the information about the customers and to measure the satisfaction the company conducts surveys. Because of the expertise needed in the research the company give this work to research agencies like AC NILSON.
The company gives credit facility to its customers to increase the sales volume. If the company do not sell on credit the customers may switch over to other companies.
The company maintains frequent communication with the customers. As soon as the product is ready or a new product is launched the information is provided to the customers. Communication is also necessary to maintain the interest of the customers in the company.
The company gives concession to its regular customers so as to retain its most valuable and profitable customers.
The company regularly reviews the business process in order to eliminate non value-adding activities, to reduce the cost and to make the whole work efficient and effective. If the internal customers are not satisfied and there is lack of coordination among the departments then it will affect the external customers also.
Limitations of Customer Relationship Management
1. Time constraint is unavoidable limitation of my study.
2. Financial problem is also there in completing this project in a proper way.
3. As no work has been done earlier in this regard so scarcity of secondary data is also there.
4. Inadequate disclosure of information is also the problem.
Suggestions
There should be more and more emphasis given by the company for satisfying the customer up to a apex limit and by providing the utility of every penny of his money.
There should be more use of information technology.
The company should be flexible to bend its rules and procedures in the clients favour.
The company can communicate and develop stronger customer bonding by providing social and financial benefits
12. Impact of Packaging on Retailers and Consumers
Abstract
Packaging is concerned with designing and producing of appropriate packages for a product. The significance of packing has increased these days because of severe competition in the markets and rise in the standard of the living of people, good packaging protects the products on its route from the seller to the buyer and in some cases even during its life with the user. Packaged goods are generally more convenient to handle. Packaged facilitates the sale of the products. It acts as a silent salesman to the manufacturers particularly at a place where there is widespread use of self service, automatic vending and other self selection method of retail selling. Sometimes, packages are duly sealed to endure products of right quality to the consumers. So from above it is clear packing means wrapping compressing, filling or creating of goods for the purpose of protection of goods and there convenient handling.
Objectives of the Study
¯ To know about the retailers & consumers satisfaction of the services organization.
¯ To invite suggestion from retailers for improvement in Grasim Packaging.
¯ To know which kind of packaging affected the retailer's sale.
¯ To know about the changes retailers wants in packaging.
¯ To make company aware about retailers expectation from Grasim.
¯ To collect information about customers preference tastes through retailers.
¯ To know about the position of Grasim packaging in relation to other products.
Function of Packaging
As a important peripheral attribute of a product, a package has the following function to perform.
1. Utilitarian Function :
Package performs the utilitarian function by retaining and enhancing the product value to consumers in the following ways :
(a) Package protects from deterioration, spilling, spoilage and Evaporation during its transit from manufacturer to consumer.
(b) It enhances product use convenience why keeping it cleans and undistributed.
© It helps easy brand identification.
(d) It makes products handling easier and safe on the retail store shelves.
2. Communication Function :
Package performs a communication function by becoming an important adjust to the components of the communication mixed namely, advertising and sales promotion, it performs this function the following ways:
(a) It marks products identification and differentiation both and effective. In a competitive market when differences in the tangible product attributes are not conspicuous, it is the package whose unique presentation makes products looked different from competiting brands.
(b) Package feature communicate product massage and motivate consumers to buy.
(c) A change in the product package design and message considerably facilitates implementation of product repositioning strategy of the company.
(d) Package repeats the selling message in printing on its before consumer when it is repeatedly handled during a series of uses.
(e) It promotes products at the point of purchase and triggers impulse buying.
3. Profit Function :
Package also performs a profits function in the following ways :
(a) Consumers assigning relatively higher value to package are usually prepared to pay higher price for this product attribute as a result, higher contribution to profit flows package.
(b) Effective package cuts cost of handling and transportation and protects product from damage thereby, saving a company from cuts in profit.
The growing importance of packaging may be attributed to some of the following factors :
(c) Rising standards of health, cleanliness and sanitation in the urban and semi-urban areas and amongst educated consumers.
(d) Retailers have prepared package products on there shelves on account of easy of handling, longer shelf life and attractiveness. It also does the selling job for them.
(e) Phenomenal growth of package, raw material supplying concerns e.g. paper cumbersome recovering rules and procedures in railway - the major national transporters have compelled marketers to properly packaged their products.
13. Effect of Customer Loyalty Programs in Convenience Stores
Abstract
This project report is the Effect of Customer Loyalty Programs in convenience stores in Gurgaon. Practical training is an important part of theoretical studies. It covers all which that which remains uncovered in the classroom. It classroom it offers an exposure to real practical of a management of business organization. As we know well that practical training plays an important role in future building for an individual.
One can easily overcome the fear from that life in which he has to join as a member after sometimes. Just theoretical knowledge is not sufficient for the success of an individual to one should have practical knowledge about theory of general life.
I have been given an opportunity to do practical training on the "Effect of Customer Loyalty Programs in convenience stores." I availed of this opportunity in a very satisfactory manner and I think it will be much beneficial for in future building.
Significance of Study
Significance of study is important for the retail companies. Who fail or lack in customer loyalty program in convenience store. It is to study that how the loyalty programs attract to the customers and effects of loyalty program on customers. For to study the following objectives:
To study the Customer Loyalty Programs in different convenience stores.
To know that how they attract to the Customers for purchasing in the convenience stores.
To know the Effect of Loyalty program on customers.
Summary of Research Study
In this project I study to the customer response regarding the effect of customer loyalty programmes in different convenience stores. There my objectives are following:
1. To study the Customer Loyalty Programmes in different convenience stores.
2. To know that how they attract to the Customers for purchasing in the convenience stores.
3. To know the Effect of Loyalty program on customers.
For to achieve these objectives I focused on company profile, customer loyalty programmes of different convenience stores then I studied the loyalty programmes. And study that programmes how does the work, what are the tools for the customer loyalty.
For to do this project I used the descriptive cum exploratory research design, primary and as well as secondary data collection method, questionnaire as a tool for to collect the primary data with the directly response of the customers then I select the 40 respondents randomly and took their opinion regarding loyalty programmes of convenience stores.
I visited in gurgaon for taking the response of respondents and I also visited at nearest convenience store in Rohtak then I took information from the concern person of the store and I also visited at cybercafé for collecting the secondary data. So here in this study I found that most of the respondents are aware about convenience stores and they have purchased also from these stores. But due to this awareness I found some limitations regarding loyalty programmes of stores and then I gave some Suggestations with the help of questionnaire for to improve the loyalty of the customers in convenience stores.
14. Export Marketing Entry Strategy Marketing Thesis
Abstract
Marketing is defined as using all of the resources of the organization to satisfy customer needs for a profit. The difference between export marketing and domestic marketing is simply that it takes place across national borders. This means that you are faced with barriers to trade that you will not have encountered before, such as differing languages, politics, laws, governments and cultures. You may need to account for getting the product half-way across the globe to distant markets and pay the import duties imposed on these products by the importing country. You will also need to deal with the logistical and documentation problems surrounding exports. These are just some of the problems you will face.
Export marketing also involves preparing an offering that will entice the foreign buyer and customer. This offering comprises a product that is offered at a certain price and that is made available - distributed - to the foreign customer. At the same time, the offering is communicated - or promoted - to the buyer using certain communication or promotion channels. These elements - the product, price, distribution (also referred to as the place) and promotion - are called the marketing mix.
Features of Export Marketing
• It is a process -
Export marketing is a process of planning and implementing the production, and distributing of goods and services, it consists of various activities such as branding, packaging, advertising etc.
• Identification and satisfaction of consumer's needs & wants -
The heart of marketing is the identification of consumer needs and wants. The exporter must constantly try to find out the problems or needs and wants of the foreign buyer, so export marketing adopts a total consumer oriented approach in the foreign markets.
• Flow of goods and services -
Export marketing involves flow of goods and services across the national boundaries.
• Large scale operations -
Export marketing is carried in bulk quantities so as to derive the benefits of large scale selling such as in respect of transportation, handling etc.
• Prominence of multinational -
Export marketing in dominated by MNC'S. At present MNC'S from USA, EUROP and JAPAN play a dominant role in foreign trade. They are in a position of develop world wide contracts through their network of branches / offices / subsidiaries. These companies are in a position to carry on a large scale operation in foreign trade more efficiently and economically.
• Tariff and non -tariff barriers -
Export trade is subject to tariff and non tariff barriers , these are restrictions imposed mostly by importing countries , so as to restrict imports every export firm should have a close study of various trade barriers imposed by different countries , so as to carry on its export trade more efficiently .
• Presence of trading bloc's -
Certain nations of particular region come together to farm customs union or trading bloc's for their mutual benefit and economic development the main purpose of such bloc is to eliminate trade barriers among member nations and they may impose external tariff and non-tariff barrier on non member's .the exporter should have knowledge of the regulation of such trading blocs. The powerful trading blocs are NAFTA (north American free trade area) EC (European community) and ASEAN (association of south east Asian nation)
• International marketing research -
Knowing more about customer, dealer and competitor is a must not only in the domestic market but also in the export markets.
• International forum -
International trade is regulated to a great extent by international forum such a general agreement on tariff and trade (GATT). Now world trade organization (WTO).exporters from all over the world should have through knowledge of the rules regulation and principals of such forums.
20 Steps of Export Marketing
Step1:
Those who are interested in export- import business need to apply to the director general foreign trade regional office for getting importer-exporter code number. This is true for any individual or company willing to undertake export or import from India.
Step2:
One has to register with the concerned export promotion council for example- in the case of garments, it is essential to obtain registration cum-membership certificate (RCMC) from the apparel export promotion council, registration is essential for obtaining various permissible benefits given by the government.
Step3:
With the completion of these formalities. The exporters can go in for procuring their export order.
Step4:
With export order in hand they start manufacturing or buy the goods from manufacturing
Step5:
Once manufacturing is over , the exporter make arrangements for quality control and obtain a certificate from the inspector of quality control confirming their quality.
Step6:
Exportable are then dispatched to parts, airports for transit.
Step7:
With dispatch of goods, the export firm has to apply an insurance company for marine lair insurance cover.
Step 8:
After completion of these formalities, the contract the clearing and forwarding agent for storing the goods in warehouse, uses . The forwarding agent comes out with a document called shipping bill, required for allowing shipment by the custom authority.
Step 9 :
The clearing and forwarding (c and f ) agent submits the shipping bill in the customs house for verification .the customs appraised examines the documentation.
Step 10:
The C and F agent also submits a copy of the verified shipping bill to the shed superintendent and obtains certain order for exports.
Step 11:
There after for loading exports into ships or aircraft ,the C and F agent . Present the shipping bill to the preventive officers who oversee the transit procedure
Step-12:
After loading goods in to the ship the captain of the ship issuer a receipt know as ' mate's receipt' to the ship superintendent of the port . The ship superintendent calculates port charges and bills the C and F agents for it.
Step-13
When port payments are made the C and F agent takes delivery of mates receipt and requests port or airport authority to prepare bill of loading or airway bill.
Step-14
After obtaining bill of loading, the C and F agent sends these documents to the respective exporters.
Step-15
On receipt of the documents, the exporter makes an application to the relevant chamber for getting certificates of origin, stating that the goods originated from India.
Step-16
Exporters also send shipping documents to the importers stating date of shipment, name of vessel etc. Moreover, it is essential to send certain other documents like bill of loading ,custom invoice and packing list, to their foreign counterparts.
Step-17
The exporter now presents all important documents at bank. The bank scrutinizes this document against the original letter of credit / purchase order. The bank has to follow UCPDC/URC guidelines.
Step-18
The exporters' bank sends all important documents to the foreign importers bank. This presents the documents to the importer. Then the importer accepts , the bill if it is a usance bill and pay before the due date.
Step-19
After receiving the requisite document , the importer makes the payments through .the bank, the money then gets credited in the name of the exporter here. Simultaneously, a document called the GR form is sent to Reserve Bank of India.
Step-20
As a last step exporters apply for benefit from various duty drawback schemes which subsequently get credited in their account
15. Customer Profitability Marketing Thesis
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine how customer profitability is measured within a manufacturing company and analyze whether the measurement method is institutionalized or not. A case study has been conducted on a Swedish manufacturing company that has applied different measurement methods throughout the years. The paper presents a theoretical approach of customer profitability and management accounting change, and this approach is contrasted with the empirical study. The main finding of the study is that customer profitability is only partly being measured within Kanthal, even though the company has a well developed measurement tool kit. The reasons for this are that customer profitability has different meanings within the organization, old routines are preferred over new routines, and that the task of measuring and managing customer profitability has been assigned to the sales team. The demands on the sales team are too high and due to the lack of support from the rest of the organization, it becomes clear that the measurement of customer profitability is not fully institutionalized.
Customer profitability has been ranked as one of the most prominent features within current general management and has become increasingly important for companies today. To be successful, a company needs to formulate and implement a strategy that reveals the truth about its customers, i.e. highlight the activities that add value and those that do not. When that is done, value added activities can be maximized and non-value added activities minimized. However, most companies today fail to measure customer profitability and therefore they are not as competitive as they could be.
The reason behind the failure is that there is usually very little information about profitability of customers when the accounting management systems are designed in order to analyze product profitability. Today’s business is not only about executives managing a portfolio of products, there is a clear need for managing a portfolio of customers. When the management is able to identify revenues, costs and profit by individual customer or customer group, better decisions are to be made in the long term
Evolutionary Changes
Management accounting changes that are consistent with the existing routines and institutions are more likely to be completed than those that are not. The emerging routines will indirectly be influenced by the meanings and norms that are embedded in the existing routines and institutions. In addition, the powers of individuals will also play an important role as well as cost control and a concern for economic efficiency. Nelson (1995) describes the process of institutionalizing, i.e. the emerging routines become widely accepted in the organization and are a feature of the management control system. When this has occurred, the emerged routines represent definitions of behavior and relations between various groups within an organization.
A management accounting change like this, when the routines are influencing the activities within an organization, the change is characterized as evolutionary. This category of changes all involves movement over time, random elements, systematic mechanisms, and existing institutions. To sum up, to be able to change the existing management accounting system entails a deep understanding of the context of an organization, i.e. the existing routines and institutions. It is not only the formal systems that are important, habits of organizational members and taken-for-granted assumptions are also playing major roles
Customer Profitability Measurement Systems
Movex Multiple Unit Coordination – The Overall Business System
Due to the organization of Kanthal, with the production and headquarters in Hallstahammar and the subsidiaries all over the world, an automated solution makes an important contribution to the operations. Movex was implemented in 2003 and it enables all subsidiaries to enter orders in one country, while the logistical transaction automatically takes place in Hallstahammar, where the stock is available. The administrative transaction is then carried out entirely within Movex without a lot of paperwork. For example, a German subsidiary is able to check every single item in stock in Hallstahammar. When the customer calls a subsidiary, the order can be placed immediately and the subsidiary can provide the end customer with all information about the logistics and the products ordered. For Kanthal, this is added value, because the market is characterized by increasing competition from low cost countries
It is essential for Kanthal to offer additional value to its customers rather than only compete with price, since the firm differentiates itself through high quality products. In order to operate successfully, service orientation, innovation, delivery reliability and price are all important components. The benefits of a business system and database like Movex are many, and it includes reduced inventory and obsolete stock, improved service levels, higher turnovers and margins, and increased cooperation among the companies
The implementation of Movex in 2003 brought considerable improvements to Kanthal. A core model was developed for the entire organization whereby all of the processes and databases were standardized. Several of the intended improvements were realized shortly after the implementation. The advantages for Kanthal were greater transparency between the companies, clearer guidelines for the pricing system, and fewer queries between Kanthal and the subsidiaries
With the same structure in all countries, the financial information can be compared much faster and it also gives the subsidiaries an insight in Kanthal. The created transparency and the improved information sharing have lead to enhanced cooperation between the different units and indirect increased customer value
A standard solution like Movex helps Kanthal to respond quickly to the challenges in the market and it is clear that the firm benefits from the business system. There are many possibilities with the system and a further development has resulted in increased business benefits.
Thesis By Therese Horttanaa, Zofia Ryniak, Stockholm School of Economics
16. Service Blueprint
Abstract
A service blueprint is a picture or map that accurately portrays the service system so that the different people involved in providing it can understand and deal with it objectively regardless of their roles or their individual points of view . On 16 th January 2008, the share market in India witnessed a dramatic fall, which a leading national daily termed as “blood on Dalal Street”. According to the customers which were contacted, the next day many of their friends trading with other broking houses simply could not trade as their terminals were closed on that day; but these customers were able to save themselves as IL&FS did not close its terminals. Clearly, such incident create not only positive image of the company but also form an emotional bond with the customers.
The blueprint will have 5 components:
• Physical Evidence
• Customer Actions
• Onstage/ Visible Contact Employee Actions
• Backstage Employee Actions and
• Support Processes
Physical evidence refers to those elements of a service which provide certain degree of tangibility to it like pamphlets, websites etc. customer actions include all of the steps that customers take as part of the service delivery process. The actions of frontline contact actions that occur as part of face-to-face encounter as termed as onstage contact employee actions. This component of the blueprint is separated from the customers by the line of visibility. Everything below the line of visibility is not visible to the customers. Backstage contact employees fall below this line. Backstage contact employees fall below this line. Telephone calls made to the customers is one example of the backstage contact employee action. Service blueprints provide the employees with an overview so that they can have understanding of their work. It reinforces the customer focused approach. The line of interaction between external customer and employees illuminates the customer's role. The line of visibility drawn promotes a conscious decision on what customers should see and which employees will be in contact with the customers, thus facilitating relational service design
Objective to the Study
The major objectives of the project can be stated as follows:
• To analyze the existing service blueprint of IL&FS Investsmart Securities Limited.
• To assess the service encounters with the customers.
• To find out the service encounters which are most satisfying for the customers and which are most dissatisfying for the customers.
• To find out the customer gaps in the process
• To suggest strategies for the improvement of the service delivery process of the company and as such delete those service encounters which cause dissatisfaction and encourage those encounters which satisfy the customers most.
Scope of the study
The study has been conducted on the IL&FS Investsmart’s Bangalore operations. It has taken into consideration the functioning of the online trading and broking arm of IL&FS Investsmart. For this purpose both internal and external customers of the company were surveyed. The report assumes importance because of the recessionary trend that the economy had been witnessing since last 1 and half years and because of the negative market sentiments generated in the wake of incidents related to Lehmann brothers and Satyam. How the company is still able to entice customers into investing and how that can be made more effective is one question of special interest.
We have seen earlier, service sector is playing a major role in the Indian economy. It is in this light that Mary Jo Bitner puts forward the argument that firms can no longer compete solely on providing superior value through their core products, but rather they must move into the realm of customer experience management, creating long-term, emotional bonds with their customers through the co-creation of memorable experiences potentially involving a constellation of goods and services. It is here that service blueprinting assumes an important role as a tool of service innovation and service improvement. Service blueprints are customer-focused, allowing firms to visualize the service processes, points of customer contact, and physical evidence associated with their services from customers' perspective. Blueprints also illuminate and connect the underlying support processes throughout the organization that drive and support customer-focused service execution.
This paper aims to create the service blueprint of the company with the help of its customers, both, internal as well as external. The focus, however, would be on the internal customers to find out whether they understand the service process and their satisfaction with the support processes. Besides, the paper will also seek customers' experience with the onstage contact employees, that is, the role of service encounters. As such, the paper needs to consider customer satisfaction and customer gap also.
Service Encounters
Service encounters or the "moments of truth" create the most vivid impressions of the service when the customer interacts with the service firm (Zeithaml, 2000) . Through these encounters the customers receive a snapshot of the organization's service quality, and each encounter contributes to the customer's overall satisfaction level and willingness to do business with the organization. Errors committed at early stage are very critical and they do have a cascading effect, because a failure at one point results in higher dissatisfaction at each subsequent level. First interaction is especially critical for the image of the organization, however, that does not mean that other interactions are not important. Every encounter is important as it helps in forming a composite image of the organization. The difference lies in the magnitude of importance.
This project was an opportunity for the application of concepts of marketing in the real-time. As such, the research was conducted to apply the concepts learned before the beginning of this internship. These concepts were not limited to domain area, rather the research required application of several disciplines like marketing research, quantitative techniques, information systems, finance and above all marketing of services. The fieldwork undertaken was challenging and one could easily observe the group dynamics at work.
Marketing of services assumes special importance in the current economic scenario not only because of the share of services in Indian GDP but also because of the fact that as an economy develops its share in GDP increases, and as such this is applicable across the world.
The research was an opportunity to understand the service delivery process of a major financial institution of the country. Then the concept of service blueprint was used to understand customer needs and as a tool of service improvement. Through the service blueprint, all the service encounters were analyzed and classified as most satisfying and dissatisfying service encounters. Questionnaire designing was an important issue because through it not only customer gap had to be understood but also, the service encounters which could be satisfying or dissatisfying to the customers had to be understood
17. Need for Customer Relationship Management
Abstract
In order to compete effectively in globalized economy, organizations must be customer-focused. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the way to integrate this approach throughout an organization. Many a times organizations are likely to believe that it is function of marketing to have the customer relationship management. In reality it is meant for every one in the organization starting from the security person, telephone operator and accounting department. Providing good service and then finding a way to leverage the good will created by quality service a company can tie deeply into a consumers psyche and develop a strong business/client relationship. This paper examines customer complaints as a major source of loosing customers and suggests suitable policy measures to overcome these handicaps. In addition, there is discussion on role of information technology as an enabler of customer relationship management. The paper also develops a model for organizations to follow and summarizes the discussion.
Organizations have realized that retaining customers is more profitable than crating a new customer. It is estimated that a customer for coke for a lifetime will bring an estimated cash flow of Rs 50,000. Therefore, if we loose a customer we not only loose him for present but also future. We have not calculated the cost of satisfied customers references. Though customer relationship is being emphasized by Theodore Levitt in his article on "Marketing Myopia", organizations are yet to understand and implement various customer related initiatives. However, technology as an enabler with very low cost has come to the rescue of organizations to meet ever-changing need of customers.
CRM applications are also useful in gathering information from various business departments and merging them into one file, so that the company representative who takes a customer's call can answer most questions that the customer may have. This avoids the problem of having to transfer customers to other departments. Of course, CRM is a "two-way street," in that it enables companies to use information on a customer's previous purchases to focus their marketing on items of special interest to a particular customer. For instance, a bookseller may send information on new travel books to a travel enthusiast.
Why are the reasons for customer complaints?
Most customers complain because they purchased a product or service with certain expectations, and, for any number of reasons, those expectations were not met. Some of the research done by organizations found the following to be among the major causes of consumer complaints.
Product Service Causes:
• Poor product quality
• Maintenance difficulties
• Inadequate or poor repair work
• Delays in delivery of goods or services
• Failure to fulfill product or service warranties
• Incompetent or discourteous employees
Accounting Causes:
• Billing errors
• Failure to provide timely refunds and adjustments, as promised
Sales Practice Causes:
• Deceptive or inaccurate advertising
• Advertising products that are not available, or are in limited supply
• Misleading or false representations by sales staff
Underlying Causes:
• A wide range of product choices coupled with a lack of information on which to base purchase decisions
• Advanced technology --- complicated product design
• Inadequate, or complicated product instructions
The foundation of customer goodwill is the existence, promotion, and practice of a sound customer relations policy. Such a policy is a formal promise to customers representing commitment to their satisfaction. A customer should not be forced to run from department to department, or individual to individual to get satisfaction. The policy should spell out specifically how, when, where, and who handles complaints or questions.
One person within the company should have ultimate authority and responsibility for customer relations. In a small firm, it may be the owner, while in a large organization it may be a customer affairs executive. It is important that the person designated be readily available, and authorized to act on behalf of the company in all customer relations matters. The organization may want to consider incorporating a commitment to a third party dispute resolution mechanism into customer relations policy. Even if organization follows and carries out a sound customer relations policy, there still will be some complaints that are difficult to settle, and a few customers whom the company cannot seem to satisfy. Alternatively, we may consider offering resolution through a third party mechanism on a case-by-case basis. An independent and neutral third party will act as a mediator, helping organization and customers communicate to reach an understanding. In the event that an agreement is not reached, organization should be prepared to offer arbitration. Arbitration is a process where a neutral person listens to both sides and makes a final decision based on fairness and equity.
Complaint Handling Procedures
Complaint handling system, which is structured from customer relations policy, must operate simply, effectively, and quickly. Speed is essential in responding to customer dissatisfaction.
Customer should be assured that organization care and that prompt remedial action will be taken to resolve any reasonable problem. A sound complaint handling system should include the following essential procedures:
Screening And Logging -- There should be a formal procedure for recording the date a complaint is called for attention, along with a record of pertinent information. For example, the type of product or service; manufacturer/brand name; model name/number; date of purchase/contract; warranty expiration date; salesperson; cost of product/service; date problem occurred; and a description of the problem should be listed. This will allow organization to exercise control, and assure proper follow-through.
Investigating -- customer's explanation of a problem can provide much information. Nevertheless, to assure we have all the information needed for a thorough review of the facts involved, by:
Researching in-house records on the customer;
Requesting receipts, or other records;
Inspecting the product, or service performed; and
Following-up with the customer for any necessary additional information.
Acknowledging -- When organization cannot resolve an issue immediately, it is important to let customer know that the matter is receiving attention. Prompt acknowledgment will set customer at ease, demonstrate that organization care, and begin the process of preserving goodwill. Whenever possible, tell customer how long it will take to complete action on the complaint. If there is further delay, be sure to advise customer why, and when organization expect to have an answer.
Formulating A Solution -- solution must be consistent with established customer relations policy and should take into account a number of important criteria. organization should consider:
Contractual and/or warranty obligations;
The customer's expectations;
expectations of the customer;
The cost/benefit of alternative solutions;
The probability and cost of customer seeking redress in some other way;
The comprehensiveness and fairness of solution;
ability to perform the solution; and
What to do if the customer rejects solution.
Responding -- The response should be clear and appropriate. The customer must understand the response, and the response must address the issues raised in the customer's original complaint.
We should avoid "stock" language and form letters when an individual response is needed, and refrains from using excessive technical jargon. An explanation of decision may preserve the goodwill of customer, even if the decision itself is adverse.
Following-Up -- Contact customer following response to verify whether or not the matter has been resolved satisfactorily.
If customer is unhappy with response, organization should refer the matter to a third party dispute resolution mechanism for assistance.
If we intend to seek the assistance of a third party, be sure to give the customer a name and telephone number of the person, or office to be contacted.
The follow-up step is critical to ensure the effectiveness of system. While organization may never satisfy everyone, this contact will provide direct feedback, and can be extremely valuable in making customer relations the best possible.
Management should monitor complaint-handling procedures to ensure that complaints are being handled properly, fairly, and promptly. Analyze complaints as a basis for reviewing customer relations policies and operating procedures, and for evaluating product or service quality.
18. Effect of Derivatives Based Strategies
Abstract
Derivatives have widely been used as they facilitate hedging, that is, they enable fund mangers of an underlying asset portfolio to transfer some parts of the risk of price changes to others who are willing to bear such risk. Options are the specific derivative instruments that give their owner the right to buy (call option holder) or to sell (put option holder) a specific number of shares (assets) at a specified price (exercise price) of a given underlying asset at or before a specified date (expiration date). In lieu of this privilege, the holder of the option (long position) pays a market determined price (option premium) to the writer or seller (short position) of the option.
The present study has used buy-and-hold strategies involving future & options and a combination their-off, like Covered Call, Straddle and Strangle .In an attempt to make appropriate investment decisions in particular under risk the portfolio manager must be able to compare the hedging effectiveness of the strategies involving the use of options under covered call and the pure option strategies like straddle and strangle. The study also examines the risk and return associated to taking of future position as buy-and-hold strategy vis-à-vis cash position.
The Indian equity market has widely been regarded as one of the best performing market amongst the emerging markets of the world like China, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Korea etc. The first step towards introduction of derivatives trading in India was the promulgation of the Securities Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 1995. It withdrew the prohibition on options in securities. SEBI set up a 24 -member committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. L. C. Gupta on November 18, 1996 to develop regulatory framework for derivatives trading in India. In its report, the committee prescribed necessary pre-conditions for introduction of derivatives trading in India; it recommended that derivatives should be declared as 'securities' so that the regulatory framework applicable to trading of 'securities' could also govern trading of securities.
SEBI also set up a group in June 1998 under the Chairmanship of Prof. J. R. Varma to recommend measures for risk containment in derivatives market. The Report worked out the operational details of margining system, methodology for charging initial margins, broker net worth, deposit requirement and real-time monitoring requirements.
Derivatives trading commenced in India after SEBI granted the final approval to commence trading and settlement in approved derivative contracts on the NSE and BSE.
This has also been proved beyond doubt across the financial world that the regulatory norms in place governing the Indian Capital Market are one of the best in the world. Recently NSE has been awarded "Derivative Exchange of the year" by Asia Risk Magazine.
Objectives of the Project
To examine the performance of various derivatives based investment strategies.
To examine the risk associated with different investment strategies
To examine whether derivatives can be used as an alternative to cash market investing.
Scope of study
This study helps to improve investment activities in securities.
It helps to give ideas about derivatives to students.
New strategies can be identified by the people who actively invest in derivatives.
Out of the money call and in the money put only selected to apply the strategies. It may be further analysed in different dimensions. Some popular strategies only taken in to analysis, it has a wide scope to add other derivatives based strategies.
The boundary of the study is that the collection of data is limited to a specific time period Jan-2007 to march-2007.
Findings
The results of the derivative based portfolio on S&P CNX Nifty Index future and the cash portfolio of the corresponding index shown that during the entire 60 months beginning 1 st Jan 2004 under study, the derivative portfolio based of S&P CNX Nifty Index future does not at all amount in higher degree of risk when compared with the cash portfolio being held in proportion to the index composition, rather compensates very smartly for higher degree of risk under taken by the investors.
Covered Call
The results of the derivative portfolio (covered call on S&P CNX Nifty Index) and the cash portfolio of the corresponding index indicate s that in terms of aggregate return, the cash portfolio has an edge over the derivative portfolio during the entire period of study, and in terms of risk compensation as point out by Sharpe's ratio, it is the cash portfolio that has an edge over derivative portfolio.
Straddle
In terms of aggregate return the derivative portfolio strategy of Straddle have resulted in negative returns. Hence, in the present study, the proposed methodology of selecting the strike price of the straddle only on the basis of long term historical growth rate needs to be revisited, as it does not provide any evidence to support such strategy for rational investors either in terms of risk, return or combination thereof.
Strip
In terms of aggregate return the derivative portfolio strategies of strip has resulted in negative returns. Hence, in the present study, the proposed methodology of selecting the strike price of the straddle only on the basis of long term historical growth rate needs to be revisited, as it does not provide any evidence to support such strategy for rational investors either in terms of risk, return or combination thereof.
Strap
The through perusal of the tables shows that the Sharpe's ratio favours the strip only during January and June. Hence, results advocate that there is no use of going in for the options based strategy called strap.
Strangle
In case of long strangle, the entire initial capital has been lost, where as in case of short Strangle capital have been increased by more than three times. The Sharpe ratio has been higher during the entire period under study in case of short as well as long strangle.
Bear spread
It has been found that in the case of option based strategy called Bear spread, its performance has shown some positive compared to other derivatives strategies. In case of Bear Spread, Capital has been increased by more than 30%. The Sharpe ratio has been average during the entire period under study in case of Bear Spread.
Bull Spread
In case of Bull Spread, Capital has been decreased by more than 23%. The Sharpe ratio has been lower during the entire period under study in case of Bear Spread. In case of Bear Spread, Capital has been increased by more than 30%. The Sharpe ratio has been average during the entire period under study in case of Bear Spread. Here, Capital has been increased by more than 4%.
19. Recruitment and Channel Development
Abstract
In today’s competitive world I find that insurance sector has the maximum growth and potential as compare to the other sector. Insurance has the maximum growth rate of 70-80% while as FMCG sector has maximum 12-15 % growth rate. This growth potential attracts us to enter in the sector and MAX NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE gave me the opportunity to work and get experience in highly competitive and enhancing sector. The success story of good market share of different organizations depends upon the availability of the product and services near to the customer, which can be distributed through a distribution channel and insurance sector, distribution channel includes only agents or agency holders of the company. If a company like MNYL, BA, TATA AIG etc has adequate agents in the market they can capture big market as compared to the other companies. Agents are best way for a company of insurance sector through which policies and benefits of a company can be explained to the customer.
MAX NEW YORK LIFE has the maximum job availability. They follow some process regarding the recruiting people. The need of the project during the course of my summer internship for Max New York life was to get an insight into the training modules and sessions given to their employees of the MNYL. Thus there was a need to design and build a competent training module thereby enhancing the competency levels and interpersonal skills of the employees of the company, so as to prepare them for providing better service to their customer.
Objectives of the Project
The main objective of doing this project is to study employee attitude regarding the. During this student internship program period we have to achieve something which is helpful to the development of ourselves and some value addition to the company. Getting more to the company because of recruitment and selection program is the main objective. It gives us good exposes of ourselves and creating good impression.
• Customer & potential agent's perceptions about insurance as a product category.
• To study the existing compensation for agents of Max .
To study the existing channel development process of MNYL.
Scope of study
A big boom has been witnessed in Insurance Industry in recent times. A large number of new players have entered the market and are trying to gain market share in this rapidly improving market. In recent time also Max has the highest employment. It is the 7 th highest insurance company in India. In insurance sector a person can earn huge amount of money.
Findings
Max New York Life as an insurance firm has a very strong presence in India and is rapidly expanding its operations in India. After working on this project I feel that following are some of the ways in which the company can improve the current market base and selection procedure for AAs, the key revenue generating resource for the company:
• Low awareness about MNYL brand in the mind of potential AAs.
• Max New York Life insurance compensation package is considered to be quite good as per market standard. However the 15 days full time training programme is causing apprehension in minds of potential agents. A part time training alternative can also be considered.
• MNYL can provide some database collected from other sources to the new recruits at least in the first month.
• The registration fee for IRDA training programme is higher than other private companies. MNYL should considered reducing the charge.
• Initial fee for agents policy is too high so MNYL can considerer this.
20. Brand Awareness
Abstract
Results of a controlled experiment on the role of brand awareness in the consumer choice process showed that brand awareness was a dominant choice heuristic among awareness-group subjects. Subjects with no brand awareness tended to sample more brands and selected the high-quality brand on the final choice significantly more often than those with brand awareness. Thus, when quality differences exist among competing brands, consumers may "pay a price" for employing simple choice heuristics such as brand awareness in the interest of economizing time and effort. However, building brand awareness is a viable strategy for advertising aimed at increasing brand-choice probabilities.
Brand awareness can be measured by showing a consumer the brand and asking whether or not they knew of it beforehand. However, in common market research practice a variety of recognition and recall measures of brand awareness are employed all of which test the brand name's association to a product category cue, this came about because most market research in the 20th Century was conducted by post or telephone, actually showing the brand to consumers usually required more expensive face-to-face interviews (until web-based interviews became possible). This has led many textbooks to conceptualize brand awareness simply as its measures, that is, knowledge that the brand is a member of a particular product category. Brand awareness consists of both brand recognition , which is the ability of consumers to confirm that they have previously been exposed to your brand, and brand recall , which reflects the ability of consumers to name your brand when given the product category, category need, or some other similar cue.
Aided awareness occurs when you show or read a list of brands and the person expresses familiarity with your brand only after they hear or see it.
Top-of-mind awareness occurs when you ask a person to name brands within a product category and your brand pops up first on the list.
Objectives of the Project
Primary objective: To research whether Brand awareness in Branded PC's affects the sales or helps the Retailer in making a sale.
The following point would be addressed:
1. Brand Awareness for Branded PC's in consumer minds.
2. Effect on sale.
Secondary objective: To research and see which Brand is ahead in "Top-of-the-Mind Awareness" among Branded PC's.
The Following points would be addressed:
To check which Brand enjoys the top spot in 'Top-of-the-mind' Brand Awareness.
Impact of the same on sales.
Scope of study
Is to check that does Brand Awareness among Branded PC's affects the sales or creates a specific image about the brand which helps the Brand in gaining an advantage over the competitors. As the Research Methodology used for this research would be Personal Interview or Telephonic Interviews of the Targeted Masses using a set of questionnaires designed to get the response which would help in achieving the objective of the research. The Limitations faced in this research would be that it would be constituted on the data gathered from an already decided Target audience, which would be very small (namely 30-50 consumers). Hence we would not be able to come to a strong recommendation as the number of the responses would be limited. However, on the other hand the data gathered would be very accurate and not vague, which would help us come to conclusion which in turn will help us to reach the objective of this research.
The importance of this market research would be, that it will help us to determine which computer Brands enjoy different benefits due to their Brand Awareness in the mind of the consumers. Our research work will help us define how does brand awareness helps the customer to pick or choose that specific brand and get a clear picture as in is Brand Awareness really important part of the marketing strategy or is it just a burden on the marketing system.
Brand awareness is an important way of promoting commodity-related products. This is because for these products, there are very few factors that differentiate one product from its competitors. Therefore, the product that maintains the highest brand awareness compared to its competitors will usually get the most sales, our research findings will help us in determining those factors.
We would also be able to gauge which brand enjoys the top spot in "Top-of-the-Mind Awareness" among Branded PC's
Sources and Tools of Data Collection
The data collection phase of marketing research is generally the most expensive and themost prone to error. In the case of surveys, four major problem arise. Some respondents will not be at home and must be contacted again . Other respondents will refuse to cooperate. Still others will give biased or dishonest answers. Finally some interviewers will be biased or dishonest. Getting the right respondent is critical.
Analyze the Information
The next to last step in the process is to extract finding from the collected data. The researcher tabulates the data and develop frequency distribution. Averages and measures of dispersion are computed for the major variables. The researcher will also apply some advanced statistical techniques and decision models in the hope of discovering additional findings.
Present the Finding
As the last step, the researcher presents the findings. The researcher should present Finding that are relevant to the major marketing decisions facing management.
Make the Decision
A growing number of organizations are using a marketing decision support system to help their marketing managers make better marketing decisions.
In our research we would be using the Research Approach of 'Survey Research' with the help of the Research instrument in the form of 'Questionnaires' and the Contact Method used will be 'Personal Interview' .
Data Analysis
As for growth verticals, education and e-governance were the hot segments for PC penetration and volumes. In an effort to drive volumes, vendors should adopt Brand Awareness by penetrating the consumer minds through different marketing channels and also by low-cost pricing policies in these sectors.
Top 5 Recommendations:
• Companies should use multiple marketing channels to create Brand Awareness among the targeted segments.
• Retailers should have through knowledge about the Brands and the products they deal in(sometimes retailers do not provide complete info about the product which in turn drives the customer to different brand and that creates a negative impact on the Top-of-the-mind Brand Awareness towards that product).
• Having Live Demos for the particular Brands which do not have enough Brand Awareness among the masses to make them aware what that Brand offers.
• Retailers should be aware which market audiences their Brands target and should focus all of their marketing strategies on the same.
• Companies should try and use low-cost pricing policies as cost-effectively as they can.
21. Consumer Taste and Preferences For Set Top Box Installation
Abstract
The direct home to home (DTH) TV sector in India continues to expand rapidly, attracting large investments from new and existing players over past few years and is showing no signs of slowing down due to economic recession. The DTH market which began commercial operations in 2003 has been able to acquire over 12 million subscribers during the past six years. As per " Indian DTH market forecast to 2012", the number of DTH subscribers are forecasted to grow at a CAGR of around 25% during 2009-2012. Currently , the Indian DTH market is being served by the five private players , Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV and Airtel Digital TV. Given the superior quality of DTH services in terms of viewing and interactivity, the number of DTH subscribers has been soaring. However, the current number of DTH subscribers constitutes only a meager population of the total number of TV households, indicating vast future growth potential.
This research provides extensive research and rational analysis about the set top box market in India. India is an important and growing market for set top box. By 2012 India's pay TV market is expected to reach 90 million subscribers. Though imports constitute a major share of set top boxes, due to Government's incentives to encourage Indian Companies to manufacture them, the demand for STB will increase considerably. It can be estimated in the range of greater than 1.0 billion US $ worth market for STB by 2012. The semi conductor Companies actively involved in selling STB devices in Indian market are ST Microelectronics, national Semiconductor, NXP and Broadcom. Tensilica is another fables firm with STB device offerings.
The STM 5107 from ST Microelectronics is fully developed at ST's India design centre. National Semiconductor has sold geode processor based STB solutions to some key customers in India. Just few days back Bharti Airtel has selected Broad Com's satellite Set Top Box system on a chip solutions to power its direct home to home TV service. Therefore we can say that India's TV and consumer market is sure to present some pleasant surprise opportunities to the semi conductor and other electronic component Companies.
Objectives of the Project
The primary purpose of the research is to gain an insight on taste and the consumer behaviour when it comes to an installation of Set Top Box. Through our research we have tried to locate the specific qualities which the consumer prefer while going for a DTH and set top box service. It can be said beyond any shadow of doubt that price, quality and durability are the three main aspects which influences a consumer while buying a product.
Amongst the 90 million expected subscribers in 2012 more than 50% buyers will belong to a mediocre income level. So the aim of the research is to provide an insight to the kind of service that can be provided at a minimum cost in order to capture the more of the mediocre market. For this purpose we have designed the questionaires in such a way so that it reflects the choices of the consumers not only in terms of the kind of service they look forward to but also taking the price factor into consideration as well. Moreover, the kind of research tool that we have utilized in order to generate the results will yield the highly correlated factors which reveals some specific consumer preferences. This in turn is helpful, in determining the quality of service that can be provided and it provides a scope for further improvement. As mentioned earlier repeatedly. Our basic aim is to gain an insight of the consumer choices. It will also help in determining the prospective customers of set top box in India. Hence there are two basic objectives of this study.
• Locate the section of population that may be a potential customers for this Set Top Box Service. b) Find out the causes (e.g. Socio-Economic, Psycological causes, habits etc.) for which customer's interest about Set Top Box differs from individual to individual.
Sources and Tools of Data Collection
Primary data: The data is gathered through a survey based research approach with the help of a questionnaire. The respondents lie within the age of 22-51 years . Questionaires have some pertinent advantage over some other types of surveys which is why it was selected as a research tool. They are economical, do not require as much effort as in verbal and telephone survey and often have standardized answer to make it simple to compile data. It is also easy for the respondents to file the questionnaire rather than think extensively and answer it in depth interview questions.
Secondary Data: These sources are books, articles, various web sites and research papers.
Sampling Techniques: Random sampling methods were used to collect the data as the questionaires are distributed. The targeted respondents ranged from 22-51 years of age . Simple Random sampling is used because each individual is choosen randomly and entirely by chance, such that each individual has the same probability of being choosen at any stage during the sampling process, and each subset of k- individuals has the same probability of being choosen for the sample as any other sub set of k individuals .
Sample Size: Regarding the sample size question, generally a sample of fewer than 50 observations would not factor analyze and preferably the sample size should be 100 and larger. For this reason we have taken 105 observations. As a general rule the minimum is to have at least five times as many observations as the number of variables to be analyzed, and the more acceptable sample size would have 10:1 ratio.
Scale used in Questionnaire: 15 different questions were asked in order to know the respondents perception regarding various aspects which come into play while they think about the DTH service. A FIVE POINT LIKERT SCALE was used and the respondents were asked to rate where -2 represents strongly agree and 2 represents strongly disagree.
Data Analysis
The population of this study encompassed mostly students, the purpose to involve students included to get an idea about the perception of the youth about the Set Top Box in the Indian context. The result of surveying this population produced an effective sample size of respondents.
In the assessment of 21 variables, which assess consumer perceptions and choices about the entertainment media were measured in a five point likert scale in which respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions. The respondents were asked to fill a questionnaire mentioning the factors measuring their perception. In the research respondents were intercepted and asked to participate in a survey.
Prospective customer : The communication company has several of ideas about who are the potential customers for this service. They think that the highest potential is among television viewers who own video recorders and rent video films. They think that users of competitive services such as cable and DTH services might be potential customers. But the company believes that people who prefer to go out to the cinema or to the theatre are not good prospects and the customer must be urban.
Video owners: The first step is to find out how many owners of video recorders there are in the sample by running a frequency table, which is shown in Figure 1 . The table shows that 105 questionnaire forms were entered. 64 respondents do not own video recorders, which represents 61% of the total respondents. 40 respondents own video recorders and are 38.1% of the respondents. 1 (or 0.9%) of the respondents did not answer the question, so no data was entered. Without including this 1 in the analysis of video ownership, the column labeled Valid Percent tells us that about 61.5% do not own video recorders and about 38.5% do(approximately one third of the population only).If management is right, and the sample does represent the population, 38.5% represents a very low prospects for the company.
Project By ANANYA MUKHERJEE, GLOBSYN BUSINESS SCHOOL
22. Sales and Distribution Effectiveness
Abstract
In the highly competitive marketplace today, the best of marketing strategies often don’t deliver due to underperforming distribution channels or sales force. Distributors/Stockists/Dealers are independent channel members having their own goals & objectives, and sales people must align their marketing effort with that of the firm’s. In this backdrop, Sales Managers face the challenge of making their teams and channels to perform effectively. They have not only to supervise their teams, but provide leadership to each salesperson and each channel member to excel, and seek opportunities to exceed targets. Just resorting to short term ‘fire fighting’ measures to get sales, without focusing on the core issues in channel and sales force management, is no longer a sustainable response. This programme has been designed to help Sales and Marketing Managers to acquire new skill sets, latest concepts and tools and reorient their attitudes to make their sales teams more productive and get enhanced performance from distribution channels.
Coca-Cola, the product that has given the world its best-known taste was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 8, 1886. Coca-Cola Company is the world’s leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, used to produce nearly 400 beverage brands. It sells beverage concentrates and syrups to bottling and canning operators, distributors, fountain retailers and fountain wholesalers. The Company’s beverage products comprises of bottled and canned soft drinks as well as concentrates, syrups and notready- to-drink powder products. In addition to this, it also produces and markets sports drinks, tea and coffee.
The Coca- Cola Company began building its global network in the 1920s. Now operating in more than 200 countries and producing nearly 400 brands, the Coca-Cola system has successfully applied a simple formula on a global scale: “Provide a moment of refreshment for a small amount of money- a billion times a day.” The Coca-Cola Company and its network of bottlers comprise the most sophisticated and pervasive production and distribution system in the world. More than anything, that system is dedicated to people working long and hard to sell the products manufactured by the Company. This unique worldwide system has made
The Coca-Cola Company the world’s premier soft-drink enterprise. From Boston to Beijing, from Montreal to Moscow, Coca-Cola, more than any other consumer product, has brought pleasure to thirsty consumers around the globe. For more than 115 years, Coca-Cola has created a special moment of pleasure for hundreds of millions of people every day.
Objectives of the Project
The main objective of this project is “Mapping of the available marketingØ channels of HCCBPL” in Paanchvati region of Nasik
To find the comfort level of the dealers with the current distribution systemØ
To find the lacunas in the current distribution system.Ø
To suggest remedial measuresØ
Study of soft drink market share by mapping in Paanchvati Nasik.Ø
A Training Program of 60 days in any organization provides information to all students like…
i) Current organisation work-culture
ii) Industry practical knowledge.
iii) Gives Professional touch.
iv) Better awareness about market competition.
v) Get chance to face different types of customers and tackle with different situation.
The entire product range that the company has was taken into consideration for the study. This includes Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Thump Up, Sprite, Limca, Fanta and Kinley Soda in the carbonated section and Maaza and Minute Maid Pulpy Orange in the juices section.
Findings of the Study
From our study we found that,
There were total 130 outlets surveyed for checking the service provided by the distributor in the Panchvati region of Nasik.
The sales for Coca-Cola products exceed the sameü for those of Pepsi products. However, the sale of coca-cola products is low as compared to its sale in the entire Nasik district which is approx. 78% (Source: Survey report by AC Nielsen)
Majority of the retail outlets receive sufficient display facilityü & merchandise.
42% of the outlets receive order as per required,ü whereas 40% of them do not receive orders as per required. There is a good potential scope of improvement by the distributor in the areas of uncovered outlets (18%) as well as those outlets which do not get the order as per requirement (40%).
31% of them do not receive any schemes, and 30%ü receive the schemes occasionally. Only 21% of the retail outlets fetch Coca-cola the majority of the business. Hence, there is a tremendous scope for the company to progress in this area.
The frequency of service for majority of the retailü outlets is very good with covering 56 of 130 outlets. Majority of the retail outlets in the Panchvati area of Nasik (approx. 43%) are filled with Coca-Cola stock twice every week. However, the number of uncovered outlets is 23, which constitute 18% of the entire Panchvati region. This is quite a large number, which the distributor will have to take into account inorder to improve his business.
Approx 60% of the retailers are satisfied with the service provided by the distribution (Gaikhe Sales) in Panchvati area of Nasik.
28% of the retailers feel that the quality of service provided by the pre-seller isü average. Also, approx. 30% of the retailers are not satisfied by the service provided by the retailers.
Around 18% of the retail outlets form a part of either Pepsi monopoly or that are not served at all, from a part of the pre-sellers duty to convert them into coca-cola monopoly or shared outlet.
But the overall efficiency of the distribution in the Panchvati region of coca-colaü produts is hampered due to the fact that it has a sale of 68% as compared to its sale in the entire Nasik district which is approx. 78% (Source: Internal Source as well as survey report by AC Nielsen)
23. A Study On The Awareness Level And Attitude Level Of The Clients
Abstract
This project sets out to investigate the aspects important for the successful implementation of CBHI. It does so through a set of controlled randomized trials through which CBHI is implemented in villages of two states of India (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar). Rigorous longitudinal research is used to identify causal effects of CBHI on equitable access to healthcare and financial protection. The two states selected for implementation are among the poorest in India, yet the intervention areas vary from each other in their socio-economic, epidemiological and cultural profiles. We seek this diversity in order to enhance the validity of the claim that lessons learned could be applied to other settings as well. We apply quantitative research (longitudinal panel; series of economic experiments) along with in-depth qualitative analysis and spatial data.
The CBHI India project was initiated in August 2009. The project's core research hypotheses as well as data collection tools were refined in the following months, in light of the discussion held at the project's first Advisory Board meeting in November 2009. Baseline quantitative, qualitative and spatial research was carried out for 8 months, running consecutively from January to August 2010. CBHI implementation activities for each site have been ongoing since Apr 2010, and have been intensified from September 2010 onwards, following the completion of baseline research.
Highlights include:
April 2010: Insurance Initiation Workshops completed
May 2010: Baseline quantitative research completed
July 2010: Baseline spatial research completed
August 2010: Baseline qualitative research completed
September 2010: Benefit Options Consultations undertaken
November 2010: Insurance Awareness Campaign launched
As far as our study is done in BAIF, it is of two groups namely Treatment Group and Control Group and each group has different SHGs. The Treatment group consists of the people who are aware of Insurance, Policy and are of policy holders. It covers about 5 villages near pratapgarh area. The Control group consists of people who are of non policy holders. It covers about 10 villages near Pratapgarh area. The policy they introduced is "SANJIVANI".
Objectives of the Project
• To know the awareness level and attitude level of the clients towards Insurance
• To study the need for Insurance
• To know the perception and understanding level of the clients towards Insurance
• To know the probability level of occurrence of risk and satisfaction level of the clients.
The study was conducted only at a total of 10 villages near Pratapgarh area. This analysis and findings arrived are based on the true findings with the help of questionnaire. There are issues in generalizing the results and findings to a wider area of Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh. The study obtained information about the awareness level, attitude level, perception and understanding of clients towards Insurance Policy. Some of the shortcomings that we found are:
• No doubt SANJIVINI is playing an important role in the villages. Some of the policy holders are saying that the procedure for getting the claim benefits is getting harder as they not able to get the receipts in time. This is one of the major shortcomings of this policy.
• Due to lack of knowledge or education some of them are not in a stage to read the documents or understand the terms and conditions of the policy.
• As majority of the clients are of farmers, due to lack of water, the clients are getting loss in their irrigation field and because of this the income generation is getting reduced.
• In some of the areas the clients are not much aware of the Micro Health Insurance. It is time for everyone to know what exactly the micro insurance is.
• The treatment group clients are more aware when compared to control group. Knowingly, some of them are not showing interest to take policy as their financial status doesn't support them. This is the reason why the people are not willing to take any policy in future.
The literacy level in these villages is too low. The parents can't effort that much to get their child educated as they belong to below poverty line.
Findings of the Study
From our study we found that,
• The SANJIVINI policy is quiet beneficial for the clients.
• In order to pay the monthly installment of 14/- for a period of 9 months the clients are controlling their monthly expenditure.
• The policy holders from treatment group are most aware when compared to the control group clients.
• During our visit, we found that SANJIVINI has been given a major importance in every family and they are paying the installment amount without fail.
• Equal importance has been given to women in the family in financial decision making, women also actively participates in this regard.
• The clients are much happy with the benefits that they are assured.
• Due to lack of resources, it takes a lot of time for development.
• Due to lack of water the clients are having a big loss in their farming.
• Some of the clients are also having LIC jeevan bhima policy for a period of about 18 to 24 years in which they pay the premium amount either quarterly or half-yearly or annually.
• Majority of the policies are being taken in order to avoid health risk.
• Most if the clients are not in a stage to take another policy as they are suffering with Financial Problems.
• Out of 60 respondents, 58% of the clients have been given major importance to health risk, 34% has given priority to life risk and 6% clients given for crop risk and the remaining 2% for live stock risk.
• Most of the clients are suffering with financial loss and productivity loss due to high expenditure towards illness, Loss of crops and also from the Natural Disasters.
• It's good to see women working for the Rural Development and also actively participating in the awareness campaigns.
Findings and Suggestions
• Store loyalty and quality of a private label are dependent of each other.
• Price differential between national brand and private and store loyalty are dependent of each other.
• Private label's promotion and store loyalty are related.
• Private innovativeness and store loyalty are related.
In general the field of micro insurance is just merging and though it has a number of issues at three levels namely people, MFI, and Insurance companies, this sector has a big potential. More innovation in product design, processes and practices is bound to happen as the sector evolves and expands. Servicing and a social perspective will slowly develop once the rural population starts demanding. As far as the project CBHI is concerned, the partner agent model will brings a change in the insurance companies, their attitudes and willingness to serve rural people and inhibition factors should be studied to improve the system as a whole. The literacy rate should be increased. As per our study, we compared the awareness and attitude level of the clients towards Insurance between the treatment and control groups. As per the data collected, most of the clients responded in a positive manner. They are quiet happy with the benefits that are being provided under the Health Insurance policy through BAIF.
The SHGs in the Treatment group are more effective when compared to control group. In both the groups the women are more effectively working for the welfare of the development. This shows a positive change towards development in Rural India.
24. Consumers Perception of Private Brands
Abstract
Private labels have come a long way over the last three decades. They started with retailers wanting to offer cheaper substitutes. This was for two reasons. One, having a private label meant that retailers could negotiate a better margin from the manufacturer. And the other, when they had private labels, they had a differentiator. The biggest change in the last decade or so has been the entry of premium private labels. They are no longer saying "buy us because we are cheap", instead today; they are saying "buy us because we are the best". By offering high quality products, many private labels have started charging more than regular manufacturers.
Retailers are looking at private labels or store labels as one of the option to drive the customers to their stores. The emergence of organized retailing in India has made Private Labels a reality. It is now well within the reckoning of the consumer, retailers and brand owners. A Private Label is not merely a product with the store/ retailer's name on it. It takes more to qualify as a Private Label. The consumer must see the Private Label product as distinct from being just a 'product in a pack'. There must be a clear perception that 'it is produced by this store'
The consumer must see the Private Label product as distinct from being just a 'product in a pack'. There must be a clear perception that 'it is produced by this store'. The current Indian economy is witnessing the emergence of organized retail. It is growing at a faster pace and is expected to reach 10 % from the current 4 % of the total retail business. Retailers are expanding through variety of formats like supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, discount stores, specialty stores, and department stores. Many domestic business houses have entered this sector with ambitious plans.
With the new FDI regime, foreign players are incisive of Indian partners to grab the potential of retail market in India. As competition is becoming stiff, retailers are working on new strategies to sustain in the market. One such strategy being private branding adopted by most of the retailers. Private brands are the most successful corporate brands in the world. Private branding is one of the strategic decisions of most retail organizations in recent years. They are either manufactured by the retailer or bought directly from the manufacturer, avoiding the intermediaries. Hence retailers have control over the marketing mix elements.
Objectives of the Project
• To understand the perception of consumers for the new private labels introduced by retailers.
• To identify the consumer perception of store image on private labels.
• To study the association between private labels 'quality and store loyalty.
• To find out the various factors that builds the store loyalty.
• Private labels in modern retailing are a set of values and promises made by the retail organization to their customers.
• The sample size was relatively small.
• The respondents compromised more of home makers.
• The study was undertaken in Bangalore which is prosperous than other areas.
Data Analysis
• Familiarity with store brands :
Out of 400 respondents, 320 respondents were aware of the private brands offered by stores. It means 80% of the respondents were aware of the private labels, another 20% respondents considered the brands to be a new entrant by the existing national brand manufacturers.
• Perception of quality:
Hypothesis 1: Store brands are perceived to offer quality on par with the national brands. More than 50% of the respondents perceive private brands to offer better quality.
• Perception of value for Money:
Hypothesis 2: Private brands offer great value for money . More than 50% of the respondents are of the opinion that private brands offer value for money, especially in case of grocery items.
• Packaging:
Hypothesis 3: Private brands have appealing packaging. National brands are more attractive in packaging in comparison to private brands.
• Taste:
Hypothesis 4: Private brands have good taste/scent. From the analysis, there is close association between taste and brand choice.
• Price:
Hypothesis 5: Private labels are affordable by consumers . From the analysis it can be affirmed that private brands are priced low as compared to national brands in most of the product categories.
• Store perception:
Hypothesis 6: Consumers perception of store image is same for all the retailers. From the analysis, the perception of consumers varies across stores. They build the perception based on the promotional and positioning strategies adopted by the store.
• Store image:
Hypothesis 7: Store image has a direct impact on private label perception. Positive image of the store in the market implies acceptance by consumers. Consumers perceive private brands offered by the store to be good.
Findings and Suggestions
• Store loyalty and quality of a private label are dependent of each other.
• Price differential between national brand and private and store loyalty are dependent of each other.
• Private label's promotion and store loyalty are related.
• Private innovativeness and store loyalty are related.
Store brands approximately sell for 30% less than national brands. Hence private brands are getting accepted in food and grocery segment. Improvements in quality, offering more variety, with better service will enable the retailers to go a long way. Private labels are able to position themselves significantly in the minds of the customer. The future of private labels is dependent on the retailers' ability to overcome key challenges such as adaptive supply chain practices, quality infrastructure, co-option, hybrid marketing channels, talented professional, blurring dividing lines between private label and national brand and more manufacturing know-how.
25. E-Marketing
Abstract
This project is all about the E-Branding strategy adopted by company in today’s fast moving world & how they expand their market, how they reach to their customer & give them an easy way to do business & thus establish better relationship by providing then time saving & fast online business opportunity. Now the marketing over internet which is becoming most effective way of promoting any business with minimum cost and maximum reach to target customer. So in this report you will see discussion about how actually e-Marketing should be done and with more strategies of e-marketing. Also all forms of e-Marketing is described which will help to understand the topic in detail.
E-commerce began to grow very quickly once methods to securely provide your credit card number became available. Consumers could now order products right from their home. Companies could reach customers all over the world. Online auction sites became very popular as people could sell their items to each other for a small fee. There also was an increased use of the internet as a source of advertising. Companies began to place ads on other websites to promote their products. Today pay per click advertisements benefit both the publishers of the websites and the company which has goods to sell. Affiliate programs are also very popular.
They allow website owners to advertise products on their website and if a customer purchases the item, then the website owner gets a percentage of the sale. The internet has even been used as a primary source of advertising. Companies have created innovative advertising programs, sometimes referred to as viral marketing. Viral marketing seeks to create a buzz about a product through word of mouth. Some viral marketing plans even use alternate reality games in order to promote a particular product. The Internet is changing the way we do business, the way we market, sell, service, distribute, communicate, and work. Businesses are already beginning to communicate with customers, distributors, suppliers, shareholders, and employees in a way that is truly one-to-one and real-time.
“Personalized” web sites are delivering tailored messages to an infinite number of target markets. These sites can change based on the user’s buying and surfing habits, past usage of the site, demographics, relationship to the company, and a multitude of other attributes which could be collected from the users online or culled from corporate legacy databases. The Internet has also become the most economical distribution system of information available. Companies can ship “bits” weightless electrons around the world at the speed of light, for a fraction of what it costs to ship heavy “atoms” at the speed of freight. In just a few years the Internet will be as essential of a business tool as what the phone and FAX are today. Intranets, real-time transaction processing, and “customer self-service” are just the beginning. We are transitioning from static sites to dynamic and personalized sites, from broadcasting to narrow Casting, from information dissemination to actual commerce.
Objectives of the Project
To study the impact of marketing activity over Internet·
To study the sales promotion programs on Hikepar League.·
To study the build and retain brand loyalty.·
To study to introduce new product.·
To study to attract new customer.·
To raise awareness of the company, product, or service within a· clearly identified target market
To communicate the benefits of the product or service·
This study helps to understand the about the concept of e-Marketing. The study will help the management of Hikepar League in forming the future policies regarding sales promotion strategy. This is like descriptive method of understanding about how to promote your products or services while using internet. It will also describe what are the methods and strategies of e-Marketing with advantages and disadvantages also.
E-Marketing Mix
The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing - the well-known 4 P's (Product - Price - Promotion - Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P's (People - Processes - Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix. Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate e-Marketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 + 3 P's) is built around the concept of "transactional" and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives e-Marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion. These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any e Marketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P's) and upon each other.
The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the e-Marketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (Establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services. For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor's computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a low volume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer's experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages. Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function.
Sales Promotion
At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume. This function counts on the marketer's ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan. On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them. To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from the traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e- Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.
E Marketing Strategies
• The Offer: Product strategies – Existing products sold online or new products offered to the customers
• The Value: Pricing strategies – Dynamic pricing and Online bidding
• Distribution strategies – Direct marketing and Agent E Business models
• Marketing Communication strategies
• Relationship Management strategies – CRM software + customer behavior = comprehensive database
6 Simple Steps to Start E-Marketing
Starting e-Marketing is easy but walking on the right path is not so easy. There are just too many options you can consider! However, typically I would recommend my clients to follow 6 simple steps to plan and start doing e-Marketing and they are:
1. Building Effective Website
2. Designing Compelling Messaging
3. Sending Strategic Newsletters
4. Online Advertising
5. Managing Customer Databases
6. Building Alliances
(1)Building an Effective Website-
I have shared in other articles how important it is a website for e-Marketing to be successful. It is not only design and layout but also the real business strategy behind. You have to consciously to make your website effective for your business and engaging your customers interactively. A website will 24 only perform well when it is being revised and updated according to the environmental changes with Compelling Messaging.
(2)Designing Compelling Messaging -
It is really back to marketing basics about communications. You have to high play your products/services' benefits rather than functionality in order to distinguish your differential advantages over your competition. A lot of time, customers' buying decisions are based on trusts that built on the success references you are giving of other cases. Before you get this right, e-Marketing will never be a success.
(3)Sending Strategic Newsletters -
e-Newsletters are so easy to send out if you have any emails of our suppliers, partners, customers and prospects. However, your compelling messaging must be ready before your e-Newsletters can be successful. In additional, you need to send out useful information or knowledge occasionally other than sales promotions in order to attract your target audience to keep subscribing your newsletter.
(4)Online Advertising -
The most basic Online Advertising option I recommend is Search Engine Marketing. It is becoming mandatory for any companies nowadays to make sure their company information/advertisements are showing on the first page of search results. Without doing this, your website will just never be found in a very long while, Other Online Advertising options can be Web Banner Ad on your target customers populated websites or contextual advertising, etc.
(5)Managing Customer Databases -
When you start doing e-Marketing, the next important thing is to keep up with your customer database(s). This is very crucial because your customer database will grow throughout your e-Marketing activities. The most basic way to do this is to use Excel or Outlook or any other mail clients but as you grow your customer database, it is better to adopt Customer Relationship Management software or an e-Marketing campaign software.
(6)Building Alliances -
No one can be successful by doing e-Marketing alone and this is the fact! Hence, building alliances and letting your alliances to promote your products/services in their websites and other channels are the very key to success with e-Marketing. You potential return on investment (ROI) will grow even better than you can imagine.
Opportunities of E-Marketing
1. Incremental revenues
The internet is a level playing field in terms of sales and marketing·
Everyone can attract new clients through very targeted and· measurable marketing
Global distribution reach is available to all, not just the major· brands that have global networks
2. Reduced cost of sale
A brand web site has the lowest cost of sale·
Enables business to be “channel shifted” from more expensive· channels, such as travel agency or call centers
3. Enhanced brand loyalty and client relationships
A direct client should be retained for future marketing and· relationship building
A customer booking through an OTA is likely to remain loyal to· the booking channel
Actively seek to build relationships with clients delivered through· OTAs for future, cheaper marketing
26. Global Marketing
Abstract
Two decades ago, the term global marketing is essent potential of a business, but even more crit business. A company which fails to go global is in longer of losing domestic business to competitors with better products and in a nutshell, more value for the customer. The importance of going global to ensure company powerful motive for many companies than the attract ion of opportunity abroad. Industries that were are dominated today by a handful of Marketing is essentially a creative corporate activity involving the planning and execution of the conception, pricing, promotion, and ideas, products, and services in an exchange that not only satisfies customers’ current needs but also at a profit. Marketing is not only much encompasses the entire c satisfaction in a compet strategy requires close attention to both customers and competitors aim of marketing is to create value for stakeholder is the customer.
Global marketing refers to marketing activit the following:
1. Reduction of cost inefficiencies and duplication of efforts among their national and regional subsidiaries
2. Opportunities for the transfer of products, brands, and other ideas across subsidiaries
3. Emergence of global customers
4. Improved linkages among national marketing infrastructures leading to the development of a global marketing infrastructure.
Although Levitt’s view that global marketing does not necessarily mean standardization of products, promotion, pricing, and distribution worldwide, but rather, it is a company’s proactive willingness to adopt a global perspective instead of a country-by-country or region-by-region perspective in developing a marketing stratergy
Evolution to Global Marketing
Global marketing is not a revolutionary shift, it is an evolutionary process. While the following does not apply to all companies, it does apply to most companies that begin as domestic-only companies.
Domestic marketing
A company marketing only within its national boundaries only has to consider domestic competition. Even if that competition includes companies from foreign markets, it still only has to focus on the competition that exists in its home market. Products and services are developed for customers in the home market without thought of how the product or service could be used in other markets. All marketing decisions are made at headquarters.
The biggest obstacle these marketers face is being blindsided by emerging global marketers. Because domestic marketers do not generally focus on the changes in the global marketplace, they may not be aware of a potential competitor who is a market leader on three continents until they simultaneously open 20 stores in the Northeastern U.S. These marketers can be considered ethnocentric as they are most concerned with how they are perceived in their home country.
Export marketing
Generally, companies began exporting, reluctantly, to the occasional foreign customer who sought them out. At the beginning of this stage, filling these orders was considered a burden, not an opportunity. If there was enough interest, some companies became passive or secondary exporters by hiring an export management company to deal with all the customs paperwork and language barriers. Others became direct exporters, creating exporting departments at headquarters. Product development at this stage is still focused on the needs of domestic customers. Thus, these marketers are also considered ethnocentric.
International Marketing
If the exporting departments are becoming successful but the costs of doing business from headquarters plus time differences, language barriers, and cultural ignorance are hindering the company’s competitiveness in the foreign market, then offices could be built in the foreign countries. Sometimes companies buy firms in the foreign countries to take advantage of relationships, storefronts, factories, and personnel already in place. These offices still report to headquarters in the home market but most of the marketing mix decisions are made in the individual countries since that staff is the most knowledgeable about the target markets. Local product development is based on the needs of local customers. These marketers are considered polycentric because they acknowledge that each market/country has different needs.
Multinational marketing
At the multi-national stage, the company is marketing its products and services in many countries around the world and wants to benefit from economies of scale. Consolidation of research, development, production, and marketing on a regional level is the next step. An example of a region is Western Europe with the US. But, at the multi-national stage, consolidation, and thus product planning, does not take place across regions; a regiocentric approach.
Global marketing
When a company becomes a global marketer, it views the world as one market and creates products that will only require weeks to fit into any regional marketplace. Marketing decisions are made by consulting with marketers in all the countries that will be affected. The goal is to sell the same thing the same way everywhere.
Advantages
Economies of scale in production and distribution
Lower marketing costs
Power and scope
Consistency in brand image
Ability to leverage good ideas quickly and efficiently
Uniformity of marketing practices
Helps to establish relationships outside of the "political arena"
Helps to encourage ancillary industries to be set up to cater for the needs of the global player
Disadvantages
Differences in consumer needs, wants, and usage patterns for products.
Differences in consumer response to marketing mix elements
Differences in brand and product development and the competitive environment
Differences in the legal environment, some of which may conflict with those of the home market.
Differences in the institutions available, some of which may call for the creation of entirely new ones (e.g. infrastructure)
Differences in administrative procedures
Differences in product placement.
Global Marketing Environment
Demographic Environment
Demography is the study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race, occupation, and other statistics. The demographic environment is of major interest to marketers because it involves people, and people make up markets. The world population is growing at an explosive rate. It now totals more than 5.9 billion and will exceed 7.9 billion by the year 2025. The explosive world population growth has major implications for business. A growing population means growing human needs to satisfy. Depending on purchasing power,, it may also mean growing market opportunities. The world’s large and highly diverse population poses both opportunities and challenges. Thus, marketers keep close track of demographic trends and developments in their markets, both at home and abroad. They track changing age and family structures, geographic population shifts, educational characteristics, and population diversity
Economic Environment
The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Nat ions vary great ly in their levels and distribution of income. Some countries have subsistence economies they consume most of their own agricultural and industrial output. These countries offer few market opportunities. At the other extreme are industrial economies, which constitute rich markets for many different kinds of goods. Marketers must pay close attention to major trends and consumer spending patterns both across and within their world markets. Marketers should pay attention to income distribution as well as average income. Income distribution in the still very poor. At the top are upper- class consumers, whose spending patterns are not affected by current economic events and who are a major market for luxury goods. There is a comfortable middle class that is some what careful about its spending but can still afford the good life some of the time. The working class must stick close to the basics of food, clothing, and shelter and must try hard to save. Finally, the poor class must count their pennies when making even the most basic purchases. Over the past three decades, the rich have grown richer, the middle class has shrunk, and the poor have remained poor.
Natural Environment
The natural environment involves the natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities. Marketers should be aware of several trends in the natural environment. The first involves growing shortages of raw materials. Air and water may seem to be infinite resources, but some group see long-run dangers. Air pollution chokes many of the world’s large cities and water shortages are already a big problem in some parts of the world. Renewable resources, such as forests and food, also have to be used wisely. Nonrenewable resources, such as oil, coal, and various minerals, pose a serious problem. Firms making resources, such as oil, coal, and various minerals, pose a serious problem. Firms making products that require these scarce resources face large cost increases, even if the materials do remain available.
Technological Environment
The technological environment is perhaps the most dramatic force now shaping our destiny. Technology has released such wonders as antibiotics, organ transplants, computers, and the Internet. It also has released such horrors as nuclear missiles, chemical weapons, and assault rifles. It has released such mixed blessing as the automobile, television, and credit cards. New technologies create new markets and opportunities. However, every new technology replaces an older technology. Transistors hurt the vacuum-tube industry, xerography hurt the carbon-paper business, the auto hurt the railroads, and compact disks hurt phonograph records. When old industries fought or ignored new technologies, their businesses declined. Thus, marketers should watch the technological environment closely. Companies that do not keep up with technological change soon will find their products outdated. And they will miss new product and market opportunities.
Political Environment
Marketing decisions are strongly affected by developments in the political environment. The political environment consists of laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a given society. Even the most liberal advocates of free-market economies agree that the system works best with at least some regulation. Well-conceived regulation can encourage competition and ensure fair markets for goods and services. Thus, governments develop public policy to guide commerce-sets of laws and regulations that limit business for the good of society as a whole. Almost every marketing activity is subject to a wide range of laws and regulations. Legislation affecting business around the world has increased steadily over the years. The States has many laws covering issues such as competition, fair trade practices, environmental protect ion, product safety, truth in advertising, packaging and labeling, pricing, and other important areas. The European Commission has been active in establishing a new framework of laws covering competitive behavior, product standards, product liability, and commercial transact ions for the nations of the European Union.
27. Market Analysis and Sales Development of Amul Milk
Abstract
The dairy industries companies run mainly on the factors such as availability, service frequency, affordability, taste and marketing. Availability is plays a vital role because purchasing power is depend upon availability of that product, in case distributors and retailers service matter a lot. Retailing includes all the activity in selling goods or service directly to the customers or personal nonbusiness use .A retailer or retail store is any business enterprises whose sales volume comes primarily from retailing. Retailers are the part of milk marketing channels and perform the work of moving goods from producers to the customers. It overcomes the time, place and possession gap that separates goods and service from those who needs or wants them.
Retailers as member of marketing channel perform a number of key functions. Some functions (physical, title, promotion) constitute a forward flow of activity from the company to the customers; other functions (ordering and payment) constitute a backward flow from customers to the company. Still others (information, negotiation, finance and risk taking) in both directions. The project delves into the workings from the distribution aspect of an FMCG organization, in detail. AMUL, being an FMCG company, attaches a lot of significance to the distribution aspect of its business.
The distribution channel of AMUL holds a lot of potential in affecting the demand or sales of AMUL products through delivery on time, delivery of variety of products, the retailerfriendliness of the policies being set by the distributors and equitable distribution of products to all the retail outlets in a particular region, to name a few. So, In order to plan retail coverage we map out the positions of Amul outlets, Amul parlors, and competitor’s outlets.
This project was carried out in Pune city. For analyzing and presenting information that is tied to geographical location, we divided the city in different wards. By analyzing geographical representation and sales data with spatial distribution Amul outlets, competitor’s outlets and the density of others in an area, we identify unexplored area and plan location outlets to increase its market penetration. Using such research we can ascertain the quality and depth of retail penetration in specific area.
Objective of the Study
The Primary objective of study was to find size of retail network of Amul Taaza and Amul Gold in specific areas of Pune city. In the study my intention was go through the retail network of Amul dairy milk to know retailers view about supply chain of Amul dairy milk, to know the complaints of Amul dairy milk and to find the suggestions from retailers for more penetration of Amul dairy milk in Pune region.
The secondary objective was to find customer response towards Amul milk. My aim was to go through the customers to know the interest of purchasing & using Amul milk. Basically the study was for the demand of Amul milk among the customers. And also to know the complaints on Amul milk.
Research type was descriptive. The research was done through retailers. I have collected the primary data through questionnaire which was filled by retailers, customers. Questions were both open and close ended. The secondary data was collected from website www.amul.com. Sampling done is nonprobability sampling. The type of sampling method was Judgment sampling
In Pune region there are around more players in of liquid milk exist. Those are like Chitale, Katraj, Krishnai, Mahanand, Amul, Warna, and many other local brands. As per the findings CHITALE is the Market leader and having more market share. Awareness of Amul dairy milk among the retailers as well as consumers is average but acceptance is low. The sale is totally depends on the retailers.
The study carried out in Pune city so its scope is mainly limited to Pune city.
It gives information about the size of the retail network.
It gives information about the services given by distributor to their retailer.
It gives information about the competitors’ products.
It will serve consumer in better manner.
It provides suggestions to the company to improve their products sales.
It gives information about the sales promotion activities to improve the milk sale
Amul Secret Of Success
The system succeeded mainly because it provides an assured market at remunerative prices for producers' milk besides acting as a channel to market the production enhancement package. What's more, it does not disturb the agro-system of the farmers. It also enables the consumer an access to high quality milk and milk products. Contrary to the traditional system, when the profit of the business was cornered by the middlemen, the system ensured that the profit goes to the participants for their socio-economic upliftment and common good. Looking back on the path traversed by Amul, the following features make it a pattern and model for emulation elsewhere.
Amul has been able to:
Produce an appropriate blend of the policy makers farmers board of management and the professionals: each group appreciating its rotes and limitations.
Bring at the command of the rural milk producers the best of the technology and harness its fruit for betterment.
Provide a support system to the milk producers without disturbing their agro-economic systems.
Plough back the profits, by prudent use of men, material and machines, in the rural sector for the common good and betterment of the member producers.
Even though, growing with time and on scale, it has remained with the smallest producer members. In that sense, Amul is an example par excellence, of an intervention for rural change.
The Union looks after policy formulation, processing and marketing of milk, provision of technical inputs to enhance milk yield of animals, the artificial insemination service, veterinary care, better feeds and the like - all through the village societies. Basically the union and cooperation of people brought Amul into fame i.e. AMUL (ANAND MILK UNION LIMITED), a name which suggest THE TASTE OF INDIA. Amul (Anand milk union ltd.) is based on four hands, which are coordinated with each other. The actual meaning of this symbol is co-ordination of four hands of different people by whom this union is at the top position in Asia.
First hand is of farmers, without whom the organization would not have existed.
Second hand is of processors, who process the row material (milk) into finished goods.
Third hand is of marketer, without whom the product would have not reached the customers.
Fourth hand is of customers, without whom the products would have not carried on.
Observation Findings
• Retailers are not interested because they don’t have storage facility but if company provides them such facility they will be sale Amul milk.
• Because of low profit margin almost all retailers are not interested in Amul milk selling.
• The 250 ml and 5 Ltr milk pouch are no available to the retailers for selling.
• On question, why retailers are not interested in selling of Amul milk, it is found they were not happy with margin, availability and replacement of leak pouches.
• Retailers were selling different brands. Because they were able to receive more margin from non popularized brand that they could not from well known brands.
• All retailers get Amul milk from company selected distributors.
• Measurable amount of retailers were not happy with the distributors, because of frequent change in distributors and late delivery of milk.
• All retailers were familiar with sales promotion activities undertaken by Amul. But more of the activities were not communicated by distributors. So it shows that distributors are taking the advantage of such activities.
• Some questions were asked with view to convert retailers into distributors, but due to low margin they denied that.
• Retailers were not interested to start APO because to start APO one required large amount investment i.e. near about 2 Lakhs and with this it is mandatory to sale only Amul products, so most of the retailers did not show interest in APO.
• I found that customers were complaining about the packaging especially packaging date because Amul do not print packaging date on pouch.
• When question came to retailers ratings towards Amul milk rating most of the most respondents complaining about profit margin and packaging date.
• During campaign it is found that the mindset of consumers towards Chitale milk is very high and hence it has become a milk maket player. As from the sales chart it is clear that the sales of Chitale pouch milk is 50% more then Amul pouch milk.
• Retailers also demand for the replacements for the damage due to the spoilage of milk that they have to bear when the Amul milk gets spoiled after the purchase.
30. Nonconventional Distribution Channel
Abstract
The principal task of marketing management is to fulfil the aspirations of the consumer. It is thus imperative to understand what the consumers want; how they make the choice; or what are there source of information and influence processes etc. In this process an organization can identify new opportunities in the market; evaluate and monitor marketing actions; and in general, evolve better marketing program to serve the interest of customers. Thus market research acts a link between the consumer and the marketer.
The market today gradually becoming a buyers market and hence consumer satisfaction has become a main motto of any organization and M/S Shrirang Kisanlal Sarda and Group can never be an exception. Instead, this group is going all out to adopt several measures to achieve consumer satisfaction. M/s Shrirang Kisanlal Sarda planned to launch a new brand of hair care product in future in the market and hence they want to carry out a Market Research for studying the feasibility of the product.
The aim of this project is to find out the availability of different brands and the consumer attitude towards that available brand. Before launching any product it is necessary for the company to become aware of the expectation of its potential consumer, their buying behavior and the demand in the existing market for such product. This information will help the company to design its marketing strategies and advertising campaign The Research was important because there is a great deal of variety and strategic competition existing in the market for snacks products that is offered under different brand names .
This project was a challenging one, as it involved intense Market Research by studying the different nonconventional routes used by the companies & listing down different nonconventional routes that can be used for distributing Yogi Vitamala.
Objective of the Study
The objectives of the project were:
To find out the different nonconventional channel for the product Yogi Vitamala.
To identify the different promotional activities , merits & demerits of these channels.
To gain practical knowledge.
Exposure of the market via Market Research.
To study the usage and attitude of hair care product consumer.
To make valuable contributions by way of recommendations and suggestions for launching Yogi Vitamala through a nonconventional channel..
FINDINGS
Majority of the people believe in ayurveda & as this product is ayurvedic made of amla & placed in healthy snacks category this product has good chance of generating revenue if promoted as a good for skin & hair.
Nonconventional channels are useful when the customers of all class have to be covered. Also the customer knowledge about the product can increase.
Price is the primary consideration while using such channels. Company has to keep price lower than the conventional outlets.
Company has to spend heavily if they have to succeed through these channels.
But the main disadvantages in using these channels are
1) Alternative distribution channels do not offer better margins and are, at best, tools to gain accessibility in certain areas.
2) Distribution costs across such channels are identical to those in conventional routes, so there is little saving.
31. Prepare Wholesale Business Model Optimization
Abstract
Every business organization big or small has its own sets of problems. Sometimes they enjoy advantages over others; sometimes they also have to bear the heat of the competition. They are not above the ups and downs of the business. Colgate Palmolive is the world leader in oral care industry. They cater the need of different segments by offerring innovative products. The main objectives of this study is to find the new potential retail outlets and rearranging the whole Pune district distribution and also study the wholesale market in detail on the various basis and also find out the ways to reduce the involvement of wholesalers in distribution channel.
The study required a detailed study of Pune market. A detail wholesaler and retailer survey was conducted to find out all the aspects related wholesale and retail market. Two different questionnaires for wholesaler and retailers were made and direct interviews were held to get first hand information. The data collected from the two surveys were scientifically analyzed and conclusions ware drawn. Based on these conclusions and managerial theory we recommend a set of activities to be implemented by Colgate Palmolive India Ltd. in order to reduce the involvement of wholesaler and to promote secondary brands for business expansion.
Wholesaling is concerned with the activities of those persons or establishments which sell to retailers and other merchants and or to industrial institutional and commercial user s nut who do not sell in significant amount to ultimate consumers.
Objective of the Study
A project will haywire if it does not have its objective clear. If one knows the whole only then the right path can be decided and with disciplined work and positive attitude achieving this objective will be a catwalk.
Therefore, we also set down the objectives before starting the project which are as follows.
1. Study of Wholesale business in detail.
2. Study the performance of Colgate Palmolive Brands in wholesale market.
3. To study their customer base and also their customer retention strategies.
4. How can Colgate reduce the involvement of wholesaler in their distribution chain?
5. How to optimize supply through wholesale channels?
6. How to promote secondary brands in wholesale market?
7. Find out new potential retail outlets for expansion of the business.
8. Also take part in rearranging the whole Pune district distribution of Colgate Palmolive.
Nothing is perfect in this world. The last perfect person was crucified to the cross. This project is not an exception to this rule.
Following are the limitations of the project:
i. The study is made on the responses to the questionnaire framed.
ii. Though utmost care has been taken, the views expressed by the sample may not represent the views of the population at large.
iii. Sometimes due to lack of time the respondent may not have given reliable information.
iv. Some respondents did not see the project important so they gave exaggerated information that had to be manipulated.
v. Conclusions arrived at might not be suitable to the other part the city.
FINDINGS
Most of wholesaler have fixed client so they can serve better to their customers and they can promote the brands which are not in demand.
Many wholesalers have local retailer as their clients.
Lot of wholesalers serve around 150 to 200 clients in day .so we can understand that lot of retailers is not served by distributor of Colgate. So there is big loophole.
Main point in wholesaler business is about credit period. But there are lot of wholesalers who are not doing business credit. They offer credit on basis of reliability.
Most of wholesalers serve to big and small retailers and household customers
We can say that secondary brands like Colgate gel, herbal, Palmolive range are lacking behind because of poor promotions.
Toothbrush of Colgate are doing good business because of increase in margins
Wholesalers replied that they can get products much lower rate then distributor but for service and relation they purchase from distributor.
Lot of wholesalers pass on scheme to retailers who have idea about it and also on the reliability of retailers .
Lot of wholesalers gives good treatment to local manufacturer because of huge margins and regular availability.
RECOMMENDATIONS
First try to cover the retailers from rural and slum areas.
Try to calculate every wholesalers average purchase pattern and keep on giving good services to high potential wholesalers. try supply more quantity of secondary brands
.
Try to find out wholesalers who are giving lower business at six month average according with that omit those wholesalers.
Do not give very high scheme and margins because the purchases the products in huge quantity and start under cutting.
Try to give specific target for wholesalers market and retail market according with the market potential.
Cover the retailers from newly developing and upcoming boundaries and areas of city.
Use more and more POP material at wholesalers counter and also distribute to the retailers for increasing sale of secondary brands if we try cover the marginal account then first for few month try give them financial support by way of easy credit terms .
keep regular eye on the distributor because they are selling and supplying the products other than there territory or city. Because of the big target.
Use some of the mechanisms which are used by wholesalers such as regular product availability, good constant service try create personal relation ship with every wholesalers.
Try to promote secondary brands in market first by huge promotion technique because when the primary demand will create then and then only sale will increase.
31. Event Marketing
Abstract
Event Marketing is growing at a rate of three times that of traditional advertising. Though relatively small compared to the major components of the marketing communications mix-advertising, sales promotions and P-O-P communications-expenditures on event sponsorship are increasing. Corporate sponsorships in India in 2001 were estimated at $3.9 billion-with 65% of this total going to sports events and most of the remainder spent on sponsoring entertainment tours or festival and fairs. Thousands of companies invest in some form of event sponsorship. Defined, event marketing is a form of brand promotion that ties a brand to a meaningful athletic, entertainment, cultural, social or other type of high-interest public activity. Event marketing is distinct from advertising, sales promotion, point-of-purchase merchandising, or public relations, but it generally incorporates elements from all of these promotional tools. Event promotions have an opportunity to achieve success because, unlike other forms of marketing communications, events reach people when they are receptive to marketing messages and capture people in a relaxed atmosphere.
Event marketing is growing rapidly because it provides companies alternatives to the cluttered mass media, an ability to segment on a local or regional basis, and opportunities for reaching narrow lifestyle groups whose consumption behavior can be linked with the local event. MasterCard invested an estimated $25 million in sponsoring the nine-city World Cup soccer championship in the United States in 1994 and will likely sponsor other big events in many countries as well.
Olympics and its renowned five rings are "the world's most effective property" in terms of marketing tools. The Olympics sell sponsorship on a local and global basis, and every couple of year's corporation's line up to pay as much as $50 million to be the lord of the rings. The Atlanta games in 1996 have a reported $3 billion in the bank as a result of negotiating sponsorship, broadcast, and licensee fees.
Objective of the Study
To study Event Marketing as a Generic Promotional Tool:
The objective of this study is to understand the concept of event marketing, its benefits and implementation process.
To evaluate the effectiveness of Event Marketing as a promotional tool.
To identify the problems associated with event marketing in the Indian scenario.
To offer suggestions for improvement to make it a more productive investment.
Also to study Event Management for organizing and managing the event in best way:
The objective of this study is to understand the event management as a communication tool.
Launching a product or a service.
Communicate to a particular target audience.
To make proper strategy , plan and execution of an event
The need of the project is to study and analyses certain issues in event marketing and event management, which need further attention. And some suggestions have been given to make the Event Marketing and event management industry more effective in order to utilize its full potential and serve the objective of an event and be mutually beneficial for the Event agency, the Corporate and the customer.
To understanding the short coming of event marketing and event management.
How these are perceived today.
Problems faced by Indian event agencies.
Understand and manage the event in the best and effective way.
The few reasons for choosing event marketing as a promotion tool are as follows:
To accelerate your product into new markets.
To judge your products against the competition.
To launch new products/services.
To appeal to special customer interests.
To make more sales calls in a shorter time cycle.
To meet potential customers for new applications.
To change or improve the perception of your product.
To network with customers not normally called upon.
To present your products to buyers face-to-face.
To promote positive product trends.
To reposition your company in a market.
To select a new approach to marketing your product.
To target markets by types of visitors.
To understand customer attitudes.
To invite special customers to increase business
Communication Effects of Event Marketing
Communication is the process of moving a message that includes different elements. Those elements include source, message, channel, receiver and the process of encoding and decoding. The source is the organization, the message could be a new car launch, the channel could be the event, and attendees are the receivers. A problem many marketers have is to make sure that the noise that can disturb the message going from the sender to the receiver does not interfere with the message, and thereby influence the effect it has on the customer. The direct communication with the customer is one of the main advantages with Event Marketing compared to other marketing channels. In the definition of Event Marketing, it is said that "an event is an activity that gathers the target group in time and room." This means that the event is eliminated from the noise.
Event Marketing is marketing communication in four different dimensions. The first one is the emotional communication method. The Event Marketing is a form of "pull" marketing, where the organizations try to get closer to the feelings and emotions of the customers. They do this not by "pushing" their products at the customers, but by touching the customers' emotional feelings.
The second dimension touches the customers by involving them in activities. When the customer gets a feeling from a product, he/she is informed of the value of the product. An example of this in the car industry is the test-driving of new cars. The third dimension is the intellectual dimension and it regards the relevance of the event for the customers. The fourth dimension is the spatial dimension, how to get the three prior dimensions into action and to inform the customers through all marketing channels. Some researchers say that in the future, customers will not buy just the product, but the meaning, the event and the character, which in turn give the customers the possibility to create their own value for the product.
An event as a medium is in a tentative/favorable position now and will continue to remain so in the near future and tend towards becoming stronger. Event as a strategic marketing communication tool would gain significant followers and will bite into a much larger portion of the marketing budget.
The Complexity Of Evaluating Event Marketing
An event is concerned with a message, an interaction and integration. A message creates something valuable for the customer, and gives the customer some kind of experience. The interaction between the organization and the customer will create a relationship. The integration part is concerned with how the Event Marketing is part of the other marketing strategies. Event Marketing are not being evaluated to full extent due to lack-of time, ignorance and due to the fact that it is hard to evaluate it. Some of the interviewed persons agreed with this theory, and believed that ignorance made evaluation complicated. Furthermore, evaluations not conducted due to lack of time. The interviews also discussed that Event Marketing is only one of the possible marketing channels that can be used when marketing a product, and therefore it is hard to evaluate it separately from the other marketing tools. The more complex the marketing strategy, the harder it is to see what influenced the customer to buy the product.
Other reasons why it could be hard to evaluate the event is because someone's experience cannot be valued on a scale, and the interaction as a relation is not measurable. Furthermore, depending on all other marketing aspects it is hard to see why the customer has a specific feeling for a product. Kotler claims that the easiest marketing channel to evaluate is direct marketing. By using direct marketing it is easy to follow up exactly where the customers have seen the coupons, brochures etc. However, none of the interviewed persons mentioned that it would be easier to evaluate direct marketing than Event Marketing
32. Market Analysis Of LG Consumer Durables
Abstract
Before the liberalization of the Indian economy, only a few companies like Kelvinator, Godrej, Alwyn, and Voltas were the major players in the consumer durables market, accounting for no less than 90% of the market. Then, after the liberalization, foreign players like LG, Sony, Samsung, Whirlpool, Daewoo, and Aiwa came into the picture. Today, these players control the major share of the consumer durables market. Consumer durables market is expected to grow at 10-15% in 2007-2008. It is growing very fast because of rise in living standards, easy access to consumer finance, and wide range of choice, as many foreign players are entering in the market With the increase in income levels, easy availability of finance, increase in consumer awareness, and introduction of new models, the demand for consumer durables has increased significantly. Products like washing machines, air conditioners, microwave ovens, color televisions (CTVs) are no longer considered luxury items.
However, there are still very few players in categories like vacuum cleaners, and dishwashers Consumer durables sector is characterized by the emergence of MNCs, exchange offers, discounts, and intense competition. The market share of MNCs in consumer durables sector is 65%. MNC's major target is the growing middle class of India . MNCs offer superior technology to the Consumers whereas the Indian companies compete on the basis of firm grasp of the local market, their well-acknowledged brands, and hold over wide distribution network. However, the penetration level of the consumer durables is still low in India .
The LG Group was a merger of two Korean companies, Lucky and Gold Star, from which the abbreviation of LG was derived. The current "Life's good" slogan is a backronym. Before the corporate Name change to LG, household products were sold under the Brand name of Lucky, while electronic products were sold under the brand name of Gold Star. The Gold Star brand is still perceived as a discount brand. In 1995, Gold Star was renamed LG Electronics, and acquired Zenith Electronics of the United States
Distribution and Marketing
The company has number of dealers and warehouses. They have LG exclusive shops. For the marketing of the products a number of activities are followed:
1. Exhibitions are conducted from time to time.
2. Society and college activities are conducted.
3. Hoarding, Posters, banners are used so as to grab the attention of the costumers.
4. Day to day advertisement in leading newspaper.
5. Discount at festival time.
6. For dealer relationship they arrange dealer meeting at several time in the year
7. LG divide dealer in gold silver etc. category to know the performance of the dealers.
8. They have their sales persons at various sub dealer store and at mordent trade store for particularly for the promotion of the LG product.
9. LG also uses the radio FM for the promotion activities.
10.Also provide capon and scratch card for festive season
Logistics is the art and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information, and other resources like products, services, and people, from the source of production to the marketplace. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufacturing without logistical support. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible.
Logistics Management is that part of the supply chain, which plans, implements and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers' requirements.
5R's of Logistic followed by LG:
1. Right Time
2. Right Place
3. Right Condition
4. Right Cost
5. Right Handling
Customer Service
LG also had a big problem of after sale service in India . During the project we also came to know that after sale service becomes the big issue in the region. Customers as well as dealer were facing the problem of after sales service. Because of this problem many dealer in the region were not ready to sell LG product. So it becomes the big issue. But LG has taken some solid steps towards improving customer's perception and experience of after sales service. Because it very important in competitive market to provide the best service. L G Electronics has signed a memorandum of understanding with 23 Industrial Training Institutes to strengthen its after sales service in India .
The company aims to recruit 10,000 people by the end of this year as a part of its branding strategy to focus on service and move away from discounting. L G Electronics has identified eight states with high after sales service call rates to ink the deals with the ITI. Y V Verma, director HR and management system, LG Electronics said, "The Company was trying to find a solution for effective after sales service since last two years. There is a huge need of trained manpower for the after sales service to align with the company's expansion and focus on the GSM mobiles and the personal computer segments."
1. In the initial phase the company has entered into agreements with ITIs in the states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi , Punjab , Assam , and Karnataka and is in the last leg of signing with Uttar Pradesh.
2. L G Electronics, with 1200 service centers, has already recruited 300 students and plans to beef up the number to 10,000 by the year-end.
3. "The company has offered a scholarship to the selected students for the last six months of their training program,"
4. The company will invest Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million) in employee development program this year with an aim to attain a 8 per cent attrition rate.
5. The company moved away from the discounting strategy since last year and is putting thrust on the quality and service in its brand communication to position LG as a premium consumer electronics brand.
6. At the top, the Service Division in Korea reports to the Global CMO. (as mentioned in Dermot's public interview in ET on Wednesday). This shows commitment that Service must be made into a marketing differentiator, and leveraged thus.
7. LG has the widest service network across the country; some estimates put it at a significant multiple of service-infrastructure from our nearest competitor. While the sale size may also be a nice multiple from nearest, it shows the company is ready to put our money where our mouth is.
8. The company has introduced a 211 service - once you register your complaint, we will call you back in 2 hours (hence 2), set up an appointment for the next convenient day for you (hence the first 1), and show up in the promised 1-hour slot (hence the second 1). If the next convenient day for you is the next day, that's great too. It's a disruptive action in an industry (including LG) having traditionally shied away from its service responsibilities, and thus not leveraging any mileage from it.
9. The company is promoting 211 through ATL, probably the first time after sales service is being communicated in this fashion by any product company. You may have seen the TV commercial or heard the radio advert or seen the newspaper ad or in-shop posters, both of which revolve around prompt response.
33. Marketing Survey and Channel Development
Abstract
Marketing channels for refers to an organized network of inter connected organization and agencies involve in the process of making the product or services available to customers. They are the intermediaries and also known as the middleman. Producers of services also need to think about the channels of distribution, which can make their services available to the customers. They distribution of services is a critical task due to their intangibility, perish, inseparability, etc. Therefore mostly the direct channel i.e. zero level is used in this case the provider directly sales his services to customers. However some service provider makes take help of the agents who can provide information of the customers, book the order and collect the payment on behalf of the service providers. In any casa channel length does not exceed one level. Some big and reputed service provider train the individuals to perform service and franchise their services e.g. Employment agencies, travel agencies etc.
India is not recognized as a first emerging market for a insurance. The Indian insurance is accepted to be $25 billion in 2010 on an assumption of 9.7 % real growth in the GDP. With the passing or IRDA act in 2000 the insurance market in India has been open to privet sector. As a result as many as 34 insurance companies entered the market; in collaboration with foreign companies by end of 2002-2003 the market has now become highly competitive and challenging.
In spite of significant growth in telecommunication sector in the recent past, the teledensity in India was abysmally low compared to other countries the teledensity in India was only 1.89 by the end of 2002. Telecommunication has tremendous growth potential. The rapid growth in cellular, radio paging, value added services, internet and global mobile communication by satellite services, besides basic telephone services, is an indicator of the bright future of sector.
Objective of this Report
• To approach the people for becoming a financial advisor.
• To study about the potential customer in the market.
• To hire the new financial advisor for the company so that the business of the company should grow faster.
• To study about the marketing strategy of company.
The scope of project was all about recruiting the financial advisors for the company on commission basis. I was suppose to generate the leads then meet those people, telling them the concept of financial advisor and convincing them to join the company and finally get the undertaking forms filled and thus closing the leads.
In random sampling methods, the sample units are selected at random. Random sampling follows a precisely specified system where there is no scope for biased selection of sample unit's take place by sheer chance of being selected. Data is collected from each and every unit in the population; it is termed as census survey.
To overall census population of questionnaire survey hence proper sampling design is done so that particular sample represents that census.
Findings
• To register for being Financial advisor applicants need to pay a sum of Rs.1000/- some people find it difficult to pay at single time. Especially, the student who are non-residents in Aurangabad . Therefore ICICI Prudential can have installment facility for such people so that they can pay in lots.
• After registration the candidates are provided with training of 100Hrs. they can opt for either classroom training or Internet training as per their convenience. The company sponsors the classrooms training. Whereas. Foe Internet Training candidate need to pay themselves. Here the company can sponsor these students also to create a favorable image in the minds of candidate undergoing the Internet training.
• The company can grab more and more customers. If it has image of first choice employer in the mind of Financial Advisor. It can create such image by providing additional facilities and assistance to Financial Advisor.
• The company can go for outsourcing its business, to take proper care of its exiting customer and obtain new prospect to expand its business.
34. Lux Marketing Project
Abstract
Unilever is a multinational consumer product manufacturing giant operating in over hundred countries all around the globe. Unilever Bangladesh is the Bangladesh chapter of Unilever, where the company holds 60.75% share whereas the Government of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh holds 39.25% share.
Unilever's one of the most popular brand is LUX. They segments LUX.'s market according to geographical locations . It further differentiates these segments into Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) which takes into account the criteria of education and profession which ultimately measures the financial ability of consumers. The cluster is divided into five parts starting from A to E. Unilever targets the urban and sub urban upper middle class and middle class segment of the population, who falls under A to C of SEC.
Tactical marketing tools, 4P's, are extensively used by the company to market LUX. Though LUX is produced in Bangladesh , Unilever Bangladesh maintains the same standard all around the globe. The product is available in six different fragrances under three different sizes. Since the demand for beauty soap market is to a great extent oligopolistic, variations in price lead to price war which can eventually break down the company's market share. Thus Unilever cannot provide a better price than its competitors. But the price is affordable by most of the people. Unilever Bangladesh has outsourced its distribution channels to third party distributors which allow them to distribute LUX in massive bulks amounting to around ten million pieces. It undertakes the largest promotional activities in the beauty soap industry.
The beauty soap industry has a few major producers of which Unilever holds market share of slightly less than 50%. Other competing brands like Tibbet, Aromatic and Keya have started to have a strong consumer base, but LUX.'s product features distribution and promotional activities have created high brand loyalty for which it is still the market leader.
Unilever, with the aid of its heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. But the other producers in the industry are posing a threat towards Unilever's market share as they have moved towards the rural masses of the population. Therefore, Unilever Bangladesh should undertake further steps such as moving towards the rural and/or poorer segment; attract children (by making a special product for kids) and other innovative promotional activities to retain its command in the industry.
Objective of this Report
This report is an outcome of an analysis of marketing strategies used by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. The main purpose of the report is to find what strategies the company uses to market its world famous beauty soap, LUX, in Bangladesh; the positive and negative aspects of those strategies. The report further analyzes the position of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. in the toiletry industry in comparison to its competitors. The report discusses the process of using market segmentation, target marketing, the product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies and a competitive analysis.
For accessibility and availability of information we have chosen to work on the strategies of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. As the company operates in the market with a huge number of products in different industries, we have decided to focus on one of their world wide successful brands, LUX. Most of the information used in this report is from primary sources . The main source of information was the focus group discussion. In addition information was also collected from websites
The company claims that LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh . Moreover some survey reports also reveal the same result.Though LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh , it does not go for traditional mass marketing. Moreover as a beauty soap LUX does not even segment its market according to gender.
Using the Tactical Marketing Tools
Product:
LUX is an internationally renowned beauty soap brand of Unilever. Though manufactured in Bangladesh for the local market by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as an international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. Formula given by Research and Development departments in foreign countries, LUX is produced in Bangladesh from imported raw materials like sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to flavors, coming from Unilever plants situated abroad.
LUX is offered in Bangladesh in six different flavors which are: LUX Energizing Honey, LUX Golden Glow, LUX Nature Pure, LUX Orchid Touch, LUX Almond Delight and LUX Aqua Sparkle. Taking into account the convenience of its customers, the company manufactures all flavors of LUX in three different sizes, 40gm, 80gm and 120gm.
Price:
Though Unilever Bangladesh gives its LUX customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a vulnerable demand in Bangladesh. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor. Table 3.1 (p-10) compares Lux's price with its major competitor . Company carries out research on competitors' price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessaity of chaging price. The brand loyalty test is an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU).
Place:
Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. has a huge distribution channel for LUX all over the country as its sales reach more than 10 million pieces a year. The company has six huge warehouses, one in each division of Bangladesh , where the product goes after they are manufactured at Kalurghat factory. Table 3.2 (P-10) shows the location of its six warehouses in Bangladesh.
The company does not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product. However, it has outsourced its distribution process to various third party distributors, exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over Bangladesh to a huge number of retailers. Even though LUX targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over Bangladesh because of a recent increase in demand of its product to all segments of the population.
Promotion:
Unilever Bangladesh undertakes huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped the beauty soap industry of Bangladesh . It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional activities for LUX 1
It's certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Channel i Superstar and LUX Channel i Annual Cinema Awards has made the product a part of the glamour world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the world's most stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements . They do not only promote LUX in Bangladesh for the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan for their advertising campaign.
Unilever Bangladesh Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover it also undertakes small promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests. Till now promotional activities of LUX has always been successful which has made it a household common name and helped it reach almost one billion taka sale value in the year 2004
Unilever is one of the world's largest and leading multinational companies; Unilever commenced their business activities on a larger scale by setting up their first factory in Netherlands , in the year of 1872. Operating in Bangladesh for over the last four decades the company is trying to significantly contribute towards the augmentation of the standard of living by bringing world class high quality products at the door step of their customers. The usage of Unilever products by over 90% of the people in Bangladesh stands a testimony to their successful operation. . Their array of products show that they produce household care, fabric cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, oral care, hair care, personal grooming, and tea based beverage products under worldwide famous brand names Wheel, LUX, Lifebuoy, Fair & Lovely, Pond's, Close Up, Sunsilk, Lipton, Lipton Taaza, Pepsodent, All Clear, Vim, Surf Excel, and Rexona.
35. Consumer Satisfaction
Abstract
The modern concepts of marketing realized that measuring consumer needs or behavior was not enough." Consumer Satisfaction" should be the core and then the correct perception on which marketing policies of our organization should be built. "Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing customer creating value satisfaction." Customer satisfaction has a vital role in sustaining and improving hold on the market. Brief descriptions about the various measures that are needed to improve customer orientation have also been dealt with. Consider the fact todays customer face a plenitude of products in every category. Customer will be having high and raising expectation of quality and service. In the face of their vast choices, the customer will gravitate to the offering that the best meet their individual needs and expectation. They will buy one of the bases of their perception value.
Therefore it is not surprising that today's winning companies are those succeed best in satisfying indeed delighting their target customer. They pay extreme attention to quality and service to meeting and even exceeding customer expectation. They complete vigorously and at the co-operated smartly with their strategy partners in their supply and distribution chain. They pursue efficiently and yet are responsible and flexible.
Customer satisfaction is the outcome felt by buyers who have expectation. Customers are satisfied when their expectation are met and delighted when their expectations are exceeded. Satisfied customers remain loyal longer, buy more, and are less sensitive and talk favorable about the company. From this it is clear that the satisfied customer will be less sensitive towards the fluctuating price and offensive marketing typically cost more than defensive marketing, because it requires much effort and cost to induce satisfied customers to switch away from their current suppliers. We should also consider the fact that "the cost of attracting a new customer may be five times the cost of keeping the current customer happy." Therefore the companies are intending in developing stronger bones and loyalty with their customers.
Need for the Study
• To identify the satisfaction level of customer towards different types of service attributes, by identifying their critical factors.
• To study about the bank about their customized products and services, according to the consumer's needed.
• To study the experience and expectations of the existing customers.
• To study to improve the current standards of services.
• To study the scope of introducing new types of services.
To study about the business tactics followed to stand against the competitors.
This Study will help us to understand the consumer's satisfaction about banking services and products. This study will help banks to Understand, how a consumer selects, organizes and interprets the Quality of service and product offered by banks. The market is more aware and realistic about investment and returns From financial products. In this background this study tries to analyze The customer satisfaction towards banking services in general and IOB In particular.
This study is limited to the customers with in Chennai city. The study will be able to reveal the preferences, needs, satisfaction of the customers regarding the banking services, It also help banks to know whether the existing products or services they are offering are really satisfying the customers' needs.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Formal survey has emerged as by far the best method of periodically the customer satisfaction. The survey are not marketing tools but an information-gaining tool. Enough homework needs to be before embarking on the actual survey. This includes:
Defining Objectives of the Survey
Design Survey approach
Develop questionnaires and forms
Administer Survey (Email, Telephone or Post)
Method of compiling data and analysing the findings
Format of the report to present the findings
There is no point in asking irrelevant questions on a customer satisfaction questionnaire. The basic purpose is to find out what we are doing right or wrong. Where is the scope for improvement, where do we stand vis-à-vis other suppliers. How we can serve the customer better?
Priorities for improvement
Survey forms should be easy to fill out with minimum amount of time and efforts on customer's part. They should be designed to actively encourage the customer to complete the questions. Yet they must provide accurate data should also be sufficiently reliable for management decision making. This can be achieved by incorporating objective type questions where customer has to "rate" on scale of say 1 to 10. For repeated surveys, you could provide the rating that was previously accorded by the customer. This works like a reference point for the customer.
Space should always be provided for the customers own opinions this enables them to state any additional requirements or report any shortcomings that are not covered by the objective questions. Normally, we deal various personnel at various levels in the customer's organization-the buyer, user, receiving inspector, finance and purchase person etc. surveying a number of respondents for each customer gives a complete perspective of customer satisfaction. It may be necessary to device a different questionnaire for each of them. Respondents must be provided a way to express the importance they attach to various survey parameters. Respondents should be asked to give a weighting factor, again on a rating scale of say, 1 to 10, for each requirement. This gives a better indication of relative importance of each parameter towards overall customer satisfaction and makes it easier for suppliers to prioritize their action plans by comparing the performance rating (scores) with importance rating
36. Retailers Project
Abstract
The distribution of consumer products begins with the producer and ends at the ultimate consumer. Between the producer and the consumer there is a middleman---the retailer, who links the producers and the ultimate consumers. Retailing is defined as a conclusive set of activities or steps used to sell a product or a service to consumers for their personal or family use. It is responsible for matching individual demands of the consumer with supplies of all the manufacturers. The word 'retail' is derived from the French work retailer , meaning 'to cut a piece off' or 'to break bulk'.
A retailer is a person, agent, agency, company, or organization which is instrumental in reaching the goods, merchandise, or services to the ultimate consumer. Retailers perform specific activities such as anticipating customer's wants, developing assortments of products, acquiring market information, and financing. A common assumption is that retailing involves only the sale of products in stores. However, it also includes the sale of services like those offered at a restaurant, parlour, or by car rental agencies. The selling need not necessarily take place through a store. Retailing encompasses selling through the mail, the Internet, door-to-door visits---any channel that could be used to approach the consumer. When manufacturers like Dell computers sell directly to the consumer, they also perform the retailing function.
Retailing has become such an intrinsic part of our everyday lives that it is often taken for granted. The nations that have enjoyed the greatest economic and social progress have been those with a strong retail sector. Why has retailing become such a popular method of conducting business? The answer lies in the benefits a vibrant retailing sector has to offer-an easier access to a variety of products, freedom of choice and higher levels of customer service.
Functions of Retailing
Retailers play a significant role as a conduit between manufacturers, wholesalers, suppliers and consumers. In this context, they perform various functions like sorting, breaking bulk, holding stock, as a channel of communication, storage, advertising and certain additional services.
SORTIONG
Manufacturers usually make one or a variety of products and would like to sell their entire inventory to a few buyers to redu7ce costs. Final consumers, in contrast, prefer a large variety of goods and services to choose from and usually buy them in small quantities. Retailers are able to balance the demands of both sides, by collection an assortment of goods from different sources, buying them in sufficiently large quantities and selling them to consumers in small units.
The above process is referred to as the sorting process. Through this process, retailers undertake activities and perform functions that add to the value of the products and services sold to the consumer. Supermarkets in the US offer, on and average, 15,000 different items from 500 companies. Customers are able to choose from a wide range of designs, sizes and brands from just one location. If each manufacturer had a separate store for its own products, customers would have to visit several stores to complete their shopping. While all retailers offer an assortment, they specialize in types of assortment offered and the market to which the offering is made. Westside provides clothing and accessories, while a chain like Nilgiris specializes in food and bakery items. Shoppers' Stop targets the elite urban class, while Pantaloons is targeted at the middle class.
BREAKING BULK
Breaking bulk is another function performed by retailing. The word retailing is derived from the French word retailer, meaning 'to cut a piece off'. To reduce transportation costs, manufacturers and wholesalers typically ship large cartons of the product, which are then tailored by the retailers into smaller quantities to meet individual consumption needs.
HOLDING STOCK
Retailers also offer the service of holding stock for the manufacturers. Retailers maintain an inventory that allows for instant availability of the product to the consumers. It helps to keep prices stable and enables the manufacturer to regulate production. Consumers can keep a small stock of products at home as they know that this can be replenished by the retailer and can save on inventory carrying costs.
ADDITIONAL SERVICES
Retailers ease the change in ownership of merchandise by providing services that make it convenient to buy and use products. Providing product guarantees, after-sales service and dealing with consumer complaints are some of the services that add value to the actual product at the retailers' end. Retailers also offer credit and hire-purchase facilities to the customers to enable them to buy a product now and pay for it later. Retailers fill orders, promptly process, deliver and install products. Salespeople are also employed by retailers to answer queries and provide additional information about the displayed products. The display itself allows the consumer to see and test products before actual purchase. Retail essentially completes transactions with customers.
CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION
Retailers also act as the channel of communication and information between the wholesalers or suppliers and the consumers. From advertisements, salespeople and display, shoppers learn about the characteristics and features of a product or services offered. Manufacturers, in their turn, learn of sales forecasts, delivery delays, and customer complaints. The manufacturer can then modify defective or unsatisfactory merchandise and services.
TRANSPORT AND ADVERTISING FUNCTIONS
Small manufacturers can use retailers to provide assistance with transport, storage, advertising and pre-payment of merchandise. This also works the other way round in case the number of retailers is small. The number of functions performed by a particular retailer has a direct relation to the percentage and volume of sales needed to cover both their costs and profits.
Categorizing Retailers
Categorizing retailers helps in understanding the competition and the frequent changes that occur in retailing. There is no universally accepted method of classifying a retail outlet, although many categorization schemes have been proposed. Some of these include classifying on the basis of
• Number of outlets
• Margin Vs Turnover
• Location
• Size.
The number of outlets operated by a retailer can have a significant impact on the competitiveness of a retail firm. Generally, a greater number of outlets add strength to the firm because it is able to spread fixed costs, such as advertising and managers' salaries, over a greater number of stores in addition to acquiring economies of purchase. While any retailer operating more than one store can be technically classified as a chain owner, for practical purposes a chain store refers to a retail firm which has more than 11 units. In the United States, for example, chain stores account for nearly 95% of general merchandise stores.
Small chains can use economies of scale while tailoring merchandise to local needs. Big chains operating on a national scale can save costs by a centralized system of buying and accounting. A chain store could have either a standard stock list ensuring that the same merchandise is stocked in every retail outlet or an optional stock list giving the outlets the advantage of changing the merchandise according to customer needs in the area. Because of their size, chain stores are often channel captains of the marketing channel-captains can influence other channel partners, such as wholesalers, to carry out activities they might not otherwise engage in, such as extended payment terms and special package sizes.
37. Study of International Marketing
Abstract
Trade is increasingly global in scope today. There are several reasons for this. One significant reason is technological-because of improved transportation and communication opportunities today, trade is now more practical. Thus, consumers and businesses now have access to the very best products from many different countries. Increasingly rapid technology lifecycles also increases the competition among countries as to who can produce the newest in technology. In part to accommodate these realities, countries in the last several decades have taken increasing steps to promote global trade through agreements such as the General Treaty on Trade and Tariffs, and trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the European Union (EU).
Segmentation is the cornerstone of marketing-almost all marketing efforts in some way relate to decisions on who to serve or how to implement positioning through the different parts of the marketing mix. For example, one's distribution strategy should consider where one's target market is most likely to buy the product, and a promotional strategy should consider the target's media habits and which kinds of messages will be most persuasive. Although it is often tempting, when observing large markets, to try to be "all things to all people," this is a dangerous strategy because the firm may lose its distinctive appeal to its chosen segments.
In terms of the "big picture," members of a segment should generally be as similar as possible to each other on a relevant dimension (e.g., preference for quality vs. low price) and as different as possible from members of other segments. That is, members should respond in similar ways to various treatments (such as discounts or high service) so that common campaigns can be aimed at segment members, but in order to justify a different treatment of other segments, their members should have their own unique response behavior.
Approaches to Global Segmentation
There are two main approaches to global segmentation. At the macro level, countries are seen as segments, given that country aggregate characteristics and statistics tend to differ significantly. For example, there will only be a large market for expensive pharmaceuticals in countries with certain income levels, and entry opportunities into infant clothing will be significantly greater in countries with large and growing birthrates (in countries with smaller birthrates or stable to declining birthrates, entrenched competitors will fight hard to keep the market share).
There are, however, significant differences within countries. For example, although it was thought that the Italian market would demand "no frills" inexpensive washing machines while German consumers would insist on high quality, very reliable ones, it was found that more units of the inexpensive kind were sold in Germany than in Italy-although many German consumers fit the predicted profile, there were large segment differences within that country. At the micro level, where one looks at segments within countries. Two approaches exist, and their use often parallels the firm's stage of international involvement. In tra- market segmentation involves segmenting each country's markets from scratch-i.e., an American firm going into the Brazilian market would do research to segment Brazilian consumers without incorporating knowledge of U.S. buyers. In contrast, in ter- market segmentation involves the detection of segments that exist across borders. Note that not all segments that exist in one country will exist in another and that the sizes of the segments may differ significantly. For example, there is a huge small car segment in Europe, while it is considerably smaller in the U.S.
Inter-market segmentation entails several benefits. The fact that products and promotional campaigns may be used across markets introduces economies of scale, and learning that has been acquired in one market may be used in another-e.g., a firm that has been serving a segment of premium quality cellular phone buyers in one country can put its experience to use in another country that features that same segment.
The international product life cycle suggests that product adoption and spread in some markets may lag significantly behind those of others. Often, then, a segment that has existed for some time in an "early adopter" country such as the U.S. or Japan will emerge after several years (or even decades) in a "late adopter" country such as Britain or most developing countries.
Entry Strategies
Methods of entry:
With rare exceptions, products just don't emerge in foreign markets overnight-a firm has to build up a market over time. Several strategies, which differ in aggressiveness, risk, and the amount of control that the firm is able to maintain, are available:
Exporting is a relatively low risk strategy in which few investments are made in the new country. A drawback is that, because the firm makes few if any marketing investments in the new country, market share may be below potential. Further, the firm, by not operating in the country, learns less about the market (What do consumers really want? Which kinds of advertising campaigns are most successful? What are the most effective methods of distribution?) If an importer is willing to do a good job of marketing, this arrangement may represent a "win-win" situation, but it may be more difficult for the firm to enter on its own later if it decides that larger profits can be made within the country.
Licensing and franchising are also low exposure methods of entry-you allow someone else to use your trademarks and accumulated expertise. Your partner puts up the money and assumes the risk. Problems here involve the fact that you are training a potential competitor and that you have little control over how the business is operated. For example, American fast food restaurants have found that foreign franchisers often fail to maintain American standards of cleanliness. Similarly, a foreign manufacturer may use lower quality ingredients in manufacturing a brand based on premium contents in the home country.
Contract manufacturing involves having someone else manufacture products while you take on some of the marketing efforts yourself. This saves investment, but again you may be training a competitor.
Direct entry strategies, where the firm either acquires a firm or builds operations "from scratch" involve the highest exposure, but also the greatest opportunities for profits. The firm gains more knowledge about the local market and maintains greater control, but now has a huge investment. In some countries, the government may expropriate assets without compensation, so direct investment entails an additional risk. A variation involves a joint venture, where a local firm puts up some of the money and knowledge about the local market
An online database of global trade flows in goods and services and tariff measures for international business development and trade promotion, providing detailed export and import profiles and trends for over 5,300 products in over 200 countries and territories. Based on the world's largest database COMTRADE, Trade Map presents import/export values and quantities, growth rates, market shares and market access information. It allows users to analyze markets, select priority countries for export diversification, review the performance of competing countries and assess opportunities for product diversification by identifying existing and potential trade between countries.
Investment Map is an interactive web-based tool that combines statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI), international trade and market access into a single portal. It allows analyses by country, partner and industry. It also includes information on the location, sales, employment and parent company for over 70,000 foreign affiliates located in developing countries and economies in transition. Investment Map, the foreign direct investment with foreign companies, international trade and tariffs is available online free to Sub-Saharan Africa users.
38. Rural Marketing Project
Abstract
In our country over 70% of the total population live in villages. There are states like U.P, M.P, Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa where rural population varies form 80 to 90 per cent. Agriculture and agriculture related activities contribute to about 75% of the income in rural areas.
The general impression is that the rural markets have potential only for agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, cattle feed and agricultural machinery. More than 50% of the national income is generated in rural India and there are opportunities to market modern goods and services in rural areas and also market agricultural products in urban areas. Infact it has been estimated that the rural markets are growing at fives times the rate of urban markets. About 70% of bicycles, mechanical watches and radios and about 60% of batteries, sewing machine and table fans are sold in rural India. At the same time the sales of colour television, washing machines, refrigerators, shampoos, face cream, mosquito repellent and tooth paste are very low and there is tremendous potential for such products in rural markets
While rural markets offer big attractions to the marketers, it is not easy to enter the market and take a sizeable share of the market within a short period. This is due to low literacy, low income, seasonal demand and problems with regards to transportation, communication and distribution channel. Further there are different groups based on religion, caste, education, income and age. There is a need to understand the rural markets in terms of buyer behaviour, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations of people.
Characteristics of Rural Markets
• Large number of consumers:
According to the 1991 census, the rural population constitutes about 74% of the total population in our country. While the population went from 55 crores (1971) to 85 crores (1991), the rural-urban proportion have remained more or less the same as in 1971. There are states like U.P, M.P, Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa where rural population varies from 80 to 90 percent. Therefore a large population gives an opportunity for marketing a variety of goods and services. However income and purchasing power play a major role in determining the demand in rural areas.
• Occupation pattern:
Agriculture and related activities continue to be the main occupation for majority of the rural population. Land is the major source of income for about 77% of the population. Others are engaged in business (10%), non-agriculture labour (9%), salary earners (2%) and not gainfully employed (2%). It is evident that rural prosperity depends upon growth and development of agriculture.
• Literacy level:
It has been estimated that the rural literacy level is 36% compared to 62% in urban areas. Literacy is one of the important factors in developing awareness and knowledge about technological changes. As many as 16 major languages are spoken adding to the complexities in rural communication.
• Low standard of living:
Low income, low purchasing power, overall social and economic backwardness lead to low standard of living. In general a rural consumer spends less on non-food items.
• Media reach:
The media reach in rural household is low. Statistics indicates that the reach of Print media is 10%, followed by TV 31%, Radio 32% and Cinema 36%. Therefore the marketer has to consider rural specific promotion media and methods to reach the villagers.
• Communication facilities:
About 20% of the six lakh villages are without telephone facility even today. This includes Rajasthan (17600 villages), MP (14200 villages), Maharashtra (12000 villages), Gujarat (7000 villages), and AP, Assam, Orissa about 6000 villages each. (Source: The Indian Express dated 30.3.2003).
• Transportation facilities:
About 50% of the markets are not connected by road. Most of the roads are kachha and become unusable during rainy season. Many farmers use bullock cart for transporting their produce from village to the market. This means of transport is time consuming.
• Rural electrification:
The main objective is to provide electricity for agricultural operations and for small industries in rural areas. About 5 lakh villages (77%) have electric supply and this has increased the demand for electric supply and this has increased the demand for electric motors, pumps and agricultural machinery.
• Medical facilities:
Medical facilities are quite inadequate and the villagers have to travel long distances for getting medical treatment.
• Distance:
Village nearer to towns has elements of the urban life. Interior villages are more traditional.
Informal/Rural Specific Media
These media with effective reach and personalized communication will help in realizing the promotional objectives. Companies to suit the specific requirements of rural communication are using a variety of such media effectively and some of the more important media and methods are given below.
• Farm-to-Farm/House-to-House visit:
Rural people prefer face-to-face communication and farm visits facilitate two-way communication. The advantage is that the sales person can understand the needs and wants of the rural customer by directly discussing with him and answer his queries on products and services. Potential customers in the village are identified and the company's/distributor's representative makes farm-to-farm visits and highlight the benefits of the products. The person carries with him literature in local language and also samples of products. The person does not sell the product but only promotes the use of the product. Very often the local dealer also joins the representative in making farm-to-farm visits. The dealer clarifies the terms and conditions of sale and also makes independent follow up visits for securing orders. Example: This approach has been found to be very effective for agricultural machinery, animal health products and agricultural inputs. Many LIC agents and companies dealing with high value consumer durables have tried this method with success in rich rural areas.
• Group meeting:
Group meetings of rural customers as well as prospects are an important part of interpersonal media. The company is able to pass on the message regarding benefits of the products to a large number of customers through such meetings. Group meeting of key customers are conducted by banks, agricultural inputs and machinery companies in rural areas. The bankers visit an identified village, get the village people in a common place and explain the various schemes to the villagers. Such meetings could be organized in prosperous villages for promoting consumer durables and two wheelers also. Example: MRF Tyres conduct tractor owners meet in villages to discuss repairs and maintenance of tractors.
• Opinion leaders:
Villagers place more emphasis on the experience of others who have used a product/brand to make purchase decision. Opinion leader is a person who is considered to be knowledgeable and is consulted by others and his advice is normally followed. Such opinion leaders could be big landlords, bank official, panchayath-president, teachers, extension workers etc. Examples: a) Mahindra Tractors use bankers as opinion leaders for their product. b) Asian Paints promoted its Utsav brand of paint by painting the village Sarpanch's house a few months prior to the launch if the branch to demonstrate that the paint does not peel off.
• The Melas:
Melas are of different types i.e. commodity fairs, cattle fairs and religious fairs and may be held only for a day or may extend over a week. Many companies have come out with creative ideas for participating in such melas. Examples: a) Britannia promotes Tiger Brand Biscuits through melas. b) The mahakumbh at Allahabad is the biggest mela in India. HLL has put up 14 stalls in the mela grounds for promoting Lifebuoy. Handcarts have been deployed for increasing access.
• The Haats:
Traditionally on certain days of week, both the sellers and buyers meet in the village to buy and sell goods and services. These are the haats that are being held regularly in all rural areas. The sellers arrive in the morning in the haat and remain till late in the evening. Next day they move to another haat. The reason being that in villages the wages are paid on weekly basis and haat is conducted on the day when the villages get their wages. For the marketer, the haat can be an ideal platform for advertising and selling of goods. By participating in haats and melas, the company can not only promote and sell the products but also understand the shared values, beliefs and perceptions of rural customers that influence his buying behaviour.
• Folk dances:
These are well-appreciated form of entertainment available to the village people. The folk dance "Kuravan Kurathi" is popular in Tamil Nadu. The troupe consists of dancers, drummers and musicians and they move in a well-decorated van from one village to another village singing and dancing. In a day the troupe covers about 8-10 villages. As soon as the van reaches a village, film songs are played to attract the attention of the villages. This is followed by folk dances. Mike announcement is made about the company's products and leaflets are distributed. After the dance programme, queries, if any, about the products are answered by the sales person. Folk dance programme costs about Rs.5000 per day and therefore these programmes are conducted during the peak season in selected villages. Examples: Fertilizer and pesticide companies organize folk dance programmes during peak season in selected markets. Thumps Up has sponsored Lavnis, the folk dance programme of Maharashtra and over 30 programmes have been arranged in selected rural markets.
• Audio Visual Publicity Vans (AVP Vans):
AV unit is one of the effective tools for rural communication. The van is a mobile promotion station having facilities for screening films slides and mike publicity. The sales person makes a brief talk about situation in the village, the products and the benefits. The ad film is screened along with some popular film shots and this continues for about 30 minutes. At the end of the film show, he distributes handbills and answers queries of the customers. The whole operation takes about 1-2 hours depending upon the products under promotion, number of participants in the meeting and time taken for question and answers. The vans move to the next village for the second show. The cost of running a fully equipped AVP unit is about Rs.4000 per day and AVP van operation has to be considered as an investment for business development in rural areas. Example: Companies such as HLL, Colgate, and Phillips have made effective use of AVP vans for popularizing their products in rural areas.
• Product display contests:
Package is an integral part of the product. Its main purpose is to protect the product during transit, to preserve the quality and to avoid any loss in quality and quantity. The main purpose of this contest is to remind the customer to buy the product as soon as he enters the shop. Another objective is to influence the dealer to stock the product and support the company in increasing the sales. The display contest has to be announced well in advance and promotional materials to be distributed to all the selected dealers in a geographical area. Prizes for best displays are announced to motivate the dealers; the contest lasts for about a month. A well-planned product display contest not only increases the involvement of dealers in the company's products but also increases the sales during the contest period. This is used for promoting consumer goods such as shampoos, soaps and toothpaste.
39. Telecom Services Of Reliance Communication
Abstract
Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Communications Ventures) is one of India 's largest providers of integrated communications services. The company has more than 20 million customers and serves individual consumers, enterprises, and carriers, providing wireless, wireline, long distance, voice, data, and internet communications services through a number of operating subsidiaries. The company sells communications and digital entertainment products and services through its chain of Reliance Web World retail outlets. The company's Reliance Infocomm subsidiary provides wireless communications services throughout India . Reliance Communications is part of the Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.
The current network expansion undertaken by Reliance is the largest wireless network expansion undertaken by any operator across the world.
It was with this belief in mind that Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocomm) started laying 60,000 route kilometres of a pan-India fibre optic backbone. This backbone was commissioned on 28 December 2002, the auspicious occasion of Dhirubhai's 70th birthday, though sadly after his unexpected demise on 6 July 2002.
Reliance Communications has a reliable, high-capacity, integrated (both wireless and wire line) and convergent (voice, data and video) digital network. It is capable of delivering a range of services spanning the entire infocomm (information and communication) value chain, including infrastructure and services - for enterprises as well as individuals, applications, and consulting.
Today, Reliance Communications is revolutionizing the way India communicates and networks, truly bringing about a new way of life.
Objectives of the Study
• To know the demand of Rcom bundle offer along with LGRD 3000 and 6100 as Ill as the demand of Rcom Bachat pack Sim in the market
• To help in development and introduction of new product
• To identify the company position among competitors
• To determine those factors which persuade retailers for sale of RCOM sims/product
• To find out which type of schemes retailers prefer and why?
• To study the effect of irregular supply on the sale of the product
Significance of the Study
• To compare the Airtel and Tata indicom Bundle offer with RDLG 3000, 3500 & 6100 for analyzing the status of RCOM Bundle Offer
• To identify the Market share of RCOM
• To find out the basic problems of retailers
• To find out the performance of Distributor
• To find out the basic problems of Channel of Distributor
• To find out the Claims pending of Retailers
SWOT Analysis
The SWOT Analysis template is normally presented as a grid, comprising four sections, one for each of the SWOT headings: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The free SWOT template below includes sample questions, whose answers are inserted into the relevant section of the SWOT grid. The questions are examples, or discussion points, and obviously can be altered depending on the subject of the SWOT analysis. Note that many of the SWOT questions are also talking points for other headings - use them as you find most helpful, and make up your own to suit the issue being analyzed. It is important to clearly identify the subject of a SWOT analysis, because a SWOT analysis is a perspective of one thing, be it a company, a product, a proposition, and idea, a method, or option, etc.
Strength
• Low Entry Cost
• Commission Structure
• Fast Activation Process
• Network
• Connectivity
• Data GPRS
Weakness
• Branding Image
• Distribution problem
• Limited product portfolio- Only Mobile
• Lack of Competitive Strength
• Limited Budget
Opportunity
• Preference of GSM over CDMA
• New Specialist Application
• Rural Telephony
• New Market, Vertical, Horizontal
• Competitors` Vulnerabilities
Threat
• Political destabilization.
• New Entrants
• IT Development
• Market Demand
• Seasonality, Weather Effects
Findings
Services provided by Retailers: -
All the retailers are dealing in all services i.e. providing Recharge Voucher, SIM, and Tariff Voucher of all the cellular service companies present in Bangalore zone. Also most of them provide only pre-paid connection.
Satisfaction: -
Most of the retailers i.e. around 74% of respondents are satisfied with RCOMM brand, 10% of them push RCOMM brand to the customer and rest 16% retailers are not satisfied with RCOMM brand due to claim pending and the distributor. The retailers don't get schemes communicated in time by distributor and distributor does not provide RCV & e-Top properly .
Problems: -
Around 15% of the respondents that there is network problem with RCOMM, on the other hand they found its competitors viz. Airtel, BSNL, TATA indicom network connectivity of very good to good level.
Around 16% retailers which are under puja enterprises distributor projected problem with distributors. They don't get schemes communicated in time by distributor and distributor does not provide RCV & e-Top.
Support from company: -
Most of the retailers ensnared that they are supported by the companies' personnel & companies' helpline.
All companies provide POP (Point of presence) at right time and in adequate number.
Claim process:-
In case of RCOMM process is be claimed very belatedly i.e. almost 77% of the cases take 60-90 days, where as in case of Airtel most of the i.e. 88% is being finalized in time limit 0-30 days.
The claim process services of other competitors viz. AirCel, Smart, & Tata Indicom are almost at par with the IDEA cellular ltd.
RCOM cellular ltd. an Anil Ambani Group of cos. is very fast catching up with the market by providing cheaper calling rates. The market strategies adopted by its executives are bearing fruits and the company although being the Second one to enter the market of Bihar & Jharkhand has found a suitable niche and recognition in the consumer. But this is not a thing for self contentment as the survey reveals that in network, service and distributor, its place is very far behind to other competitors viz. Airtel, BSNL, and Tata indicom etc. so to withstand the competition resources mobilization and technological innovation on the part of cos. To upgrade its quality of network and services is urgently called for.
Market access and growth is alright but the improvement of quality on the above counts is necessity of the time.
40. Jewellery Buying Preference
Abstract
CoMany kings, emperors and dynasties featuring countless wars, conquests and political upheavals have ruled the Indian sub-continent. Different dynasties ruled different parts of India with different monetary systems. Jewellery acted as a common medium of exchange or store of value across the monetary systems of different kingdoms across the sub-continent especially gold. Hence wealth could still be preserved in spite of wars and political turbulence. Gold also helped preserve wealth through natural calamities and disasters and for centuries was the only means of saving in rural India , land being the other main asset of economic value. This has largely helped formulate, or evolve, the Indian sentiment and fanatical passion for gold, which holds true even today. India is estimated to hold more than 11,000 tonnes of gold.
Apart from its historical religious significance, Jewellery is valued as an important savings and investment vehicle in India . Even in present times, Jewellery remains the Indian bride's `Streedhan', the wealth she takes with her when she marries and which remains hers. Gold jewellery is the preferred jewellery worn by women in India irrespective of their religious beliefs. In marriages, gold jewellery is the gift preferred by the near relatives of the bride and the groom. Jewellery is very popular among farmers, with an upsurge in gold sales after a good agricultural season. Buying of gold is an important part of every stage of an Indian citizen's life- at birth, marriage, construction of home, festivals, religious ceremonies, setting up of new business, and death.
As India makes rapid progress in the retail arena, the Indian Jewellery market is undergoing a gradual metamorphosis from unorganised to organised formats. The jewellery business in India is estimated to be at Rs 50,000 crore. According to the independent estimation studies conducted by World Gold Council and McKinsey, out of the overall market share, the share of organised jewellery market is less than Rs 1,000 crore. This accounts to about 2-3 per cent of the total market share. But given that this is a relatively new segment of the market, it is poised to grow. Jewellery retailing is moving from a 'storehouse of value' to a precious fashion accessory. Plain gold is gradually easing its stranglehold on the Indian consumer psyche to give way to diamonds, platinum and coloured gemstones. The way jewellery was worn before is undergoing a tremendous change.
Objectives of the Study
The objective to study the " A comparative study on the consumer's preference among Branded and non branded jewellery" is to find out:
1) To compare between the consumer preference among the branded and non branded jewellery.
2) To know consumer perception towards jewellery.
3) Brand awareness of various brands in the jewelery market.
4) To have an idea about the parameters the consumers consider while buying jewellery.
The scope of study is limited due to the following reasons:
1) Time constraint - since the time span for the study was only one month, an in depth study and analysis will become a little difficult
2) Sample size - the sample size of the study is only 100 which would not give a comprehensive result. Many important samples may not be considered at all. The conclusion of the study may not result to an accurate outcome due to the sample size being small.
4) Awareness - the sample taken and the conclusion drawn can be led to only one side if there is lack of awareness about branded jewellery.
Significance of the Study
The gems and jewellery industry occupies an important position in the Indian economy and is one of the fastest growing industries in the country.
Hence the research conducted would help us to:
1) Understand the consumers preference while purchasing jewellery.
2) How much impact does a brand/ retailer has on their purchase decision.
3) Does price play an important role in guiding their purchase decision.
4) Are the various promotional strategies adopted to combat competition.
Consumer Buying Behaviour While Buying Jewellery
While buying a product, consumer displays different kinds of behaviours towards different kinds of products from a tube of toothpaste to a new car. More complex decisions usually involve more buying participants and more buyer deliberation.
While buying an expensive product for jewellery, which satisfies a consumer's self esteem needs( according to the Maslow's heirarchy of needs) a consumer displays complex buying behaviour. Consumers undertake complex buying behaviour when they are highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among brands. Consumers may be highly involved when the product is expensive, risky, purchased infrequently, and highly self expressive.
This buyer will pass through a learning process, first developing belief about the product, then attitudes, and then making a thoughtful purchase choice. Marketers of high involvement products must understand the information gathering and evaluation behaviour pf high involvement consumer, they need to hellp buyers learn about the product- class attributes and their relative importance.
Exports
After making its mark in the world diamond processing industry, India is well on its way to becoming the leading global gems and jewellery hub. India 's gems and jewellery industry is now on a high growth trajectory.
Exports from the industry fetched US$ 17.1 billion in 2006-07 against US$ 16.64 billionin 2005-06, showing a growth of 26 per cent. While diamonds accounted for 64 percent of the total exports, gold jewellery accounted for 30.47 per cent, colored gem stones andothers accounted for 1.44 per cent and 1.04 per cent respectively last year.
Cut and polished diamond segment exports were US$ 10.90 billion, while gold jewellery exports fetched US$ 5.21 billion last year. Coloured gemstone exports yielded US$ 246.48 million last fiscal, against US$ 232.35 million in 2005-06.
The growth momentum has continued into the current fiscal. The gems and jewellery export industry grew by a robust 27 per cent export during the first half of the current fiscal at US$ 9.4 billion, as compared to US$ 7.4 billion in the corresponding period of 2006, according to the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
The growth in diamond exports was 28 per cent, in jewellery it was 21 per cent and in coloured gemstones, it was 22 per cent. The major destinations for exports have been the US , UAE, Hong Kong , Belgium and Israel . In fact, the US , UAE and Hong Kong together accounted for over 70 per cent of the total exports in the previous fiscal year.
41. Customer Evaluation of Tata Indicom Services
Abstract
Communication has been one of the most important aspects of the growth of human society and culture. Telecommunications, the transmission of signals over a distance for a purpose of communication, is also very important. It provides business, money and market stability in the world. The telecom sector is one of the leading contributors to India's flourishing economy. Telecommunication Sector Opportunities in India assures a transparent, safe, and secured ambiance for the telecom market. It include introduction of Internet telephony services, privatization of VSNL, and introduction of a number of international long distance services sector. The opportunities in the Indian telecom sector is increasing at a massive pace with the introduction of newer and innovative schemes in various sectors and at present the telecom sector in India is claimed to be one of the major contributors in India's flourishing economy.
TATA is a rapidly growing business group based in India with significant international operations. The TATA name is a unique asset representing leadership with trust. TATA Teleservices spearheads the Group's presence in the telecom sector. Incorporated in 1996, TATA Teleservices was the first to launch CDMA mobile services in India with the Andhra Pradesh circle. TATA Teleservices has established a robust and reliable 3G ready telecom infrastructure that ensures quality in its services.
Customer satisfaction in telecommunications will reflect the service delivery process as experienced by customers. The interaction between customers and the delivery system is effected via alternative contact points; each one of them will be investigated for its impact on the overall customer satisfaction. That is, the service delivery system can be decomposed into alternative customer contact points that shape customers' overall judgment about the organization. Each contact point may retain a relative independence concerning criteria of customer satisfaction such as personnel, speed, reliability, and pricing.
Objectives of the Study
To study the Customer Evaluation of Tata Indicom Services at Kerala market.
• To find out the telecommunication users in the Kottayam market.
• To know the age and gender wise classification for usage of telecommunication facility.
• To find out which all services have been tried by the respondents so far
• To know the customer's opinion about the competitors of TATA Indicom
• To know the factors affecting the purchasing behavior of telecommunication customers.
• To find out the attributes that affects the buying behavior of the TATA indicom service
• To find the customer's attitude towards TATA Indicom services
• To find out the customer's opinion about the hand set which provide by TATA Indicom.
• To know the satisfaction level of recharge vouchers offered by the company.
• To find the reasons for cancellation of TATA Indicom connection.
Do the customer of TATA indicom services such as
• Price
• Coverage
• Sales promotion
• Offers
• Customer service
• Staff response
Advertisements have a significant role in customer decision.
Significance of the Study
Consumer feedback is providing the market reflections to the marketer. This enables them to gain awareness about their market performance and customer preference. The conducted study examined the customer satisfaction status on various service offerings by TATA Indicom and the major focus has given to draw the reasons behind cancellation of services. The results related to the said area are an eye opener to the marketer for identifying his gaps and fix it at the earliest.
The ruling factors of today's market is having a common axis named 'consumer', who is deciding the destiny of any firm in the market. Hence the study on related area is having significance to the selected telecom operator and since it is common to other operators in the
same and related field, the problems that had drawn through the survey may be a reference for other marketers also. The researcher had gained familiarity and practical exposure to the real market world through the conducted study. This can also be a secondary source for other people who plan or are conducting studies in the similar area.
Findings
• 100% of the respondents are having telecommunication facility
• Majority of the customers had tried BSNL 55(60.5%) service and Airtel 31(34%).
• According to the survey, the main elements of buying behavior of TATA Indicom telecommunication service are :
• 100% of the respondents are considering coverage
• 39(43%) respondents are looking for offers
• 35 (38.5%) of them looking for the company brand image
• 28 (31%) looking for customer service of the company
• 20 (22%) respondents are noticing sales promotion like advertisement.
• Majority (54%) of the respondents had tried TATA Indicom landline connection 39.6% of them had tried Mobile connection, only 27.5% of the respondents were tried internet facility.
• 46.2% of the respondents are not at all satisfied with the recharge coupons offered by TATA Indicom. 49 (53.9%) respondents are satisfied with the recharge coupons offered by the TATA Indicom.
• 55 (61%) are satisfied with the network coverage of the company,30 (33%) of them are dissatisfied with the coverage,
• 68(74%) are not at all satisfied with the offers.
• Most of the customers are not getting the vouchers nearby stores
• 45 or 50% of the customers are cancelled their landline connection ,41 (45.1%) of them are cancelled or migrate their connection from postpaid to prepaid service, 24 (26.4 %) of them are cancelled internet facility
• Reasons for cancellation
• 41 (45.1% ) of the respondents are having the problem of not getting the bill on time.
• 37 (40.7% ) of them are not having enough coverage in their residential area.
• 16 (17.6%) of them are not satisfied with customer service
• 62(69%) of the respondents are having hand set complaint.
• Responses towards the company
• 61 (67.1%) of the respondents are cancelled the services without giving any complaint to the company.
• 56 (61.6%) are continue the TATA Indicom's service after they are complained to the company
• 34(35.3%) of them feels like to cancel the service after giving the complaint to the company
• 33 (36.3% ) of them are discourage others to buy the TATA Indicom's service.
42. Bisleri Marketing Project
Abstract
The Mineral bottled water in India under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin in 1965. Mineral bottled water were in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly and still in 1965 This company was started by Signor Felice who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India. Parle bought over Bisleri (India) Ltd. In 1969 and started bottling Mineral water in glass bottles under the brand name 'Bisleri'. Later Parle switched over to PVC non- returnable bottles and finally advanced to PET containers. Ramesh Chauhan, chairman, Parle Bisleri created a market out of pure water. Excerpts from a conversation with Prerna Raturi:
Can I be honest? When we bought Bisleri mineral water from the Italian company, Felice Bisleri, in 1969 -- the company had been unable to market bottled water and wanted to exit the market -- we too did not see any potential for the product at that time. As a soft drinks company, we had Thums Up, Gold Spot and Limca (cola, orange drink and lemonade) but no soft drink company was complete without a soda. So we merely used the name and launched Bisleri soda with two variants -- carbonated and non-carbonated mineral water.
But three decades ago, what could we say about a category that had no market? We didn't know our target group. Then, since bottled water is colourless, tasteless and odourless, it was not an easy product to advertise. Thus, the earlier brand building efforts focused on Bisleri being healthy with adequate minerals. The Italian name added a dash of class to it. The first print ad campaign captured the international essence and showed a butler with a bow tie, holding two bottles of Bisleri.The punch line was, "Bisleri is very very extraordinary" (the spelling of the punch line was designed to capture the consumer's attention). The campaign was successful and we were being noticed as someone who catered to the need for safe, healthy drinking water.
However, the real boost to mineral water came in the early-to-mid-1980s when we switched to PVC packaging and later to PET bottles. The PET packaging did not just ensure better transparency -- we could now show sparkling clear water to the consumers. It also meant better life for the water. Since 1995 Mr.Ramesh J.Chauhan has started expanding Bisleri operations substantially and the turnover has multiplied more than 20 times over a period of 10 years and the average growth rate has been around 40% over this period. Presently it has 8 plants and 11 franchisees all over India. Bisleri command a 60% market share of the organized market.
Products and Services
• 1ltr mineral water:-
1 ltr Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• 1.5ltr mineral water:-
1.5ltr Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• 2ltr mineral water:-
2ltr Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• 20ltr Mineral Water:-
20ltr Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• 250 Ml Mineral Water:-
250 ml Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• 5ltr Mineral Water:-
5ltr Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• 500 Ml Mineral Water:-
500 ml Mineral Water under the name 'Bisleri' was first introduced in Mumbai in glass bottles in two varieties - bubbly & still in 1965 by Bisleri Ltd., a company of Italian origin. This company was started by Signor Felice Bisleri who first brought the idea of selling bottled water in India.
• Vedica Natural Mountain Water:-
Vedica Natural Mountain Water comes to you in all its untouched purity, right from its source. Gushing from an aquifer with intense pressure, the natural mountain water is pushed above the ground surface to a height of 5 meters above ground level, powerfully and consistently. The underground geological origin guarantees that there is no external Contamination, since the mouth of the water source is covered from rocks on all sides. Besides, being naturally fortified with silica, the spring is naturally free form any Microbial infection or pollution. Vedica Natural Mountain Water is also low on sodium, making it the perfect choice for the health conscious. It has a high proportion of sulphates, which work as natural detoxifying agents. And it's clear, sweet taste proves that it is free of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate salts, which give some mineral waters a chalky taste. Scientifically put, the Total Dissolved Solids in Vedica Natural Mountain Water is225mg/ltr. It is also high in sulphates, the natural detoxifying agents. Ensuring that all you get with Vedica Natural Mountain Water is the sweet taste of purity. Vedica Natural Mountain Water is available in 500 ml and 1 litre bottles
Marketing Mix used by Bisleri
The set of controllable tactical tools- product, price, promotion, and place (4 Ps), that the firm blends to produce the response it wants, in the target markets.
The 4Ps
PRODUCT :- The main product of the company is the mineral water by the name of Bisleri Mineral water. Other than mineral water the company has also the soda water under its brand name called the Bisleri Soda Water. The concept of bottled mineral water was introduced in India, first by Bisleri, and that is the reason, it has become a generic name for the mineral water. Bisleri has become a perfect synonym of the mineral water for the Indian consumers. The main challenge facing the company or any other player in this mineral water industry is that there is no scope of invention and innovation in the product, which can be added as the additional benefits of the product. It is just water after all. This is what the Indian customers think of the bottled water. If we are talking about a product like television we can think that the innovations could provide extra benefits derived from the product. For example other than its core usage the product can provide for Internet facilities using conversion.
PLACE :-Place stands for the company activities that make the product available to the target customers. To make the product available to the target consumers a good distribution network has to be there to support the good quality of the product. Here in the case of the mineral water industry the distribution network is the important factor in being competitive and the catch lies in making water available to maximum number of places in the country.
PRICE :-Price is the sum of values that consumer exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. Price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue. All other elements represent costs.
In India, where the majority of the population comprise of the middle-income group and lower income groups it is not hard to understand that pricing is one of the most important factor in the buying decisions.
Bisleri has met the expectations of the consumers in terms of pricing the product and also making the product available in variations of litres, making Bisleri both convenient and affordable. The company is following a very aggressive pricing. Its product is available at a very reasonable price.
PROMOTION :- Modern marketing calls for more than just developing a good product, pricing it attractively, and making it available to the target customers, companies must also communicate with their customers, and what they communicate should not be left to chance. A Company's total marketing communications program- called its Promotion Mix consists of specific blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations tools that the company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.
43. Customer Satisfaction Survey of Maruti Udyog Ltd
Abstract
Satisfaction is a person's feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from a comparing perceived performance in relation to his or her expectation. If the performance falls short of expectation, the consumer is dissatisfied. If the performance matches the expectations, he consumer is satisfied. If the performance exceeds expectation, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. In today's competitive scenario firms consistently tries to satisfy his existing customer to get more customers in every regards. To meet the desired expectation of customers companies has to look around all aspects of products services and of course market condition, otherwise they may be out of the race. Automobile industry has the same competitiveness and every firm in the industry is consistently working for enhancing their product and services.
The study widely concentrates on the level of satisfaction amongst customers for which I did Exploratory Research to check the satisfaction level amongst the customers of Maruti as the popular punchline also says "Count On Us."
India is an emerging country with huge potential. The domestic economy is now growing at around 9-10% per annum and India's importance in global terms is being reinforced by rapidly rising exports and domestic consumption. At a time when numbers of a slowdown and overheating in the Indian economy have started gaining momentum, the Indian rupee sprang a surprise by pushing the GDP figure past the trillion-dollar (42,00,000 crore) mark.
The automotive industry is at the center of India's new global dynamic. The domestic market expanding rapidly as incomes rise and consumer credit becomes more widely available. Manufacturer's product lines are being continually expanded, as is the local automotive manufacturing base. Expectation are high that India can develop as a global hub for vehicle manufacturers and as an outsourcing center that offers the global automotive industry solution high up the automotive value chain .
Steps to be followed after receiving customer complaint
Firstly customer acre manager gives a control number to all complaints received and records the same in the customer complaints control register.
Then customer acre manager gets in touch with the customer over the phone and expresses regret on the inconvenience faced by the customer
Immediate action is taken to ensure that the customer complaint is resolved and writes a letter of apology
The customer care manager along with the concerned DSE, then visits the customer, hands over the letter and takes satisfaction note from the customer
Then he sends a copy of the letter and the satisfaction note to Maruti Udyog Ltd. And also files a copy of the same in the customer complaints register/file.
Then the CCM discusses the customer complaints in the weekly meeting with the general manager on SSI with the entire showroom staff. Necessary counter measures are taken to ensure that such complaints are not repeated in future.
ll sales staff and managers review customer care activities on daily, weekly and monthly basis. The SSI review meet is conducted regularly.
According to Maruti
"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises
He is not dependent on us ,
We are dependent on him,
He is not an interruption on our work,
He is the purpose of it.
He is not an outsider on our business,
He is part of it.
We are not doing him a favor serving him,
He is doing us a favor by giving us the
Opportunity to do so"
Maruti's Strategic Goal
-Maintained its materials cost despite change in product mix.
-Growing shipments of Alto.
-Has 55% of the market.
-Introduced both petrol and diesel variants of Swift.
-Maruti has cut the prices of models including Maruti 800, Omni, Zen, Wagon R, Swift Diesel and Alto . The amount of this price cut varies from Rs. 6,500 for Maruti 800 to Rs. 18,030 for Swift Diesel (in New Delhi).
-Maruti Suzuki to invest 200 billion Yen on expansion in India.
-Sri Lanka currently is the largest export market for Maruti where it sells 8,000-9,000 cars a year.
-Maruti Udyog to enter South African market.
-Invest more on marketing and research and development.
-They are working on identifying their dealership in the region in collaboration with the parent company Suzuki.
Threat of New Entrants
When the industry is profitable there is a threat of the entry of new entrants as they want to share the growth prospects so the existing firms either have to share the growing market pie or part with their own market share o the new entrants like the coming of new Tata Nano in the market which is an A segment car and is known for its low price and would give direct competition to Maruti-800 and would cause lesser sales volume and revenue and lower the returns. As the switching costs from the existing products to a new one is not high so this encourages the foreign companies like Renault and also Indian companies to bring in new models and enter the industry. Today the customer is not brand loyal and if there is product differentiation the promotion is so attractive that it supports the new entrants. Access to the distribution channels is not difficult as can be done by forming joint ventures like Mahindra-Renault. India offers a huge market for small, mid segment cars as the middle class is coming up in a big way and even for the prestige class as new and elite brands have come up and India is producing good number of entrepreneurs. Some of the ways of entering the industry is either directly or by acquisition, joint ventures, licensing, franchises, mergers.
44. Retail Banking Front Office Management Activity
Abstract
Retail banking as applicable modern times may be defined as providing credits to individuals for non entrepreneurial activities. This is because usually retail loans are used towards consumptions and the loans has to be repaid by the borrower out of his own resources and not from the income stream generated by deployment of the loan. The growth and retail banking in terms of volumes and types of products has been quite pronounced in the recent years. Some of the basic reasons attributed for this spurt are;
® India’s economic prosperity
® Consequent increase
®Consequent increase in purchasing power
® Changing consumer demographic with one of the highest section of the population below the age of 35 years
® Technological innovation such as ATMs, Credit cards etc.
® Decline in treasury income causing retail banking to be the focus of profit maximization and decline in interest in recent years.
® There has also been an expansion in the nature and product offered under retail banking
There has been a revolution in the range of products and the way these are serviced in the retail banking sector than the traditional bankers. For example previously one had to physically visits a bank branch in ordered to open an account where as today the bank often ‘visits’ a customer who shows or may show and inclination to open an account with it.
Capturing the trend and progress of retail banking would require dividing retail banking by products, services and technology. Even this classification would be quite simplistic, as the broad category mentioned, could get further subdivided. For instance speaking about the services rendered to a customer of retail banking, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) would be one of the areas of study it includes but may not be limited to exception best banking wealth management, Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, internet and mobile banking products life cycle management, customer data integration and relationship banking among others.
Objectives of the Study
The study was designed and conducted to accomplish the following objectives:
1. To understand the concept of Retail Banking
2. To understand the reason for the growth of retail banking
3. To analyze the challenges & opportunities of it
4. To study the various products being offered in retail banking portfolio
5. To analyzing the key to competitive advantage in Retail Banking
6. And to assess the differentiating feature of the Particular Bank
Scope of the Study
1. To understand the real promoters of retail banking
2. To analyze the significance of retail banking on overall customer groups
3. To understand the working structure of retail banking
4. To analyze the effect of retail on the profitability of the banking sector itself as well as on the normal customer behavior
5. Consumer response to retail banking
6. The management quality of retail banking
7. Earning Quality
8. Liquidity Quality
Suggestions
The growth of retail portfolio with the banks in the last few years has been impressive. The retail portfolio is useful to banks for managing business mix and earning a fee income. That the retail portfolio can be securitized and sold out makes it attractive to loan issuing banks .This aspect makes the portfolio, attractive to banks with surplus liquidity though they may not have the reach to increase the portfolio by direct sales of products.
The Bank has now started to adopt a retail strategy in their operations. They have started to waive a net to catch customers. The another angel of the Retail Banks to caught a customer is like;
If you are employed or have a regular income, about 25 years of age or more able to provide proof about your address and identity then Better be ready for an onslaught of marketing by retail bankers for a home loan, or a personal loan or a card or all of these .It does not matter if you have already taken loan and possess a credit card or two .in fact these enhance your reliability! Out bound calls (calls made by BPO employees to the prospective clients) are particularly focused on those who have already established their credit worthiness by borrowing! Out bond callers hunt good customers and shower them with fires.
You have arrived in the city of your destination by flight. Don’t throw away your boarding pass at the end of the journey. Not yet. Persons with almost no knowledge of credit cards (or banking) will be waiting in the car park/taxi stand to offer you ‘lifetime free gold card’. Nonchalantly they will also add that nothing more than a boarding pass is indeed (to prove the credit worthiness) and they will not ask for anything else!
Have you used the credit card to make some purchase and intend to send a cheque to the card company? Wait. It is not uncommon for banks to ring up and offer to convert your credit card purchases/dues into loans by offering you installment options.
You already have a credit card? There will be upgrade offers! New card issuers offer to take over credits. Some of the card companies will offer fresh cash backs. Mobile companies will exhort you not to pay your bill and that you have a generous credit limit.
Grocers and Hire Purchase (HP) vendors have joined the long list of people who offer you retail credit.
From above all information it is seen that, retail banking is directed at salaried and self employed persons. That is on those people who can meet EMI commitments. Thus retail tends to be urban and semi urban in focus. Yet it is seen that retail banking products do not have uniform or standard terms of credit. In fact, despite being marketed to the salaried / self employed class it is seen that terms such as the amount of loan, repayment period, rate of interest, margin, collateral, etc could be different from person to person. It is the appraisal methodology which is score card driven and easy delivery format that makes the retail product unique and capable of fast multiplication.
Unlike the past when bank products were marketed in the branches, retail is out in the open. Retail products / loans are issued/ marketed in branches, loan melas, factories, and malls. In additional to bank staff, BPOs, mail order, telephone & e-mail are used to marketing retail. The list of Marketing Avenue is endless. It is enough if the banks touch base with one of them. Thanks to IT also, information about customers is immediately put on the retail highway. Almost no information (lead) escapes the eye of the retail marketing units.
45. The Role Of Integrates Marketing Communications in Life Insurance
Abstract
"Integrated marketing communication simply recognizes the need to plan and build-up all relevant marketing communications so that they work together in harmony to greatest effect with greatest efficiency" In its simplest form, it is the "process of integrating all elements of marketing communications mix across all customer contact points to achieve greater brand coherence
IMC has an increasingly central role to play in today's market place, because if offers company a way to strategically coordinate messages and establish a meaningful dialogue with customers. In short, IMC provides organizations with a strategic method for both establishing and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders. And this is essential for marketing success in the twenty-first century.
The marketplace is changing. What was once a single audience has fragmented and companies have to establish and maintain brand relationships with a variety of groups of people-customers, as well as other stakeholders, such as employees, investors, suppliers and distributors, local communities, and the media. Organizations now have to communicate with these groups using a wide variety of media. Because the mass media now have considerably less importance than they have had in the past, dialogue is becoming increasingly critical in this marketplace. That means that companies can no longer rely only on one-way communication targeted to large groups of customers. To be successful now, organizations must not only be able to target messages to individual customers, but also to listen and respond to all their stakeholders. That means they must know who these people are, and the key to that is database-driven communication.
IMC is critical to brand relationship programs, because it provides the skills and new ways of thinking that are necessary if organizations are to create and successfully manage dialogue with customers and other key stakeholders.
Objectives of the Study
The study was designed and conducted to accomplish the following objectives:
To find out the specific roles played by the various constituents of integrated marketing communications.
To identify the most effective among the IMC
To identify the ineffectual constituents.
To suggest various ways of improving the IMC
Scope of the Study
In today s highly competitive environment companies are rigoursly searching for programmes which would give them an edge over their competitors.These programmes range within a myriad of activities,the marketing communications form the pivotal among them.A marketing communications which includes the various promotional tools mixed in appropriate proportion and integrated into a single marketing programme is supposed to give an strategic advantage to the companies. This project aims at finding out the specific roles that the constituents of promotional programmes in life insurance play so that the stronger areas could be further reinforced ,the ineffectual areas could be weeded out as they unnecessarily consume useful resources and the other important areas could be given a facelift, such that upon their integration into a single marketing programme they could become a lethal armory in the marketers quiver
Recommendations
Advertisements of ICICI PRULIFE should be more products expressive and easily comprehensive, so that a customer feels an urge to enquire about the products.
Since from the findings it is clear that advisors are extremely Important in selling the policies, they should be trained on the concepts of marketing and not just selling.
They should be equipped with proper CRM techniques so that they could increase the frequency of call conversion as well as they could retain the existence clientele.
Sales literature should be written in more customer friendly language, the technical terms should be clearly explain since it is considered as providing credibility to company s promise, company s seal on it will give even more authenticity to the promises made in the brochure.
Telemarketers should enquire the brief background of prospects during the appointments calls so that proper strategies could be planned before the visit of the sales personnel.
Internet should be used to maintain CRM and update policy holder about the position of their fund, as well as informing them about a new product even before it is launched so that they would get a feeling of preferential treatment.
Company should engage in keeping itself in news, should organize events, seminars etc.
The company should initiate hassle free claim settlements as this communicates to the consumers that the company
is prompt in keeping its promises and this influences consumer decision making in a big way.
The IMC program is effective when the message carried by its constituents is uniform that is each constituents of this program should communicate the same message to the prospects, this is when the tools of IMC will work in tandem and their fusion and unison will bring about the desired impact in influencing consumer decisions.
WEAKNESS
Target customer base very small.
No presence in semi urban sector.
Promotional campaigns are nearly absent.
Poor advertising.
Less number of ATM s and Branches (In PCMC area).
High interest rates.
The three interlinked groups that work together to develop promote and deliver services, should be put into effect in the life insurance industry and could be best done while settling the claims. The services providers who deal in interactive marketing should get full backup while enabling the promises which were made through external marketing. Thus the internal marketing assumes a paramount importance in life insurance, and an effective internal marketing communication would ensure that the promises, which are made, are delivered and this in turn will induce publicity.
46. Sales Promotion and Customer Awareness of the Services
Abstract
Standard Charted Bank has been established for over 150 years. It spans the developed and emerging economics of the world with a network of over 500 offices in more than 50 countries. With an objective to become a world-class bank, Standard Charted has adopted the strategies of:
Building a world-class business: Focus on core business, provide superior customer services, and generate maximum returns and benefits for shareholders.
Staying lean and focused: Invest in core business, optimal usage of resource, and manage performance by balancing cost and risks.
Recognized as a wining organization: Developing capability to the fullest, instill global, inject pride into the minds of the people to get connected to Standard Charted Bank.
Overall this introduction part has been discussed under three different heads viz. Industry Profile, Company Profile, and Services and Products profile for the better comprehension.
Standard Chartered is the world s leading emerging markets bank. Its headquarter is in London. Its business however has always been overwhelmingly international. It employees 30,000 people in over 500 offices in more than 50 countries in the Asia Pacific Region, South Asia, Middle East, Africa, United Kingdom and the Americas. It is one of the world s most recognized banks, with a management team comprising 70 nationalities. The bank serves both consumers and Wholesale banking customers. The Consumer Bank provides credit cards, personal loans, mortgages, deposit taking activity and wealth management services to individuals and medium sized businesses. The wholesale bank provides services to multinational, regional and domestic corporate and institutional clients in trade finance, cash management, custody leading, foreign exchange and interest rate management and debt capital markets.
Objectives of the Study
The study was designed and conducted to accomplish the following objectives:
1. To create market awareness.
2. To know about decision makers.
3. To analyse the market potential of the product Mileage .
4. To judge the level of awareness for product Mileage
5. To check the satisfaction level of existing customers.
6. To know about customer preference.
7. To identify the criterion on the basis of which customer selects a particular bank.
Scope of the Study
The purpose of research is to discover answer to questions through the application of scientific procedures. Through each research study has its own specific purpose, we may think of research objectives as falling into a number of following groups: -
To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or archive new insights into it.
To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group.
To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else.
To test a hypothesis of a casual relationship between variables.
STRENGTH
Limited competition.
Good reputation of the bank.
Quality of service.
Highly cooperative and efficient DST.
Experience of 150 years.
Exclusive Products.
Use of modern technology like Tele Banking, ATMs etc, which makes service
delivery faster.
Wide range of services and product to suit all customer segments.
Operational efficiency
WEAKNESS
Target customer base very small.
No presence in semi urban sector.
Promotional campaigns are nearly absent.
Poor advertising.
Less number of ATM s and Branches (In PCMC area).
High interest rates.
OPPORTUNITIES
Can build a strong distribution network in semi urban cities to trap the untouched market.
Customer education will improve the customer base.
Increasing awareness will result in increase in customer base.
None of the players in the market is concentrating on this category of the product.
Numbers of car drivers are increasing very fast, especially with IT boom Pune has high potential.
THREATS
Competition with big giants like ICICI and HDFC.
Spread of risk.
Challenges posed by other companies in the market.
Overdraft rates have gone high.
Lower customer base may hinder prompt service.
Limitations
Public happens to be a little hesitant in disclosing their financial dealings with everyone. Moreover, people are much more conscious and are of view that they have enough knowledge of the products and services provided by the various banks. On the other hand, people banking with their own banks for 15 to 20 years are more loyal and are less susceptible to switch over to Standard Chartered. Here they are being provided with all the facilities. They do not try to break up their long lasting relationship. Thus, to change mindset of the customer requires a lot of time and cannot be done easily. The other major drawback is that the accounts personnel are not ready to give much information about customers banking with them. They would not talk about investments made by the CEOs, MDs etc. As far as the corporate level is concerned, they are still more comfortable to share information. The aim of the research was to check the feasibility of the services provided by Standard Chartered Bank on the basis of primary and secondary data and also to check the awareness of the services offered by the same and analyze the data available with the help of various statistical methods.
The Standard Chartered Bank has a global presence. It has acquired good recognition in India also. This can be attributed to the fact that the services being offered by the bank has been carefully developed, over the years, after studying the subtleties of Indian market. The bank offers a wide range of products and services to meet the requirements of varied customers, as customers satisfaction is their prime concern. They aim at making banking convenient for their customers by offering services like Internet banking, phone banking, doorstep banking, ATM Services and so on. Each service/product, offered by the bank is designed for a particular market segment. Moreover, maintaining a relationship along with standard Chartered is a status symbol for people and they really feel proud to be with Standard Chartered.
46. Study of Sales Promotion and Analysis Of Insurance Business
Abstract
In 1993, Malhotra Committee headed by former Finance Secretary and RBI Governor R.N. Malhotra, was formed to evaluate the Indian insurance industry and recommend its future direction. The Malhotra committee was set up with the objective of complementing the reforms initiated in the financial sector. The reforms were aimed at creating a more efficient and competitive financial system suitable for the requirements of the economy keeping in mind the structural changes currently underway and recognizing that insurance is an important part of the overall financial system where it was necessary to address the need for similar reforms In 1994, the committee submitted the report and some of the key recommendations included:
· Government stake in the insurance Companies to be brought down to 50% .
· Govern.\ment should take over the holdings of GIC and its subsidiaries so that .
· these subsidiaries can act as independent corporations .
· All the insurance companies should be given greater freedom to operate
The origin and practice of insurance is as ancient as human civilization.From Cave age till date, the story of evolution of mankind is in fact a saga of continuous search for security. His problems have been the same, though the form has changed with the social & economic circumstances. When man used to live in the caves, he used to search for security against animals because they could kill him while he was asleep. He was not at all sure if he could hunt every day & get his food. Because of the above insecurity he used to live in groups so that the other members of the tribe could come to help him in time of crisis. Later on, insurance was practiced in a different form.
Small contributions of food grains were collected from farmers, hoarded in the local temple premises to be released when there was a famine or other calamity. Today, insurance works on the same principle. But, with growing financial implications the process started demanding money rather than community contribution. The modern concept of insurance came to India with the arrival of Europeans. The first life Insurance company was established in India in 1818 as Oriental Life Insurance Company by Europeans for the welfare of widows of Europeans. It was strange that many of the Companies floated thereafter were looking after European interest and even charged extra premium on Indian lives. Bombay mutual life Assurance society Ltd. established in 1870 was the first to stop this discrimination. This was the year in which the first Insurance act was passed by the British parliament. The insurance business flourished thereafter.
Objectives of the Study
The project was undertaken to make people aware of the insurance agent as a career. With so many players in this industry and growing competition among the private players it was actually tough getting people recruited as an agent.
The main aim of the project was the following:-
1. To manage the sales force at IVL.
2. To explore the role of sales manager.
3. To get an instant overview of the insurance industry, its perspective, present scenarios and the competitors.
Scope of the Study
The study of potential of insurance business is concerned with market study i.e. research and fieldwork. This study is going to help the ING VYSYA Life Insurance to find out Sales promotion with other private companies. The study will help the company to assess their performance and improve it where it is lacking. Research work is a basic function carried out by each organization. The study of market potential of insurance is very helpful to find out who are the market leaders in private companies as well as overall analysis. Availability of time was also taken into account while deciding the particular method to meet the objectives. The entire study programmed was for the period of two months. The subject of the study was selected by looking the necessity and importance to find the market potential and give suggestions related to the topic.
ING LIFE PLUS
This Plan simplifies the process of taking unit linked insurance. You can choose a convenient policy term of 10, 15 or 20 years. Its regular premium payment for the full policy term enables you to get the benefits of systematic investment by paying your premiums at pre determined intervals throughout the policy term.You can also plan your investments to suit your preferences and risk profile. The regular premiums and top-up premiums paid by you, less charges are credited to an account called the ‘Fund Value’ and are used to purchase units in one or more Unit Linked Funds as per your choice. At any point in time, the Fund Value is represented by the number of Units multiplied by the respective Unit Price of the Units held from time to time under all the Unit Linked Funds under this Policy ING Life Plus is the easiest way of taking unit linked insurance. While it allows you to invest and manage your investments at your own pace as per your risk profile, its inbuilt Enhanced Protection Cover feature ensures that your life cover keeps increasing throughout the policy term and ensures that you and your family are well protected.
Key Features
· You have the option of enhancing your cover at the end of the first and second year of taking your policy .
· You need not undergo any medical examination to avail of this plan. Even the Paperwork is minimal
· You can also avail of a policy loan after 3 years .
· You get a tax benefit under Section 80C & 10(10)D of IT Act .
· On survival up to the maturity date, you get the sum assured plus accumulated Bonuses.
· You can switch over your fund .
· In case of unfortunate death, your nominee will get the sum assured plus Accumulated bonuses.
Market Return Plan
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47. Total Polymer Consumption of Home Appliances
Abstract
Plastics are polymers. What is a polymer? The simplest definition of a polymer is something made of many units. Think of a polymer as a chain. Each link of the chain is the "mer" or basic unit that is made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and/or silicon. To make the chain, many links or "mers" are hooked or polymerized together. Polymerization can be demonstrated by linking strips of construction paper together to make paper garlands or hooking together hundreds of paper clips to form chains. Polymers have been with us since the beginning of time. Natural polymers include such things as tar and shellac, tortoise shell and horns, as well as tree saps that produce amber and latex. These polymers were processed with heat and pressure into useful articles like hair ornaments and jewelry.
Natural polymers began to be chemically modified during the 1800s to produce many materials. The most famous of these were vulcanized rubber, gun cotton, and celluloid. The first synthetic polymer produced was Bakelite in 1909 and was soon followed by the first semi- synthetic fiber, rayon, which was developed in 1911 Even with these developments, it was not until World War II that significant changes took place in the polymer industry. Prior to World War II, natural substances were generally available; therefore, synthetics that were being developed were not a necessity.
Once the world went to war, our natural sources of latex, wool, silk, and other materials were cut off, making the use of synthetics critical. During this time period, we saw the use of nylon, acrylic, neoprene, SBR, polyethylene, and many more polymers take the place of natural materials that were no longer available. Since then, the polymer industry has continued to grow and has evolved into one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. and in the world.
The two major groups of polymers are thermoplastics and thermosets. Thermoplastic and thermosetting nature is based on the heat response of polymers. The light transmittance of polymers includes the description of materials as being transparent, translucent, or opaque. Transparent polymers are those that you can see through, translucent are those that you cannot see through but allow light to pass through, and opaque polymers are those that you can neither see through nor allow light to pass through. Light penetration qualities are dependent on the degree of crystallization of the polymer and the presence of additives.
Objectives of the Study
1) To know the total polymer consumption of home appliances in Pune Region
2) How many injection moulding companies are using polymers for Home appliances in Pune Region?
3) What are the prices at which injection moulding companies are buying raw materials from other manufacturers?
4) To know the availability of substitutes and grade of polymers
5) To find out the awareness of the product in the market
6) To get the information regarding competitors marketing strategies
7) One of the essential aspect is to do the SWOT analysis
Scope of the Study
H.I.P.S is used readily in Home appliances as it s a styrene based product and is used because because it is highly glossy, attractive, easy handling and mainly u8sed for exterior parts which are attractive in nature Appl produces H.I.P.S as per the customer requirements. H.I.P.S is used in washing machine outer parts, televesion outer parts, mixer grinders and bottles etc.
H.I.P.S is used frequently because:
1) There is no problem in the availability.
2) Its trends do not vary.
3) It is cheaper then metal.
4) Properties are more or less same as of metals.
5) The weight is lesser then metals which helps in easy handling and adds attractiveness
Findings
The company should choose the best additive of the polymers to suit a specific application in order to get the best product.
The clubbing of grades should be in such a manner so that the discontinuation of production cycle should not take place which in return not only saves the money on production but also helps in saving time which in whole benefits in getting more business.
There should be proper planning of logistics solutions in coordination with the O.E.M.Sand vendors so that both the vendors and the company have good business relations and in return helps in proper delivery of the finished goods.
The company should increase sales in such areas where it is lacking in sales in other words company have to first take care of its marketing strategy that whether the company is meeting as per the demands of the customers or not because a customer accepts what he expects.
Trend analysis as company have to look over the trends prevailing in the market as time changes very frequently which has a direct impact on the customers as their needs, preferences also changes, trends used by the existing customers and the competitors should be analyzed in detail to increase sales.
The company should give chance to more and more project trainees to get the analysis of new customers and their requirements as per the market & help in knowing the competitors pricing as well as marketing strategies.
Frequent meetings should be done with each and every customer so that the things or doubts are get sorted out, this really helps the company to maintain a relationship in long run.
The main function of the company was to find out the consumption of polymers in appliances sector in pune region so as to find out the potential in the market. From the total polymer consumption chart mentioned earlier we come to the conclusion that H.I.P.S is used readily in appliances sector. Appl produces H.I.P.S as per the customer requirements and add different fillers to suit the customer basic requirement. H.I.P.S is used frequently in appliances because H.I.P.S is a styrene based product which helps in looking the products attractive and is mainly used for exterior parts of the appliances some of the major points are as under
Styrene based products are used by different companies because of the following reasons
Its highly glossy
Styrene properties adds attractiveness to appliances
It is highly environment congenial property
Handling of h.i.p.s is easy
It is mainly used for exterior parts like handles of refrigerators, outer television covers,
outer washing machine parts and many other different appliances
H.I.P.S is also used in huge quantity for appliances to meet the changing trends Some of the polymers used for interior parts like knobs, buttons, and pulleys helps in adding the toughness and attractiveness to the product, some of its Examples of polymers used are
o Nylon
o Polycarbonate
o P.B.T
48. Comparative Study of Broadband in Telecom Sector with Airtel
Abstract
The fast track growth of the Indian telecom industry has made it a key contributor to India‘s progress. India adopted a phased approach for reforming the telecom sector right from the beginning. Privatisation was gradually introduced, first in value-added services, followed by cellular and basic services. An independent regulatory body, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), was established to deal with competition in a balanced manner. This gradual and thoughtful reform process in India has favoured industry growth.
Today, there are more than 225 million telecom subscribers in India. Every month, 6-7 million new subscribers are added. Upcoming services such as 3G and WiMax will help to further augment the growth rate. Furthermore, the Indian economy is slated to sustain its 7-9 per cent growth rate in the near future. This is supported by the political stability that the country is experiencing currently. India‘s demographic outlook makes it one of the largest markets in the world.
A conductive business environment is also created by a favourable regulatory regime. There exists enormous business potential for telecom companies on account of the country‘s low teledensity, which is close to 19 per cent presently. The Indian telecom industry is growing at the fastest pace in the world and India is projected to be the second largest telecom market globally by 2010.
Broadband is defined as a high bandwidth connection to the Internet. Broadband is easier and faster to use than the traditional telephone and modem as information can be sent and downloaded much quicker. Broadband can be provided over your phone line, via cable or via satellite. It involves large volumes of information being carried at high speeds to your PC. This allows websites, text, graphics, music and videos to be experienced in real time. Broadband, therefore, has many features that can be taken advantage of in the home The connection to the Internet is always on, allowing for·or office: The phone line is·constant Internet access and no need to dial up. unaffected; this means that you can make telephone calls whilst the Normally, you pay a standard monthly fee for unlimited·Internet is on. internet access, and you are not charged for the time you spend on the Internet. There are certain broadband products now that also offer pay Websites, music and videos can be downloaded at a·as you go access. You can take advantage of instant messaging and online high·fast rate. You can receive uninterrupted real time·speed interactive games. services, such as Internet radio, streaming video and voice-over-ip, phone calls.
Objectives of the Study
1. To know general perception of the people towards the Broadband.
2. To find out the hidden information in Broadband plans of telecom services.
3. To find out the consumer satisfaction towards the Broadband plans.
4. To get the knowledge about the Market share of Broadband service providers.
5. To find out the difference in Broadband plans of service providers.
Scope of the Study
This study has been conducted to know the general perception of people towards the Broadband.Ø
It helps to clarify how Airtel is different from others and also helps to retain the customer.Ø
We come to know about the satisfaction level ofØ customer. This study helps to enhance the quality of service.
The study also helps us know the broadband plans of other competitor of Airtel.Ø
This project will also help us in decision making while choosing the broadband service.Ø
Types of Broadband
DSL Broadband
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a technology that delivers broadband over your phone line to be used in the home or office.·
With DSL technology, large volumes of information are sent over a copper cable at rapid speeds.·
DSL allows you to download web pages, text, graphics, music and video in real time.·
ADSL Broadband
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a· With ADSL, information is·technology similar to the DSL technology. ADSL is particularly·downloaded more rapidly than it is uploaded. useful for homes and businesses as it can download web pages and files ADSL2 and ADSL2+ are new technologies offered by some·at fast speeds. providers offering speed up to 24Mbps. One provider offering this service is Be
Symmetric Broadband (SDSL)
Symmetric broadband (SDSL) is a technology similar to ADSL broadband.·
SDSL broadband downloads information at the same· speed as it uploads information. Whereas ADSL broadband downloads the information faster than it uploads it.
This type of broadband requires an extra telephone line.·
SDSL broadband is particularly suitable for businesses that send large volumes of information.·
Local Loop Unbundling
Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is where ADSL or SDSL· broadband technologies are provided without using the British Telecom's exchange system.
This means that LLU providers can offer broadband features at a competitive price.·
LLU is only available in certain parts of UK. Providers include Bulldog and Be.·
Cable Broadband
There are several ways in which broadband can be delivered to your PC; this type of broadband is delivered through a cable.·
Cable companies also offer television and telephone packages as well as broadband Internet services.·
Cable companies provide broadband, television or· You can·phone packages to about 45% of homes and businesses in the UK. only get cable broadband if a company has cabled your street.
Cable providers include ntl.·
Satellite Broadband
There are several ways in which broadband can be· delivered to your PC, PC; this type of broadband is delivered through a satellite.
To receive satellite broadband you must have a dish antenna, and can be used almost everywhere in the UK.·
There are 2 types of satellite services:·
One-way satellite services download information via satellite and upload information via a telephone or IDSN line.·
Two-way satellite services download and upload· information via satellite. This provides an even higher bandwidth and a faster speed.
Satellite transmission may be affected by weather conditions.·
The cost of installing and running satellite broadband can be quite expensive compared with other types of broadband.·
Satellite broadband generally has quite high· latency (ping times) compared to other broadband, and so is unsuitable for certain types of Internet Access such as online gaming.
Wireless Broadband
Wireless broadband is one of the ways in which broadband can be delivered to your PC.·
This type of broadband requires an antenna to be installed to get connection to the Internet.·
Wireless broadband is particularly suitable for· distributing information between buildings and for homes where access to ADSL or cable broadband is unavailable.
49. Customer Retention in Retail Sector
Abstract
Consumer retention is the key success factor for any retailer in current competitive market. With a view to comprehend the competitive market scenario , the most upcoming suburb after the launch of many new retail outlets and malls, an effort was made to ascertain and analyze customer views and preferences for the same through process of Brand Recall. Also, a detailed study was made to understand the performance pattern of major competitors of Pantaloon shop.
In doing so, it was possible to assess the competition in the market, hence enabling us to position ourselves more effectively and strategize on a long term basis. During the course of this project, I was also fortunate enough to be able to study the promotional campaigns carried out in the store.
This report contains the findings arrived after detailed analysis of the data received through observations made at the competitor’s stores and personal interviews conducted with the customers at various department stores. Though not professionally equipped to suggest strategies to the pioneer of organized retailing in India, a sincere effort has been made to give some humble Recommendations for the organization at the end of the report which would benefit the firm in the long run.
Objectives of the Study
To determine a competitive analysis based on the customer perception.
Finding what the customer actually looks for in a store especially market.v
Study of current consumer tastesv & attitudes towards a store.
Finding for completely satisfying store from pantaloon to consumers.v
The scope of project was limited to find out measure competitors market share and consumer behavior in selected region and understand various factors affecting the customer choice while shopping.
Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited, is India’s leading retailer that operates multiple retail formats in both the value and lifestyle segment of the Indian consumer marker. Headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), the company operates over 5 million square feet of retail space, has over 350 stores across 40 cities in India and employs over 18,000 people. The company’s leading formats include Pantaloons, a chain of fashion outlets, Big Bazaar, a uniquely Indian hypermarket chain, Food Bazaar, a supermarket chain, blends the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with aspects of modern retail like choice, convenience and quality and Central, a chain of seamless destination malls. Some of its other formats include, Depot, Shoe Factory, Brand Factory, Blue Sky, Fashion Station, aLL, Top 10, mBazaar and Star and Sitara. The company also operates an online portal, futurebazaar.com.
Findings
Maximum number of respondent like going tov Sitabuldi for shopping because of number of store over there, it’s well connected and also they find Sitabuldi as good place to relax and hangout.
From analysis we find that a store with variety ofv brand as well as new fashion is preferred the most by consumer since he/she can compare the brand quality.
It has been found that most of the people in Nagpur like going to Pantaloon followed by Apana bazaar.v
Most of the respondent prefered going to a store twice in a month.v
Most of the respondent’s prefered to shop in pantaloon because of offers and discount.v
Most of the respondents are expect variety and quality from store merchandise.v
It is found that most of the respondents arev spending there money on shopping inbetween Rs.1001-3000 followed by less than Rs.1000/month.
It is found that most of the respondents made preplan before shopping.v
It is found that most of the respondents preferred shopping in the peak hrs that isv 5pm – 9pm.
Most of the respondent’s preferred for shopping in the weekends mostly in the Saturdays and Sundays.v
It is found that majority of customers are comingv for shopping twice in a week or more. It means shopping is a usual habit of a customer.
It is very clear from above analysis that a storev with book store is preferred the most by consumer since he/she can spend more time in such store.
Most of the respondents were found that they preferred to shop with friend.v
From analysis we find that most of the customer preferred to shop for own.v
As we know in the present scenario there is a cutthroat competition in the retail market. The only way to survive in the market is to attract the customers more and more and to provide the best services available in the market. As it is discussed in this project about all the factors that are responsible for a positive attitude of a consumer to move to a particular shopping mall or a particular department store. New competitors are entering in to the Indian market. Competitors such as Shoppers stop, Piramyd, Westside are trying to create new ideas and implementation of them in order to attract the customer’s attention. So consumer behavior and consumer’s reaction is an important factor, which must be taken into consideration by every retailer. Factors such as service, ambience, availability of merchandising, variety of merchandising, latest trends and fashion are the main factors which directs a customer to choose a particular department store for his/her shopping. In this research it has been found that even if one factor is missing in a particular store then the customer reacts very strongly. So it’s a must for every retailer to take care of every factor delicately to retain their loyal customers and attract new customers.
50. Direct Selling
Abstract
In this project we are going to study in depth about Direct Selling Concept in Retail regarding how the sell is made, what sorts of customers prefer to buy the direct seling services and products, what products are available to be purchased, who the people are there to provide the services and what challenges they face in making customers, their rewards for the same and eventually limitations of the project and findings, recommendations and suggestions for the project.
The Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) is a self-regulatory and promoting body for the direct selling industry in India. The Association pursues three key objectives:
1) Protect and promote interests of the direct selling industry and its consumers.
2) Support and safeguard the character and status of the direct selling industry.
3) Assist and guide in maintaining qualitative standards in the Indian direct selling industry.
IDSA is the Indian counterpart of the Washington-based World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA), which regulates, strengthens and promotes direct selling in over 58 countries. Direct selling is the marketing of products or services to consumers through sales tactics including presentations, demonstrations, and phone calls. It is sometimes also considered to be a sale that does not utilize a "middle man" such as a retail outlets, distributors or brokers. This is needed where the products value needs more explanation and cannot be purchased off the shelf. At its best, direct selling can be an opportunity for individuals to find fulfillment, express their entrepreneurial talents and gain financial independence. Direct selling involves people and is a part of direct marketing which additionally involves the use of media, print which is handled by the business.
Objectives of the Study
To determine a competitive analysis based on the customer convenience to purchase any product at door.
Finding what the customer’s perception about Direct Selling products and Direct Selling Agents.
Study of current consumer’s response to Direct Selling products and Direct Selling Agents.
Finding for positive response to Direct selling though Convenient Approach of Customers.
The scope of project was limited to find out companies’ prospects and consumers responses to Direct Selling Product and Companies. The Cause of it is other fake Direct Selling Agents of other like it is said that Delhi-made products and Chinese products. Owing to this Customers do not believe to what Real Direct Selling Agent want to convince and sell.
The Direct Selling Companies give very less Advertisement to sell the product and that is the cause it is not believed by customers. If companies give effective and attractive advertisement on Television or newspaper, its sell will be increasing. Direct Selling Agent find it difficult to survive in this competitive consumer world to sell the product owing to low response of customers, so they are also in huge amount of attrition. They should be given more incentives and effective Identity to introduce to consumers. In India people give more importance to Products Company than its monetary value so they buy any product from any trusted company and shop. So it can be a reason to minimum scope to the Direct Selling Companies.
Measuring Success in Direct Selling
When considering an opportunity, it’s natural to want to know how successful you’re likely to be. It’s also important to understand that the answer can’t be found by looking at the number of people who earn “big bucks.” There are certainly direct sellers who earn six-figure incomes (and more!). However, that is not the norm, and holding all direct sellers to that standard does not create an accurate picture of “success.”
Focusing solely on the number of people who achieve a certain income, or on the length of time consultants remain in direct selling, is simply not an accurate way to measure success. Success must be analyzed on an individual level, based on personal goals.
Direct selling critics will often focus on the small percentage of direct sellers “at the top.” They make it sound like it’s impossible to achieve that level of success, when in reality, most people have no desire to devote the time and energy necessary to be a top performer. In fact, the direct selling model has many parallels to a traditional corporate business model. In a corporate model there are a few people at the top (president, CEO, Chairman of the Board) who drive the business and motivate those below them. A large number of directors and mid-level managers execute the business operations and are developing professionally and personally. In a few cases these individuals may one day rise to the senior executive level. Finally, there is an administrative level where one generally finds younger, less experienced people who are learning the business and, depending on their career goals, may continue to climb the corporate ladder or they may leave after a relatively short period of time to pursue other goals.
The salesforce structure in direct selling is actually very similar, but in reality, the potential for someone to reach the top is much higher. In a traditional business, there are a limited number of desks in the senior executive suite, but in direct selling, personal sales and the development of a productive downline will propel you to the top regardless of who else is already there.
Findings
Limited response from respondent response may not reveal the accurate picture as accurate data was not revealed by the respective respondents.
It is the process of Time consuming to go to door of customers and take their valuable time and convince about product.
Owing to no Advertisement customers do not trust any new-listening companies.
Respondent were not giving much to questions though we have honesty and sincerely tried to present the facts and figures but because of some non responses errors still might have cropped level because of no interest.
They feel it cheap to response any Direct Selling Agent because of No Trust.
As we know in the present scenario there is a cut-throat competition in the market. The only way to survive in the market is to attract the customers more and more and to provide the best services available in the market. As it is discussed in this project about all the factors that are responsible for a positive attitude of a consumer to move to a particular shopping mall or a particular department store. New competitors are entering in to the Indian market. And plus thing negative resposnse of average customers to Direct Selling Agent So consumer behavior and consumer’s reaction is an important factor along with satisfaction, which must be taken into consideration by every Direct Seller. Factors such as service, ambience, availability of demanded products, variety of product & services, latest trends and fashion are the main factors which directs a customer to choose a particular company for his/her shopping.
51. Lifetime Plans of the Cellular Companies
Abstract
Opening up of international and domestic long distance telephony services are growth drivers in the industry. Cellular operators now get substantial revenue from these services, and compensate them for reduction in tariffs on air time, which along with rental was the main source of revenue. The reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance, international long distance, and handset prices has driven demand.
The Key players in the Telecom Market in India Cellular Service provider:
1. BSNL
2. Airtel
3. Vodafone
4. Idea
5. Reliance
6. Tata indicom
7. Aircel
8. Spice
9. MTNL
Telecommunication sector in India can be divided into two segments: Fixed Service Provider (FSPs), and Cellular Services. Fixed line services consist of basic services, national or domestic long distance and international long distance services. The state operators (BSNL and MTNL), account for almost 90 per cent of revenues from basic services. Private sector services are presently available in selective urban areas, and collectively account for less than 5 per cent of subscriptions. However, private services focus on the business/corporate sector, and offer reliable, high- end services, such as leased lines, ISDN, closed user group and videoconferencing. Cellular services can be further divided into two categories: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).
The GSM sector is dominated by Airtel, Vodfone-Hutch, and Idea Cellular, while the CDMA sector is dominated by Reliance and Tata Indicom. Opening up of international and domestic long distance telephony services are the major growth drivers for cellular industry. Cellular operators get substantial revenue from these services, and compensate them for reduction in tariffs on airtime, which along with rental was the main source of revenue. The reduction in tariffs for airtime, national long distance, international long distance, and handset prices has driven demand.
Life Time Plans Of the Cellular Companies
Airtel Presents Rs. 295 Lifetime Prepaid with 1 Rupee Outgoing Local Tariff Slashes local outgoing call rate by 50% for Rs. 295/- Lifetime Prepaid users Local outgoing tariff reduced to Re. 1/- for life to all networks (mobile & landline) from Rs. 1.99/- for Rs. 295/- Lifetime Prepaid customers.
· All existing customers of Rs. 295/- Lifetime Prepaid to be migrated to Re. 1/- call rates, without any extra charges.
Bharti Airtel, India‘s leading telecom service provider, today announced the Rs. 495/- Lifetime Prepaid offer for its customers in Delhi & NCR circle and slashed all local outgoing calls (mobile and landline) to Re. 1/- from the existing Rs. 1.99/- per minute call rate.
Bharti Airtel, which was also the first service provider to introduce the Lifetime Prepaid in India, announced this revolutionary tariff cut for customers that was earlier applicable to only the Rs. 999/- Lifetime customers. With effect from february 15, 2008, all Rs. 295/- Lifetime Prepaid customers will be able to make local outgoing calls (Mobile & Landline) at Re. 1/- per minute and all existing customers will be migrated to the revised tariff plan without any extra charges. Customers will have to recharge with a minimum amount of Rs. 200/- at least once in every 180 days to enjoy the lifetime validity and tariff benefits.
Reliance Communications, the code-division multiple access major, which was the first to launch the lifetime plan almost two years ago at a one-time cost of Rs 999, plans to announce a similar scheme at one-fourth the price —- Rs 199.
For making outgoing calls, the standard local tariff will be 99 paise per minute. Various other calling tariff options will also be available to the users, depending on the trend of one‘s usage.
RCom‘s move looks like a replay of 2006, when mobile telephony players were intensely competing with each other over lifetime pre-paid schemes. Spectrum war, however, kept the operators busy all through 2007, and one didn‘t hear about lifetime plans at all.
TRAI has asked the mobile operators offering lifetime connectivity plans to disclose 'risk factors', like change in tariff plans and their remaining license period duration, in their announcement.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday incorporated safeguards to protect consumer interest in the lifetime validity tariff schemes being offered by phone companies. These include a restriction on the companies from hiking the tariff on any item specified in the plans and an obligation to inform the subscribers of the month and year of the expiry of current license.
The amendment to the Telecommunication Tariff Order thus addresses a moral issue that had arisen after phone companies began promoting lifetime schemes — their licenses are for a limited span ranging from seven to 15 years while they were offering a tariff that went well beyond the license period. It also answered a question in the minds of the subscribers whether there would be subsequent demands from phone companies after the initial upfront payment. TRAI made it clear that in the case of tariff plans offered or marketed as having lifetime or unlimited validity, the subscribers should get the service as long as the phone company is permitted to provide such telecom service under the current license or renewed license. TRAI has also reiterated the right of the subscribers to choose any tariff plan at any point of time.
FINDINGS
55% of the people use only mobile, and 40% ofØ respondents use both the services & only 5% people use the telephone service. It shows the popularity of cellular phone services.
34% of respondents are using the Airtel services,Ø which is the highest percentage of users of cellular phone. Idea takes 2nd place in Bhopal with 28% of users. Then comes reliance and BSNL, and tata indicom having least customers in the Bhopal.
Prepaid service is most popular in the cellular services with 95% of customers. The remained uses postpaid services.Ø
In current situation 73% of respondents are usingØ lifetime plans, where the rest are using general plan of the cellular companies.
64% of respondents are satisfied with the callØ rates of the lifetime plans, it is because telecom companies have slashed their call rates few months ago. Still in this situation 36% of respondents did not satisfy with the call rates which service they are using.
In the lifetime plan of cellular companies most ofØ the respondents are using this service because of its validity period with 83% of answer. Where 15% of people like this services because of its call rates.
78% of customer satisfied with the lifetime plansØ of cellular companies, and which are not satisfy with the service they are mostly BSNL and TATA indicom users.
Most of the people are using lifetime servicesØ because of money savings with the percentage of 48. Where 29% of people like this service because of the facilities provided by the operators. And 23% of people are using this service because of incoming only.
When it was asked to the respondents that did they know about the license of the cellular company, then most of the people replied NO. it means people are not aware about the license related bound of the cellular companies which is implemented by TRAI, that cellular companies can deliver their services until their license have validity, they have to renew it for providing further service..
In Bhopal it is found that Airtel is the market leader in the lifetime plan segment. People like the lifetime plans provided by the companies. And Idea having 2nd highest customers in Bhopal TATA indicom having least customers in Bhopal, where Reliance and BSNL having almost equal percent of customer But they are not aware about the bound of cellular companies with TRAI, that cellular companies can deliver their services till their license have validity, they have to renew it for providing further service.
52. Potential Achievement by Big Boss Retailer
Abstract
Consumer retention is the key success factor for any retailer in current competitive market. With a view to comprehend the competitive market scenario , the most upcoming suburb after the launch of many new retail outlets and malls, an effort was made to ascertain and analyze customer views and preferences for the same through process of Brand Recall. Also, a detailed study was made to understand the performance pattern of major competitors of Pantaloon shop.
In doing so, it was possible to assess the competition in the market, hence enabling us to position ourselves more effectively and strategize on a long term basis.
During the course of this project, I was also fortunate enough to be able to study the promotional campaigns carried out in the store. This report contains the findings arrived after detailed analysis of the data received through observations made at the competitor’s stores and personal interviews conducted with the customers at various department stores. Though not professionally equipped to suggest strategies to the pioneer of organized retailing in India, a sincere effort has been made to give some humble Recommendations for the organization at the end of the report which would benefit the firm in the long run.
The retail market is highly fragmented and is dominated by the innumerous, independent, owner managed shops. The modern day consumer is in the process of getting exposed to the organized version of retail. What distinguishes organized retailers is the presence in multiple locations and their ability to extract huge concessions from the manufacturers because of economies of scale.
Objectives of the Study
To determine a competitive analysis based on the customer perception.
Finding what the customer actually looks for in a store especially market.
Study of current consumer tastes & attitudes towards a store.
Finding for completely satisfying store from pantaloon to consumers.
Shoppers stop is one of the leading retail stores in India. Shoppers stop began by operating a chain of department stores under the name “ Shoppers’ Stop” in India. Currently shoppers stop has 26 stores across the country and three stores under the name Home stop. Shopper stop has also begun operating a number of specialty stores, namely Crossword Bookstores, Mothercare, Brio, Desi café, Arcelia. Shoppers Stop retailes a range of branded apparel and private label under the following categories of apparel, footwear, fashion jewellery, leather products, accessories and home products. These are complemented by café, food, entertainment, personal care and various beauty related services.
Store Retailing
Consumers today can shop for goods and services in a wide variety of store. The most important retail store types, many of which are found in most countries, fall in eight categories:
Specialty store
Department store
Supermarkets
Convenience store
Discount store
Off price retailers
Superstore
Catalog showroom
Specialty store:
Carry a narrow product line with a deep assortment within that line.
Department store:
Carry several product lines typically clothing, home furnishing, and household goods with each line operated as a separate department managed by specialist buyers or merchandisers.
Supermarkets:
Relatively large , low cost, low margin, high volume, self service operations design to serve the consumers total needs for food, laundry, and household maintenance product.
Convenience store:
Relatively small store that are located near residential areas, are open long hour seven days a week, and carry a limited line of high turnover convenience product.
Discount store:
Sell standard merchandise at lower price by accepting lower margin and selling higher volumes.
Off-price Retailers:
Buy at less than regular wholesale price and charge consumer less than retail.
Superstores:
Average 35000 square feet of selling space and have traditionally aimed at meeting consumer’s total needs for routinely purchase food and non food items.
Catalog showrooms:
Sell a broad selection of high markup, fast moving, brand name goods at discount prices.
As we know in the present scenario there is a cutthroat competition in the retail market. The only way to survive in the market is to attract the customers more and more and to provide the best services available in the market. As it is discussed in this project about all the factors that are responsible for a positive attitude of a consumer to move to a particular shopping mall or a particular department store. New competitors are entering in to the Indian market. Competitors such as Shoppers stop, Tata, Westside are trying to create new ideas and implementation of them in order to attract the customer’s attention. So consumer behavior and consumer’s reaction is an important factor, which must be taken into consideration by every retailer.
Factors such as service, ambience, availability of merchandising, variety of merchandising, latest trends and fashion are the main factors which directs a customer to choose a particular department store for his/her shopping. In this research it has been found that even if one factor is missing in a particular store then the customer reacts very strongly. So it’s a must for every retailer to take care of every factor delicately to retain their loyal customers and attract new customers.
The trend today has been to combine shopping with various offering. Take a mall for example, apart from shopping there are food court, cinema theaters, and even in some, an amusement centre for children. Shopping has made people spend not just on their requirements of good to be bought but to look on the totality of the experience have a quick bite at Mc Donald’s in the mall or let the kids play fun game while one is busy shopping or even taking the family out to movie and having a dinner all under one roof. The benefits of this totality offering are that many venders get to have people patronized there offerings. While the shopping experience i.e. being enhanced, more business is got by the store at the venue. Shopping is no longer a one time agenda for people. Various options are opening up.
Shopping has become a more whole some experience today and the segment which “Feels” the need for the add-on offering is not complaining.
53. Sales and Marketing Structure in Brokerage At Reliance Money
Abstract
A depository is an organisation which holds securities of investors in electronic form at the request of the investors through a registered Depository Participant. It also provides services related to transactions in securities. In the Depository System, the securities of a shareholder are held in the electronic form by conversion of physical securities to electronic form through a process called 'dematerialization' (demat) of share certificates and facilitates transactions electronically without involving any share certificate or transfer deed.
Depository system is playing a significant role in stock markets around the world and hence has become popular and prevalent in many advanced countries. In India the National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL), promoted by Industrial Development Bank of India, Unit Trust of India, and National Stock Exchange is the first depository. A second Depository by name Central Depository Services (India) Ltd, promoted by The Stock Exchange, Mumbai and Bank of India has been registered recently and will commence its operations shortly. Investors have choice of two depositories now
The Depository performs its functions through a network of Depository Participants (DPs) who interact with the Clearing Members and Investor. The Depository carries out following functions through its participants:-
Enabling the surrender and withdrawal of securities through the process of demat and remat to and from the depository system,·
Maintaining investors' holdings in the electronic form through computers,·
Effecting settlement of securities traded on the stock exchanges.·
Carrying out settlement of "off market trades" (i.e. trades not done on the stock exchanges)·
Advising periodically to the Share Registrar / Issuer about the beneficial owners of the securities.·
Objectives of the Study
1) To know the various functions which are conducted for day-to-day operations in RELIANCE MONEY.
2) To know the various norms adopted by RELIANCE MONEY.
3) To know the various products and services rendered to its customers.
4) To know whether the services provided by RELIANCE MONEY is able to attain its customer‘s satisfaction or not.
5) To find and try to bridge the gap between the expectations and experiences of the customers in case of dissatisfaction.
6) To know how the branch functions in terms of sales and operations.
7) To market and to promote the products of RELIANCE MONEY.
8) To generate new business opportunities for RELIANCE MONEY by opening up franchisees.
have gathered information about our project from the interaction with the customers of our company i.e. Reliance Money. The sampling method used was basically convenience sampling and most of the calls made were cold calls made on the generated database of recipients of other companies.
The secondary data, I have collected from the various websites of reliance money, various journals, magazines etc.
The methodology adopted in the procedure followed in order to give the projects its shape is:
Having a proper understanding of working of a financial company.Ø
Inquiring and looking into the practicalities ofØ work environment to have a correct insight of process adopted.
Gaining information from files, documents, folders and soft copy stored in system.Ø
Seeking information from the staff and taking their views in consideration.Ø
Browsing the website of various financialØ institutions and BSE and NSE for the necessary information required.
Finally compiling the primary and secondary data gathered, then making a study of option available.Ø
DP Services
Depository Participant provides the following services:
Account Opening: To utilize the services offered by a depository, any person having investment in any security or intending to invest in securities needs to have a demat account with a CDSL-DP. This holder of such demat account is called as "Beneficial Owner (BO)". A BO can maintain a demat account with zero balance in such account. A BO can open more than one account with the same or multiple DPs, in the same name/s and order, if he/shedesires so. The investor can approach any DP/s of his/her choice to open a demat account.
Dematerialization: Dematerialization is a process by which physical certificates (of shares / debentures / other securities) are converted into electronic balances. A BO has to submit the request for dematerialization by submitting the demat request form (DRF) duly completed along with the concerned physical certificates, to his/her DP.
Processing Delivery & Receipt Instructions: To settle trades done on a stock exchange (on-market trades) and trades, which are directly settled between two BOs (off-market trades), BOs submit duly completed delivery instructions in the prescribed form to DP. For receipt of securities into his/her account, a BO can give one time "standing instruction" to DP. Once such a standing instruction is given to the DP, there is no need to submit separate instructions for receipt every time the investor buys securities.
Account Statement: Generally a DP sends to the BO, a statement of his account, monthly, if there is any transaction in the account or every quarter if the account is not operated during that period.
Rematerialisation: Rematerialisation is the process by which the electronic balances held in the demat account can be converted back into physical certificates
Pledging: If the BO decides to pledge any securities in his BO account, he can avail of the same by submitting the pledge creation form duly completed, to his DP.
Nomination: BO accounts also have a facility for nomination in favor of any person.
Transmission of securities: CDSL offers a facility for transmission of balances held in BO account/s (to other BO Account/s) if so required due to death, lunacy, bankruptcy, insolvency or required due to operation of any law.
Change in Address: A BO who wishes to register his change in address submits his/her request in writing to his/her DP. The changes entered by the DP in the CDSL system will be automatically downloaded to all the companies in which the BO is holding securities. This facility offered by CDSL saves money, time and effort for the BO.
Bank Account Details: SEBI has made it mandatory for companies to print details of bank account of the BO on dividend/interest warrants etc. to prevent possibilities of misuse of the warrants. All BOs should submit a request in writing to the DP if they wish to record / change their bank account details.
Every investor who wants to hold shares in Demat form must open account with a DP of his/her choice. The DP provides all the services relating to transmission of shares and for this service DP levy some charges which is to be paid by the account holder, and charges for annual maintenance which is to be paid by account holder, in turn the DP provide clients with passbook and delivery instruction slips to operate from his Demat a/c .
Dematerialization or demat is a process to convert the securities held in physical form into an electronic form or to directly allot securities in electronic record form. These electronic records of securities are shown as ―electronic balances‖ in the demat account through a depository participant (DP). DP provides a link between the account holder (beneficiary owner or BO) and the company on one hand and National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) or Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL) on the other hand.
The expectations of the customers are regularly increasing because of the increasing competition and emergence of global market. In such conditions it becomes very necessary for a company to fulfill all the expectations of the customers and give them a delightful experience. Though reliance money is working very hard in order to do so but there is a gap between the expectations and the experiences of the customers which is widening regularly. This gap has emerged because of the sales oriented focus of reliance money. In order to increase the sales figures, the company has somewhere ignored the service delivery and left the customer on his own. In order to fill this gap, company needs to customize its services as it is dealing into financial instruments. These financial instruments are risky and it is very essential to make the customer feel that you are taking care of his money. This can be done only if all the services are customized and the system is made transparent for the customer as well as for the employees.
54. Study on Consumer Buying Behavior and Satisfaction Level
Abstract
Selling of any product, there is needed to build relationship with customer. For building a relationship there is need for knowing the customer behavior and how will be they satisfied? This project is undertaken to know the customer behavior & satisfaction level for Hero Honda Motorcycle in Supreme Auto (at Chickhli). Also through this project get awareness that which factors affect on the selling of bike mainly in the rural area. Because the area where project was undergoing, it is almost rural area and most population income depends on agriculture or its products. There were some limitations while doing the project. The data was collected by personal interviews of the respondents. It was very challenging to fill up the questionnaire as most of the population comes from rural back ground. As it was the rural area we were supposed to explain each and every question of the questionnaire. Also many of them did not show any interest in filling questionnaires..
This study will help Hero Honda to know the most popular way by which they are providing services and quality to the customers and to know various customers Perceptions. From the study, we found that, the customers were highly satisfied with the products and service of Hero Honda, but there were some complaints regarding after sales service and staff of Hero Honda. It was found that Hero Honda Motorcycle is having a good brand image in the market. Most of the respondents considered Hero Honda showroom is one of the best places to purchase of Motorcycle. The present is the era of customers. Customers are more knowledgeable than ever before and because the customer is more knowledgeable, companies must be faster, more agile and more creative than few years ago. So companies should strive to enhance customer satisfaction through knowing their expectations regarding products. Hero Honda should improve on their after sales support, and have knowledgeable support staff. Also Hero Honda should increase the range of its targeted market.
Objectives of the Study
Main purpose of the study was to know the customer buying behavior and demand into the minds of customer of Chikhli because always customers say something and does something. At the same time as there are many companies manufacturing motorcycles, idea about thinking of customer on whether, what, how, and for whom to purchase the motorcycle.
Therefore, research is required to measure present consumer buying behavior at the purchase of Hero Honda bike. so the researcher problem is to identify what are the criteria that prospective customer takes into consideration before buying the motorcycles. Also after purchasing are customers being satisfied or not?
The research objectives to be studied in this research are as follows:
To know market position of Hero Honda bike in the market.ü
To know consumer behavior for purchase of two wheeler bike.ü
To identify the factor which influences on consumer decision?ü
To classify which types of customers visiting of Dealers with reference to age, gender, incomeü
To know which medium play important role for purchasing bike.ü
To study who is the decision make in purchasing bike?.ü
To study whether customers are satisfied with staff and services or not?ü
Identifying possible areas of Improvement.ü
To know the status of different offers.ü
Consumer Buying Behavior
Consumer decision processes are the decision making processes undertaken by consumers in regard to a potential market transaction before, during, and after the purchase of a product or service. More generally, decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. Common examples include shopping, deciding what to eat. Decision making is said to be a psychological construct. This means that although we can never "see" a decision, we can infer from observable behavior that a decision has been made. Therefore we conclude that a psychological event that we call "decision making" has occurred. It is a construction that imputes commitment to action. That is, based on observable actions, we assume that people have made a commitment to effect the action.
In general there are three ways of analyzing consumer buying decisions. They are :
Economic models -· These models are largely quantitative and are based on the assumptions of rationality and near perfect knowledge. The consumer is seen to maximize their utility. See consumer theory. Game theory can also be used in some circumstances.
Psychological models -· These models concentrate on psychological and cognitive processes such as motivation and need recognition. They are qualitative rather than quantitative and build on sociological factors like cultural influences and family influences.
Consumer behaviour models -· These are practical models used by marketers. They typically blend both economic and psychological models.
Nobel laureate Herbert Simon sees economic decision making as a vain attempt to be rational. He claims (in 1947 and 1957) that if a complete analysis is to be done, a decision will be immensely complex. He also says that peoples' information processing ability is very limited. The assumption of a perfectly rational economic actor is unrealistic. Often we are influenced by emotional and non-rational considerations. When we try to be rational we are at best only partially successful.
Buyer Decision Process :
The buyer decision process consists of the following steps
1. Need recognition;
2. Search for information on products that could satisfy the needs of the buyer;
3. Alternative selection;
4. Decision-making on buying the product;
5. Post-purchase behavior
There are a range of alternative models, but that of AIUAPR, which most directly links to the steps in the marketing/promotional process is often seen as the most useful.
AWARENESS -Ø before anything else can happen the potential customers must become aware that the product or service exists. Thus, the first task must be to gain the attention of the target audience. All the different models are, predictably, agreed on this first step. If the audience never hears the message they will not act on it, no matter how powerful it is.
INTEREST -· but it is not sufficient to grab their attention. The message must interest them and persuade them that the product or service is relevant to their needs. The content of the message(s) must therefore be meaningful and clearly relevant to that target audience's needs, and this is where marketing research can come into its own.
UNDERSTANDING -· once an interest is established, the prospective customer must be able to appreciate how well the offering may meet his or her needs, again as revealed by the marketing research. This may be no mean achievement where the copywriter has just fifty words, or ten seconds, to convey everything there is to say about it.
ATTITUDES -· but the message must go even further; to persuade the reader to adopt a sufficiently positive attitude towards the product or service that he or she will purchase it, albeit as a trial. There is no adequate way of describing how this may be achieved. It is simply down to the magic of the copywriter‟s art; based on the strength of the product or service itself.
PURCHASE -· all the above stages might happen in a few minutes while the reader is considering the advertisement; in the comfort of his or her favourite armchair. The final buying decision, on the other hand, may take place sometime later; perhaps weeks later, when the prospective buyer actually tries to find a shop which stocks the product.
REPEAT PURCHASE -· but in most cases this first purchase is best viewed as just a trial purchase. Only if the experience is a success for the customer will it be turned into repeat purchases. These repeats, not the single purchase which is the focus of most models, are where the vendors focus should be, for these are where the profits are generated. The earlier stages are merely a very necessary prerequisite for this.
This is a very simple model, and as such does apply quite generally. Its lessons are that you cannot obtain repeat purchasing without going through the stages of building awareness and then obtaining trial use; which has to be successful. It is a pattern which applies to all repeat purchase products and services; industrial goods just as much as baked beans. This simple theory is rarely taken any further - to look at the series of transactions which such repeat purchasing implies. The consumer's growing experience over a number of such transactions is often the determining factor in the later - and future - purchases. All the succeeding transactions are, thus, interdependent - and the overall decision-making process may accordingly be much more complex than most models allow for.
55. Study to measure Market Potential & Customers Buying Motives
Abstract
It is detailed study of market potential performance to detect strengths and weaknesses. The gathering, classifying, comparing & studying of company‟s sales data, strictly speaking, gathering of sales data is not a part of analytical effort s but it substantially and vitally affects the quality of market potential.Market potential provides additional information. For example that the increased sales volume came from product carrying a lower than average gross margin. Through sales analysis, management seeks insight on strong and weak territories, high volume, low volume products and type of customers providing satisfactory and unsatisfactory sales volume. It uncovers details that otherwise lie hidden in the sales record. It provides information that management needs to allocate sales efforts effectively.
If sales management relies on the raw data, the result may be misleading. It depends solely on summary of the sales data. It has no way to evaluate the effectiveness of its own activities and those of the sales force if we say that sales have gone up by 5% over previous year‟s with 1% decline profit.
Market potential provide the management with additional information make an in-depth study of why the margin is insufficient though sales management seeks insight on the sales territories with the most satisfactory and the least satisfactory sales volume .Market potential will then uncover significant details why it is so. It provide necessary information, management need in order to allocate future sales effort effectively. The role of sales manager in market potential is to make a detailed analysis of the available data ad use them properly to initiate action.
Objectives of the Study
In Today‟s competitive market, every company wants to know the reasons how one can have the potential market, which factors enhance the sales & shape the buying motives of the Drugs (Inhaler) system. The said information will be much useful for devising potential market & shaping buying decisions of customers. This research is also devoted towards estimating market share & buying motives for increasing sales of the Cipla‟s Asthalin Inhaler.
The research objectives to be studied in this research are as follows:
1. To study the various product range & forms of Asthalin..
2. To study the market potential of Asthalin to other similar products of Cipla‟s competitors.
3. To study the customer buying motives towards Asthalin.
4. To study the market share of Asthalin.
As per the objectives under study, the following research work will lead to the following results :-
1. Cipla‟s Asthalin comes in various formsas per the consumers convenience like Inhaler, Rotahaler.
2. Consumers show positive buying attitude towards Asthalin than other similar products.
3. Asthalin has huge market share in Buldana district.
4. Consumers are very much satisfied with the Asthalin‟s results.
The sample selection process requires the form of sample be specified. For this purpose, researcher has subjectively decided which particular group will be part of the study. In a sample survey a small part of the entire population is subjected to the research. This sample is considered to be the true representative of the entire universe and decided upon certain criteria.
The sample size has been kept to 100 as it was considered large enough to reliable result. The sampling procedure is Simple random sampling within Cluster sampling. The data is to be collected from 04 clusters namely Shegaon, Khamgaon, Malkapur & Buldana. Out of 100 respondents, 40 Pharmacists, 40 Customers comprising 10 from each cluster & 20 Doctors comprising 5 from each cluster are selected for this survey which truly represents the area under study. After the sample size is decided, the next step was to meet the respondent personally and to collect data from them through personal interviews. Data was collected in the form of Response to the well framed Questionnaire from all the 03 players in the market viz. Doctors, Pharmacists & actual customers.
How market potential is Estimated ?
Data for market potential : Market potential is nothing but to collect, classify, study the company sales data. Collection of data is not part of analytical part, but it vitally affect the quality of the sales analysis. Market potential is generally based on data already in existence. It is called secondary data. Secondary data may be gathered either from internal sources such as invoice or shipping records or from external sources such as marketing research agencies, government agencies, trade association and trade journals. Secondary data are often readily available but their use should be with caution. The sales management has to rearrange them according to their needs.
Some companies maintain their internal sales records in some detailed manner showing individuals sales, sales by products, by classes of customers, by size of order and other pertinent break downs of sales data. Data are sometimes especially collected for the purpose of finding the market potential. This may be called primary data and may be collected under the control of sales management according to its needs.
The main purpose of market potential is to convert raw sales data into actionable information for sales manager. The process involving editing, tabulating and cross tabulating and also breaking them down into various way to make them comparable. A number of comparisons are possible such as:
1. Current data can be compared with the past result measuring trend over the years.
2. Current results of different territories, product or class of customers can be compared with each other.
3. Internal performance data can be used for compared with each other .Different ratio and percentages or variances can be used for comparison purposes. The final step in the analysis process is interpretation or drawing conclusion from the compiled data.
When the sales planning is done, the sales manager finds out the potential market. Sales manager collects the information and analyses it and then compare the actual one with standards. An evaluation program review both the nature and extend of sales force efforts and influence of external variables, once the degree of influence of controllable and uncontrollable factors are determined. Sales management can decide whether to corrective action or to revise the sales plan or both.
Market Potential Analysis:
This is an important aspect of marketing since one has to do market research related to their industry product which can be business to consumer or business to business. Market potential is basically carried out to know the strength in the industry also to allocate the target to the sales force based on optimum market research which normally includes the customer requirement, there expansion plans, investment etc. With optimum information sales manager knows the amount of investment a company is going to make for the coming years. Based on this authentic information a company can take steps.
Before going for market potential analysis you need to initially know on which products you are carrying out market potential and then go for it. Market potential is carried out by visiting to your customer or consumer site asking them questions about your products.
Most important thing to note is market potential is very essential for the company, so it should be carried out seriously and effectively. Now biggest question arises that what you will be asking. You know market potential basically gives company position in the market by finding how many players are there in the Anti-Asthmatic Pharma Drugs market and finding who all are their customers. Now to know about company's future position you need to ask what are your future plans, investment, expansion plans, and accordingly you need to arrange data and handed over to marketing department they will be deciding about allocating the targets to sales force .
56. Test Marketing and Customer Interaction
Abstract
The amount of test marketing needed varies with each existing product as well as new product. Test marketing cost can be enormous, and test marketing takes time that may allow competitors to gain advantages. When the costs of developing and introducing the product are low, or when management is already confident about the new product, the company may do little or no test marketing. “The stage of new-product development as well as existing product where the product and marketing program are tested in more realistic market settings.”
Using standard test markets, the company finds a small number of representative test cities, conducts a full marketing campaign in these cities, and uses store audits, consumer and distributor surveys, and other measures to gauge product performance. The results are used to forecast national sales and profits, discover potential product problems, and fine-tune the marketing program.
Several research firms keep controlled panel of stores that have agreed to carry new products for a fee. The company with the new product specifies the number of stores and geographical location it wants. The research firm delivers the product to the participating stores and controls shelf location, amount of shelf space, displays and point-of-purchase promotions, and pricing according to specified plants. Sales results are tracked to determine the impact of these factors on demand.
Companies also can test existing or new products in a simulated shopping environment. The company or research firm shows ads and promotions for a variety of products, including the new product being tested, to a sample of consumers. It gives consumers a small amount of money and invites them to a real or laboratory store where there may keep the money or use it to buy items. The researchers note how many consumers buy the new product and competing brands.This simulation provides a measure of the trial and the commercial‟s effectiveness against competing commercials. The researchers then ask consumers the reasons for their purchase or non purchase. Some weeks later, they interview the consumers by phone or determine product attributes, usage, satisfaction, and repurchase intensions. Using sophisticated computer models, the researchers then project national sales from results of the simulated test market.
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this research are as follows:
To study the level of awareness and buying behavior of MALA‟S Jam in the mind of customers.·
To comprehend the sales level of the Jam in distinct areas of the Pune city.·
To comprehend the reasons for nil purchases.·
To study the satisfaction level of the customers.·
To study the demand of particular flavor by the consumers·
Scope means area covered. Following things are covered in this research:
I. The aim of the project is to study test marketing and customer interaction.
II. The survey covered 500 customers from distinct areas of Pune city.
III. At each outlet 25 customers were covered.
There was a shortage of time to approach each and every respondent for survey and the budget of the survey was limited, which was a major limitation.
This was the major limitation from the side of the respondents at the time of inviting for free taste of the jam at the canopy. They were not willing to spend much time over there.
Findings
People attract due to canopy set up over there and approach because of free tasting counter.ü
Display of the products were satisfactory, still need to do proper display at the retail outlet.ü
Ranges of the products are satisfied but manyü customers need aamla jam too. Thus, this is the new product demand in the market which can be run in the market.
Make proper distribution to customers at the right time as per their order and requirement.ü
Need to increase promotional activities for increasing sale, because some people are not aware about the brand.ü
Give same schemes to the customers at different places like at super mall and retail grocery stores.ü
Need to hire sales persons who can watch inü different areas of Pune city, obtain the order regularly, look at the situation of this brand and visit at the distinct retail outlets.
It needs to concentrate on physical distributionü and promotion which would improve the performance of the company which is suggested by customers.
We always interact with distinct people in theØ market, while I was interacting with customers of the MALA‟S Jam, customers were happy to taste the product as well as purchase the products.
The canopy which was set up at the different retailØ outlet was attracting maximum amount of customers, but sometimes we had to invite them for tasting, we interacted with them and gained the experience.
From the research, I conclude that MALA‟S have goodØ quality of the product which is giving real fruit taste of the Jam compared to other brands.
The customers are price and quality sensitive whileØ purchasing the Jam. In order to satisfy them, MALA‟S sells at reasonable rates as well as extraordinary quality of its products.
The future of any product on this universe dependsØ on pricing. There are certain factors which hinder a customer that can be quality, price, brand name and longer lasting product.
Most of the retail outlets were asking for moreØ margins as well as discount or any promotional schemes for the customers which can hike the sale of the products in the market.
57. Abstract
This chapter explains about the background and states the objectives of the project. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of promotional activity for selling HCL products in Pune city only. Promotion is comprehensive terms, and covers the entire gamut of advertising, publicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. Sales promotion is thus a part of promotion and is restricted to direct inducement on a short term basis services. The same promotional strategy was applied by HCL to promote their products and boost up its sales. The HCL performed promotional activities like canopy, road shows, EPP, broacher distribution, etc. In the present competitive world if any business organization has to survive it needs to keep an eye on various forces operating in the market. More over competitors constantly try to win over others. In this scenario, every business organization needs to monitor the changes taking place in the market so that they are not caught. Market research is an efficiency tool in the hands of a marketer that helps him to take changes taking place in the market.
HCL Info systems Ltd is one of the pioneers in the Indian IT market, with its origins in 1976. For over quarter of a century, we have developed and implemented solutions for multiple market segments, across a range of technologies in India. We have been in the forefront in introducing new technologies and solutions.
The promotional activities like canopy shows and broachers distribution were carried out at main location near to the HCL Company. In this activity we have given live demo of laptop, desktop and mileap laptop to the end user i.e. the customers; this activity was mainly done in the viman nager and vadgaon sheri. Giving them demo, and brushers, and handling there queries regarding the Products.
Objectives of the Study
1. To study the marketing strategies of HCL.
2. To find out the effectiveness of promotional strategies of HCL.
3. To ascertain the impact of promotional activity on purchase decision.
4. To find out the measures to boost up sales.
5. To conduct promotional activity to boost sales of HCL.
6. To analyze the awareness among public about the HCL products.
7. To find out the reasons for low sales of the products.
8. To conduct promotional activity in various places like shopping malls, residential areas, corporate etc.
9. To increase the prescription rate among the respondents by using promotional tools.
It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by the researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them. In general methodology is an optional framework within which the facts are placed so that the meaning may be seen more clearly. The sources of data shown that designing of a research plan calls for decision on the data sources are research approaches (primary and secondary data) research instruments (observation survey experiment) sampling plan and contact methods (personal interviews).
A research design is the determination and statement of the general research approach or strategy adopted for the particular project. It is the heart of the planning. If the design adheres to the research objectives, it will ensure that the client need will be served.
Research design is a plan structured and strategies of investigation. It is the arrangement of condition and analysis of data in a manner to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.
In order to achieve the objective it was necessary· to talk to the customers and public to draws the conclusions regarding the objective.
For visiting the customers and publics to collect· the relevant information; a questionnaire has to be designed. The questionnaire was designed in such a manner to achieve the objective of the research.
The sample size taken is 100 customers and publics.·
Findings
Through this project I got to many of the things related to IT products, Sales Promotion, Consumer behavior, making of new customers and handling of old customers and Selling & marketing Concepts at Pune city.
Before the use of promotional tools the products of· HCL were not known to the publics but after the use of promotional tools the products got good exposure in the market.
The reason for low sales of the products was lack· of promotional activities due to this most of the public was not aware of HCL products.
After using promotional tools I found that the prescription rate of the HCL‟s products was increased to a considerable extent.·
Maximum customers first see the affordable price· & look of the product.
At the time of purchasing customer also demand for free accessories like pen drive, head phone· & mouse, etc.
HCL is 32 yrs old and the only Indian IT company among the entire IT giant like LG, Sony, HP, Lenovo.·
HCL is having maximum number of service centre all over India.·
HCL provides most economic Leaptop & Desktop in India At HCL DIGILIFE Store, one can get wide range of products such as Leaptops, Desktop, Mileaps, IPods, Cameras, Printers, Mobile phones, x-box, LCD TVs, Plasmas & Projectors, etc.
HCL is only company in India which provides service 24x7x365 (which is known as HCL TOUCH).·
HCL has launched World‟s smallest laptop, ie Mileap x- series 1.·
HCL Ltd is a national distributor for NOKIA Cells· and Accessories, LCD TVs, Plasmas & Projectors, Apple IPods & Accessories, Kodak Camera, Canon printers, Microsoft software, X-box & Microsoft Accessories.
The sample size of my survey was 100. I have tried my best to get the maximum out of survey. After analyzing the result of my questionnaire I have arrived to the conclusion, which is as follows:
HCL has successfully achieved their objective of getting the potential customers through promotional activities and also to boost the sale..
The promotional activity was helpful to know the customer‟s perception towards HCL by getting information from promotion.
Regular use of promotional tools is necessary for giving more exposure to the product in the market.
The customers came to know about HCL products/services and its benefits through promotional activities which seemed to be the key factor to achieve the prospective customers.
Most of the respondents believe in brand name and good configuration. As such many of them are attracted to the HCL brand. Moreover, the existing users of HCL are found to be satisfied from the features as well as accessibility of the laptops/desktops.
The company also should open more showroom of HCL for getting more publicity and positive response. This means HCL has very high reputation in cities like Pune.
HCL should also promote through the TV Channels, magazines and national newspapers which will make the brand more and more popular.
According to Survey I found that the position of HCL Desktop is No. 1 and the Laptops are No. 3 in retail market.
58. Abstract
Advertising to children is the act of marketing or advertising products or services to children, as defined by national legislation and advertising standards. Advertising to children is often the subject of debate, relating to the alleged influence on children's consumption. Rules on advertising to children have largely evolved in recent years. In most countries, advertising for children is now framed by a mix of legislation and advertising self-regulation. Advertising to children can take place on traditional media - television, radio and print - as well as new media (internet and other electronic media). Packaging, in-store advertising, event sponsorship and promotions can also be means to advertise to children.
There is no universal definition of a child (although UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, defines early childhood as ages 0- 8 years). Children are otherwise defined according to national jurisdictions. For the purposes of advertising law, the definition of a child varies from one jurisdiction to another. However, 12 is commonly used as a cut-off point, on the basis of the widespread academic view that by the age of 12 children have developed their behavior as consumers, effectively recognize advertising and are able to adopt critical attitudes towards it.
There is no global data on ad spending directed at children, only data for specific sectors. According to the Federal Trade Commission, food and beverage companies (44 companies reporting to the FTC) in the US spent approximately $1.6 billion in 2006 to promote their products/services to children.
Objectives of the Study
Through this report we want to find out how children are influenced by the advertisements especially of confectionary products. So the statement of this project would be 'Effect of Advertisements on Children with special reference to confectionary products'
The research process goes within the following confectionary products:
• Biscuits
• Chocolates
• Wafers
• Noodles
• Sauces
• Health Drinks
The subject matter for this Project is to study the effects of advertisement on children. Following are the main objectives of this report.
• To know the children's awareness about confectionary Products & their advertisements.
• To study the impact of advertisement of confectionary Products on children.
• To know whether is there any connection between TV watching habit of children and their medium of study or not.
There are mainly two of sampling methods which are being used by the marketers:
Probability Sampling (Random Sampling)
Non - probability Sampling
Probability sampling is a method for drawing a sample from a population such that all possible samples have a known and specified probability of being drawn.
Non probability sampling is a sampling procedure in which the selection of population elements is based in part on the judgment of the researcher or field interviewer.The sampling method for this report would be probability sampling because here each sample has equal chance of being selected and again it would be stratified random sampling
Media Literacy
Media literacy is a relatively new discipline, aimed at teaching individuals and children in particular to understand and use the media to their advantage. Media literacy is increasingly recognized by governments and international organizations such as the European Union and the World Health Organisation as a key tool to help children understand and deal with today's complex media environment.
Media Smart is an established media literacy education programme focused on advertising. Launched in November 2002, Media Smart is a non-profit media literacy programme for school children aged 6 to 11 years old. Media Smart develops and provides, free of charge and on request, educational materials to primary schools that teach children to think critically about advertising in the context of their daily lives. Media Smart materials use real examples of advertising to teach core media literacy skills. Media Smart is funded by the advertising business in the UK and is supported by the UK government and EU institutions. Since 2002, Media smart has been launched in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Portugal and Hungary.
Is it fair to advertise to children unless they fully understand the intent of the advertisers? If young children do not understand that intent, then when do they develop that ability? Is television an effective way to market products to children? Are the products (such as food and toys) typically aimed at children, the type of products that children should be encouraged to buy? Are children encouraged to buy or try unsuitable products (such as alcohol or tobacco) from viewing advertisements even when those advertisements are not aimed at them?
Does advertising encourage a more materialistic attitude in children? Or is it appropriate that children learn to be effective consumers from an early age? Does encouraging children to buy products lead them to pester their parents and cause family disputes? Does television advertising present an accurate or misleading image of the world to children?
Should advertising aimed at children be regulated? If so, how strict should that regulation be and, in a global market place, should regulators draw up common guidelines across different countries and cultures? Should we educate children about advertising, and if so, who should take on the role of educator?
These are the questions that require to have a proper look at. Children aging around 15 in India are having spending power. It is from their own allowances and earnings. Almost 30 percentage of Indian population belongs to this age group, and called to be the future of India . But the fact is that out of every rupee the government spent, only five paisa went to child related programmes. In Bihar, spending on per meal per child is about 15 paisa. Now can anyone explain that what kind of nutritious food can be supplied at that rate?
When we talk of the Indian economy it is vastly segmented in different age groups with different spending powers. Most of the Indian people live under the poverty line. But the others are having a huge spending power with large amount of selection in the product basket. The children from these segments are being targeted by the companies to generate the sales.
The market for selling products to children is potentially immense, and it is not surprising that in those countries that have established traditions of advertising, much of that advertising is aimed at children, often via television and other media
Children and TV Advertising
In the 1940s and 1950s children were not considered consumers in their own right but only extensions to their parents purchasing power. With the advent of television and other mass media, children have come into their own right as consumers and, consequently, they have become an important target market for the business. Advertisers are the first to recognize children's value as consumers who are capable of making decisions about spending.
The 1950s dates the modern era of children's television programming, when a deal between struggling television network ABC and Disney brought The Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland into children's afternoon television programming. Advertising at that time appealed generally to the personal gain of the consumer in the case they decided to purchase the sponsored product. Over the next 15 to 20 years, children's television became an industry by itself.
Throughout this history of children's television advertising, researchers have criticized in different ways the use of television commercials directed to children (Tseng, 2004). In the late 1970s, a research team funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) estimated that children viewed an average of about 20,000.- commercials per year (Adler in Singer, 2001). There was so little study on this topic during the 1950s, the majority of the studies on children's television advertising environment goes from the 1970s onward (Alexander et al. 1998).
Four types of products advertised to children during the 1970s were limited: toys, cereals, candies and snacks, and fast foods. Male voiceovers accounted for the great majority of ads coded, and animated characters seldom appeared (Barcus in Tseng, Eliana Shiao; 2004). While marketers and advertisers heightened their interest in the child market during the 1980s, research on children's television advertising of that period consisted mainly on replications and extensions of previous studies (Tseng, 2004).
hildren's television advertising is rapidly becoming a major concern to government agencies, citizens. groups and researchers in many areas of the social sciences ( Resnik, Stern and Alberty; 1979).Children who watch a lot of television, want more toys seen in advertisements and eat more advertised food than children who do not watch as much television (Strasburger, 2002).
59. Effect of Mobile Marketing on Youngsters
Abstract
The Indian Telecommunications network with 110.01 million connections is the fifth largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for U.S. companies in the stagnant global scenario. The total subscriber base, which has grown by 40% in 2005, is expected to reach 250 million in 2007. According to Broadband Policy 2004, Government of India aims at 9 million broadband connections and 18 million internet connections by 2007. The wireless subscriber base has jumped from 33.69 million in 2004 to 62.57 million in FY2004- 2005. In the last 3 years, two out of every three new telephone subscribers were wireless subscribers. Consequently, wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40% in 2003.
Wireless subscriber growth is expected to bypass 2.5 million new subscribers per month by 2007. The wireless technologies currently in use are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). There are primarily 9 GSM and 5 CDMA operators providing mobile services in 19 telecom circles and 4 metro cities, covering 2000 towns across the country.
•India has one of the biggest telecom markets in the world. It has more GSM subscribers than fixed-lin subscribers. •Total telecom subscribers –494.07 million (August 2009) •Teledensity –42.27 per cent (August 2009) •Addition of mobile subscribers (July–August 2009) –15.08 million •Annual growth rate of telecom subscribers (June 2008–June 2009) –42.68 per cent •Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for GSM (as on 30 June 2009) –US$ 3.801 •Telecom equipment market (2008–09) –US$ 24.99 billion2,3 •Handset market (2008-09) –US$ 5.82 billion2,3 •Expected mobile subscriber base (2013) –About 771 million.
Objectives of the Study
There has been an honest attempt to:
To check the awareness of the mobile marketing on the youngsters of Ahmedabad city·
To know the preference of people towards mobile marketing on the youngsters of Ahmedabad city·
To check the reliability of mobile marketing on the youngsters of Ahmedabad city·
Sampling frame: all individuals between 18 years to 35 years in Ahmedabad.
Sampling unit: all individuals between 18 years to 35 years in Ahmedabad
Sample size: 100 respondents Sampling method: non-probabilistic convenience sampling
Overall Findings
Those customers who like to respond mobile advertising are mainly for recharging schemes and other value added services. Many of them less like to get call/sms from the apparel stores and from the hotels and restaurants.
Many people like to respond to advertisement and¨ also like to purchase by analyzing the features and schemes that are provided so when the service is customized it becomes more useful to customers
People not rely on the SMS because they think that there is always some conditions apply which they do not disclose¨
Majority of respondents have not registered in the¨ DND (do not disturb service). The one of main reason is that they are not aware about that and also it makes no difference to them whether advertisement comes or not.
Many respondents are not using 3G enabled mobile¨ phone because the service is not launched in GUJARAT. So most of them are not aware the services provided by the 3G
People like to read the sms but they rarely go¨ through it for mobile marketing because they generally feel that it will cost more and amount will charged. That’s the main reason the to ignore the sms on the immediate basis
Recall of the brand does not increase but sometimes¨ it creates negative impression if mobile marketing is done on very frequent basis.
Customers are now like to know full details before¨ the buying the product and by the mobile advertising the detail of the product can not been known so people give less preference to mobile advertising.
Family income of the people is increasing day by day so they like to use new technologies.¨
Mobile phone is a new direct marketing device that provides direct access to consumers and interacts with them in a very personal way. All GSM operators announce the launch of new mobile services, and the B2C mobile commerce and mobile marketing will be obviously becoming more popular in India. The mobile advertising, mobile Internet, mobile banking and mobile entertainment services are growing in the world and in India, GSM operators and retailers expect to benefit from these mobile marketing tools. According to literature survey about consumers‟ attitudes toward mobile marketing, Tsang et al., (2004) found that consumers generally had negative attitudes toward mobile advertising unless they have specifically consented to receive the mobile advertising messages.
Bauer et al., (2005) found that consumers developed a positive attitude toward mobile marketing if mobile marketing messages were creatively designed, entertained and proved a high information value. Becker (2005) indicated that mobile marketing adoption and acceptance was on the rise. Even though it is too early to say whether mobile commerce and mobile marketing services are accepted or not in Turkey, the findings of the research conducted Turkish mobile phone users suggest that mobile phone users have positive attitudes towards mobile marketing tools except for mobile shopping.
To come to the point, the mobile phone is rapidly becoming a practical direct marketing channel. There are some factors playing a role in improving and increasing mobile commerce. Besides mobile service quality, Bauer et al., (2005) emphasizes that entertainment value, information value and advertising content communication are some of the strongest drivers of the acceptance of the mobile phone as a marketing tool. Moreover, one of the ways to convince mobile phone users of the benefits of mobile commerce is the price of products and services. One of the implications of this survey suggests that potential mobile commerce users have price sensitivity, and that the lower price turns out 30 to be the most critical factor that motivates mobile phone users‟ adoption of mobile commerce.
60. Gap Analysis of Services offered in Retail Banking
Abstract
The report "Analyzing the Gap between Management Perception and Customer Perception With Respect To the Services Offered In Retail Banking" aims to assimilate data about the various aspects of Retail banking services, to analyze the perceptions of the management and the customers regarding the services offered in Retail banking and to find out whether any gaps do exist between the services offered and the customer expectations. We have taken 6 Banks which represent the Nationalized, Private and Multinational Banks of the Banking Industry in India-
• SBI
• Corporation Bank
• HDFC Bank
• ICICI Bank
• Citibank
• Standard Chartered Bank
The criteria for selecting these banks were their deposit base. We have limited our Service Category to the core services in Retail Banking and a few specialized services.
The report is a mixture of Secondary and Primary data, with Questionnaires being our major instrument to collect primary data.
Major topics we have attempted to cover in this project are to:
• Explore the services and products offered by the banks to individual customers.
• Understand the perception of the management with respect to services offered by banks.
• Understand the perception of the customers with respect to services offered by banks.
• Analyze whether there is a gap between the customer and management perceptions about the services offered by the banks.
• Conclude and enumerate the recommendations that might help to reduce the gaps that exist and foster the relationship of the customer more with the bank.
The new game requires new strategies with an accent on innovation for organizational transformation and to achieve world-class competitiveness through improved efficiency and reduced operational cost.
An organization-centric agenda, policy, program accelerating interventions need to strengthen core competencies of Indian banks; while exploring seeding options for future growth.
Thrust on innovation is important particularly in the present context of consolidation and convergence both within and across segments of the financial system.
Objectives of the Study
There has been an honest attempt to:
• Explore the services and products offered by the banks to individual customers.
• Understand the perception of the customers and the management with respect to services offered by banks.
• Generate additional information to analyze the gap between the customer and management perceptions about the services offered by banks.
• Conclude and enumerate the innovations required to reduce the gap and increase the customer base of banks.
Descriptive research, also known as statistical research, describes data and characteristics about the population or phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research answers the questions who, what, where, when and how. Although the data description is factual, accurate and systematic, the research cannot describe what caused a situation. Thus, descriptive research cannot be used to create a causal relationship, where one variable affects another. In other words, descriptive research can be said to have a low requirement for internal validity. The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Often the best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey investigation. Qualitative research often has the aim of description and researchers may follow-up with examinations
The study required the understanding of the concept of Retail Banking and of the various products associated with it. The method used was that of secondary research and primary research. Under secondary research a detailed study was done from the various books, journals, magazines written on the subject of banking ad retail banking to obtain the required information and to have a precise idea of the services of retail banking.
In order to have a proper understanding of the sector of Retail Banking a depth study was done from the various sources such as Books like Marketing channel by Anne Coughlan and Service marketing by Valarie A Zeithaml, Magazines like Retail Banking and Business Today. A lot of data is also collected from the official websites of the banks and the articles from various search engines like Google, yahoo search and answers.com
The primary data was collected by means of a survey. Questionnaires were prepared and customers of the banks at various branches were approached to fill up the questionnaires. The questionnaire contains 15 questions which reflect on the type and quality of services provided by the banks to the customers. The response of the customer and the managers is recorded on a grade scale of 1 to 5 for each question. The filled up information was later analyzed to obtain the required interpretation and the findings.
Challenges the Indian Banks Face
India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Evidence from across the world suggests that a sound and evolved banking system is required for sustained economic development. India has a better banking system in place vis a vis other developing countries, but there are several issues that need to be ironed out.
The challenges that the banking sector in India faces are:
• INTEREST RATE RISK:
Interest rate risk can be defined as exposure of bank's net interest income to adverse movements in interest rates. A bank's balance sheet consists mainly of rupee assets and liabilities. Any movement in domestic interest rate is the main source of interest rate risk.
Now as yields go up (with the rise in inflation, bond yields go up and bond prices fall as the debt market starts factoring a possible interest rate hike), the banks will have to set aside funds to mark to market their investment.
This will make it difficult to show huge profits from treasury operations. This concern becomes much stronger because a substantial percentage of bank deposits remain invested in government bonds.
• INTEREST RATES AND NON-PERFORMING ASSETS:
The best indicator of the health of the banking industry in a country is its level of NPAs. Given this fact, Indian banks seem to be better placed than they were in the past. A few banks have even managed to reduce their net NPAs to less than one percent (before the merger of Global Trust Bank into Oriental Bank of Commerce, OBC was a zero NPA bank). But as the bond yields start to rise the chances are the net NPAs will also start to go up. This will happen because the banks have been making huge provisions against the money they made on their bond portfolios in a scenario where bond yields were falling.
• COMPETITION IN RETAIL BANKING:
The entry of new generation private sector banks has changed the entire scenario. Earlier the household savings went into banks and the banks then lent out money to corporates. Now they need to sell banking. The retail segment, which was earlier ignored, is now the most important of the lot, with the banks jumping over one another to give out loans. The consumer has never been so lucky with so many banks offering so many products to choose from. With supply far exceeding demand it has been a race to the bottom, with the banks undercutting one another. A lot of foreign banks have already burnt their fingers in the retail game and have now decided to get out of a few retail segments completely.
• THE URGE TO MERGE:
In the recent past there has been a lot of talk about Indian Banks lacking in scale and size. The State Bank of India is the only bank from India to make it to the list of Top 100 banks, globally. Most of the PSBs are either looking to pick up a smaller bank or waiting to be picked up by a larger bank.
The central government also seems to be game about the issue and is seen to be encouraging PSBs to merge or acquire other banks. Global evidence seems to suggest that even though there is great enthusiasm when companies merge or get acquired, majority of the mergers/acquisitions do not really work.
• IMPACT OF BASEL-II NORMS:
Banking is a commodity business. The margins on the products that banks offer to its customers are extremely thin vis a vis other businesses. As a result, for banks to earn an adequate return of equity and compete for capital along with other industries, they need to be highly leveraged. The primary function of the bank's capital is to absorb any losses a bank suffers (which can be written off against bank's capital). Norms set in the Swiss town of Basel determine the ground rules for the way banks around the world account for loans they give out. These rules were formulated by the Bank for International Settlements in 1988.
61. Study of Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion in FMCG
Abstract
In this age of globalization hyper competition has become a regular feature. Today the markets are no less then battlegrounds and one has to strive very hard for survival and growth.Due to very rapid industrialization all over the world the demand for the managerial personnel and the administrative personnel has increased. The perfect study of Management involves both the theoretical as well as practical aspects. To survive in this highly competitive market "Practical Knowledge" is as relevant as the Theoretical. The significance of MBA Degree is that the Theoretical aspects, which a student learns throughout the year in the class sessions, can be practically applied through different projects, which one undertakes. Keeping in tune with this doctrine, we have tried to apply theoretical aspects through out the project, which we learned under the course of management. In this project more emphasize given to the various tools of sales promotion and its impact on consumers buying decisions.
Actually in recent trend to some extent this technique also become victim of clutter, even though it can be eliminated by generating innovative and more attractive tools to lure the customers. Now a day most of the FMCG companies considering sales promotion as an important part of their marketing strategy. From the analysis of survey it becomes clear that consumers do response to the sales promotion campaign, but there are customers who strongly prefer to stick to brand name.
The term FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), although popular and frequently used does not have a standard definition and is generally used in India to refer to products of everyday use. Conceptually, however, the term refers to relatively fast moving items that are used directly by the consumer. Thus, a significant gap exists between the general use and the conceptual meaning of the term FMCG.
Further, difficulties crop up when attempts to devise a definition for FMCG. The problem arises because the concept has a retail orientation and distinguishes between consumer products on the basis of how quickly they move at the retailer's shelves. The moot question therefore, is what industry turnaround threshold should be for the item to qualify as an FMCG
Objectives of the Study
In order to study the above primary objective the following secondary objective have been proposed
To study consumer preferences with respect to sales promotion in FMCG sector.
To examine tradeoffs, relative importance of different attributes while responding to a sales promotion offer.
To study the effect of sales promotions in FMCG sector esp. in soaps and detergent industry.
To study consumer behavior in purchase of soaps and detergent
• Primary Data Collection Method:
• Survey method was used for primary data collection.
• We used questionnaire as an instrument for survey method.
• Structured questionnaire.
• Type of questionnaire: Open ended and closed ended.
• Secondary Data Collection method:
• Reference books.
• Internet.
Sampling Detail
• Target population: The population for this research study consists of the residence of Ahmedabad.
• Sampling unit: In this study the sampling unit is individual consumer.
• Sample size: 100 consumers 100 retailers.
• Sampling method: The sample is selected by using convenience-sampling method
Characteristics of FMCG Products
• Individual items are of small value. But all FMCG products put together account for a significant part of the consumer's budget.
• The consumer keeps limited inventory of these products and prefers to purchase them frequently, as and when required. Many of these products are perishable.
• The consumer spends little time on the purchase decision. Rarely does he/she look for technical specifications (in contrast to industrial goods). Brand loyalties or recommendations of reliable retailer/dealer drive purchase decisions.
• Trial of a new product i.e. brand switching is often induced by heavy advertisement, recommendation of the retailer or neighbors/friends.
• These products cater to necessities, comforts as well as luxuries. They meet the demands of the entire cross section of population. Price and income elasticity of demand varies across products and consumers.
The importance of consumer sales promotion in the marketing mix of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) category throughout the world has increased. Companies spend considerable time in planning such activities. However, in order to enhance the effectiveness of these activities, manufacturers should understand consumer and retailer interpretations of their promotional activities. The study here pertains to consumer's perceptions regarding sales promotion. Some past researches have suggested that promotion itself has an effect on the perceived value of the brand. This is because promotions provide utilitarian benefits such as monetary savings, added value, increased quality and convenience as well as hedonic benefits such as entertainment, exploration and self-expression.
These are the four basic pillar of marketing mix. Most of the marketing strategies are built on the basis of these criteriaPromotion is one of the important elements of marketing mix. There are so many elements of promotion such as .
Advertising
Direct Marketing
Public Relations
Sales Promotion
Traditionally, sales Promotions have been used by marketer to increase sales in the short term. However, in the last few decades this communication tool has evolved and now is considered from a strategic point of view. For this reason, it is necessary to realize new studies in this area and study how consumers evaluate sales promotions.
Sales promotions have grown in both importance and frequency over the past few decades. Although an accurate estimate for total sales promotions expenditures does not exist, we can be sure that the trend is up.
Sales promotion serves three essential roles: It informs, persuades and reminds prospective customers about a company and its products. Even the most useful product or brand will be a failure if no one knows that it is available. As we know, channels of distribution take more time in creating awareness because a product has to pass through many hands between a producer and consumers.
Therefore, a producer has to inform channel members as well as ultimate consumers about the attributes and availability of his products. The second purpose of promotion is persuasion. The cut throat competition among different products puts tremendous pressure on their manufacturers and they are compelled to undertake sales promotion activities. The third purpose of promotion is reminding consumers about products availability and its potential to satisfy their needs.
From these elements Sales Promotion is the element which is in the focus of this project. Further Sales Promotion is quite broad term it includes .
Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion
Trade Oriented Sales Promotion
Tools of Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion
There are so many tools or technique available to the marketers for achieving objective of sales promotion. These tools should be used considering all other factors affecting such as cost, time, competitors, availability of goods etc. These tools are as under.
Coupons
Price-Off
Freebies
Scratch Cards
Lucky Draws
Bundling Offer
Extra Quantity
62. Load Testing of Loan Search
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to develop an innovative Business-to-Business (B2B) online service aiding mortgage lenders and brokers in today's highly competitive mortgage market. The Broker Blueprint portal has three main classes of users - Brokers, Lenders (lending institutions), and application administrators. Following is the breakdown of application modules by the user class and a brief description of module functionality:
Broker Modules
Loan Search
This module eases brokers' loan search efforts by letting them enter borrower information just once and presenting eligibility results from participating lending institutions.
Loan Status Management
This module enables brokers to maintain non-personal loan information and status of their borrowers online. The data maintained in this module is also the source data for the broker business intelligence dashboard.
Dashboard
The dashboard module is the business intelligence presentation layer built on top of a data warehouse. Loan status data entered through the Loan Status Management page is transformed via a backend SQL based Extraction Translation and Loading (ETL) process and loaded into the data wares house.
Besides the business intelligence charts, the dashboard also shows pipeline loan statuses for all the loans a broker has. A mortgage loan typically takes 4-8 weeks from submission to funding. During this time, the loan is said to be in the pipeline, and access to pipeline loan status information is a key supporting feature for broker users. The information entered and maintained in the Loan Status Management area drives the pipeline status charts.
Website Customization
The Broker Blueprint portal enables brokers to choose a website template from a set of available templates for customization and hosting. The standard templates are stored in XSL format to which a transformation is applied with the customized data in real-time for building the target site.
Locator Service
This is a Java Messaging System based supporting service run at the application layer which is transparent to users. Any new broker or lender address information inserted into the system or updates to existing address information in the system triggers an asynchronous service call by this service to the Yahoo! geocoder service with the address data. The Yahoo! geocoder service returns the validity of the address along with the latitude and longitude information for the address. The address coordinates are stored in the database and are used to calculate the location of the nearest branch relative to the broker's office location for each lending institution in the loan search results.
Online Registration and Payment
This module enables brokers to customize the service by picking the packages they are interested in subscribing to, and register themselves via online credit card payment. Addition of subscription packages is also handled by this module. Credit card validation and payments are handled by this module by making an SSL call to the Verisign Payflow service.
Lender Modules
Branch Management
This module enables lending institutions to manage their branch information like location, contact information and address. The Locator Service uses this address data to retrieve and store location coordinates.
Loan Program Management
Lending institutions use this module to create and update their loan program guideline, pricing, and broker commission data. This data is used during loan search by brokers to display qualifying loan programs for their search criteria.
Purpose of this Project
The purpose of this project is to load test, and fine tune the loan search functionality of the Broker Blueprint web application, an innovative Business-to-Business (B2B) online service aiding mortgage lenders and brokers in today's highly competitive mortgage market.
Broker Blueprint enables brokers to search for suitable mortgage loans across various participating lenders by entering their borrowers' loan parameters on a single page.
The Broker Blueprint portal also expands the exposure of lending institutions' loan programs into untapped markets and gives participating lenders an edge over competing institutions
The MVC Pattern
Model-view-controller (MVC) is a software architecture that separates an application's data model, user interface, and control logic into three distinct components so that modifications to one component can be made with minimal impact to the others.
In broad terms, constructing an application using an MVC architecture involves defining three classes of modules.
• Model: The domain-specific representation of the information on which the application operates. The model is another name for the domain layer. Domain logic adds meaning to raw data (e.g. calculating the total monthly subscription charges for a broker account based on the packages chosen, calculation of the closest lender's branch relative to a broker office location).
• View: Renders the model into a form suitable for interaction, typically a user interface element. MVC is often seen in web applications, where the view is the HTML page and the code which gathers dynamic data for the page.
Controller: Responds to events, typically user actions, and invokes changes on the model and perhaps the view.
Implementation Platform
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) is the industry standard for developing portable, robust, scalable and secure server-side Java applications. Building on the solid foundation of Java SE, Java EE provides web services, component model, management, and communications APIs that make it the industry standard for implementing enterprise class service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web 2.0 applications.
Some of the reasons why the J2EE platform was chosen over competing technologies are below:
Choice of OS and Application Server: Implementation of J2EE applications can be done on proven and reliable application servers like JBoss, which do not require license fees. In addition, these application servers can be run on a choice of free operating systems like Linux or Solaris.
Integrated Development Environments: Development environments like Eclipse or NetBeans are freely available to support development of J2EE applications.
Connectors: The Java Connector Architecture (JCA) is a standard for connecting to Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). JCA supports access to SAP, IBM CICS, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Siebel, Screens 3270, AS/400, Unisys, ADABAS-C, VSAM, Codasyl, IMS, Tuxedo, etc. Such a level of connectivity options is not available with any other implementation platform.
Messaging Architecture: The Java Messaging Service (JMS) standard is supported by multiple vendors such as IBM, TibCo, Progress, SpiritSoft, Fiorina, Swift, Open3, JBoss, etc.
Mature O/R mapping tools: It is best practice in Object Oriented development to decouple business objects from their underlying relational database representation. Java has several mature and robust products that support the mapping of relational databases to objects such as TopLink, CocoBase, Hibernate, OJB, etc.
Standardized Authentication and Authorization: Java has a standard way of providing Authentication and Authorization (JSSE). The choices in .NET are limited and in fact a well-published bug in the way IE handled digital certificates required a service pack to fix.
Distributed Caching: There are multiple vendors and open source projects that provide distributed caching (i.e. SpiritCache, Coherence, Gemstone, JCS, Oracle). Such a choice is not available with competing platforms.
Load Testing
Load testing of an application is done after the functionality of the application has been determined to be correct and matching user expectations. Load testing of an application is primarily used to ensure:
The system responds in a timely way to user requests, and it's performance degrades gracefully with increasing user load
The system scales to an established number of concurrent users
The system remains stable under varying load
Ensuring Service Level Agreements are met for the established number of concurrent users
The load testing for the Broker Blueprint application was carried out with OpenSTA (Open, System Testing Architecture), a mature, open source web testing architecture. The OpenSTA toolset has the capability of performing scripted HTTP and HTTPS heavy load tests with performance measurements from Win32 platforms.
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