Indian Journal of Marketing: in This Issue

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Indian Journal of MARKETING

VOLUME : XXXIX NUMBER : 4 APRIL, 2009
In This Issue
Managing New Products Successfully: A Strategic Imperative Brand Positioning: The Unbeatable Weapon in Present Marketing Scenario Asian Paints: Changing Rules of The Game Corporate Customer Behavior & Indian Hardware Market (With Special Reference to HCL Infosystem Ltd.) Customer Satisfaction of Nokia Mobile Handset Users Role of Co-operative Banks In Catering To The Credit Needs Of Rural Masses Assessing International Heritage Tourist Satisfaction in India
Rajeev Kumar Ranjan Saloni Pawan Diwan Prof. M.K Jain Rushina Singhi Dewyani Kawale Yogesh Chaudhari Dr. T. Koti Reddy Soumya Kanti Sarkar J. V. Rangeswara Reddy Nidheesh K. B.
Dr. Manish Srivastava
INDIAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING

MESSAGE OF DR. KULBHUSHAN CHANDEL - EDITORIAL ADVISOR
India has observed radical changes in last two decades. It can be attributed to our strong basic fundamentals and the era of Globalization and Liberalization.It is evident that a large number of multinationals have made inroads into the Indian economy. India has become a favorite destination for out-sourcing as well as Foreign Direct Investments. The best way of transforming a nation to comply with the recent requirements is to focus mainly on science and technology. We still have to do a lot to progress in basic technologies. We are aping the technology of the west whereas, the west is using Indian talent/brain to develop fundamental technologies. There is a great need to emphasize upon continuous research and developmental efforts. All these imply the need for continued SWOT analysis of economy and industry, information sharing, strategic planning and preparedness to implement. Indian Journal of Marketing is well achieving its objective of bridging the gaps between academia, industry and policymakers. It seeks to provide a forum to the researchers, academia, industry, policymakers and students to share their viewpoint and to access the results of various research areas of interest having strategic implications. Thus, the selected research papers and articles focus on various challenging issues and I hope that our readers would find them fructuous. Lastly, the suggestions and comments of our esteemed readers and experts are always welcome. I hope that they shall continue to provide their valuable suggestions that enable us to meet our objective to maintain the academic standard of the Journal-Indian Journal of Marketing. Last but not the least, I am grateful to Indian Journal of Marketing for their indispensable efforts of laying the foundation for this endeavor and making it a great success. Dr. Kulbhushan Chandel
From the Editor's Desk

We bring to you the April 09 issue of Indian Journal of Marketing. We extend a very warm welcome to Dr.Kulbhushan Chandel in the Editorial Board of Indian Journal of Marketing.Dr Chandel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Commerce, H.P University, Shimla,Himachal Pradesh. Specializing in Marketing, Dr.Chandel is a committed author as well as a distinguished academic and altruist. He has published 19 research papers on Marketing in reputed national and international journals and has contributed several wellresearched articles in Indian Journal of Marketing. Quality has been the hallmark of Indian Journal of Marketing. Even in the face of pressing inflationary concerns, we never took any half measures with the quality of the journal. Apart from printing distinguished articles, we lay a special emphasis on the quality of the paper used in our journal. This paper comes from the house of Ballarpur Industries limited (BILT), which is India's largest paper company and the only Indian company to rank amongst the top 100 paper companies in the world. This paper has precedence over the others of its kind as it has a longer shelf life, is non-toxic, is environment friendly, has exceptional whiteness and the least amount of opacity among its peers. We also feel proud to inform our readers that we have increased the number of pages of Indian Journal of Finance from 40 to 56 pages. In order to maintain the paramount quality of the journals, we have increased the annual subscription amount of Indian Journal of Marketing and Indian Journal of Finance to Rs.1000 after a substantial amount of time. We acknowledge the authors for contributing well-researched and innovative papers for the journals and extend our thanks to all of our readers and patrons for their unending support and patronage. Mrs. S. Gilani Editor Indian Journal of Marketing
Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 1
Indian Journal of MARKETING

VOLUME : XXXIX
Editor
NUMBER : 4
Mrs. S. Gilani
Rs. 100/CONTENTS
APRIL, 2009
Editorial Board : Prof. V. Shekhar M. Com., M.B.A., Ph.D. Dean, Faculty of Management, Osmania University, Hyderabad Dr. R. Vijayakumar Head, Department of Commerce Government Arts College, Udagamandalam, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu Dr. D.N.S. Kumar Associate Dean Alliance Business School Bangalore, Karnataka Dr. Kulbhushan Chandel Assistant Professor Department of Commerce Himachal Pradesh University Shimla, Himachal Pradesh Mr. P. K. Mittal MBA (Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi) Managing Director eMIT Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. Noida, Uttar Pradesh Assistant Editor Meenakshi Sawhney Subscription Manager Meenakshi Gilani Senior Manager Deepak Sawhney Copy Editor Priyanka Gilani
Managing New Products Successfully: A Strategic Imperative Brand Positioning: The Unbeatable Weapon in Present Marketing Scenario Asian Paints: Changing Rules of The Game
Rajeev Kumar Ranjan
Saloni Pawan Diwan Prof. M.K Jain
Rushina Singhi Dewyani Kawale Yogesh Chaudhari Dr. T. Koti Reddy Soumya Kanti Sarkar
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Corporate Customer Behavior & Indian Hardware Market (With Special Reference to HCL Infosystem Ltd.) Customer Satisfaction of Nokia Mobile Handset Users Role of Co-operative Banks In Catering To The Credit Needs Of Rural Masses Assessing International Heritage Tourist Satisfaction in India
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J. V. Rangeswara Reddy 33
The views expressed by individual contributions in Indian Journal of Marketing are not necessarily endorsed by the Management. Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may by reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISSN 0973-8703 All disputes are subject to Delhi Jurisdiction only. All correspondence relating to circulation and advertisement may be addressed to:-
Nidheesh K. B.
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Dr. Manish Srivastava
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INDIAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING

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Managing New Products Successfully: A Strategic Imperative

*Rajeev Kumar Ranjan Win their hearts. Win their minds. At the outset, we must accept without doubt that we are an emotional people. The truth is that we all sit somewhere on the emotional rational continuum, which of course need not be a bad thing. In recent decades, advertising has dropped simple descriptions of a brand's benefits in favor of emotional appeals-celebratory anthems, humorous situations and intimate moments are now more common in TV spots than product demonstrations. The basis for this trend is entirely valid: If consumers connect with an ad emotionally, they are more likely to hear a brand message. A meta-analysis of eight advertising research studies conducted by The Center for Emotional Marketing shows that advertising which provokes a strong emotional response along with providing sufficient product information often proved successful. The results, across a range of consumer product categories from food and health and beauty to automotive and technology show that purely emotional marketing does build business because such advertising connects with consumers, but provided the product meets and exceeds the expectations of the consumer. Globalization has thrown upon major challenges to the process of new product management. With competition getting stiffer day by day and product life cycles shortening very fast, there is an urgent need to find out alternative ways to manage the innovative products effectively in the crowd of me too products. So the company should strive for managing innovation through global customer centricity, global customer loyalty and mass customization. The customer brand loyalty may be said to be a function of the following: Perceived value derived from the brand. Consistent customer satisfaction over repeated usage. Formation of affective /emotional bonds with the brand. Customer brand loyalty = f (PV, cs, ab) Where, PV= Perceived value; cs = customer satisfaction; and ab = affective bonds. New Product development is the process of designing, building, operating, and maintaining a new good or new service. New product development ensures that the customer's voice is not lost in the rush to develop an exciting technology. Product development adds things like pricing, marketing, and customer support to the technology to create a complete product. Product development is performed by a multi-disciplinary team whose goal is building, operating, and maintaining the product. In the present scenario, one of the most potent weapons to manage innovative products is to use emotional marketing that is, the marketers have to connect themselves with customers by creating strong emotional bonds. Purchasing is a complex phenomenon, influenced by various considerations to select a particular brand of product. Besides the availability of various brands of products, it also aggravates and complicates the act of purchasing as it involves the decision of the entire family. The Pre-purchase analysis covers the three heads. 1. Sources of information for selecting a particular brand. 2. People involved in the buying decision. 3. Purpose of buying a product. Table 1 : Sources of information for selecting a particular Brand
* Lecturer, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Energy Acres, P.O. Bidholi via-Premnagar, Dehradun-248007. E-mail : ranjanrajeev87@rediffmail.com Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 3
Out of the total sample of 100 respondents, emotional appeal was the most important source for selecting a brand followed by advertisements. The biggest misconception in branding strategies is the belief that branding is about market share when it's about mind and emotions shared. Marc Gobe (Proposed the concept of Emotional Branding) Over the past decade, the world has been moving from an industrially driven economy towards a people driven economy that puts the consumer in the seat of power. Consumers around the world are very intelligent and knowledgeable. They are very clear about their needs and benefits they require from the product .As we know that innovative products are engines to growth and profitability, hence practitioners ,consultants and academicians have developed a keen interest in product innovation and its management. Out of the box approach and unprecedented performance in product innovation in companies like Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Perfetti etc is the outcome of adopting a disciplined and systematic approach to product innovation and its development. For e.g. HUL have been able to manage its huge product mix successfully using the emotional marketing. To convince the consumer towards the new product is a tedious work for the product manager. In such a situation, emotions can play a vital role in the brand acceptance and in creating loyalty for the product. By 'emotion' we mean a mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisals of events and thoughts. Using emotions for managing the product globally can help the company to gain competitive advantage because the philosophy and process of managing a product globally has undergone a sea change. New concepts are being implemented to manage the innovative products globally. For gaining competitive advantage in the market, it is not necessary to limit the focus only on traditional marketing but it should have an enlarged scope looking after other effective ways and means. Emotional marketing is one of the means which can be used to gain first mover competitive advantage in the market. So, in a nutshell, this paper is an attempt to find out the role of emotions in managing a global product and how can an organization gain competitive advantage in the market using emotion as one of the attribute in managing an innovative product. You cannot solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level Albert Einstein
EMOTIONS DEFINED (FOUR APPRAISAL CLASSES)

Emotion, as already discussed, is a mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisal of events and thoughts. Appraisal theorists maintain that the critical determinant of any emotion is the resultant evaluation and interpretation that arises after comparing an actual state with a desired state. Two appraisal theories at the stage of emotion formation are: Goal relevance Goal congruence. (Lazarus 1991) A description of appraisal theory is relevant for marketing in the treatment of a goal. Outcome desire conflict: An outcome desire conflict happens when one fails to achieve a goal or when one faces an unpleasant event. The most common emotional reaction is disappointment, anger, shame, guilt, and regret depending on the source of goal failure. Outcome desire fulfillment: It takes place when one achieves a goal, experiences a pleasant situation or avoids unpleasant event. The common emotional reaction may be satisfaction, joy, elation, pride, and relief depending on the source of goal fulfillment. The remaining two classes go on with the planned outcome. Outcome desire avoidance: It happens in anticipation of unpleasant outcomes or goals. The common emotional reactions are fear, worry, anxiety, and distress .So the consumer wants to avoid undesirable outcomes. Outcome desire pursuits: It happens in anticipation of pleasant goals or outcomes. The emotional response may be to realize or facilitate the outcome attainment and to sustain ones' commitment. So, the above mentioned four theories of appraisal classes help in reducing the cognitive dissonance and also help the management of innovative products as per the prevailing conditions.
PRODUCT INNOVATION (KEY TO SUCCESS)

'Innovation' encompasses the entire process, from idea to implementation, for the development of new products,
4 Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009
services, methods, management practices and policies. The word "innovation" is often synonymous with the outcome of the process, but should not be confused with "invention. A constant attempt at innovation, both in terms of product and service, holds the key for success of business in a competitive world, where consumer satisfaction is the main mantra. Innovation is not only about developing a product or service from scratch, but it is also about adding new features or value to an existing product or service. Innovativeness helps the organization in improving customer responsiveness and leading generally to more market share. Current market conditions have made it compulsory for the organizations to unlearn, learn and relearn new things (either concept, process, techniques) for the survival in turbulent times. Organizations across the world have focused on innovation in order to achieve the competitive advantage required for creating and sustaining growth. Companies soon realized that without innovation, the company can face the possibility of extinction from the market. Innovation means delighting the consumer by offering them extra in the product which the competitor is not offering. It should be noted that the innovations and the risk associated with them are proportional.
INNOVATION a RISKS INVOLVED

Increasing the level of effective risk-taking, initiative and innovation in an organization is not a short-term process. Risk inclination and risk tolerance are core elements of an organization's culture. It is part of what defines the organization. But it can be gradually changed by implementing the certain steps, being consistent in emphasizing the importance to the organization of taking thoughtful risks and by rewarding initiative ,innovation can be fruitful. Scott Bedbury, who was the head of advertising at Nike for seven years, in the 1990s said that the key to Nike's success was its willingness to embrace a culture of screw-ups. It really does learn from its mistakes. An insightful comment about Nike, which is one of the most successful and innovative companies of our time.
EMOTIONS IN INNOVATIONS (THE WAY AHEAD)

Innovation is about emotions as it is about logic. It is about intuition as much as it is about analysis. The paper tries to demystify the belief that innovation is an elitist activity that involves serious analysis and logic. Creativity is not the domain of marketers alone. It is embedded in each of us. Democratize innovation this is the challenge of leaders. The company should begin by understanding that people are emotional creature's first, rational beings second. While the competitors are busy pumping out boring and rational, or over-the-top self-focused marketing, one can be touching to prospects where it counts. When people realize that you get it about their pain or passion, you've created an emotional connection that goes beyond mere words. How you determine what that emotional connection is, and how and why it works, is at the heart of this lively and informative paper. Armed with an understanding of emotional marketing, simple tactics and some down- to-earth truths, you'll make wiser and less painful marketing choices. Feelings play a predominant role here. Here, the utility is derived from the feelings or affective states that a product generates. A consumer brushes his teeth with Colgate everyday, not only because he gets good value for money, is sure that his teeth are well-protected, but primarily because, he has literally grown up using that brand and thus is emotionally tied to the brand. In a mad world, marketers are often caught in a frenzy to deliver today. That makes the entire marketing process clinical. It is not enough to capture the heads and minds of people; the company needs to get people's hearts as well. Add intuition to logic and analysis. And fill the brim with emotions! Marketers must be emotional. That's the heart of marketing. Involvement and emotions also help an organization to understand the consumer better; consumer insight as it is called. It also awakens the old and the known. Generally, most researchers regard TV as the perfect vehicle to showcase the factual benefits of products and services as long as that is the intention of the advertiser, which is not always the case. Kay (1997) states Advertising is about managing the gap in information . On the basis of the explored literature, the following propositions are proposed: P1: TV is the best medium to reach the market. P2: Consumers are generally dissatisfied from TV advertisements. P3: Consumers expect more information from advertisements and clearer to the point, rational messages. P4: There are some common emotional patterns in the market in watching and reaching to TV advertisements. P5: There is no need for TV advertisements to treat emotions separately but it is essential to acknowledge their importance. Emotions are more closely associated with temporary and instinctual physiological reactions and emotional benefits are usually attached to specific elements of a brand and to the brand itself as a whole. Therefore,
companies must constantly be on the lookout for customer's expectations, feelings and customer ideas. "Citizens are demanding greater accountability, improved service, greater openness, enhanced accomplishments and, above all, results." These demands have heightened the pressures on managers in the government to be more innovative personally, and to promote innovation and risk-taking behavior across their organizations. Product innovativeness and its management depend heavily on advertisements as the features have to be communicated to the end consumers. For this, the use of emotions can prove to be a potent tool in product management. As per a survey, it was found that 54% of the respondents found emotions in advertisements sometimes a source of product management effectiveness.35% of the respondents found emotions in advertisements often a source of product management effectiveness. 6% responded that emotions are not at all effective in product management effectiveness. A majority of the respondents agreed that the companies tend to overspend on advertisements rather than adding or improving the innovativeness of the product.
Always
The modern marketing is customer focused which has developed the modern customer not only as a user, but also has offered him an opportunity to convey his needs and expectations from the products. This helped the innovators visualize and build a product which meets customer needs .Moreover, with the globalization and liberalization in the Indian economy, emotions in innovation has come as an icing on the cake. Anyone who wants to build a great brand first has to understand who they are. The real starting point is to go out to the customers and find out what they like or dislike about the brand and what they associate as the core of the brand concept. Scott Bedburry (Head Advertising, Nike) During the innovation process, customer information becomes crucial as the information can be adopted by the company, which can be used in three different ways: The product is designed for users meeting their expectations. The users are involved in the innovation process. In the third method, the company asks the user's questions like what the product should look like and how they would use it. After the innovation, the management of the product becomes essential so that the brand is accepted in the market. Since the product is made keeping in mind the customer expectations, so the delivery of the changes and brand association becomes very important. In such a scenario, emotional marketing calls for a long term commitment to a customer's relationship, which needs top to bottom support. The goal of emotional marketing is to develop an enduring connection with each customer that nurtures loyalty and results in repeat purchases. Emotion based marketing principle provides a powerful tool for competitive advantage and incorporating strategies that are almost impossible to replicate. As marketers, the organizations have gone from marketing products to building a total customer experience. To remain competitive, marketing must try to win the heart of potential buyers. In business, we have heard over and over again that people make buying decisions emotionally. If the companies wish that consumers should buy from them, then the consumers should be persuaded into action through appeals. So, the marketing communications must assure two things: Get the attention of the consumer. Make the prospect curious enough to respond.
INNOVATIVE PRODUCT FAILURES

It's hard for any new product to gain marketplace acceptance. Most studies estimate new product failure rates at
50% or more. But it's particularly challenging if a product is highly innovative-a really new product that revolutionizes an existing product category or defines a new category. Although such products may suffer from a firm's lack of resources, expertise, or commitment, even those that are well supported and that offer consumers significant gains over existing alternatives are far from certain to succeed. However, many firms' ultimate success or failure depends on the successful development and adoption of innovative products. Author John Gourville offers a behavioral framework-called the curse of innovation-to explain such failures, starting with the simple fact that highly innovative new products tend to require consumers to change their behavior in some way. Consumers see these changes as losses, and due to status quo bias, these losses loom larger in consumers' minds than do the benefits offered by the new innovation. Developers of new products, on the other hand, are biased in the other direction-they come to regard the product they are developing as the status quo, and they subsequently undervalue the losses consumers must experience to adopt the innovation, leading them to overestimate the likelihood of marketplace success. Managers can help innovative new products to succeed in the marketplace by understanding the degree of behavior change the innovation requires and planning for it, anticipating the rate of product adoption and tailoring marketing efforts accordingly. Alternatively, the product itself can be tailored to minimize the behavior changes consumers will have to make. In such a scenario, emotional marketing can help in breaking the status quo and can result in acceptance in the market. The main reason is the fundamental customer bias to overvalue the benefits of existing alternatives to a new alternative. There are gaps between the new product and prospective customers which is to be filled for effective product management. Due to these gaps, developers fail to understand the customer's perspective in adopting innovation, thus increasing the rate of product failures. For example: Nestle upbeat with their success with Maggie Noodles went to brand extension with Maggie pickle. However, they failed to impress Indian consumers with their innovative product. Pickle being an Indian ethnic food supplement, has a distinct place in consumer's mind. A typical Indian customer will prefer homemade pickle. There was an inert reluctance to taste the pickle and the positioning was completely wrong.
MANAGING CHALLENGES:
For a very long time, McCarthy's 4Ps of marketing and the principle of STP were dominant. But in the current scenario, the whole marketing form is undergoing a metamorphosis. Marketers are increasingly giving more and more importance to the customer by offering him distinct value. Marketing is changing its face from segment based marketing to relationship marketing to one to one marketing. The successful launch of the innovative product requires a distinct approach for implementation. The process involves using a standard process to drive product development forward using structured product and raw material specifications. Building an emotional connection through branding process calls for: Brand analysis. Brand printing Brand face Brand culture Brand check Fig: Relationship between Brand trust and loyalty
ATTITUDINAL
If an organization wants to improve their relations with the customers, advertisers and agencies need to internalize a new set of principles that enlightened marketers and agencies. This proper management of challenges requires the following steps which are to be followed:
Shed the paradigm that advertising is either "emotional" or "functional." Business-building advertising is in most cases a blend of the two. Integrate product information in new, more creative ways. The traditional package shot may register the brand but it may not stimulate a positive emotional response. In contrast, advertising that romances the product, includes an exaggerated demonstration or creates a virtual usage experience, gives consumers the product information they need while appealing to their emotions. That mundane "product" may be much more exciting than an organization assumes. Tell a good story, a tale in which the product is the hero. The product must be essential to this story-not an afterthought. Emotional Marketing: In the globalized world, where customers are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages, the company can gain a competitive advantage with advertisements that tap into the incandescent power of human emotions. Chandler, the creator of communication strategy known as dream weaving, says that advertising messages must focus on customers dream first and then on how the company's products and services will help the customer fulfill that dream. Some successful companies are Harley Davidson, Hallmark, Bron shoe etc. Smart idea management and integrated concept development through stages and gates to respond to market trends effectively creating a central hub for product management which will improve visibility across the product development and distribution channel to the market. Most research is limited to cognitive impact of marketing and does not generally address the affective dimension of positioning when emotional based marketing principles are used as the lead strategies that are almost impossible to replicate. If we look at the product life cycle, the innovations in product should take place at the growth or maturity stage .If a company is implementing innovation in the decline stage, then the organization is taking a calculated risk. So the product innovation should take place at the growth or maturity stage. In short, agencies and advertisers need to move away from extreme either/or positions and seek more balanced solutions. Such advertising actually helps build market share-and that, after all, is the best way to build better relations.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
A better knowledge of the influence of emotion is not only necessary for researchers but also for managers who want to use emotion as a marketing tools (e.g., some companies send a small gift on their client's birthday, or give them once in a while tickets to attend a match of their favorite sport). Some studies show that companies using emotion follow their gut feeling-without knowing anything about this emotion and it's effects-sometimes face disastrous consequences. A major contribution of this paper thus concerns the place of emotions in models of satisfaction formation. The paper concluded that emotion is worth studying on its own and that its influence on satisfaction is not fully captured by disconfirmation. In a globalized and industrialized world, innovation is the key to enter or expand in a market. It's seen that the market leaders are always the greatest innovators so as to maintain market share because they keep a certain specified budget for R &D so the bigger challenge is for small companies with limited budget to make innovative products for the market and also earn trust of the customer. The goal of emotional marketing is to develop an enduring connection with each customer that nurtures loyalty and results in repeat purchases appealing to the audiences in terms of emotional engagements that will comprise a growing proportion of the value being exchanged between you and your customers. Market and customer needs are constantly changing and companies' ability to change and lead the change as the market leader must be ongoing. The company must constantly work to improve the product, service, as the prospects require. The only challenge is to have the right kind of people, promotion, process and environment to foster a culture of innovation and emotion. Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans -Peter Drucker.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Celci L. Richard and Jerry C. Olsen, The Role of Involvement in Attention and Comprehension Processes, Journal of Consumer Research, 1988, 15 (Sep), (210224). Greenwald, Anthony A. and Clark Leavitt, Audience Involvement in Advertising: Four Levels Journal of Consumer Research, 1984, 1i (June), (581592). Raju K.A., (December 2002). Title of article: Social Marketing of Rural Development Information: A Case Study, Kurukshetra, A monthly journal of Ministry of Rural Development, 10, (4). Sen. A.2000. Development as freedom, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Marketing Mastermind (August 2007). Petty, (1986), Communication and persuasion: New York, Verlag.
Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009
Brand Positioning: The Unbeatable Weapon in Present Marketing Scenario

* Saloni Pawan Diwan ** Prof. M.K Jain
Over the decades, the sea change in the attitudes and lifestyles of people provided various big ideas to marketers, which can be nurtured out of changing social needs, desires and values of the target customers. These innovative ideas resulted in reshaping the thinking of marketers by first identifying and understanding the needs and expectations of the target group and then to come up with suitable products. In the present scenario, the innovations are taking place rapidly but even the best demanded brands are not sure regarding their survival because the innovations are difficult to develop and easy to copy. So, the marketers are continuously seeking the distinct positions for their brands in the minds of customers and hence brand positioning has emerged as the most challenging job in today's mature and overcrowded markets. It aims at imprinting a differentiated image of the brand in the minds of the prospective customers. According to Charles Mittelstadt, Positioning refers to how you want your brand 'thought about' in connection with the competitors in its product category. It needs to be specific to your brand aimed at specific target audience. A successful brand positioning strategy concentrates on finding out the strong position in customer's mind and then sitting on it, which leads to gain the competitive advantage in the market. The marketing managers are constantly facing the dilemma to position and reposition the brands according to the changing perceptions, needs and desires of the customers. Therefore, in the light of this fact, in this present study, we tend to focus upon describing the various strategies to position brands accurately in the market. The objective of our study is twofold. Firstly, to contemplate the basic concept of positioning and secondly, to give a brief account of puzzles and advancements in positioning.
POSITIONING AS A VITAL TOOL OF MARKETING

Positioning emerged as a vital tool to understand how brands are positioned in the mind of customer in relation to relevant attributes. It is based on the functional attributes or the emotional associations with the brand. Positioning is the pursuit of differential advantage (Subroto Sengupta, 1999). Whatever the brand positioning strategy is opted by the organization, the customers and employees must get the clarity about what differentiates your brand. The organization will bear less expense if it adopts the right positioning strategy with right marketing mix aimed at specific target audience. The brands, which have a clear vision, a concise meaning and understand their parameters of relevance, are well positioned. Nike has done its positioning as: Athletic Shoes for WinnersWhatever you want, you can 'just do it' in Nikes. Similarly, 7-up positioned itself as 'The Uncola' drink by using colas as a frame of reference which creates its distinct image in the soft drink market. So the marketers must discover the positions which can award them the competitive advantage. Further, these positions are generally divided in three categories. (a) Functional Positions, which can be achieved by providing benefits of the product and solutions to the problems. (b) Symbolic Positions, which can be attained by enhancing the self-image, ego-identification and satisfaction. (c) Experiential Positions, by providing the prospects, sensory pleasures and cognitive stimulations.
SIGNIFICANCE OF POSITIONING
Positioning is the hub of business wheel Positioning is the basis of everything done in business. No brand can be built effectively and no consistent image can be conveyed until a strong brand positioning is developed. Positioning is the foundation of R&D, Product development, Branding, Pricing, Packaging, Advertising, Promotion, Merchandising, Publicity, Distribution Channels etc. Positioning can beat the competition Today, the markets are flooded with clones or a sea of homogeneous products. The only way to cross this sea is to create and communicate a distinct image which makes the customers convinced to choose your brand over the competitor's brands. Lifebuoy occupies the 'Hygiene' position. The original version of Lifebuoy was targeted to rural segment. The Double-action plus was for urban teenagers (Boys) and Lifebuoy Gold for young girls, but in
* Lecturer, University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra - 136 119, Haryana. E-mail : mehta_dais@rediffmail.com ** Professor, University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra - 136 119, Haryana. Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 9
all, the position was same i.e. Germ-Killing action. On the other hand, Margo is in 'Herbal' position and Mysore sandal in 'pure and natural fragrance' slot. Positioning drives growth Unfortunately, many organizations tend to focus upon making products rather than building brands. Product is something which is made in a factory, whereas brands are made in the mind. A good brand name combined with strong and clearly defined positioning leads to excellent market performance and increased market share and profits. Positioning creates brand loyalty We are in the habit of using at least one brand of a particular product in our daily life. We keep on using that product until the manufacturer changes the product. This brand loyalty is created by strong positioning which makes the customer feel that there is no perfect substitute available in the market for their preferred brand.
POSITIONING A PRODUCT IN THE MARKETPLACE

The pillar of positioning is based on the foundation of market segmentation i.e. partitioning the market into homogeneous groups of the potential customers. To engrave a strong position for the product, marketers first have to divide the market in unique segments and then select the target segments. After discovering the way to reach the market, the next step is how to attract the customers to try their products. In the monopolistic market, though too many brands are functionally similar, yet the firm can adopt various positioning strategies, which help it to differentiate its brands on one facet or the other. Quality Quality had been the base of positioning and the efforts are put together to build the dominant perception of quality. It can be built up by focusing on limited range of products, specializing in them and it can also be achieved by attaching higher price tag to the brand. To some customers, a higher price tag provides the psychological satisfaction but a product must also have some uniqueness to justify the price. Eureka Forbes, Sony, Levi, Microsoft owned this qualitative perception for their products. The positioning at the lower end of price-quality range embraces the problem of upgrading the image of the product. Features Sticking to the facts about the product brings the credibility in positioning, either it is VW's.. 'Think Small' on the introduction of Beetle, Onida's.. 'Science of Sound' or 'Avis' the rental cars 'We Try Harder.' Product feature positioning can range from specific physical benefits to more abstract features. Benefits Markets overwhelmed with the brands similar in features, open doors to position on the basis of the benefits of products. This is superior convincing strategy as it aims at providing the reason to purchase the solution of the problem like Frozen meals save time of preparation, Crest reduces cavities, Head & Shoulders clears dandruff. Value Once the good value brands were thought to be inexpensive, but today they are more popular amongst consumers. Coca-Cola & Pepsi, besides meeting with various controversies, are still well-liked by people because of the status symbol. People don't visit McDonalds because of the services offered but for the reason that they love to be seen there. They feel proud to talk about these brands. Besides keeping hold of the strong identity, McDonalds nicely announced the 'Happy Price Menu' leaving the competitors to think about new ways. Usage Another influential differentiating strategy is positioning the product according to the usage occasions. Some organizations reflected the courage to dominate the usage position in the market like Dettol antiseptic for nicks and cuts. Further, Vicks Vaporub is sitting on the unchallengeable usage positioning of 'cold at night'. Dettol Soap perfectly grilled the idea of '100% bath' to refresh you up. User Category Delving deeply into the segment, positioning prompts are decided keeping in mind the target customers; who should buy the product. Nestl's Cerelac, the easily digestive cereal food and Johnson & Johnson's mild shampoo were positioned for babies. Further positioning Complan for 'Growing Children' and communicating 'I am a Complan boy. No, I am a Complan girl' in their ads, Glaxo Laboratories created a distinct image in the customer's mind. Competition Product's superiority can be demonstrated by comparing it directly with competitors. Some organizations adopt this aggressive positioning strategy to justify that how 'their' brand is superior. This process is followed in two
ways. Firstly, by comparative advertisements, and secondly, by relating your brand with the No. 1 brand. In comparative advertisements, the product is compared with the competitor's product which is not named but can be recognized by people and then after comparison of attributes, superiority of 'our' product is justified. Cold Drinks and laundry detergents are going head to head to prove themselves better. Further if your brand is not No. 1, relate it with No. 1. Avis followed this 'Against Position Strategy' by stating Avis is only No. 2 in rent-a-cars, so why go with us? We try harder. This was a success as consumers start relating No.2 Avis to No. 1 Hertz (Ries & Trout, 2003). Looking inside the prospect's mind By ignoring the conventional logics, a unique position can be found out by digging up the minds of prospects, not by looking inside the organization and product. 7-Up is still on the unbeatable position of 'The Uncola Drink' as it was able and successful to discover & extract the 'Uncola' idea from the mind of the soft drink consumer and did not look inside the product. Hunting Holes Exploring the unoccupied positions (not grabbed by the competitors) and getting first to the mind provides a powerful weapon in the hands of marketers to position their brands. 7-Up used 'Uncola' idea, Maggi noodles used the idea of '2-Minutes', and VW introduced Beetle in small segment by saying 'Think Small'. Further IBM was first to position the computer, yet it was not the first to invent it. Emami was the first to introduce and position 'Fair & Handsome', a fairness cream in male segment in India. Here we would like to add one more thing that if a company is first to introduce the product in market, then this fact must be emphasized to draw the attention of prospects. Coca-Cola beautifully discovered 'The Real Thing' implying that the competitors are just imitators. Multibrand /Single Position The pace of new technology provides numerous opportunities to enter into new markets which award the leaders with the chance of introducing multiple brands rather than changing existing brands holding the leading positions. Introducing and positioning a new brand is much more economical and simpler rather than changing the existing ones. Reliance is continuously grabbing this strategy by entering into new fields. Ries and Trout named this as a single position strategy as each brand owns a static position in the mind of the customer. Success can also be achieved by focusing on a single theme. Nokia 'Connecting People' and Amul 'The Taste of India' have been able to achieve success by focusing on a single theme and reflecting it in their communication mix respectively.
PREREQUISITES OF AN EFFECTIVE BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGY

The insight of consumer behavior is necessary for drafting a successful positioning strategy. Here, the central idea is to focus upon what consumers think about brands rather than what we think. So, positioning requires the extensive research and perfect understanding of consumers as well as brands on the different aspects such as needs of customers, product category, target segment, competition, benefits, perceptions, brand personality. (a) Needs of customers A good place to start with is by identifying the existing and emerging needs of the customers in the marketplace. To get a clear understanding of consumer needs, one should keep in consideration that two different types of needs exist. Functional needs and emotional needs. Functional needs are more tangible, whereas emotional needs are related to emotions or psychographic factors like self-image, status symbol, desire to be different, lifestyle, values, attitudes and beliefs etc. It is impossible to ignore any need, but the homework is related to what type of need is more important in the segment. No doubt that functional need is important but sometimes like in the case of perfumes and cosmetics, emotional needs are more important than functional needs. (b) Product Category Product class or product category is the set of all the products, which the consumers perceive as substitutes to satisfy the specific need. It consists of all the alternatives that the consumers can go for while facing some problem. Suppose, if a person wants snacks, then he is having various alternatives. He can either go for ready-toeat snacks, mostly available at home, like biscuits, wafers; peanuts etc. or he can go for snacks prepared at home like pakora, sandwich, noodles, papad, dhokla etc. He can also purchase snacks from the market like samosa, pakora, burger etc. Similarly, if a person is suffering from headache, then also he can go for a number of modes. He can take tea or drink something else, lie down or have a sleep, get a massage, take some medicine, go for the acupuncture exercise or visit the doctor. Since, the consumers are having a plethora of alternatives to choose from, the marketers must have the knowledge of all these ways. Identifying these options and studying them in detail helps in identifying the product category,
i.e. in which class, our product will enter, which in turn will help in defining the competition. (c) Target Segment The next step on the ladder is finding out the target customers for our product. It involves the understanding of demographic, psychographic and usage behavior of the customers in that product category. All the audience cannot come in target segment because one positioning cannot appeal to everybody. Only those customers will be targeted who are having similar needs. Thums-Up targets those who are adventurous by saying 'Taste the Thunder'. Pepsi targets who thinks 'Young' and American Express targets 'Prestige conscious, frequent travelers, who crave recognition, attention and special service'. So, after digging out the right customers, it is important to communicate them, that this is the perfect brand which can best satisfy their needs. (d) Competition Product category defines the competition. The companies wish to enter in the product category grilled with less or no competition. But the reality is far beyond this situation. To face reality and to cope up with the marketing warfare, four ways are suggested. 1. Defensive Mode: Only the market leader can defend himself by strengthening his own position. Position can be strengthened by bringing out the new innovations in new products/ services that supersede his own existing ones. e.g., Nokia and Gillette. 2. Offensive mode: This is followed by the follower by searching out the negative in the leader's positioning and attacking on that negative. e.g., Vicks Vaporub. 3. Flanking mode: All the segments cannot be occupied by the market leader. So, the neglected segment is occupied. e.g., Complan. 4. Guerilla mode: Finding out the niche in the market. Niche is a very small part of the market, where the volumes are very low but margins are very high. e.g., Rolls Royce. Earlier, while analyzing the competitive framework, the companies used to consider standard of identity but today, new ways to look at competition have emerged. Now power brands adopt perceptual competitive framework e.g. Nestle is not selling Nescafe merely as a coffee, but it is a brand associated with achievement and freedom. It is something that rejuvenates you and freshens you up and prepares you for the whole day. In the same line, Nokia is not just selling cell phones; it is selling 'Fashion Accessories'. McDonald's is not competing in the fast food industry but in the 'Family Entertainment' business. Mercedes is not merely selling the cars but selling 'Self-esteem'. (e) Benefits People purchase benefits. Benefits convey strong reason to the customer that why they should go for a particular product. So, while framing the positioning strategy, benefits should be given due consideration, because they can provide the competitive advantage in the market, if not exploited by the competitors. While considering the benefits, the marketers are mostly in the situation of flux that whether to concentrate on functional/physical benefits or on emotional benefits. Like functional needs, functional benefits are more tangible and measurable. For example, Colgate helps in decay prevention, Maruti Suzuki is India's most fuel-efficient car, Tide removes tough stains and brightens the clothes etc. But the brand loyalty or the sense of belongingness cannot be achieved just by achieving the functional end. Belongingness comes with the emotions. So, the positioning strategy must be framed by ensuring that the brand is conveying functional as well as emotional benefits. Further, Dettol kills germs. This is the functional aspect but the housewife is feeling relaxed that her family is safe is the emotional aspect of the brand. 'Fairness' by Fair & Lovely is the physical benefit, but it connects deeply with the emotions which bring the annoyed 'Lucky Girl' out of the fear that she will be rejected by the boy coming to see her. Then she feels excited by listening the word 'Lucky Boy'. In India, Fiat India talked about safety by offering crumble zones, side-impact beams for maximum passenger and driver safety, fire prevention system and anti-lock braking system. 'Safety' lies on functional end but the emotional side of this benefit is to convey the customer that he is purchasing the best car to protect his family during the journey. Sometimes, the customers are not frequently using the physical benefit but are feeling relaxed on the emotional end. In case of the insurance companies, we are paying premium regularly for the number of years but rarely do we bother about the financial reimbursement due to any mishappening. Truly saying, in the wrap of premium, we actually are paying the price to purchase the relaxed sleep at night which is the height of emotional benefit. (f) Perceptions 'Marketing is not the battle of products. It is the battle of perceptions' (Ries & Trout). For the marketer, it is necessary to know the consumer perceptions regarding the products that they perceive as the substitutes. This can
be known with the technique of perceptual mapping. Perceptual map is basically the two-dimensional space on which the consumer perceptions and preferences regarding your product and competitor's products are plotted. So, this technique helps the marketer to know the consumer perceptions and preferences about his own products in relation to the competitor's products. This technique also defines the similarities and dissimilarities among the products. The closely plotted points on the map convey that the products are similar whereas far situated points convey dissimilarity. The single consumer's preferred position is represented by one point but if the number of points are closely situated, it makes a cluster, which means that several consumers have same preferences. The preference is considered as an ideal vector. The marketers analyze that whether their products comes in ideal vector category or not. If yes, positioning is strong, but if not, then how much is the difference between perception and preference and how can it be minimized? So the major concern of the strategist is to bring the consumer perception close to the ideal point or bring the ideal position close to the perception. No doubt, the second mode is difficult but the first can be achieved by re-positioning the brands by changing advertisement and modifying products in accordance with consumer preferences. (g) Brand Personality Brands are like individuals. Individuals can inherent some similar physical characteristics but still differ in their personalities. Personality is the perception of individual in totality i.e. his physical characteristics, values, beliefs, attitude, lifestyle, potential to perform and emotional associations. Similarly, though brands can be similar in terms of physical attributes or functions performed, yet they differ in terms of personality. According to David Ogilvy, The personality of a product is an amalgam of many things- its name, its packaging, its price, the style of its advertising and above all the nature of the product itself. No two brands can be similar in personality/character, as no two individuals can be. For example, one brand can be considered as youthful, upperclass, trendy and perfectionist while a similar brand, on the other end, can be considered as middle-aged, mature, sophisticated, and graceful .So while framing a positioning strategy, the crucial aspect taken into consideration is to create the brand character/personality that keeps it distinct from other brands. Personality creation is the responsibility of advertising agencies, marketers or sometimes the head of an organization. It can be articulated by thinking the brands in terms of human-beings and then visualizing that if it were a person then how old would it be? How would it be dressed up? In what profession would it be? What would be his likes or dislikes? What attitudes would it have and how emotionally would it be associated? Whatever personality is created by the marketers should be consistent with the perception of that personality that the consumer carries. The symbolic imprints of a brand impression should be the same in the marketer's as well as in the consumer's mind.
PUZZLES AND ADVANCEMENTS IN BRAND POSITIONING

In theoretical, as well as in practical field, brand positioning is given the utmost importance, but, at the floor of implementation, some doubts remain in the mind of the marketer when he indulges in the market loaded with the competition which leads to change. So when everything is changing, the customer perceptions, preferences, and expectations also change. Then it becomes difficult for the companies staying with constant positioning. Further, it is very difficult to measure the space owned by a product in the customer's mind. Again, one strong recommendation in literature regarding positioning is to position the product in top category or by creating powerful category, but again, if it is already grabbed by the competitors, then what's the way? Today even when the stability is at stake, all these things become extremely difficult. But where there is a will, there is a way. This tough competition conceived the idea of brand wikization. Actually, the irony with the organizations is that they still engrave positioning as the corporate exercise and companies keep on doing the experiments by selling the products according to their wish, not in the way the consumers seek to purchase. But now the companies have started to move towards wikization. Wiki is actually the common judgment. Today the companies are not defining brands and markets, the consumers do this through word-ofmouth and personal experiences. Brand Wikization is derived by customers and also emphasizes on building healthy and long-term relationships with customers which in turn, means low cost and higher profits. Being customer driven, brand wikization forces the companies to identify and fulfill the customer requirements and also respond to their dissatisfaction. Unlike the positioning, brand wikization is measurable by identifying what customer's value and delivering according to their benchmarks.
CONCLUSION
The concept of positioning emerged in 1969 when used by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the paper Positioning is a game people play in today's me-too market place in the publication Industrial Marketing. It became the vital (Cont. on page 20)
Asian Paints: Changing Rules of the Game

* Rushina Singhi ** Dewyani Kawale *** Yogesh Chaudhari
INDUSTRY PROFILE:
THE INDIAN PAINT INDUSTRY The paint industry of India is more than 100 years old. Its beginning can be traced to the setting up of a factory by Shalimar Paints in Kolkata in 1902.Till the advent of World War II, the industry consisted of just a few foreign companies, and some small, indigenous producers. The war led to a temporary stoppage of imports leading to many more local entrepreneurs setting up manufacturing facilities. Nevertheless, foreign companies continued to dominate the industry. Even now, they remain active contestants, though their foreign shareholdings stand reduced, with two of them having become totally Indian. Today the Indian Paint Industry produces about 1050,000 MT per annum. The corresponding value base is about INR 8,800 crores (USD 1.95 Billion). The Indian Paint industry enjoys a global market share of about 1.8%. Per capita consumption of paint in India is 800-900 grams compared to 15-25 kg in the developed countries. Market Growth of Indian Paint industry is estimated to be about $200 - $400 million per year over the next 5 years.
Source: PaintIndia, 2007
The industry is composed of two sectors, the organized and the unorganized. The organized sector controls 70 percent of the total market. The remaining 30 percent is in the hands of the unorganized sector, consisting of 2000 odd small-scale players. The industry is not capital intensive. It is however working capital intensive. The demand for paints is fairly price-elastic and is linked to economic and industrial growth. Demand is somewhat seasonal in nature-low during monsoon months, high during festival seasons. THE MAIN SEGMENTS The industry comprises of two main segments -decorative/architectural and industrial paints. The decorative/architectural paint segment accounts for 70 percent of the total paint market while the industrial paint segment accounts for the remaining 30 percent. The industry is, however, expected to undergo a structural shift towards industrial paints in the next few years, when its share is expected to go upto 50 percent in line with the global trend. Industrial paints thus hold greater growth potential in the coming years. Actually, with the decorative segment gradually bottoming out, companies are already increasing their focus on industrial paints. Industrial paints are technology intensive. The industrial paints segment can be further classified into automotive paints, marine, powder coatings, high performance coatings, and others. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of products such as automobiles, furniture and white goods such as refrigerators are prime consumers of industrial paint. The automobile industry accounts for 50 percent of the industrial paint market.A good part of the demand are from shipping and heavy industry. THE MAIN PLAYERS Asian Paints, Goodlass Nerolac, ICI (India), Berger, Jenson & Nicholson and Shalimar are the leading companies in the organized sector. The top ten manufacturers account for about 80 percent of the market in the organized sector in value terms.APL is the industry leader, with an overall market share of 33 percent in the organized sector. Threat of global competition is minimal in the industry. APL dominates the decorative segment, with a 29 percent market share. Berger Paints is number two with a 10 per cent market share.Nerolac and ICI have 8 percent and 6 percent shares, respectively, in this segment followed by Shalimar, with 3 per cent.
* Lecturer, Amity Business School, Noida-201303, Uttar Pradesh. E-mail : rushina.singhi@yahoo.co.in ** Student, Amity Business School, Nodia-201303, Uttar Pradesh. *** Student, Amity International Business School, Noida-201303, Uttar Pradesh. 14 Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009
Goodlass dominates the industrial paints segment, with 41 percent market share. APL is a poor second here; with a 15 percent market share. Berger, ICI, and Shalimar are the other substantive players in the sector, with 10 percent, 9 percent and 8 percent shares, respectively. The dominance of Goodlass in industrial paints is largely the result of its technical associated with the Japanese paint major, Kansai Paints, which has a 29.5 per cent equity stake in the company. Goodlass has a lion's share of 70 percent in the OEM passenger car segment, 40 percent share of two-wheeler OEM market and 20 percent of commercial vehicle OEM market.Goodlass also holds 20 percent of the white-goods segment. The market shares of the leading companies are shown in following graph:
Asian Paints, 24 SMEs, 43
Berger Paints, 10
ICI Paints, 7
Nerolac Paints, 11
Other Organised Players, 5
Market shares by volume in Percentage
COMPANY PROFILE
Asian Paints is India's largest and Asia's third largest paint company today, with a turnover of Rs 44.04 billion (around USD 1.1 billion). The company has an enviable reputation in the corporate world for professionalism, fast track growth and building shareholder equity. Asian Paints operates in 20 countries and has 28 paint manufacturing facilities in the world servicing consumers in over 65 countries. Besides Asian Paints, the group operates around the world through its subsidiaries, Berger International Limited, Apco Coatings, SCIB Paints and Taubmans. VISION Asian Paints aims to become one of the top five decorative coatings companies world-wide by leveraging its expertise in the higher growth emerging markets. Simultaneously, the company intends to build long term value in the Industrial coatings business through alliances with established global partners. MANUFACTURING FACILITIES Asian Paints along with its subsidiaries has operations in 20 countries across the world and 28 paint manufacturing facilities, servicing consumers in 65 countries through Berger International, SCIB Paints-Egypt, Asian Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. Asian Paints operates in 5 regions across the world viz. South Asia, South- East Asia, South Pacific, Middle East and Caribbean region through the five corporate brands viz. Asian Paints, Berger International, SCIB Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans. In 10 markets, it operates through its subsidiary, Berger International Limited; in Egypt through SCIB Paints; in 5 markets in the South Pacific it operates through Apco Coatings and in Fiji and Samoa, it also operates through Taubmans. MARKETING STRATEGIES BY ASIAN PAINTS TO PENETRATE IN URBAN AND RURAL AREA During 1960's, market for paints was at a dead end. It was totally dominated by MNCs and Indian companies were looked down upon. MNCs had a cartel approach and had dealers with long standing relationship in an oligopoly market. Entry barriers were not there as paints were low tech low capital projects. Alternate product was lime
based low cost used by most in poverty ridden India. In reach homes and offices, wood paneling was being used. Market was largely controlled by MNCs.Mr. Choksey found that to fight MNCs, he has to look at the market segment so far neglected by them and found that near vacuum exists in semi-urban and rural markets. They however had special needs. Low cost paint in small containers. The segment needed new distribution system as well. Asian paints value for customers was to build through innovative packages (size), distribution, and communication. In 1970's, it decided to computerize and network their 30 depots round the country to provide proper feedback from the market. It was one of the first companies to come up with 50 ml and 100 ml paints packs for rural markets where consumers needed very small quantities. For the rural market, they changed communication and promotion strategy as well. For example, Asian Paint supported Pola fair in Maharashtra by painting the horns of the bulls. Another example is the launch of Utsav brand by Asian paints. This is to cater for first-time users of branded paints in rural India. Amit Syngle, Asian Paints' general manager, marketing, Asian paints, spent six months in the interiors of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. He observed that rural buyers are becoming brand conscious and are willing to look at "value-for-money" products. According to him, people in rural areas are definitely saving less and that they are willing to upgrade to higher categories of any product. Asian Paints promoted its Utasv brand of paint by painting the village Sarpanch's house a few months prior to the launch to demonstrate that the paint does not peel off and is an ideal replacement of chuna. One of the strategies of Asian paints for becoming a leader is to maintain a good relationship with the dealers. Mr. Choksey's style of functioning was informal as he kept friendly relations with the depot staff and the sales team, and could be seen having tea in some rural dealers' shops. Asian Paints differentiation strategy starts from market segment, distribution, and packaging. With increasing volumes in chosen segments, Asian Paints achieved economies of scale for cost leadership. With their dominant position, they diversified in product range as also market and geographic segments. It diversified into manufacturing raw materials for paints. Product Diversification also included industrial paints. Now, with a large market share, they have a strong distribution network even in metros. Asian Paint's strategy of quick response translates into supplying 95 percent of the orders supply in 48 hours, which is a positive competitive advantage. The latest offer by Asian paints is Asian Paints Samplers. These are small 200 ml paint packs which can be bought at Asian Paints Colour World outlet, and can be used to sample how the colour would look on the wall and then the final decision can be taken. It offers a low-risk small trial pack so that customers are more comfortable in taking their final decision. Asian Paints realized the need for brand building even during sixties. The brand focused on mass and rural market. Asian Paints had a mascot called Gattu, who was created by the celebrated cartoonist R. K Lakshman. These efforts made the brand a leader during the late sixties. It also was the first to come up with the tinting machine option; Mera Walla Yellow" campaign that would remind readers of the initiative. The consumers could pick and choose a shade in at the dealer, who would mix the appropriate colours and deliver the paint. It had a two fold impact, reduction in inventory at the dealer point, because now he could manage with the base and few other additives, and for the consumers , he need not move from one outlet to the other in search of shades. Then came the Asian Paints Home Solutions, wherein a consumer could give a call on a toll-free number and avail services of trained painters who would provide all services needed. Any one who has gone through the hassle of getting his house painted would realize the benefits that such a service offers for consumers. The success of these initiatives can be assessed by the fact that all other players in the industry have followed Asian Paints in offering similar services to consumer. All these initiatives have kept the consumer interest at the forefront, be it in providing samplers or the total bouquet of services of painting houses to the increased choice through the tinting machine option. To keep their position dominant, Asian Paints has always put more stress on vigorous R&D for innovative products, increased the number of depots for covering the entire country, advertise separately for each market segment and advertise Asian paints as a whole and the continuous market research to enhance their competitive advantage. DISTINCTION BETWEEN BERGER AND ASIAN PAINTS Berger Paints, India is the country's third largest paint manufacturer and the second largest decorative paint player. It is headquartered in Calcutta and it services the market through a distribution network comprising of 75 stock points and 12,000+ paint retailers. The concept of the company was envisaged by the legendary paint chemist, Mr. Lewis Berger in 1760. Berger Paints, India is a 70 year old company.
Asian paints is India's number one company and it is the largest paint manufacturer in India. It is headquartered in Mumbai. Asian Paints operates in 20 countries and has 28 paint manufacturing facilities in the world, servicing consumers in over 65 countries. Asian Paints, the group operates around the world through its subsidiaries, Berger International Limited, Apco Coatings, SCIB Paints and Taubmans. `Berger International Limited (BIL) with headquarters in Singapore was also listed on the Singapore stock exchange in November 2002.BIL became a part of the Asian Paints Group. It's a subsidiary of Asian paints. Acquisition of BIL was a step of Asian Paints to make its presence across Middle East, Caribbean and South East Asia.
CHALLENGES FOR INDIAN PAINT INDUSTRY

1) SEASONAL DEMAND : Paint Industry is a seasonal industry. The demand shoots up during the Diwali season and it will be low in the rainy season. 2) INVENTORY MANAGEMENT AT DEALER LEVEL The product differentiation is minimal in paint industry. The very close substitutes are readily available (e.g. ICI Dulux can be a very close substitute for Asian Paints Royale). Hence the inventory management at the dealer level is of a prime importance. It is also important for brand visibility and occupying the shelf space. 3) DISTRIBUTION COSTS Distribution costs are important for a lower price product like Distemper. The Distemper is a stiff paint and is sold on weight basis. It is called as the Bread and Butter of the paint industry as the consumption is highest for this product. Hence, the cost associated with distribution of it is of prime importance. 4) SHADE OFFERINGS As the shades offered by the paints companies are very high in number, (e.g. Asian paints offers more than 1200 own shades), the problem of distribution becomes very significant. The demand for a particular shade may peak up suddenly in a particular region. The inventory management at the distributor and dealer level is of great importance. 5) LOW PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION As mentioned earlier, the per capita paint consumption in India is in one of the lowest. It stands at mere 815 gms per person per annum as compared to the 25 kg per person per annum in US. This shows the lower penetration of the paint industry in the country. The paint companies have to educate the customers that they should go for the repainting of their houses frequently. This is a very unique feature of the industry that the Indian people will go for repainting either for some festival such as Diwali or occasions like Marriage or when the repainting is absolutely unavoidable.
OVERCOMING THESE CHALLENGES BY ASIAN PAINTS

DEALING WITH SEASONALITY OF DEMAND To cope up with the seasonality of the demand, Asian Paints has created one of the best distribution networks in India. They are probably second only to Hindustan Unilever. Asian paints services around 20,000 dealers through its 70 sales offices. Their distribution covers entire country. The co-ordination between them is achieved by using VSATs, ISDN lines and PSTN lines. This entire infrastructure has helped APL to do better demand planning. APL has around 1600 SKUS to manufacture, out of which around 300-350 are fast moving with extremely high liquidity at the counter. Therefore planning for such a large number of SKUs requires high analytical skills and excellent tools. Also, the distribution network covers the rural market also, so it increases the challenges ahead for the logistic team. Besides this, various other factors have to be considered while forecasting and planning of demand for paint. i) Peak to average: Paint is the commodity though it is sold throughout the year but its demand increases tremendously during Diwali and to a certain extent during other festive seasons. Therefore, its production has to start according to its demand (forecasting right from July). Since APL has to take care of 300-400 fast moving SKUs, planning has to be done in such a way that it results in high inventory turnover and the company is left with least stuck stock. ii) Promotional activity: Keeping in mind the expected demand, the promotional activities are also to be planned. Accordingly, a company decides scheme promos during that period and arrives at variable sales that happened due to these promos. Considering the SKUs, the production needs to be scheduled. It is a tedious job for the distribution department to determine the variable sales. iii) Large user business: Sudden demand from the large institutions needs to be factored in all of the above. These
prominent large institutes do not give much lead time; therefore such huge orders need to be processed in between such hectic months. SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTION BY ASIAN PAINTS Asian Paints has used various IT tools to improve its internally developed planning distribution and logistics system. This has resulted in not only differentiating the company from its rival companies but also put it ahead of several large FMCG companies. Asian Paints uses best of the IT tools available for Supply Chain Management which consists of 4 modules viz. Demand Planner, SCM Planner, Factory Planner, Production Scheduler. Demand Planner helps in demand forecasting. SCM planner helps in master planning for inventory i.e. which plant will produce what material and when. Factory Planner helps in procurement of raw material and packing material. Production Scheduler: Helps in day to day scheduling in each and every plant. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROCESS FOR APL I. DEMAND MANAGEMENT:
STEP 1: Historical data for 4-5 years is stored in the System
STEP 2: Generation of forecast with the use 1. Statistical techniques on data (Seasonality and Patterns) 2. use of graphical tools 3. Many views (field Sypply chain function, central marketing etc.) 4. Causal
Rolling 12 month forecast
Significance of this method: Improved performance due to use of BMW method as well as techniques such as triple exponential smoothing. Since the data is processed into a server at supply chain office, it saves the time and also makes correction to statistical forecast. The software allows marketing function at HO and supply chain function also logs in, thus helping in best estimate of sales. The software also allows good exception reporting to help in correction of forecast. II. MASTER PLANNING AND INVENTORY DEPLOYMENT The process uses the demand forecast and forecast accuracy as well the cycle time for product replenishment to arrive at optimum cycle and safety stock that should be held at each location. III. PROCUREMENT PLANNING The process helps in raw material procurement based on detailed daily production sequence for one month. It also helps in determining realistic safety stock level to account for external variability only. Total computerization of the physical distribution and the credit control system: Effective computerization of the distribution system, inventory control and control of credit outstanding is the other factor that helped APL to control distribution costs without lowering service level. A totally computerized and a totally integrated distribution system was evolved by the company beginning from 1976. Computerization of sales and inventory data and the use of rational distribution models helped the company increase its service levels by 10% with no increase in the overall level of inventory carried. Computerization also enabled APL to process recent sales data for the 100 fastest moving SKUs. This analysis was used to project sales of specific products, which helped plan production, raw material purchases and advance stocking. ATTRACTIVE SCHEMES BY APL The Company offers the dealer's attractive incentive schemes to induce them to keep Asian paints stalk. For example: i. A special discount of 3.5% is to be passed on at the end of the year, provided that each and every payment throughout the year was made within the stipulated time norms. This is refereed to as the discount for perfection in payments. ii. A cash discount of 5% for all outright cash purchases. The cash discount was given whenever payments were received within 24 hours of the supply/invoice.
The scheme became a grand success. APL's credit outstanding always stood below 25 days while the outstanding of competitors were mostly in the range of 40 days. STRATEGIC LOCATIONS OF MANUFACTURING FACILITIES Having plants spread across the region being serviced is very important for cheaper products like distempers but not so for emulsion paints. The high transportation costs as a fraction of the COGS would wipe out a substantial portion of the profit margin otherwise (The distempers sell for about Rs. 50/kg and the exterior paints and emulsions for Rs.150 to 300 per litre. The transportation cost from Mumbai to Kolkata is about Rs. 1,500/kilolitre.) Plant Locations:
The plants are located in the areas of high demand so as to reduce the transportation and distribution costs. The same trend is followed by the other players as well depending on their strong areas. ASIAN COLOR WORLD It was early 1996 and the Indian paint market was in the middle of a sea change. For many years, Asian Paints had been a market leader (since the early 1970's) and the premier paint brands like ICI (Dulux), Berger and Jenson & Nicholson were steadily losing market share to Asian Paints due to the sheer distribution muscle of the company. Asian Paints had further skewed the market in its favour by launching the Color Corner concept made famous by the Mariana Blue and Merawala Pink ad campaigns. Color corners were specially designated dealers who were servicing 151 shades of colour using manual tinting of shades at the local Asian Paints branches. In answer to that by 1994, Jenson & Nicholson had come up with an innovative concept- automatic tinting machines at the dealer shops-The machines that could use neutral bases (close to white paint) and make any colour automatically by choosing it in the computer. The pressure was mounting on Asian Paints to come up with something of its own. Thus, the Asian Paints Colour World brand (as it was later christened) was born. The advent of the colour-world was a revolutionary concept. A complete shopping experience selecting from over thousand shades to interactive paint your home software to actual choice of a paint in over 2500 dealer locations across the country. It was followed by Asian Paints Home Solutions, a hassle-free painting service in which Asian Paints takes over the entire job of painting of one's home, from start to a smooth finish.
NID came up with a truly unique fan deck shade card with 1320 shades arranged in 220 strips of 6 shades each. IMPROVING PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION Asian Paints Ltd has undertaken various measures to increase the per capita consumption of the Indian Paint market. Some of the strategies are as follows: SMALLER PACKS IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE PENETRATION When APL entered in the market, paint was available in a container of size 500ml or larger. APL saw an
opportunity in this situation. It found that many times, consumers do not require the product in larger quantity. Therefore, they buy the paint in a larger quantity and share that paint especially in the rural area. In order to trap this target segment, it started providing products in smaller packages- in 200ml, 100ml and 50 ml packs. This also increased the product depth of the APL. GOING TO INDIVIDUAL CONSUMERS WITH WIDE PRODUCT RANGE In order to meet the needs of various customers, offering the widest range of the products in different pack sizes under the umbrella brand of Asian Paints is one of the most successful strategies adopted by Asian Paints. It has around 1600 SKU's to fulfill the customer needs. ENTERING INTO SEMI-URBAN AND RURAL MARKET In order to enter into semi-urban and rural markets along with the existing urban market, APL has adopted decentralized distribution network rather than keeping its distribution network simple and centralized. It therefore follows the field focused distribution network in which it has depots located all over the country/ marketing territory. TIME FRAME IN THE STUDY This paper is an overview of the Asian paints distribution system which evolved since 1942 with the experience and strategy of being a market leader by giving differentiation, thus gaining a competitive edge over its competitors. This paper raises the following questions that can be useful for other researchers: 1. What are the distribution strategies adopted by APL? 2. Enlist the various issues related to Distribution Management of Indian Paint Industry. 3. How the challenges in the paint industry could be overcome?
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
An Overview of Indian coating Industry, Dilip Raghvan, Editor Publisher, Paint India, 2007 Biology or buy-logy? Prof. S Suresh Asst. Professor, Institute of Management and Research, Gaziabad Speech By Mr. Vinod Dhall, Competition commission of India at Indian paint Industry Conference, Mumbai, 15 January 2005 crisinfac CRISIL's Industry Intelligence Database www.asianpaints.com www.paintstore.com
(Cont. from page 13) process in identifying the space in the mind of consumer and then fitting the image of brand in that space. A strongly positioned brand assumes more survival and competitive advantage for the company. No doubt, it is quite a tough job but can be achieved by indulging in extensive research regarding consumer behaviour, which again made the marketers gripped with the number of positioning strategies. Whatever the strategy is opted by the organization to position the brand must be unique, pertinent, reliable, evident, convincing and communicable. Moreover patience should be there, because positioning is not a one night game. It takes years to position the brand. So, in the competitive world, the only way to survive in the market is to build a strong positioning for the brands. It is substantiated from the number of examples available in literature that nobody could beat those companies, which had sharpened their positioning edges and hence, for decades the strong positioning walked with grace by wearing the crown of unbeatable weapon in the market place.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Ries Al and Trout Jack(2003), Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, New York: Mc Graw-Hill. 2. Sengupta Subroto(1999), Brand Positioning strategies for competitive advantage, Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi. 3. Cowley Don (1996), Understanding Brands Kogan Page Limited, London. 4. Kumar Ramesh S.(2007), Managing Indian Brands- Marketing Concepts and Strategies, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. 5. Moorthi Y.L.R.(2006), Brand Management: The Indian Context, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. 6. Soundararaj J.J, Rengmani J., The inevitability of Positioning in the present marketing scenario, Indian Journal of Marketing, XXXII(12) (2002),.3-5. 7. Renganathan R. Positioning a tourism destination to gain a competitive advantage, Indian Journal of Marketing, XXXIV(9) (2004),6-10. 8. Sekar I.F.G., Successful Positioning Strategies of Indian Corporates-A Replica and Retrospect in the Last Millenium. Indian Journal of Marketing, XXX (11-12) (2000), 9-12. 9. Reckom Johan Van, Jacobs Garriele, Verlegh P.W.J., Measuring and managing the essence of brand personality, Market Lett (17) (2006), 181-192. 10. Ganguly P., An empirical study to determine the perceptual positioning of ten well-known toothpaste brands in the minds of youth. Indian Journal of Marketing, XXXV (10) (2005), 19-25. 11. Bence Brenda, Getting Back to the Basics: The Fundamentals of Positioning Thai American Business, July-Aug.2004.10-13. 12. Chakraborty Kishore, Mitra Amit, Laser Petors, Winning Markets Through Power Brands Journal of Marketing and Communication, Vol I (2) SepDec.2005. 119-126. 13. Gurowitz Edward M.. Positioning products and services accurately The CEO Refresher,(2000),1-6. 14. Hofer Vera, Ladner Klaus, Positioning of new brands in an experiment CEJOR (14) (2006), 435-456. 15. www.brandingasia.com 16. www.brandblogs.com 17. www.indiainfoline.com
20
Corporate Customer Behavior & Indian Hardware Market

(With special reference to HCL Infosystem Ltd.) * Dr. T. Koti Reddy ** Soumya Kanti Sarkar
INTRODUCTION
The global computer hardware market generated total revenues of $338.5 billion in 2004, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.4% for the first five-year period of the millennium spanning 20002004. The market is forecasted to grow at a faster rate than in previous years, with a CAGR of 5.5% for the fiveyear 2004-2009 period inflating the market to a value of $442.6 billion by the end of 2009. The Indian computer hardware market generated total revenues of $5.3 billion in 2004, with a projected CAGR of 10.7 % for the period of 2004-2009 thus driving the market to a value of $48.8 billion by the end of 2009(Gartner, 2007). Value creation has become the prime focus of all leading companies globally, and the new mantra of success both for the consumer market as well as the corporate market. Therefore, it has become imperative for domestic organizations like HCL to be equally concerned and proactively responsive towards the corporate customer as they are sensitive towards the retail consumers. The concept and process of organizational buying is distinctly different from that of consumer buying.While the buying decisions of individual consumers are made relatively quickly and easily and more often without a systematic decision-making process, organizational buying involves a through and deep analysis. According to Robert W. Palmatier, 2007 [07-118] a number of key variables have emerged in modeling different relationship situations. The major factors include reputation, performance satisfaction, trust, social bonds, comparison level of alternatives, mutual goals, interdependence and power, non-retrievable investments, adaptation, structural bonds, co-operation, and commitment. In accordance to Michael Solomon, the adoption of a relationship approach probably requires a change in attitude by the parties concerned. The relationship variables identified can be integrated with a relationship development process which includes a number of stages. Not all the variables are relevant at the same time necessarily and may become latent as the relationship progresses. The project was aimed at understanding B2B marketing practices and studying the corporate consumer behavior through primary research. The study was realized through visits to industry houses, dealers and retail outlets of the company. Finally, the report includes the recommendations derived from the study and subsequent analysis. It has become evident through the study, that value consciousness is indeed the business trend in the organizational market where quality per penny rather than quality alone has become the yardstick. It is as important thus to woo the value sensitive corporate customer as it is to maintain that value added relationship over time. The report has been organized into sections as follows. Section II gives the major objectives, details about the methodology used in the study and the theoretical background. Section III incorporates the comparative analysis and the statistical analysis done using SPSS tool. Finally, the recommendations have been listed in section IV.
II OBJECTIVES
1. To study and understanding of corporate customer behavior. 2. To understand the business processes practiced in the company. 3. To study the Sales and Distribution processes prevalent in the organization.
METHODOLOGY
The entire study was based on both primary and secondary data. The primary research was spanned across 125 small and medium sized corporate houses in and around Kolkata.The questionnaire for the purpose was designed to unveil the preferences of the corporate world, the correlations of the chief influencing factors with organizational buying behavior and also to ascertain the position of HCL with respect to the leading competitors of the industry. 13 of the responses were invalid and thus finally, responses from 112 business houses were available for analysis. The data so accumulated was subjected to Statistical analysis and graphical interpretation using SPSS software tool. Further, a comparative analysis was undertaken to understand the business practices of HCL in contrast to the major market leaders HP and IBM. The secondary data has been obtained from independent sources like internal records of HCL etc.
*Faculty, ICFAI Business School Hyderabad. E-mail : kotireddy_tamma@yahoo.com ** 2nd Year Student, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad. Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 21
ANTECEDENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DECISIONS

There are two research streams that directly relate to an organization's decision to adopt a new product or technology standard. One is the general study of organizational purchases, the other organizational adoption of new product or technology. The organizational market can be classified into the following subgroups:
The decision by organizations to buy specific products is considered distinct from consumer-oriented marketing in four ways: the seller's inter-functional dependence, product complexity, buyer/seller interdependence and the complexity of the organizational buying process. The latter three characteristics are relevant to this study. While the organizational consumers purchase for further production, usage in operating the organization, and/or resale to other consumers, the final (or ultimate) consumers purchase for Personal, Family and Household use. Significant purchases usually require involvement from multiple individuals within the organizations, representing as many as six different roles: Initiator User Decider Influencer Buyer and Gatekeeper Decisions are reached through a combination of interpersonal (intra-organizational) influence tactics, including problem-solving, persuasion, bargaining and politicking. The organization's decision is often stimulated by a boundary-spanning employee who acts as an internal advocate for an external vendor. The influence of any particular influencer is related both to formal rank and informal position within intra-organizational communication patterns. Organizational purchase has been deciphered into major eight stages, commencing with problem recognition and terminating in Performance evaluation. The difference stages can be enunciated as below: Problem recognition Determine product dimensions and quantity Precise description of product characteristics Search and qualification of potential sources Acquisition and analysis of proposals Evaluation of proposals and supplier selection Selection of an order routine Performance feedback and evaluation Several factors influence the different stages of organizational purchase decision making. Chiefly the most significant parameters that influence the organizational purchase behavior include: Environmental factors, Organizational factors, Social & Interpersonal factors and Individual factors of the persons concerned. Environmental influences can be further sub-classified as technological, economical, physical, political as well as cultural. Influences are exerted by different institutions, like suppliers, competitors and customers. Examples of environmental factors include Regulatory regime, Investment behavior, consumer behavior, interest rate, market environment, technology, legislation, competition, political scenario etc. Broad organizational mission and the organizational work culture influence individuals to act differently with restraint facilitating synergy of organization decisions. Organizational Buying Behavior is influenced by goals of the organization, which are determined again by financial means, technology as well as human resources. Major organizational factors include Goals, Purchase tactics, Organizational structure and Hierarchy. Group decisions significantly affect
corporate buying behavior. Factors of influence include individual goals and character characteristics, Group structure, Group dynamics and external influences (environment, organization). Lastly, ultimately high profile individuals are the absolute decision makers in an organization. Cultural, organizational and social factors affect individuals. Individual factors affect the decision-making process also due to factors like ignorance, over availability of alternatives, information gaps etc. Buying decisions for high technology products as in the IT industry are constrained by buyer uncertainty, due to rapid technological change and mutually incompatible product offerings. This uncertainty, the level of technical expertise, the organization's potential switching costs and the strategic importance of the decision all drive the width of products considered as well as the ultimate purchase decision. III
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
India is the fastest growing IT hardware products market in the Asia-Pacific Region. Most of the prominent global as well as local vendors are operating in the competitive Indian Market. Although, India is a diverse country with a huge population base and a significant enterprise universe, it has one of the lowest IT penetrations. This is perceived to be the greatest opportunity by the hardware vendor community. Additionally, the Indian Software and BPO industry is also creating a great potential for employment with a projected CAGR of 10.7 %. All of these make India one of the most exciting markets for IT hardware vendors. It is very interesting and surprising to note that though HP is the market leader presently, followed by HCL and IBM, the corporate customer perceive IBM as the most preferred brand followed by Dell while HCL and HP fight neck to neck for the 3rd and the 4th spots. HCL faces a tough competition from the major MNC's including behemoths like IBM, Dell and HP. While it has the advantage of being a domestic player fully conversant of the geo-demographical characteristics and business practices of its homeland, it lacks the global technological expertise of its competitors. IBM, Dell as well as HP are all highly acclaimed brands among the corporate buyers. Owing to their esteemed global presence, they enjoy a high perceived brand value. In contrast, HCL is generally perceived as a low end brand. On the technological front, while with ninety years of technological lineage, IBM has been effectively leveraging its global know-how across different sectors, combined with innovative technologies, HCL has still to catch up a long way. Market leader HP also has a highly developed research wing on market-driven, application-oriented IT research. With the recent launch of Mileap range of Laptops and BusyBee and BeanStalk series of desktop PCs, HCL has made an aggressive move in this field providing products with different server configurations and hardware profiles. However in the Server market, IBM world's largest manufacturer of Servers is far ahead. In a fist to increase its dominance of the Indian server market, IBM has recently launched a modular system capable of being expanded as capacity demand warrants. HCL thus needs to infuse over time, much more technological advancements in the likeness of the domestic electronics player Onida for example so as to ameliorate its perception and image. In this regard, Research and Development has to gain prominence in the immediate future. Both IBM and Dell have highly developed multiple research facilities worldwide and in India as well.IBM India's Research Lab in Delhi is the youngest of the eight IBM labs across the world, each with world class facilities. HCL on the other hand has a maiden research facility at Pondicherry. Target customer is another important comparable aspect among the IT companies. While HCL has primarily focused on the small and medium sized business enterprises, HP and IBM have had a broader spectrum of activities. Both HP and IBM have a major chunk of their revenues derived from the large scale businesses where HCL has no significant presence. To make things even worse, almost all the MNC's have lately come up with aggressive down market stretching strategies aimed at the SME's and SMB's in India. For instance IBM has developed a separate wing named Global Small & Medium Business (GSMB) unit to cater to the 3000 SMB customers in India. The Product portfolio of HCL is fairly competitive with all the major players in the industry. Its range of offerings spans Product Engineering, Technology and Application Services, BPO, Infrastructure Services, IT Hardware and Systems Integration. Over a business of three decades, HCL has established itself in all the three domains of IT business including Software, Hardware and Training through HCL technologies, HCL Infosystems and HCL Career Development Center respectively. From the Pricing point of view, HCL has a distinct edge over HP or IBM. HCL has over the years concentrated on offering value for money to the price sensitive Indian consumer. Its products and services have matched global standards but at much more reasonable and affordable price points. For example, with the launch of 'MiLeap' X Series Ultra Portable range of Leaptops, HCL has broken the Rs. 14,000/- price barrier. With prices starting at Rs 13,990/- the HCL 'MiLeap' X series, is specially designed for the Indian environment, delivers exceptional value at a very affordable price. Similarly,
HCL 'MiLeap' Y Series Ultra Portable Leaptops ranging from Rs 29,990/- onwards are at half the price point of current similar products available in the market. With regards to partnerships and alliances, HCL is at par with the major MNC's. It has alliances with Nokia, Apple, Casio, Kodak, Toshiba, Bull, Ericsson, Cisco, Microsoft, Konica Minolta and many more as IBM is allied with Linux, Bharti, SAP, Oracle, Siebel, Peoplesoft, J. D. Edwards etc. Lastly, Service and customer support is the field wherein HCL still needs to improve to compete with the likeness of HP, Dell and IBM. Though HCL has service centers in the metros and the other major cities of the country, the service is often criticized as not being prompt or at par with expectations. There are also complaints of delay and non-availability. On the contrary, HP has service centers at a larger no. of locations that ensure much speedy and prompt solution of grievances. HCL has a customer support center at Noida while Dell's customer support centers are part of a 30-center network worldwide.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Statistical analysis was undertaken on the data collected though primary research. The questionnaire was aimed in deciphering the brand value, brand pull and recall of HCL. It also sought to understand the position of HCL with respect to the leading IT companies operating in India. Besides, the respondents were asked to convey their preferences and suggestions with respect to HCL products. Of the 125 respondents interviewed, 112 valid responses could be selected for the analysis. The responses were analyzed statistically using SPSS software and the results have been enunciated as under: (refer to annexure) ANNEXURE Table 1: Brand preference (No. of responses in favor)
Table 2: Parameter ratings (of HCL products)
Table 3: Factor ratings (on a scale of 10)
24
GRAPHICAL INTERPRETATIONS:
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
HCL
IBM
Dell
HP
Wipro
HCL
IBM
Dell
HP
Wipro
1st Position
2nd Position
30 25 20 15 10 5 0
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
HCL
IBM
Dell
HP
Wipro
HCL
IBM
Dell
HP
Wipro
3rd Position
4th Position
From the analysis of the ratings of 5 major IT companies including HCL, an idea of the perceived Brand value of HCL can be inferred as evident from the graphs above. The graphs depict no. of favorable responses in terms of st nd rankings like 1 , 2 etc. Clearly it seems that IBM is the most respected and trusted brand with 37% and 34% of the 112 responses in its favor for the 1st and 2nd positions respectively. IBM is closely followed by Dell as the 2nd most preferred brand. According to the responses for these positions, it is apparent that only a minor about 12% of the corporate customers consider HCL as the most preferred brand. However it is evident that a substantial no. of responses are observed for the 3rd and 4th positions in the favor of HCL wherein it accounts for about 26% and 31% of the total responses respectively. The analysis shows that, the most commonly perceived preference order of the above brands would be IBM, Dell, HP, HCL and Wipro. While IBM is by far, the most revered brand followed by Dell, HCL is a strong contender for the 3rd and the 4th spots. The study has also identified the major and closest competitor of HCL as st HP. Apparently HCL faces the toughest and strongest competition from HP. While HP overweighs HCL for the 1 nd rd th and the 2 positions, HCL has a relatively stronger position in the 3 and the 4 spots. Needless to say that HCL has to be most cautious about the business strategies and moves of HP above any other company. Wipro has only lately ventured into the hardware market and in consonance, has been mostly ranked as the least preferred brand among the five. It is only a follower of HCL and presently does not pose a major threat. However HCL would do good to keep track of its business moves considering the fact that it is already a well-established player in the other sectors of the IT industry - an advantageous position, which it may leverage to catch up with the likes of HCL. Simultaneously, HCL could benchmark its strategies and business practices with IBM or Dell who have secured a strong preference position among the corporate customers.
Service Price upgradability BTO Technology Brand Pull Brand Awareness
The analysis of the average ratings of the major parameters of HCL Infosystems, we observe a mixed response. Though corporate customers consider the pricing of HCL products as fairly reasonable, the low responses reveal a
relatively dim image on the technological and service aspects. Neither the Brand pull of HCL seems particularly impressive. Conversely, though the organizational buyers are comparatively satisfied with the Built to Order and customization facilities that are offered by the company. Fortunately it seems that HCL has already established itself as a major player as apparent from the high brand awareness value. From an overall perspective, it seems that the brand value and brand pull of HCL is midway between the established MNC's like IBM and the domestic compatriots like Wipro. Though it enjoys a relatively high ground, there is still much scope of brand building for HCL.
CORRELATION ANALYSIS
The study intended to establish the relationship between corporate buying decision and loyalty with the probable influencing factors like Price, Service, Technological expertise, Brand value etc. SPSS was used to establish the correlations between the said variables. The results are as shown below:
Interpretations of the above results lead to the fact that the most significant factors contributing to the loyalty of a corporate customer are Service and Long association. To a lesser but substantial extent, Built to Order (BTO) and Upgradability features also have a high correlation with customer loyalty. The results also show that, the perceived brand value is determined by the technological advancement of the respective products. Technology is also important in determining the loyalty as well. While upgradability and Built to order feature show a high level of mutual dependencies, the most significant correlation of 0.912 is observed between Service and Long association. It seems that with prolonged relationship between the seller and the purchasing organization, the demand for better and prompt service also strengthens in consonance. Most surprisingly, there is no significant correlation between Price and Loyalty or any other variable. Thus, we may conclude that Price has a very insignificant role to play in the determination of the corporate buying behavior.
Co-efficients (a) Co-efficients Co-efficients
28
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
From the SPSS output and using standardized coefficients, the regression equation for the said variables can be framed as: Loyalty = - 0.047(Brand Value) + 0.292(Technology) + 0.323(BTO) - 0.026(Upgradability) + 0.191(Price) + 0.278(Service) + 0.184(Long Association) According to the regression equation, Technology, Built to Order (BTO) facility and Service are the most important factors that determine the outcome of a corporate purchase decision and Loyalty. Though Brand Value and Upgradability have-ve coefficients, we can eventually ignore them as both have insignificant value. Unlike in Correlation Analysis, here Price has a significantly high coefficient, therefore we may revise our interpretation that price can be ignored but rather state that price too is among the major factors that has a considerable influence on the corporate buying decision.
DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS
Discriminant analysis model suggests an accuracy of 93% of original grouped cases being correctly classified. Here, the categorical variable was loyalty which was coded as zero and one signifying disloyal and loyal customer respectively. The Eigen value, also called the characteristic root of each discriminant function reflects the ratio of importance of the dimensions which classify cases of dependent variable. In our case, the Eigen value corresponding to function one was 1.607 corresponding to a canonical coefficient of 0.785. The Wilk's Lambda was calculated to be 0.384 which is less than 0.5 (closer to zero) indicating better discriminating power of the model and that it is statistically significant. From the output of the standardized canonical discriminant coefficient function, the discriminant function can be represented as: Loyalty = -0.093 (Brand Value) + 0. 566 (Technology) + 0.544 (BTO) - 0.047 (Upgradability) +0.372 (Price) + 0.436 (Service) + 0.285 (Long Association) The transformed group centroids are -.918 and 1.719 thus with a mean of 0.4005, suggesting disloyalty below it and loyalty above. From the coefficient of the independent variables, we can infer that Technology (coefficient = 0.566) and BTO (0.544) are the most important factors deciding the loyalty of a customer. 2 of 73 of the customers originally classified as disloyal and 5 of 39 of the customers originally classified as loyal are proved to be incorrectly classified yielding 93.8 % accuracy. The percentage of loyalty is calculated to be about 35%. The no. of disloyal customers (73) being almost twice that of the loyals (39) tends to show that, people are not considerably brand specific and don't prefer to persist with a single company for years when it comes to IT hardware. Therefore, it appears imperative that the companies must focus their attention in building up credibility
to sustain any long-term business prospects, particularly in terms of incorporating advanced technology and infusing customer orientation in product development. FACTOR ANALYSIS The factor analysis was aimed at establishing interrelations between the eight primary variables that we considered in the study with respect to consumer buying decisions and subsequently grouping the highly correlated variables into fewer condensed factors. The correlation matrix establishes the fact that variables BTO, Upgradability, Service and long association are considerably highly correlated. Similarly Brand Value and Technology are mutually highly correlated. Price does not show significant correlation with any other variable and therefore was considered as a separate variable itself. From the KMO and Bartlett's Test, the measure of sampling adequacy comes out to be 0.582 which is acceptable. Further from the communality table, the measures of variance of a given variable towards the factors are reliable. Total Variance table indicates that three factors can be extracted by Principal Component Analysis method corresponding to total Eigen values of more than 1 and cumulative percentage of variance of 84.335. The Scree plot shows a change of steepness corresponding to component no. three justifying the no. of factors. From the Component Matrix table and the table of Rotated Component Matrix, the variables can be grouped into the respective components based on their Loadings as shown below: Component 1
This component can be termed as Customization and Service. Component 2
This component can be termed as Brand Equity Component 3 This component can be termed as Price. From the analysis it becomes obvious that, Brand Value and Technology are the chief variables that decide Brand Equity of a corporate customer. BTO, Upgradability, Service and Long Association attribute towards Customization and Customer centric business strategies, while Price forms an independent component deciding the purchase behavior of the corporate buyer. The Analysis corroborates the findings from the Correlation and Regression results with regards to the interdependences of the factors. Apparently, an organization in the IT business must inevitably focus on technological advancements to establish its brand pull. Technological obsolence is thus a major threat for companies like HCL who must therefore keep abreast with the latest technologies prevalent globally. A high degree of customer orientation and prompt service are among other aspects where an organization needs to concentrate and strategize well.
Total Variance Explained
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Component Matrix(a)
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. a 3 components extracted.
IV
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings of the research work have shown that, in spite of the market statistics establishing HP as the market leader followed by HCL poised favorably at the second position, the perceptions of the corporate buyers in contrast, is not particularly in favor of Indian domestic players like HCL Infosystems or Wipro. It is in fact, an observation of caution that the targeted audience perceives IBM and Dell as the most preferred brands while HCL is at best the third or the fourth choice. It seems evident thus, that companies like HCL are required to act at the earliest so as to improve its business prospects and perception among its targeted customer. The following recommendations have made based on the findings during this period. Firstly, the product portfolio of HCL is abruptly truncated at the higher end both technologically as well as from the price point of view. Therefore the company may have to helplessly compromise. Simultaneously, the concern is thus incapable of addressing a very important, rich and major market altogether. Line modernization and improvement of the portfolio may prove beneficial for the organization. HCL Infosystems Ltd. has been following Ad-Hiatus-Ad strategy. However, it has become apparent during this project that the communication strategy is not precisely effective and is inadequate. Such a strategy is not suited owing to the nature of the product itself as well as the cut throat rivalry as prevalent in the market. The hiatus or gap between the advertisements is often too long and thereby the awareness level among the targeted consumer falls. This in fact, provides the competitors opportunity to gain relative business advantage over HCL. Conducting frequent PR and publicity exercises among prospective corporate buyers may be another effective method of marketing communication for HCL. Development of an online portal is another probable improvement that the organization may consider. Presently, HCL unlike globally successful brands like Dell, does not have the feature on its web page where-from the customer can place orders online. This could serve as an effective communication medium for interactions
with the corporate customers, both cost effectively and timely. Service has been another major issue of concern. The company needs to immediately focus on the betterment of service at the earliest so as to make it both prompt and readily available. Statistical analysis has shown that the brand equity of a company is determined by the technological expertise of its offerings. Therefore to improve the credibility of the HCL brand, the organization must focus on technological advancement. The Company would do well by increasing the exclusive dealers of HCL. HCL already has its exclusive showrooms named Digilife Shops, it is strongly suggested that more of such stores be opened for direct consumer interactions. It would also provide the company insight into customer preferences. The organization may endeavor in Up-Market Stretching to establish the brand and simultaneously address the premium segment. Discriminant Analysis has shown that the most important factor influencing the loyalty of a corporate customer is the degree of customization facility provided by the company. Evidently, the company must improve its Built to Order feature and increase the scope of customization and customer centric product development furthermore to leverage long-term associations. Comparative analysis has revealed that the company needs to give due significance to Research and Development to develop products with latest and innovative technology matching the needs of the corporate purchaser. Analyzing the comparative position of HCL with respect to HP or IBM, the company may also undergo geographical expansion to cater to a broader global market and finally HCL may undertake CSR exercises to increase its brand awareness and long-term credibility in the society and among the corporate and retail customers alike. The study of the buying behavior of the organizational market in the IT hardware sector is a representative of a broader arena of corporate buying. The research has revealed several important aspects of customer behavior and the underlying dynamics of the market. It has unveiled the intricacies of the rivalry of the said industry and has also provided a glimpse of the actual market scenario in contrast to the perceptions of the targeted customer. The market itself is highly value sensitive and is continuously evolving and rapidly metamorphosizing. Needless to say, all the players in general and the domestic companies like HCL in particular, will have to keep pace with the changing trends, technology and demands to stand their ground, to establish brand preference and sustain competitive advantage.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Internal records of HCL 2. Carley, K.M. 1992. Organizational learning and personnel turnover. Organization Science. 3rd Ed., pages 20-46. 3. Philip Kotler - Principles of Marketing, 2nd European Edition. 4. Alexis Jacquemia - The New Organizational Behavior, 3rd Ed. 5. Leon G. Schiffman & Leslie KAnuk Consumer behavior, 9th Ed., Prentice Hall Pub. 6. Loudon & Della Consumer Behavior Concepts and Applications, 4th Ed, TMH 7. Michael Solomon Consumer Behavior-Buying, having & being, 5th Ed., Prentice Hall. 8. Hutt, Michael D. & Thomas WBusiness Marketing Management, 5th Ed., Dryden Press 9. Thomas W Speh Business Marketing Management: A strategic View of Industrial & Organizational Markets. 10. Roy Wetts Hill Organizational Buying Behavior, New York, Palgrave Macmillan. 11. Frederick E. Webstar, Yoram Wind Organizational buying behavior. 12. Donald Kooper & Pamela Schindler-Business Research Methods, 7th Ed., TMH Pub. 13. S. Shejchan- Research Methodology for management, 3rd Ed., Jaico Pub. House. 14. Pre-negotiation Strategy in Uneven Power Situations Goliath, 1st July, '04. 15. Ivar Vermeulen and Jeroen Bruggeman - The Logic of Organizational Markets: Thinking Through Resource Partitioning Theory, March 2000. 16. B2B Marketing in Asia, Journal of Academy of Marketing Sciences, University of Miami, 1st quarter, '07. 17. New Definition of B2B gains currency, Times of India, 15th April, 2007. 18. http://www.hclinfosystems.in/ 19. http://www.hclinfosystemsltd.com/INVESTORS>FinancialPressRelease(CURRENT)> General Press Release.htm 20. http://www.talk2hcl.in/channelpartner.htm
32
Customer Satisfaction of Nokia Mobile Handset Users

*J. V. Rangeswara Reddy In 19th century, Prof. Alfred Graham Bell invented the telephony to talk to others. The first real improvement in the telephone was due to Thomas Alva Edison's carbon transmitter, which was then further improved by the Blake microphone. Another improvement was the combination of mouthpiece and the earpiece into a single handset, giving a new freedom of movement to users. The individual parts of the telephone were discovered and developed by different people at different times. On February 14, 1876, the day that Graham Bell applied for a patent for his version of the telephone, Elisha Gray applied for a caveat-a document indicating that he intended to file his own patent claim within three months. But Gray was a few hours too late. Bell had already filed an actual patent application. In this way, London's first trunk telephone line linked the city with Brighton. For the first time, telephone communication was opened between London and what were then termed 'the Midland and Northern countries'. Thomas Watson was Alexander Graham Bell's right- hand man who helped him create the telephone. Cellular Phones are an offshoot of Graham Bell's invention. These devices work and have to be activated with the help of an electronic chip which are provided by many service providers. The cellphone has revolutionized the way in which people communicate with each other. India has a population of 100 crores and 60% of the people use cell phones.
VARIOUS TYPES OF COMMUNICATION DEVICES

No one product can meet the needs, wants and desires of the people and market. The Indian communication department has, over the years, grown in scale with a diversified product range. The various types of communication devices in India are: Telephones (Landlines) Pagers Cellular phones
NOKIA CORPORATION
Wireless wizard NOKIA has cast a spell on the mobile phone market. The company is the world's #1 maker of cell phones. NOKIA is also aiming for the top of the nascent mobile Internet market. The company's products are divided primarily between four divisions: mobile phones (wireless voice and data devices for personal and business uses), multimedia (home satellite systems, and mobile gaming devices), networks (wireless switching and transmission equipment used in carrier networks), and enterprise solutions (wireless systems for businesses). It has agreed to combine its network equipment business with that of Siemens in a joint venture.NOKIA is currently the world's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, with a global market share of approximately 36% in Q3 of 2006.It produces mobile phones for every major market and protocol, including GSM, CDMA, and WCDMA (UMTS). The corporation also produces telecommunications network equipment for applications such as mobile and fixedline voice telephony, ISDN, broadband access, voice over IP, and wireless LAN. NOKIA's headquarters are in Espoo, a neighboring city of Helsinki, Finland, but it has R&D, manufacturing, and sales representation sites in many continents throughout the world. NOKIA Research Center, the corporation's industrial research laboratories, has sites in Athens, Helsinki, Tampere, Oulu, Tokyo, Beijing, Budapest, Bochum, Palo Alto, California, Bangalore and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
PRODUCT DIVISIONS
NOKIA comprises of four business groups: Mobile Phones, Multimedia, Enterprise Solutions and Networks, plus various horizontal entities such as Customer and Market Operations, and Technology Platforms.
MOBILE PHONES
NOKIA's Mobile Phones division provides people with mobile voice and data products across a wide range of mobile devices. The division aims to target primarily high-volume category sales of mobile phones and devices, with consumers being the most important customer segment. The devices are based on GSM/EDGE,
*Assistant Professor, Velangini Institute of Management, Bogaram, Keesara, Andhra Pradesh. E-mail : rangeswar_777@yahoo.co.in Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 33
3G/WCDMA and CDMA cellular technologies.
MULTIMEDIA
The Multimedia division's purpose is to design devices and applications that bring multimedia experiences to their customers. These devices allow people to create access and consume multimedia, as well as share their experiences with others. The devices are included with a wide range of connectivity such as GSM, 3G/WCDMA, WLAN and Bluetooth.
ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS
As the name implies, the NOKIA Enterprise Solutions offers businesses, corporations and institutions a broad range of products and solutions, such as enterprise-grade mobile devices, underlying security infrastructure, software and services. NOKIA also works with a range of companies to provide network security, bring mobilized corporate e-mail and extend corporate telephone systems to work with NOKIA's mobile devices.
NETWORKS
NOKIA Networks provides mobile network infrastructure, communications and networks service platforms, as well as professional services to operators and service providers. Networks focuses in: GSM, EDGE and 3G/WCDMA networks; core networks with increasing IP and multi-access capabilities; and services.
NOKIA'S LANDMARKS
Year 1969: NOKIA introduced the world's first 30-channel PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) transmission equipment conforming to the standards of CCITT (Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and Telephony). Year 1981: The world's first international cellular mobile telephone network NMT opened in Scandinavia with NOKIA introducing the first car phones for the network. Year 1982: Opening of Europe's first digital telephone exchange, the DX 200. Year 1984: Introduction of world's first portable NMT car telephone, the NOKIATalkman. Year 1988: Introduction of world's first NMT hand portable, the NOKIA City man. Year 1989: The world's first ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) exchange conforming to CCITT standards, manufactured by NOKIA, was brought into use in Finland. Year 1990: The world's first Actionet trunking mobile radio network was brought into operation. The world's first fast-poll 14,400 bps (bits-per-second) modem. Year 1991: Introduction of world's first Radio Data System (RDS) and Mobile Search (MBS) text pagers. Year 1992: The first manufacturer to have a large-scale production of GSM phones. The world's first genuine GSM call made using Radiolinja's network, supplied by NOKIA. Year 1993: Introduction of The NOKIA 1011, the first digital hand portable phone for GSM networks. The NOKIA 100 series, the first family of hand portable phones for all analog networks. Year 1994: The first Personal Communications Network based on GSM 1800 standard delivered by NOKIA. The world's first SMSC (Short Message Service Centre) taken into commercial use. The world's first credit card size cellular modem card developed with AT&T Paradyne. Year 1995: The first official GSM call in the Republic of China made on a NOKIA phone on Beijing TA4s network, supplied by NOKIA. The first European manufacturer to start selling mobile phones in Japan. Year 1996: The world's first integrated wireless pay phone. NOKIA Prime Site, the world's smallest base station for GSM/DCS cellular mobile networks. The new joint venture, Beijing NOKIA Mobile Telecommunications Ltd., was established: the first factory to manufacture large scale GSM systems and equipment in China. Year 1997: The NOKIA 8100 product family, the first with an innovative, ergonomically comfortable design was introduced. NOKIA was the first manufacturer to offer both simplified and traditional character sets in the same phone. The first digital multimedia terminal in the world, the NOKIA Media master. Year 1998: The world's first four TETRA networks were delivered by NOKIA. The world's first digital satellite receiver with Common Interface, the DVB 9600 S. The world's first GSM dual band base station, the NOKIA GSM 900/1800 Dual Band BTS. This provides the possibility to integrate GSM 1800 transceivers (TRXs) into an existing GSM 900 Base station (BTS). Year 1999: NOKIA delivered world's first ETSI standard ADSL and IP network to Telecom New Zealand, thereby marking the start of commercial delivery of broadband data services using the ADSL network. Year 2000: NOKIA is first to market with corporate WAP server. NOKIA introduced the world's first high-speed data terminal for wireless networks: the NOKIA Card Phone 2.0 brings about a four-fold increase in data transmission speed. NOKIA announced the world's first media phone that is based on the Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) in Mobile Media Mode. Year 2001: NOKIA introduced the world's first IPv6-enabled end-to-end GPRS network. NOKIA introduced the world's first TETRA WAP browser which brings powerful WAP applications to TETRA professional mobile radio networks. Year 2002: NOKIA and the Finnish operator Sonera conducted the world's first Wireless LAN roaming based on GSM technology. Sonera is making use of NOKIA technology that allows mobile operators to offer broadband wireless Internet services in Wireless LAN access zones. Year 2003: NOKIA announced the NOKIA 6200 tri-band (GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1800/1900MHz) phone, the world's first 3GPP compliant EDGE (Enhanced Data-Rates for GSM Evolution) handset, offering users advanced voice features and robust mobile data services via high speed Internet connectivity. NOKIA introduced the world's first handset for WCDMA and GSM networks. Year 2004: NOKIA and Jay-Z teamed up to create a music and wireless industry first with the Black Phone. NOKIA unveiled the world's first GSM push-to-talk handset, the sports-inspired NOKIA 5140 phone. NOKIA demonstrated world's first dual stack IPv4/IPv6 CDMA handset. Year 2005: Using NOKIA's CDMA Dual-Stack handset, NOKIA demonstrated the industry's first Mobile IPv6 call at the 3G World Congress Convention and Exhibition in November. Year 2006: NOKIA announced world's first commercial solution for managing DVB-H broadcast services. The NOKIA 6630 imaging smart phone has as the first device in the world achieved global GCF 3G WDCMA Certification. The certification was achieved based on the requirements defined by Global Certification Forum (GCF).
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the paper is to study the Satisfaction level of customers, Product awareness and Consumer Behavior with reference to NOKIA mobile handset users.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study enables us to understand the perception of the market segment in a better way. So, this study would help NOKIA dealers to recognize the factors influencing the purchase of NOKIA Mobiles and also to identify various features influencing the buying process. In short, the study covers the area of consumer behavior, the attitudes and perceptions of Mobiles phone users.
SAMPLING PLAN
The type of sampling is convenient random sampling& sample size is 100. The data was collected by administering a questionnaire to this sample. For analyzing the responses of customers, we have used simple averages and for the purpose of interpretation of analyzed data some of the graphical representations were used.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

1) Product Awareness
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
The above table indicates that NOKIA is having good awareness among the respondents. After NOKIA, Samsung &Sony Ericsson occupy the second place. Motorola & LG is in the Third place. Spice and Benq are in the fourth place. Haier and O2 comes before i Mate and BPL. 2) Factors Influencing the Brand Preference
features 22% resalevalue 15% appearance 11% price 9%
battery backup 26%
brand image 17%
The above table shows that 22% of the respondents are influenced to buy NOKIA phones for features and price 9%, 17% by the brand image, 26% by the battery backup, appearance 11%and 15% buy the Nokia brand because of its resale value respectively. 3) Media Preference for Advertisement
From the above table, it is observed that 46% of the respondents prefer Television for advertising the product where as 17% of them prefer newspapers and 18% prefer Magazines, hording and pamphlets are preferred by 9% and 2% ,8% is prefered by others respectively. 4) Place of preference for buying NOKIA mobile phones
From the above table it can be concluded that 18% said that they prefer to buy their phones with priority outlets, 66% said that they prefer to buy with dealers and 8% said that they prefer to buy in gray market and finally 6%
preferred to buy with others. 5) Awareness about the features in NOKIA mobile
From the above table it can be concluded that 82% of the customers are having awareness about the features in their phones and 18% do not have awareness about the features present in their phones. 6) Opinion about the prices of NOKIA mobile phones
Expensive Affordable Economical Cheaper
From the above table it can be concluded that regarding the prices of NOKIA mobile phones, 24% said that they are expensive and 42% said that they are affordable, 22% said that they are economical and 12% said that they are cheaper. 7) Satisfaction level of service provided by the NOKIA service centers
The above table reveals that majority of customers are satisfied with NOKIA service centers. And only 20 percent of them are not satisfied about the service provided by the NOKIA service centers respectively.
8) Showing the satisfactory level of NOKIA mobile phones
From the above table it is clear that 99% of the respondents prefer NOKIA phones and only 1% do not prefer NOKIA phones respectively. 9) Showing Classification based on satisfactory level
appearance
Features: In the above analysis, 51% of the respondents gave their opinion as highly satisfied with the features of the mobile, 49% of respondents gave their opinion as satisfied, 0% of respondents were not satisfied. Audio output: In the above analysis, 23% of respondents are highly satisfied with the audio output, 50% of respondents are satisfied, and 27% of respondents are not satisfied with this attribute. Software compatibility: In the above analysis, 20% of respondents gave their opinion as highly satisfied with the software compatibility, 63% of respondents gave their opinion as satisfied, 17% of respondents gave their opinion as not satisfied with this attribute. Built in memory: In the above analysis, 25% of respondents are fully satisfied with built in memory, 54% of respondents are satisfied, but 18% of respondents are not satisfied. Accessories: In the above analysis, 31% of respondents are fully satisfied with the accessories, 56% of respondents are satisfied, and 13% of respondents are not satisfied. Appearance: In the above analysis, 31% of respondents are fully satisfied with the appearance, 56% of respondents are satisfied, and 13% of respondents are not satisfied. Battery backup: In the above analysis, 66% of respondents are fully satisfied with the battery backup, 23% of respondents are satisfied, and 21% of respondents are not satisfied. (Cont. on page 48)
Role of Co-operative Banks In Catering To The Credit Needs of Rural Masses

* Nidheesh K. B. INTRODUCTION
Development is an activity or process of both qualitative and quantitative change in the existing systems aiming at immediate improvement of living conditions of the people or increases the potential betterment of living conditions in the future. The concept of rural development was born in the context of agriculture and it remained for a long time with agricultural development in India. The royal commission on agriculture (1928) provided this kind of interpretation to rural development. Nearly half a century later, another committee took more or less similar view of 'rural development'. The planning commission's taskforce on integrated rural development observed in 1972, After careful consideration, we have belatedly decided to take what might be considered a rather restricted view of the expression, rural development. We have chosen to equate it with agricultural development in the widest sense so as to embrace besides corp. husbandry, all the allied activities. Since nineteen seventies, the concept of rural development has undergone a change and has become more comprehensive.The concept of rural development, as enunciated by the World Bank, makes such a change. The World Bank defines rural development, as a strategy designed to improve the economic and social life of a specific group of people the poor. The rural development involves extending the benefits of rural development to the poorest among those who seek livelihood in the rural area. The group includes small scale farmers, tenants and landless. To quote from the world banks sector policy paper on rural development: A national programme of rural development should include a mix of activities including projects to raise agricultural output, create new employment, improve health and education, expand communication and improve housing. In sort, it is wrong to equate rural development with agricultural development alone, although agriculture may be at the centre of the stage. Thus, a policy designed to bring about rural development as defined above should incorporate the components stated in the chart
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
AGRICULTURE
VILLAGE INDUSTRIES
EDUCATION
SERVICES
DEVELOPMENT
MODERNISATION
TECHNICAL
DISPENSARY
MECHANISATION
TECHNICAL TRAINING
ARTISANS SKILLS
HEALTH GUIDANCE
HIGH YIEDING SEEDS
MARKETING
AGRICULTURAL
FAMILY WELFARE
PEST CONTROL
WORK SHOPS
MARKETING
RANKING
* Lecturer, Commerce Department, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry-605014. E-mail : nidheeshkbpu@yahoo.co.in Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 39
From the chart , it is disclosed that, rural development is a systematic approach aiming at total development of the area and the people by bringing about necessary institutional , attitudinal changes and delivering a package of services through extensive method to encompass not only the economic field that is development of agriculture, rural industries etc., but also the establishment of the required infrastructure and service in the area of health, education, banking etc. with an ultimate objective of improving quality of life in rural area. SCOPE OF THE STUDY: The study envisaged to cover the operations of bank in fulfilling its role as a generator and provider of credit for the rural masses. Evaluation is a method of determining how far the lending operations of the bank; particularly, the lending operations has progressed and how much faster and in what way it could be carried to accomplish its role as a provider of credit. The present study is aimed to evaluate how far the bank is able to accomplish its basic objectives. The approach of study has been fabricated from the point of view of both the banker and customer. The period of study covers ten years from 1997 to 2006.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study aims at analyzing the role of primary cooperative banks in providing credit to rural poor. To study the co-operative movement during the pre and post independence periods. To study the working of service cooperative banks in India with special reference to RBI recommendations and NABARD assistance. To analyse the various lending policies and operations of Kayakkody Service Cooperative Bank. To asses the performance of Kayakkody Service Cooperative bank with regard to efficiency in employing its deposits mobilized. To bring in to light the reason for non- repayment of loans even after due date. To offer viable suggestions to improve the performance of KSCB based on findings. METHODOLOGY : The synthesis of the study is both descriptive and analytical. Primary and secondary data were collected to examine the objectives of the study. The study was spread to cover every nook and corner of the village. The persons with overdue were selected at random from the bank records in order to investigate into the reason for non- repayment of loans. Thus, a multistage sampling technique which involves the selection of panchayat, wards and borrowers, was adopted for the present study and the sample size constitutes 60 members. RESEARCH TOOLS : Interview schedule is the main research tool used in the study. Major data relating to deposits, lending operations under various schemes, overdue position were complied from the annual statistical statements and other records of the KSCB. Collected data is analysed by using various statistical tools like trend analysis, regression, comparative statements, ratios and recent software called e-views, which provides more accuracy to the study.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

No information concerning non -performing assets could be collected from the bank. Personal judgment of the researcher played a major role in selecting samples for the study PERFORMANCE OF CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT STRUCTURE: Kerala can claim to have an elaborate and efficient rural credit system administered through primary Co-operatives, Central Co-operative Banks and Apex Co-operative Banks. The co-operative credit structure in Kerala comprises of 2 parts viz. (i) short and medium term credit structure (ii) long term credit structure. The short and medium credit requirements are met by a threetier system consisting of State Co-operative Banks at middle level and 1628 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies at the base level. In addition to this, 85 urban co-operative Banks and 1013 Employees credit Co-operatives are meeting the Non-Agricultural Credit requirements of their members. Position of PACS in Kerala.
Rs. Rs. Rs.
The Primary Agricultural Credit Societies in the state which were once upon a time mere Nanaya Vinimaya
Sahakarana Sangham in course of time transformed themselves into the present Agricultural Credit Societies which can cater to all the credit needs of the rural mass and capable of doing all modern Banking Business. They spread their wings in all spheres of socio-economic activities, got entrenched in diverse sectors of the economy and touched the lives of all sections of the people at large. Primary cooperative banks- all India position
For the growth of any banking institution, credit is an indispensable input. The slogan accepting deposit for the purpose of lending clearly brings out the prime importance of lending function of the bank. It is increasingly realized that, public institutions, particularly banks have to play a prominent role to accelerate the economic and social status of weaker sections as part of their activities. The main aim behind the establishment of cooperative banks is to provide financial assistance in short term, medium term, and long term basis to it members. The role of cooperative banks in expanding and extending credit is considered to be an important indicator of their performance. The lending operations of a cooperative bank help us to know the extent to which the bank is able to cater to the credit needs of its members. LOAN ACCOUNT AND AMOUNT OF LOANS DISBURSED FOR 10 YEARS
Source: General ledger of the KSCB,
Navigation through the advances of KSCB for the past ten years from 1997 to 2006 reveals a light of enhancement and improvement in its lending operations. It shows that the bank is able to meet the emerging demand of rural households in the period under study. The trend analysis of the advances of KSCB spells out that there is a linear trend in its lending operations. The value has grown from 27.75 (in 1997) to 133.41 (in 2006). There is almost a five fold increase in trend value. It explains that the lending operations of the bank are increasing in absolute and relative terms. Each and every year under study, the trend values increased. The lending operation of the bank showed a positive trend which paved the way for increased lending. The needs of the people are increasing day by day and the trend analysis shows that the bank is able to meet at least a portion of the increased need for credit of the rural households.
YEAR-WISE TREND EQUATION ANALYSIS OF ADVANCES

TREND YEAR ADVANCES VALUE Ye= a + bx
*source: General ledger of the KSCB,
The figure above shown is the graphical representation of the values. In the X axis, it shows the year, and the Y axis shows the amount and trend values. The straight line is the trend of advances of KSCB; it shows a positive increasing trend over the last ten years. PURPOSE-WISE CLASSIFICATION OF ADVANCES FOR THE YEAR ENDING MARCH 2006
* Source: Annual statistical statement of KSCB.
A close look at the table reveals that BSCB concentrates its lending activities for agricultural and non-agricultural activities. For example, out of Rs. 20184995, Loans sanctioned for the year 2006, agricultural and allied activities accounted for Rs. 74166061. That amounts to 36% of the total advances. Among the various agricultural loans, bank granted Rs. 6055614 as advance against Kissan Credit Card scheme, which worked out to be 81 % of the total advances to agricultural and allied activities. In the non-agricultural section, gold loan occupies the first place. Gold loan is sanctioned by KSCB to the extent of Rs. 7879191 which works out to 39% of total advances. Next to gold loan, NAST and NAMT occupy significant positions. From the above analysis, one important point that emerged was the importance given to jewel loans. It seems KSCB prefers jewel loans as advance against jewels does not involve cumbersome procedure and hence it is easy
to avail loan from the point of view of borrowers. It was further inferred that the beneficiaries are free to use the amount sanctioned as loans. YEAR-WISE ADVANCES TO AGRICULTURE AND NON-AGRICULTURE AND PERCENTAGE TO TOTAL ADVANCES
*source: General ledger of the KSCB
A thorough look through the table reveals that the advances are concentrated mostly on non-agricultural sectors. In the year 1997, the advances to agriculture were Rs.676183 which amounts to 16.59% of the total advances and non agricultural loans were granted to the extent of Rs. 3398598, i.e. 83.41% of total advances. A close watch through the table gives us that the advances to agricultural sector show a growing trend. It grew from 16.59% in the year 1997, to 36.74% in 2006. This means that the increasing importance of agriculture and the need for agricultural credit is satisfied by the bank. On the other hand, there is a percentage decrease in non-agricultural loans. Further, we can understand that the bank is not following a uniform policy of lending to agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. CREDIT DEPOSIT RATIO OF KSCB
YEAR CREDIT DEPOSIT C/D RATIO
*source: General ledger of the KSCB
The credit deposit ratio of a bank shows the efficiency of the bank in employing the deposits mobilized by it. Deposit is the major source of income for a bank. The credit deposit ratio of the bank in 1997 was more than 100% (i.e. 111%). It shows that the banks are able to employ the deposit available with it in an efficient manner. But in the succeeding years the same was not followed, all other years the credit deposit ratio was less than 100%. This reduction in employment of deposit for lending may be because of its other operations like onachanda, retail shop, fertilizer depot etc. For safe and secure lending like any other financial institution, KSCB also provides advances on the basis of security. When advances have been secured, the security can be enforced in case of defalcations. Analyses of the securities provided by the customer is as follows : OCCUPATION AND TYPE OF SECURITY AVAILED
Land Occupation NO. % No. % No. % No. % Surety bond Jewels Total
Self-employed
The table reveals that 36.6%of the total respondents provides land as security. Of this, 10% are agricultural farmers. The table further shows that self-employed prefer surety bond as security. 6.7% of the unemployed preferred surety bond as the source of their security. The preference of self -employed on land is 8.3 % and 10% of coolie workers furnished land as security. None of the self-employed preferred jewel as security. Interest is the amount paid by the borrower to the lender for the privilege of using the lenders' money. Bank advances different kinds of loans at different rates of interest, the rate of interest is determined by a number of factors like the repayment period of the loan, purpose of the loan etc. Here this question in the schedule tries to probe into the opinion of borrowers on the interest charged by KSCB on its advances. RATE OF INTEREST OF THE LOAN -OCCUPATION WISE ANALYSIS
The table explains that about 38% of the total respondents showed a positive view about the interest charged for the loan. 28.3% of the respondents did not have any command about the rate of interest charged by the bank. The respondents expressed negative feelings towards rate of interest charged by the bank that constituted 33.3%. Navigation through the table shows that 60% of the total respondents opinioned the period of repayment convenient. Of these, 13.3% are agricultural labours and self -employed and unemployed account for 8.3% and 11.6% respectively. About 21.7% of the respondents expressed the view that they are not comfortable with the repayment period of the loan. They expressed that local money lenders provide money at a flat rate of interest without considering the period of repayment and there is no need for furnishing any security for availing the loan. Many reasons could be attributed for overdue problem. The study on overdues in cooperative banks reveals that a considerable number of borrowers do not make payments not because they would not be able to repay, but because
PERIOD OF REPAYMENT OCCUPATION WISE ANALYSIS
Self-employed
they are not willing to repay the loan. This category of borrowers is known as willful defaulters. And it is quite possible for some borrowers not to keep up their repayment due to some genuine reasons, like increased family expenditure, litigation of expenditure, repayment of other loan, unemployment, loss of agricultural production, illness etc. REASON FOR OVERDUE - OCCUPATION WISE ANALYSIS
Selfemployed
According to the above table, 45% of the respondents expressed that they could not repay the loan due because of unemployment. 18.3% of the respondents became defaulters because of illness and 23.3% of them did not have a justifiable reason. It can therefore be inferred that there respondents come under the category of willful defaulters. They may be expecting some relief under the agricultural and rural relief scheme. The personal experience of the researcher adds some more facts to this view. Some of the respondents allegedly responded very casually in this regard. A look through the records of the bank gave an embracing picture to the researcher; debts were due for more than seven years. Another reason brought out under this overdue position was that there are some loans which are taken for the benefit of certain persons in the name of the original loaned, this is a situation observed while interacting with some of the respondents. In such a case, the loan remained unpaid because of the default of the other person. Such cases are shown in the table in others column which accounted for 5% of the total respondents. It is appreciable to note that the efforts taken by KSCB to recover the loan were fairly good, when we compare to their counter parts in the other parts of India. INTIMATION FROM THE BANK ABOUT OVERDUE POSITION
The table shows that about 86% of the respondents were intimated at least once about their overdue position through registered post. Further, the respondents expressed that they were also intimated informally through telephone. So we can judge that the bank is trying to safeguard its side by employing all possible efforts to recover the loans from the defaulters. Overdue is common in the lending operations. An enquiry was conducted to find out
the reason for this state of affair. The respondents are asked to state the purpose for which they utilized loans taken by them. UTILITY OF THE LOAN - OCCUPATION WISE ANALYSIS
It can be viewed that about 53% of the total respondents who come under the category of irregular in repayments did not used their loan amount for the purpose for which the loan was availed. In the case of agricultural farmers, this trend was more pronounced. For example, only 43% of the borrowers utilized their amount for the specific purpose of the loan .Some of them availed agricultural loans at concessional rate of interest and used for some domestic purposes that has no monetary outcome. The advantage of concessional interest rate and subsidies are utilized by such people for unproductive purposes. Recovery of loan disbursed is very important for the recycling of the funds and profitability of the bank. Here, the researcher tried to root out the mode of repayment of the overdue loan. The respondents are asked what is there in their mind to repay the overdue loan. The details of the analysis are shown in table given below; MODE OF REPAYMENT - OCCUPATOIN WISE ANALYSIS
Selfemployed
The table shows that 41.6% of the respondents expected to repay the loan out of the chitty. There was no repayment from some respondents, it is represented as no idea, and this group constitutes 23.3% of the respondents. Some of them showed a benevolent attitude towards the bank, they are ready to repay but they don't have the means to pay. 5% of the respondents expressed that they are proposing to take another loan to repay the loan over due. Some of the respondents revealed that they have some savings in the form of recurring deposit in Post Office. About 13 % of the respondents expressed that they are thinking to repay the loan by small installments. One of the basic objectives of the establishment of cooperative banks is to relive the rural households from the clutches of the local money lenders. Lenders in the locality are a source of credit for many people even now. Some of the respondents expressed that the procedure for getting credit from the local money lenders like marvadies is very simple. In banks, they have to furnish many certificates and comply with a number of cumbersome procedures and have to wait for the loan disbursement. There is no such procedure in case of money-lenders; it is a source of quick cash. Some of the respondents held the notion that the interest charged by these lenders are low as compared to banks because they say that they will not consider the time period of the loan. The borrower has to pay a flat interest, that too at the time of granting the credit. Upon further probing, the researcher came to know
that from the respondents, the interest charged by the local money lenders is 20 rupees for each hundred rupees. That is 20 percentage. For emergency credit at midnight, they charge some extra amount. The responses of the respondents regarding the present position of the money lenders are depicted in the following table. CURRENT POSITION OF LOCAL MONEY LENDERS
From the above table we can say that the bank is able to curtail the growth of local money lenders in the locality. 30 % of the respondents expressed that the position of money lenders remain the same. OPINION ABOUT THE MANAGEMENT OF THE BANK- SEX WISE ANALYSIS
The Table elucidates that out of the total male respondents, 53% expressed that management of the bank is efficient and it is 20% of the total female respondents. 23.3% of the customers have no command about the management but none of the respondents have the opinion that the management of the bank is inefficient. The personal experiences of the researcher supplements this view, one month association with the bank, its management and employees helped to develop a cardinal relationship with them.
FINDINGS
1. Cooperative bank is an invaluable institutional system in rural areas as it is able to meet the productive needs of rural households. 2. Co-operative credit still forms a small portion of the total borrowing of the farmers which means that the farmers are still in the clutches of money lenders. 3. Most primary credit societies are unable to even meet the production oriented needs of farmers; 4. There is an increased demand for gold loan. Gold loan is preferred by the people because of the easiness of getting loan. The procedure is very simple; even a non -member can avail loan against gold. It is less risky for the bank also. 5. The loan availed from the bank is not being utilized for the purpose mentioned while taking the loan; it became one of the reason for non- repayment of the loan. 6. The ultimate analysis, most outstanding of the findings, which indeed is at the root of many of the shortfalls in the co-operative performance, is in the area of management. There has been considerable discussion over the years at all levels in regard to the need for proper manpower development in co-operative sector. Not much progress, however, has taken place. The cooperatives themselves have shown lack of appreciation of this problem. 7. The bank is not following the principle of order, the records are not kept in order, it creates more physical and mental strain to employees and affects their productivity also. 8. Socio- economic condition of the locality is well known to the board of directors of the bank, so it helps them to grand loans accordingly.
SUGGESTIONS
1. Cooperative banks should adopt scientific methods and principles in its day-to-day affairs, the bank should try to appoint professionally qualified people so that effective management of loans, deposits etc. can be achieved. The present employees should be given effective training. 2. A significant number of people of kayakkody are working in gulf countries, so it is advisable to the banks to start NRI accounts in the bank by making use of concessions provided by the govt. to NRIs.
3. A more realistic approach should be devised while lending loans to the people; it should be made sure that the amount disbursed is utilized for the purpose it is granted for. Then only the key objective of cooperative banks could be achieved. 4. Nowadays, cooperative banks have to compete with commercial banks so it should be made viable at least for its surveillance. Like the three tier system of lending, the cooperative banks can device methods to attract more deposits. They can collectively improve their services by adopting facilities like ATM. 5. Rural Cooperative banks should improve member education as it deals with illiterate and less educated people. The members should be able to know what kind of loans they are availing, what are the benefits of it as compared to other loans and loans granted by other banks, what will be the impact of non -repayment of the loan etc. 6. Primary cooperative banks can be allowed to invest in industrial securities to a certain extent depending upon the degree of professional managers the bank posseses. So that the accumulated loss position in the cooperative banks can be reduced.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Shah, Deepak (2000), 'Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies in Maharashtra: Some Emerging Issues', Prajnan, Vol. 29, No. 1, April-June, pp. 31-51. 2. Ramesha K (1996): Self-Help Groups: Emerging Cooperatives, paper presented at the National Seminar on Rediscovering Cooperation, November 19-21, 1996. Paper subsequently published in Rajagopalan R edited Rediscovering Cooperation (Volume II), Institute of Rural Management Anand, 1996 3. Shivamaggi, H.B. (1996), 'Future Strategy for Development of Co-operatives', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXI, No. 20, pp. 1187-1188. 4. Ramesha K (2001): Monetary and Credit Policy 2001-2002: Implications for Urban Cooperative Banking Sector, paper presented at Seminar on New Credit Policy of RBI and Cooperative Credit Management, July 19, 2001, Department of Economics, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India 5. Thamarajakshi, R. (1999), 'Agriculture and Economic Reforms', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXIV, August 14-20, p. 2293. 6. Ramesha K (2001): Credit Risk Management in Agricultural Cooperative Banks, National Seminar on Cooperative Reforms, January 24-25, 2001, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management, Pune, India 7. Reserve Bank of India (2002): Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2001-2002, RBI, Mumbai 8. Reserve Bank of India (1989): Report of the Agricultural Credit Review Committee, RBI, Mumbai 9. Reserve Bank of India (1999): Report of the High Power Committee on Urban Cooperative Banks, RBI, Mumbai 10. Reserve Bank of India (1991): Report of the Committee on Financial System, RBI, Mumbai 11. Government of India (1998): Report of the Committee on Banking Sector Reforms, RBI, Mumbai
(Cont. from page 38)
CONCLUSIONS
Most of the people are aware of NOKIA brand than others. Among the respondents, 50% of them have changed their mobile phone from other brands to NOKIA. Features and Battery played a key role for brand switching from other brands to NOKIA. Television advertisements influence most of the users to buy NOKIA phones and dealers play a key role in the channels of distribution. Majority of the respondents bought phones from the dealers. 44% of NOKIA users buy phones from the Gray market. Prices of NOKIA phones are affordable.
SUGGESTIONS
NOKIA Care Centers should be within the customer's reach and hence Nokia should open more centers by giving dealerships. Nokia should stick to the quality with respect to Battery and features since it plays a key role in buyer's decision-making. Dealers and brand ambassador's role should be considered to attract new customers. Pamphlets don't have much impact on buyers buying process. So better not to use pamphlets as an advertisement media since its impact is less. It is necessary to avoid customers buying phones without invoice. Audio output of some models needs to be improved. Software compatibility of the new mobiles should be changed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Leon G. Shiffman, Lesile Lazar Kanuk, Consumer Behavior- Pearson Education, 8th Edition, 2004. David L.Loudon, Albert J. Della Bitta, Consumer Behavior Tata McGraw-Hill Edition, 4th Edition, 2004. Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller, Marketing Management-Prentice Hall India, 12th Edition, 2006. V.S.Ramaswamy, S.Namakumari-Marketing Management Planning Implementation and Control, 2006. Rajan Saxena, Marketing Management- Tata McGraw-Hill Edition, 2nd Edition, 2002. Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Principles of Marketing- Prentice Hall India, 11th Edition, 2006. Naresh K. Malhotra, Marketing Research An Applied Orientation- Pearson Education, 3rd Edition, 2002. Aaker, Kumar, Day, Marketing Research- John Wiley Sons Inc., 7th Edition. Paul E Green, Donalds Tull, Gerald Albaum, Research for Marketing Decisions- Prentice Hall India, 5th Edition, 2002. Prestige Journal of Management and Research, Vol. 11, April 2007- Prestige Institute of Management and Research. Journal of Marketing,Vol. 70,July 2006 American marketing association.
48
Assessing International Heritage Tourist Satisfaction in India

* Dr. Manish Srivastava
INTRODUCTION
If we were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow - In some part a very paradise on earth -I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has deeply pondered over the greatest problems of life, and has found solution of some of them which will deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant-I should point to India. - Max Muller India is a land of contrasts - from tropics to snow. India is the second most populous and seventh largest country in the world. No region in the world is more colorful or picturesque than India. Its ancient monuments and building designed by great craftsman of by gone days, its tradition, culture, philosophy, festivals, religion and art testify to one of the oldest and richest civilization and are of absorbing interest. Understanding the tourism potential of India, ABTA (Association of British Travel Agency) has ranked India as the number 1 destination among the top 50 places in 2006. Conde Nast Traveller. The worlds' leading travel and tourism journal has also ranked India as top 4 preferred holiday destinations in the world. Traveling and Tourism has been an integral part of Indian Culture & Tradition. In ancient time, tourism was confined to pilgrimage only. People used to travel to holy places situated all over the country. People also travelled to participate in fairs, exhibitions and festivals. Because of this, in India, the concept of Atithi Devo Bhavah (Guest is God) and Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam(All world is a family) started. In 1951, only 16,800 foreign tourists came in India, the number increased to 4.97 million in year 2007, so India's earning from tourism increased to $ 11.95 billion in year 2007. If we see the average growth rate of tourism industry in India, we find it at 13 % as compared to growth rate in the world as 7 %, which shows the importance of Tourism Industry for the Indian Economy although, the tourism industry in India has a share of 0.52% of world tourism and the receipts as 0.89% of the world receipts. Tourism industry today is one of the world's fastest growing industries. It has earned over $735 billion (US) world wide, generated by over 842 million international travelers in year 2006 and the No. of tourists has been increased to 898 million in 2007 (World Tourism Organization). Domestic tourism also has been increased upto at least 9000 million worldwide. The contribution of tourism industry in world trade is 30% and in world GDP, it continued to be 10.6% in year 2005 and the employment generated by Tourism Industry was 221.568 million worldwide which is 8.3% of the total employment in the year 2005-06. According to John Naisbit (1994), the only st revolution will be in the field of communication and the biggest industry in 21 Century will be Travel & Tourism Industry. According to World Tourism Institute and World Tourism & Travel Corporation (Vision 2020), the predictions for Tourism is that till 2020, the number of tourists traveling across world will be nearly 1600 million and they will spend nearly $2000 billion on it. The average growth in tourism industry will be nearly 4.3 % and the receipts will be 6.7 % of total receipts. There is no doubt that tourism comes with certain negative attributes of a host community such as increased litter and pollution, increased seasonal employment, inflated local economy, and exploitation of natural resources. Positive outcomes could also result from these recreational outlets with proper guidance and direction (Henderson, 1991), it provides an opportunity for the visitors to understand the host culture and same with the host country too. That is the objective of heritage tourism. Heritage means inheritance or a legacy; things of value which have been passed through one generation to the next. (Parks Canada, undated, Page 7). In this sense, cultural heritage is cultural property and in extreme cases, it can be fought over or otherwise physically appropriated (Eirinberg 1992) as a relationship of the present with the past; it can also be contested and revised (Light 2000). The National Trust for Historic Preservation defines heritage tourism as Traveling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present. India with its glorious past has ensured that the present and subsequent generations have plenty of historical and
* Reader, School of Management Sciences, Khushipur, Mohansarai-Mughalsarai Road, Varanasi-221011, Uttar Pradesh. E-mail : manishiftm@gmail.com Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 49
cultural heritages to be proud of. The fascinating monuments and heritage sites in the country stand quietly today to retell their story of joy, sorrow, courage and sacrifice, which attracts a number of international tourists from all over the world to feel the magic of the oldest country/ civilization. The paper is an attempt to understand the satisfaction indicator among international travelers relating to the heritage sites of India.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In the sociology of tourism, tourism is viewed primarily as a social phenomenon (Apostolopoulos 1996, Dann 1996a, Cohen 1996), with the consumption and social behavior of tourism being legitimate areas of research and study (Swarbrooke & Horner 2001, Baudrillard 1998) There are many theoretical approaches in the sociology of tourism literature, most of which are related to the major sociological theories. The main perspectives are : The evolutionary perspective; The Neo Durkheimian perspective; The conflict perspective; The functionalist perspective; The Weberian perspective; phenomenology; ethnomethodology; symbolic interactionism and sociolinguistic. Dann and Cohen (1996) suggest that a study of tourism and tourist behavior using only one theoretical perspective is limiting, and recommended a more pluralistic, integrative and multi-dimensional approach to these subjects. A study conducted by Kerkvliet and Nowell (1999) focuses on visitor experience in relation to distance traveled and effort required to access a specific location. Attraction, facilities and accessibility are the three important parameters of a tourist destination. A tourist destination can be popular when it has all the three attributes. Specific attributes relating to setting have the ability to constrain individuals and thereby influence their destination preferences (Siderelis & Moore, 1998). Every destination differs with its potential to attract the tourists. Heritage tourism, now- a -days is gaining attention everywhere. All leisure behavior is multiple goal oriented or needs satisfying (Manning 1986). An alternative benefit chain analysis is found in consumer behavior, as means-end chain (Gutman 1982) where consumers are asked to explain why what they are doing is important (Davies and Prentice 1995). Cultural capital is the notion that the customers not only have the money capital as resources, but they also have other sorts of capital including that derived from their cultural background. This tradition flows from the work of Bourdieu (Holt 1998; Robbins 2000) Heritage is about special sense of belonging and of continuity (Miller 1989) but visits are recalled for many reasons other than sense of history alone (Masberg &Silverman, 1996; Prentice 1998). Getz (1989) identified five benefits for heritage events. These are authenticity, belonging, spectacle, games and rituals. Joy, celebration and excess may dominate at such events rather than learning. Such motivations dominate festival consumption (Getz 1991; Williams - Barun1994). Heritage sites are selected in relation to the cost involved, accessibility and the facilities in those sites, but it is questionable what the level of satisfaction related with the site is. Tourist satisfaction is one of the most discussed concepts in the field of tourism marketing and the sociology of tourism (Schofield 2000 page no. 269).The more the similarity between cultures, the more the satisfaction. There are three good reasons to pay so much attention to tourist satisfaction : first, high tourist satisfaction provides word of mouth recommendations of product and services to family and friends, which in turn brings in new customers: Second, it creates repeat customers by satisfying them first time around, and so they provide a steady source of income without the need of additional marketing expenditure: Third, it limits complaints and compensation payments which are expensive, time consuming and bad for an organization's reputation (Swarbrooke and Horner 2001, pg. 238). Repeat visitation displays a certain level of individual satisfaction and attachment to particular location and/or activity. Tourist attractions have been found to rely heavily on loyal, repeat visitors (Gitelson & Crompton, 1984). A study by Laverie and Arnett (2000) examines recreational attachment and satisfaction in the context of devoted sports fan behavior. Another study concerning tourism destination loyalty was conducted by Opperman (2000) on the lifelong travel patterns of New Zealand residents. Three primary areas were observed by means of a mail-back questionnaire: visitation frequency between 1985 and 1995, past visitation behavior, and predicted visitation rates. By associating socio- demographics, lifestyle, and tourist loyalty variables, specific population segments were identified as having specific desired loyalty types. Ultimately, the study findings suggest that past travel experiences significantly influence future destination selection. Fig 1 presents a tourist satisfaction process that has three stages: a tourist product, a satisfaction factor and an outcome defined as satisfaction, partial satisfaction or dissatisfaction and reflecting what a tourist thinks and feels
about their overall experience and their received goods and services (Kozak 2001b, p 304 ; Heber and lerner 1999). Since satisfaction is largely a subjective quality, the self- evaluation of their own experiences by tourist themselves are the most commonly used measurement tools (Kozak 2001b; Schiffman and Kanuk 2000; Swarbrooke and Horner 2001).
The Tourist Product -tangible element -service element -role of intermediaries and agents The Satisfaction Factor - perception of tourist experience - tourist attitudes and expectations - Uncontrollable factors The Outcome - tourist satisfaction - tourist partial satisfaction - tourist dissatisfaction
Fig - 1 Cross cultural comparative research is one of the most important of many different research methodologies and approaches in tourist satisfaction research (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2001; Baker and Crompton, 2000; Todd, 1999; Choi and Chu, 2000; Reisinger and Turner, 1998; Kozak and Rimington, 2000; Kozak, 2001a, 2000; Pizam and Sussman 1995). The research compares the tourist satisfaction levels of different nationalities by using a direct or indirect method. The direct method directly asks the tourists themselves about their experiences, perception and satisfaction levels; the indirect method asks local residents, business owners, tour guides etc. about their perception of how the tourists are enjoying (or not) their experiences (Kozak 2001a, page no. 391). This study has employed the direct method, with respondents being asked, through formal surveys, to answer questions about their holidays. According to a study conducted by Derrick, Lehfeld, and Wolfe (1981), expenditures increased with increasing levels of income and education and decreased with older aged households and tourist satisfaction is significantly related to customer loyalty, repeat visitation, and positive social communications (Beeho & Prentice, 1997).
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data was collected through brief, on-site interviews based on a structured, non-disguised questionnaire. The questions were focused on certain demographic information (gender, state and county of residence) and a limited number of core, central questions relating to the overall study objective such as primary purpose of visit, distance traveled, and if it was the respondent's first visit to the area, visitor experience and satisfaction. Expenditure and satisfaction variables were measured through fill-in-the- blank questions, as well as five-point Likert scale responses. The researcher had contacted foreign tourists on heritage tourist sites like New Delhi (The capital of India and famous for monuments), Agra (The city of Taj), Varanasi (The most ancient and eternal city), Jaipur (historical Rajputana site) etc. and they had been requested to spare 2 minutes. of their time to help in filling the questionnaire. Data collection for this project was conducted from December, 2007 to February 2008 over a period of ten weeks. The data collection process resulted in a total of 234 surveys.
DATA ANALYSIS
A profile of the sample population, including age, gender, group size, distance traveled, and first-time visitor status is shown in Table 1-6. There were 112 males and 122 females in the study. The overall mean age of sampled visitors was found to be 37.7 years; however, there were less that ten percent of visitors above the age of fifty five. Average duration of the stay was found to be 20.63 days which is much higher than other Asian countries. Survey has found that nearly 60% of the respondents came to India for the first time. The primary concern of this paper is to determine overall satisfaction levels among foreign visitors visiting heritage tourist places in India and determine specific attributes that contribute to their level of satisfaction. The survey asked very simple questions just to rank various facilities in the Likert scale of 5. These ranking were given points, which has formed a basis for the developing satisfaction index related with various attributes. The index Table 1 Table 2
Table 3
Table 4
Table 6 Table 5
has been shown in Figure 2. The Figure clearly mentions that the perception about major facilities at important tourist places is below average. Only Hotels and eating facilities have delighted foreign tourists by their services. Differences in satisfaction between categories of different visitor groups were explored using z-tests and analysis of variance. Satisfaction Index
Fig 2 Mean satisfaction level for all the factors is 57.2%, but after removing the last 3 factors, in which government has fewer or no role, the index reduces to 43.2% as last three factors i.e. hotels, food and attitude of people has a mean index of 78.5%. Gender wise Satisfaction Index
52
Figure 3
Mean satisfaction level for males is 55.12 and for females is 57.63, which shows that female tourists are more satisfied than male tourists. There are only two factors- food and attitude of people, in which male satisfaction was higher than the female satisfaction. Female tourists rate Indian food as spicy, but they enjoy taking it.Z-test was used to evaluate the satisfaction level for different factors between male and female Table 7
With 5% level of significance, (Critical value for z = 1.96) we may conclude that in most of the cases, there is no significant difference between satisfaction level of male tourists and female tourists. Only Infrastructural facility, sign board and attitude of people are the factors where male and female satisfaction is different.
CONCLUSION
There is tremendous hike in tourism all over the world. Even tourism has got the status of largest Export Industry of the world. The estimates about tourism says that the number of tourists leaving their homes is 898 million in 2007 and this number is likely to swell to 1600 million by 2020 and the receipts from it are estimated to cross $2000 billion. Although the benefits of tourism are not to be judged in terms of economic benefits alone, tourism has wider implications encompassing not only economic benefits but also social and cultural benefits as well. From the social and cultural point of view, there is enough evidence to support the fact that tourism and travel unquestionably produces an interaction between the cultural customs of the visitors and those of the host population. Heritage tourism is a fertile ground for exercising creative talents, festering special kinds of relations between the visitors and the host population, between the tourist and the host environment. India is now increasingly seen as an exotic destination offering a mix of culture, history and state of art amenities to the international traveler. The inbound tourist traffic is growing steadily over the past few years and India has the potential to emerge as a front runner in the world tourism scenario. While the tourists were more satisfied with food, hotel and people of India, a deep sense of dissatisfaction can be perceived with regard to infrastructure. Overall Satisfaction level was 57.2% which can be considered as a good score for a developing country like India. Understanding the potential of tourism industry, the Indian government along with other stake holders tries to build a positive image in the eyes of foreign tourists. Government is now emphasizing more on tourist satisfaction and is working in this area with private public participation. It was found that the tourists coming in India are very much satisfied with the attitude of Indians. The first Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had once quoted that Welcome the tourists and send him as a friend. There is no doubt that there were some problems related with law and order with some tourists (basically theft), but overall, the people are friendly and helpful. It is proved by average stay of tourists (20.63 days) which is much more than any other country in Asia. The government is also committed for the safety of tourists and deployed tourist police in major tourist destinations to help tourists. Major dissatisfaction of tourists was with infrastructural facility. They remarked that there were inordinate delays at immigration counters. These delays were attributable to lack of space and inadequate computerization, coupled
with heavy rush during morning hours. To overcome this, the authorities concerned at international airports must ensure availability of more space so as to enable the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) to locate additional counters and deploy more immigration officers and the paper work involved in immigration should be reduced in line with international practice. There was dissatisfaction with road transport too. Tourists were of the opinion that roads leading to tourist destinations were in bad condition causing great inconvenience and delays.To overcome this, a comprehensive study should be commissioned by the Ministry of Transport in collaboration with Department of Tourism to ascertain the status of approach roads and prepare a time bound action plan to rectify the defects to make them travel friendly in major tourist destinations. About 60% of the tourists preferred budget accommodations and only about 20% stayed in starred hotels. Satisfaction index in relation to Hotels was only 71, which can be improved by providing suitable incentives to the private sector in terms of land or lease space and tax benefits as given in other industries. Tourists were also not satisfied with airport facilities like ambience, toilets, cleanliness, cafeteria, baggage, customs clearance, security etc. With the expansion and modernization under way, these problems are likely to be eased. It is therefore suggested that modernization & expansion of airports and other policy measures under consideration should be expedited and implemented within a specified time frame. The satisfaction indexes for sign boards, maintenance of heritage tourist places were also very low. Government should take adequate action to maintain these sites to increase tourist inflow. They can also get private partnership to maintain it. The tourists were very much satisfied with Guides approved by the government, but illegal guides are also present at every heritage site who are involved in earning money through unfair means. Government should curb the practices of illegal guides and tourists should also take help of only government approved guides. There should be training program of guides too. It is important for tourism service providers to understand the diversity of their potential customers and attempt to cater to the needs of all population segments. Quality services leave a positive impression on visitors regardless of their overall experience. Quality service delivery also possesses the ability to increase monetary profits. The premise of service quality meanders within all aspects of the tourism experience from promotional materials, onsite personnel, cleanliness of facilities, accessibility, and employee knowledge and courtesy. A creative approach should be taken in the tourist product planning, providing them proper facilities, changing of exhibits, programs, and outdoor excursions to offer more reasons for tourist satisfaction. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amaro, B. (1999). Ecotourism and ethics. Earth Island Journal. 14,16-17. Beeho, A. J. & Prentice, R. C. (1997). Conceptualizing the experiences of heritage tourists: A case study of New Lanark World Heritage Village. Tourism Management, 18 (2),75-87. Davies A.J. and Prentice R.C. (1995) Conceptualizing the latent visitor to heritage attractions, Tourism Management 16(4), 491-500 Eirinberg K. (1992) Culture under fire, Geographical magazine 64(12) 24-8 Getz D. (1989) Special Events. Defining the product. Tourism Management 10(2) 125-37 Getz D. (1991) Festivals. Special Events and Tourism. New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold. Gitelson, R. J., & Crompton, J. L. (1984). Insights into the repeat vacation phenomenon. Annals of Tourism Research, 199-217. Gutman J (1982) The means- end chain model based on consumer categorization process; Journal of Marketing 46, 60-72 Henderson, K. H. (1991). Dimensions of choice: A qualitative approach to recreation, parks, and leisure research. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc. Holt D.B. (1998) Does cultural capital structure American Consumption, Journal of Consumer Research 25, 1-25 Kerkvliet, J., & Nowell, C. (1999). Heterogeneous visitors and the spatial limits of the travel cost model. Journal of Leisure Research, 31 (4), 404-419. Kozak M (2001) A critical review of approaches to measure satisfaction with destinations. In J. A. Mazanec. G.I. Crouch, J.R.B. Richie & A. G. Woodside (Eds) Consumer psychology of tourism, hospitality and leisure (Vol II p 303-320) Laverie, D. A., & Arnett, D. B, (2000). Factors affecting fan attendance: The influence of identity salience and satisfaction. Journal of Leisure Research, 32 (2), 225-246. Light D. (2000) Gazing on communism, Tourism Geographies 2, 157-76 Manning R. E.(1986) Studies in Outdoor recreation. Corvallis: Oregon State university press Masberg B.A. &Silverman L.H., (1996) Visitor experiences at Heritage sites, Journal of Travel Research 34(4) 20-5 Miller S (1989) Heritage management for heritage tourism. Tourism Management 10(1), 9-14 Naisbitt John (1994), Global Paradox, William Morrow & Co. Parks Canada, undated, Parks Canada policy, Ottawa : Parks Canada Prentice R. C. (1998) Recollection of museum visits, Museum Management and curatorship 17, 41-64 Robbins D. (2000) Bourdieu and Culture, London: Sage Oppermann, M. (2000). Tourism destination loyalty. Joumal of Travel Research, 39.78-84. Siderelis, C. & Moore, R. L. (1998). Recreation demand and the influence of site preference variables. Joumal of Leisure Research, 30 (3), 301-318. Srivastava M (2006) National and State Tourism Marketing, Kanishka publication, N Delhi. Stryker, S. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A socio- structural version. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings. Williams Barun B.(1994) Situating Cultural policies. Environment and planning : Society and Space 12, 75-104
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Indian Journal of MARKETING

Dr. Manish Srivastava

INDIAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING

From the Editor's Desk

Indian Journal of MARKETING

Rajeev Kumar Ranjan

Saloni Pawan Diwan Prof. M.K Jain

Dr. Manish Srivastava

INDIAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING

Managing New Products Successfully: A Strategic Imperative

EMOTIONS DEFINED (FOUR APPRAISAL CLASSES)

PRODUCT INNOVATION (KEY TO SUCCESS)

INNOVATION a RISKS INVOLVED

EMOTIONS IN INNOVATIONS (THE WAY AHEAD)

INNOVATIVE PRODUCT FAILURES

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009

Brand Positioning: The Unbeatable Weapon in Present Marketing Scenario

POSITIONING AS A VITAL TOOL OF MARKETING

POSITIONING A PRODUCT IN THE MARKETPLACE

PREREQUISITES OF AN EFFECTIVE BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGY

PUZZLES AND ADVANCEMENTS IN BRAND POSITIONING

Asian Paints: Changing Rules of the Game

Source: PaintIndia, 2007

Source: PaintIndia, 2007

Asian Paints, 24 SMEs, 43

Other Organised Players, 5

Market shares by volume in Percentage

Source: PaintIndia, 2007

CHALLENGES FOR INDIAN PAINT INDUSTRY

OVERCOMING THESE CHALLENGES BY ASIAN PAINTS

STEP 1: Historical data for 4-5 years is stored in the System

Rolling 12 month forecast

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009

Corporate Customer Behavior & Indian Hardware Market

ANTECEDENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DECISIONS

Table 2: Parameter ratings (of HCL products)

Table 3: Factor ratings (on a scale of 10)

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 25

Service Price upgradability BTO Technology Brand Pull Brand Awareness

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 29

This component can be termed as Customization and Service. Component 2

Total Variance Explained

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. a 3 components extracted.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009

Customer Satisfaction of Nokia Mobile Handset Users

VARIOUS TYPES OF COMMUNICATION DEVICES

3G/WCDMA and CDMA cellular technologies.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Indian Journal of Marketing April, 2009 35

features 22% resalevalue 15% appearance 11% price 9%

battery backup 26%

brand image 17%

8) Showing the satisfactory level of NOKIA mobile phones

Role of Co-operative Banks In Catering To The Credit Needs of Rural Masses

HIGH YIEDING SEEDS

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY