LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS BIKES A STUDY ON YOUTH

In partial fulfillment of Requirements for the award of Degree of Master of Business Administration
SUBMITTED BY Vinmre Kaushal (7450070113) SUPERVISOR Dr. Anand Thakur

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY PHAGWARA PUNJAB

(2012)

History of the Bike Industry (World Scenario)

Throughout the centuries man has striven to expand his capabilities through the use of machine. His ever inventive mind has constantly devised ways to use tool to increase his abilities to explore the world around him. To go faster, deeper, higher and further than before was it. Coupled with his need to find new thrills, new adventures and new modes of transportation, the invention refinement of the motorcycle seems an inevitable outcome. It would seem that Michelangelo conceived of the bicycle as early 14th century. And his drawing shows a remarkable resemblance to the modern day bike. It had wheels of similar size and even pedals and chain. Albeit made without any apparent means of steering. Through never built, it was a remarkably clever design, and early bicycle makers would have done well to study his concepts, there have, in fact been 4 machines built based on his drawing, attesting to the viability of his design. It wasnt until 1869 that the first serious attempts were made to produce motor driven bicycles. These very first were powered by steam, and driven by leather belts or as in the case of the roper steam velocipede of 1869 by a system of levers attached to a crank on the driven wheel. In 1885 the Daimler, Europe this is consider by many as the first true motorcycle or motor bicycle, as it was the first to employ an internal combustion engine and was designed from the ground up to be motor powered. Designed by gottlibe Daimler it was powered by an Otto cycle engine producing about horse powers. Note this design again employed wooden wheels and Daimler dropped the twist grip controls from his 1877 design in favor of leavers on the frame. In 1894, Hildebrand and Wolfmuller, France Worlds produce first motorcycle. It came with a 1428 cc water cooled four-stroke motor producing 2.5 bhp. And speed of 25 mph. In 1898 orient-Aster, USA the American made production motorcycle was this entry built by the Metz Company, in Waltham, mass, it used an aster engine that was a French copy of the Metz Company, in Waltham, mass.

Introduction of Bike Industry (Indian Scenario)

Bikes in India cater to various needs of the consumers. With the choice of the Indians improving from bicycles to two wheelers, the Indian two-wheeler market has seen a significant growth over the years. Now owing a bike has become a must for most Indians. Even if people own a car they prefer to have a bike as it is very economical and fuel efficient. With the growth in the economy the demand for bike is increasing over the years. It is one of the most dynamic industries today and with the increasing competition companies are bringing in new products with sophisticated technologies and innovative features to capture a major pie of the Indian market and its the consumer who is benefited from it.. With the availability of reduced consumer loans and high disposable income the Indian twowheeler industry has perceived an exceptional growth over the past few years thereby making India the second largest market for bikes in the world only after China. The motorcycle has now become one most popular mode of transportation among the Indian middle class families because of it is cost effective, economical and easy to navigate through the traffic. Moreover, the people have started preferring bikes instead of scooters and mopeds and today bikes form a major part of the Indian two wheelers. Indian companies are one of the largest two wheeler manufacturers in the world. The number one bike manufacturer in the world, Hero Honda is in close competition with the Indian manufacturer Bajaj India.

The motorcycle industry in India has witnessed a tremendous change in the 90s with the invention of 4 stroke engine which makes the bikes more fuel efficient. Further companies are trying to bring in more innovations to make the motorcycle ride more comfortable, safe and user friendly and economical. In a nut shell the followings factors can be distinguished for the growth of motorcycle industry in India: Easy accessibility to cheap consumer loans The increase in the average income of the family. The reduction in duties and taxes. Convenience with regards to commuting as compared to the public transport system.

Continuous innovations in technology making the bikes economic and fuel-efficient. The first choice among youths and teenagers.

Objective of the Study:

To examine the satisfaction level of consumers of bike industry. To examine the consumers brand preference purchase of bikes. To identify factors influencing the purchase of bikes.

Literature Review
Schiffman and Kanuk (1991) define consumer behavior as a display of searching, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. Kotler (1981) identifies four interdependent factors that influence consumer behavior: product, seller, situation and buyer. Apart from other characteristics, a buyer is influenced by psychological characteristics such as motivation and learning.

McAlister (1982) demonstrates how an inventory of understand the choice of products by customers. In the for motorized two-wheelers should be established between the products. In other words, a scale of understand the preferences of customers.

attributes of products may be used to same token, an inventory of attributes to understand how customers choose preferences should be established to

Inman (2001) demonstrates that a variety seeking behavior is caused by product attributes than the brand. This strengthens the need for creating an inventory of attributes. A scale of preference would be very useful to compare the first-time buyers with repeat buyers. Kumar and Trivedi (2006) find that consumers can be segmented on the basis of variety seeking behavior and each segment may be approached with a tailored marketing strategy. The consumer decision-making process is important in determining purchase behavior (Rowley, 1997). Pre- purchase satisfaction can be distinguished from anticipated satisfaction and it helps to predict first-time purchases (Siminitras et al., 1997). Most consumers value convenience as one of the most important decision making criteria, their definitions of convenience vary across consumers (Lee & Marlowe, 2003).

Consumer compulsive buying is an important area of inquiry in consumer behavior research. The importance of studying compulsive buying stems, in part, from its nature as a negative aspect of consumer behavior. Specifically, exploring negative consumption phenomena could provide modified or new perspectives for the study of positive consumption behaviors. Moreover, research on negative facets of consumption is useful because it can potentially contribute to societys well being, an important criterion for usefulness of any research (Shoham & Brencic, 2003). Consumers are especially placed insituations of repeated purchases. They may reflect their past purchases in their decision. The suppliers adapt to the demand by amending their offer price (Steichen & Terrien, 2009). Building brand loyalty has become more important, yet more difficult to achieve in todays marketplace, individual investors do tend to buy brands from companies in which they hold stock, and investors may buy stock in a company because they have experience with the brand. In contrast with brand loyalty, where consumers will not buy competitive offerings, individual investors indicated they would buy competitive offerings, suggesting that stock ownership is more likely to lead to repeat purchase behavior, but not brand loyalty (Schoenbachler et al., 2004). The influence of the retailer is higher in evoked set development than in the final purchase stage of consumer decision making and that the influence of the retailer on product choice varies significantly across different categories of durable products (LeBlainc & Turley, 1994). It is necessary to consider the products promotional state at the moment of purchase as an explanatory element of the process. Promotion is a tool that can help manufacturers and/or retailers in the achievement of their objectives (try the brand, help to decide what brand to buy, etc.). Immediate price reduction is the technique that exerts greatest influence on the brand choice process. It is possible that the consumer perceives a promotion, for example, coupons or rebates, but does not modify his or her behaviour. In this case, manufacturers and/or retailers will be investing their resources in promotional actions that do not have any effect on the consumer (Alvarez & Casielles, 2005). The importance of packaging design as a vehicle for communication and branding is growing in competitive markets for packaged food products, Visual package elements play a major role, representing the product for many consumers, especially in low involvement and when they are rushed, The challenge for researchers is to integrate packaging into an effective purchasing decision model, by understanding packaging elements as important marketing communications tools (Silayoi & Speece, 2004). Designer labels are not the turn-on like they were a few years ago. Despite significant means, many shoppers are passing up Lord & Taylor for Wal-Mart. An

especially valuable resource for these and other changes in consumer behavior that are altering the rules for successful marketplace engagement is the annals of adult development psychology. Epochal changes taking place in leading consumer behaviors owe much to the common midlife shift toward to self- actualization (Wolfe & Sisodia, 2003). Cross-buying refers to the customers practice of buying additional products and services from the existing service provider in addition to the ones s/he currently has.The results obtained from two samples of service consumers indicate that the customers cross-buying intentions are primarily associated with image conflicts about the providers abilities to deliver high- quality services from different service activities, and the perceived convenience of cross-buying from the same provider. Customers experiences with the service provider have a weaker or marginal effect on crossbuying (Ngobo, 2004).

References
Antonis Simintiras, Adamantios Diamantopoulos, Judith Ferriday (1997) Pre-purchase satisfaction and first-time buyer behavior: some preliminary evidence European Journal of Marketing,Vol 31(11/12), 857-872. Aviv Shoham, Maja Makovec Brencic (2003) Compulsive buying behavior Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol 20 (2), 127-138. Begona Alvarez, Rodolfo V. Casielles (2005) Consumer evaluations of sales promotion: the effect on brand choice European Journal of Marketing, Vol 39(5), 54-70. Daniel Steichen, Christophe Terrien (2009) A model of demand in a repeated purchase situation: A simulation of the Champagne wine market International Journal of Wine Business Research,Vol 21(4), 354-372. David B. Wolfe, Rajendra Sisodia (2003) Marketing to the self-actualizing customer Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol 20(6), 555-569. Denise D. Schoenbachler, Geoffrey L. Gordon, Timothy W. Aurand (2004) Building brand loyalty through individual stock ownership Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol 13(7),488-497. Inman J (2001), The Role of Sensory Specific Satiety in Attribute-Level Variety Jennifer Rowley (1997) Focusing on customers Library Review, Vol 46(2), 81-89. Jinkook Lee, Julia Marlowe (2003) How consumers choose a financial institution: decisionmaking criteria and heuristics International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol 21(2), 53-71.

Seeking, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 105-120. Kotler P (1981), Marketing Management: Planning, Analysis and Control, 9th Edition, Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi. Kumar and Trivedi (2006), Estimation of Variety Seeking for Segmentation and Targeting: An Empirical Analysis, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis of Marketing, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 21-29. McAlister L (1982), A Dynamic Attribute Satiation Model of Variety-Seeking Behaviour, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 141-150. Paul Valentin Ngobo (2004) Drivers of customers cross-buying intentions European Journal of Marketing, Vol 38(9/10), 1129-1157. Pinya Silayoi, Mark Speece (2004) Packaging and purchase decisions: An exploratory study on the impact of involvement level and time pressure British Food Journal, Vol 106(8), 607-628. Schiffman L G and Kanuk L L (1991), Consumer Behavior, Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi.