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Customer perception towards two giant footwear companies of Bangladesh:

BATA and APEX

Research · November 2017

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32851.89127

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Customer perception towards two giant footwear companies of Bangladesh:
BATA and APEX
 Faculty of Business Studies (FBS)

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Term Paper on

Customer Perception towards two giant footwear companies of Bangladesh:

BATA and APEX

Supervised by

Assistant Professor Abu Reza M Muzareba

Adjunct Faculty, Faculty of Business Studies

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh

Submitted by

Marketing Samurai | MBA-2017

Md. Adib Ibne Yousuf M17232003

Masrur Alvee M17232033
Taposh Ranjan Sarker M17232043
 Letter of Transmittal

November 6, 2017

Assistant Professor Abu Reza M Muzareba

Adjunct Faculty, Faculty of Business Studies (FBS)

Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Subject: Submission of term paper.

Dear Sir,

With due respect, we would like to inform you that, it is a great pleasure for us to submit our term
paper on “Customer perception towards two giant footwear companies of Bangladesh: BATA and
APEX”, as a requirement of your ‘Marketing Management’ course. While preparing the paper, we
have gathered a lot of knowledge about many unknown facts specially customer perception
towards two companies.

Therefore, we firmly believe that, this paper will be able to meet your approval. We would
genuinely appreciate to make further corrections where it seems necessary by you. Your kind
advice will encourage us to conduct more works in future.

Sincerely yours,

Md. Adib Ibne Yousuf M17232003

Masrur Alvee M17232033

Taposh Ranjan Sarker M17232043

Md. Rashedul Islam M17232013

I
 Company Profile

BATA

Bata Bangladesh is a public limited company, which has 51- 49% share with the government of
Bangladesh. Bata companies strive to listen to the customers in their local markets and clearly
identify their footwear needs, and then to provide products that exceed their customers’
expectations in terms of quality, style and value. At the Pakistan period Bata was first came to this
country. After independence Bata continue their commitment to provide good quality shoes at an
affordable price. But since then Bata Bangladesh has changed a lot. Now they are not only
providing durable shoes but have brought new designs too according to the taste of the people.
Bata expands its operation all through the country. It has now huge number of stores, agencies,
dealers and wholesalers around the country. And undoubtedly it has the biggest shoe
manufacturing and marketing organization here in Bangladesh. There are hardly any places in the
country where one will not found Bata store, which signals its expansion, success and popularity
here. Bata has two factories in Bangladesh from where it produces all kinds of shoes. One of which
is at Tongi and other one at Dhamrai.

APEX

Journey of Apex Footwear Limited started more than two decades ago, from the inspiration of
leather business & later curving its’ way into shoemaking. As the largest shoemaker in the
subcontinent, their company holds 15% share of leather footwear export in Bangladesh from $1.1
billion leather export. Shoemaking being a highly labor intensive job, their company is home to
5500 workers mostly women to make stylish leather shoes. Their shoe design inspiration is taken
from latest international footwear trend. Being a footwear giant, its’ their responsibility to be a role
model in developing people and helping environment. Core values of APEX is set with the belief
of valuing people through continuous development & making a path for higher achievements.
“APEX” means the peak or the zenith. Since 1975 they have strived to live up to their name.

II
 Table Contents

Sl. No. Topics Pages

Executive Summary IV

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 5

Chapter 3 Consumer Perception 7

Chapter 3 Methodology 10

Chapter 4 Data Analysis 11

Chapter 5 Findings and Data Interpretation 20

Chapter 6 Conclusion 24

References 25

Annex 26

III
 Executive Summary

The objectives of this research were to assess consumer conceptualizations and understandings;
simply saying perceptions of customer, especially BATA and APEX; two renowned footwear
companies of Bangladesh. To understand the customer perception, we build a set of questions
based on some criterion like: price, size, durability, design etc. The paper particularly focused on
factors that influence customer beliefs, such as belonging to a sudden price increase of preferred
brands, preferences and trust in information sources, the impact of aesthetic design of footwear,
and willingness to pay for additional benefits. It also aimed to segment customers through their
age, gender, occupation, monthly income, preferred brand to find out consumer perceptions of
BATA and APEX.

Additionally, this paper explored how BATA and APEX are reported in the media and outreach
material. We collected data based on the responses from a large amount of respondents from Social
Media like Facebook and LinkedIn and then analyze the implicit and explicit messages carried in
these information sources, characteristic words and phrases strongly linked to negative and
positive beliefs, and the intensity of celebrity endorsement. This term paper aimed to measure the
effect of these messages on customer perceptions and attitudes. Moreover, a major goal of this
project was to make comparisons between BATA and APEX on all of the issues addressed.

IV
1. Introduction

Footwear is the basis of one of the oldest industries in Bangladesh and plays a significant role in
the national economy with a good reputation worldwide. This is an agro-based by-product industry
with locally available indigenous raw materials having a potential for export development and
sustained growth over the coming years. Bangladeshi shoes are widely known around the world
for its high quality of fine gain, uniform fiber structure, smooth feel and natural texture. Real
progress in terms of product development with respect to crust and finished leather began in the
1990s.

1.1 Background of Study

Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in
order to give meaning to their environment. However, what one perceives can be substantially
different from objective reality.

Apex Adelchi Footwear limited is one of the largest footwear company in Bangladesh. However,
its current market place is the second position just after the BATA shoe company. The company
is conducting their operation with a very reputed status of more than two decades exploring the
footwear industry of Bangladesh and abroad. In the late 1975 Apex started their journey as an
export oriented company. From the very beginning the company has been regarded as a quality
footwear manufacturer to the export market in the world.
Now the company already introduced the children’s product lines special shoes and dresses for
both men and women. Now if they create a proper brand equity among the customers it will drive
the company to their desired place which they are expecting.
Founder Tomas Bata was a visionary dedicated to serving the needs of the people. In 1904, Bata
introduced mechanization and mass production to shoemaking and created the “Batovka” – a
working class shoe remarkable in its simplicity and style, yet lightweight and affordable. The Bata
name quickly became synonymous with quality and value, and in just over two decades Bata was
selling 2 million pairs of shoes a year, and exports skyrocketed.

1
Both Apex and Bata footwears have their customers in North America, Middle Europe and Middle
East countries. Thus, creating a brand equity with the perfect pricing policies and promotional
activities helps the company not only be the market leader inside of the territory but also it
increases the chance of creating worldwide recognition regarding best quality footwear exporter.

Nowadays, footwear industry has become a significant sector for economic growth in Bangladesh.
After ready-made garment sectors, footwear industry has been the main concern of the investors.

1.2 Significance of the Study

The Significance of this study is to understand the customer perception regarding Bata and Apex
footwear industry. It has been a widely discussed topic in terms of its contribution to the country's
economic growth. However, there are very few studies that extensively discuss about the customer
perception of the economic theories in this sector. This study aims to contribute in that aspect.

One the fundamental reason of doing the analysis is to find out some factors those are not being
implemented by the company as a result the sales in the local market is decreasing compare to the
competitors

To obtain factors, a questionnaire was structured and distributed among the customers in the
vicinity of our locality for a pilot survey. The survey showcased that all independent variables
(image, price, design, reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness, assurance and perceived
value) have a significant relationship with the dependent variable (customer satisfaction). This
triggers the Footwear marketers to have a better understanding about their consumers and also
learn to improve their strategies to improve their product quality and gain more customers to
extend their market size.

2
1.3 Objective of the study
The broad objective of the report is to find customer perception between the two top competitors
Bata and Apex in the footwear industry.

 Explaining a comparative study on independent variables like quality, durability, variety,

image, price, design, reliability, assurance and perceived value etc.
 To identify the price to product quality ratio comparing two competitors.
 To analyze market competitive structure of the footwear industry regarding Bata and Apex
 To provide some necessary findings according to the identifiable outcomes.

1.4 Scope of the Study

The report mainly analyzes the customer perception of existing footwear products of the chosen
companies Bata and Apex. The following scopes are targeted to complete this study:

 For achieving the objectives, customer satisfaction or perception, the study will be focused
on the quality, durability, price, variety, and other criteria of Bata and Apex shoes.

 To show Comparative study between Bata and Apex in Bangladesh we visited chosen
companies‘ footwear divisions and talk with the officials.

 To fulfill these goals above, the survey on footwear sector can also help us receive an
overall image of chosen companies market of footwear business.

1.5 Limitations
During the study, we experienced some limitations. These are as follows:
 Some preceding and latest data might not be available.

3
 Some information might not be disclosed because of the confidentiality of the organization.

 Due to insufficient amount of research conducted in this field, it was difficult to find
secondary data.
 Difficulty in accessing data of selected companies‘ internal operations.

 Competitors data analysis was very challenging because we found some officials who did
not even like to share their consent.

 Consumer misconception, purchasing power and economic condition of the country is one
of the reason that the findings may not be eligible say

 Consumer misconception, purchasing power and economic condition of the country is one
of the reason that the findings may not be eligible say

4
2. Literature review:

Today customer perception is widely discussing and analyzing because all organizations want that
their customers would be satisfied and fascinated. Numerous theoretical and empirical studies
show a positive relationship between customer perception and plenty of factors that influence that.

The current study on customer perception has mainly concentrated on identifying the factors which
affect the willingness of consumers to engage in footwear shopping.

There are so many research work on customer perception on different products. As we are doing
research on customer perception specialized on footwear industry, so we searched for research
studies regarding this. Our study and findings based on only Bangladeshi perspective. Comparing
with this context; a little number of Bangladeshi researchers worked on two different footwear
companies and analyzed comparison. Most of them worked on single products, collected
customer’s feedback and analyzed the data. In this literature review our aim is to discuss a few
previous works and find a linkage between us and theirs.

Arif Mahmud, Asma Ul Husna (2015) studied in their paper entitled “Understanding the customer
perception towards footwear company BATA” the customer behavior retail shops, with reference
to Dhaka city. The paper also examines customers, managers and marketers with the perfect blend
of necessary terms of various shopping dimensions required to offer the targeted customers so as
to operationalize the retail shops with utmost productivity and performance.

Md. Faisal Matin, Motiur Rahman and Shishir Ranjan (2014) studied in their paper titled
“Perceptions of consumers towards footwear: A case study with reference to Dhaka and
Chittagong city” information about Customer satisfaction level with the retail footwear shops in
Dhaka and Chittagong. There have been a great successful brand both national as well as foreign
brands and again it has been realize that brands are sustaining power to stay in the competitions.

5
Ajay D Shah (2009) in the PhD thesis titled “Consumer behavior towards shopping malls and Pop
shops” done research in western India especially cities of Gujarat. In his research he examines the
experience of consumers towards shopping malls against Local stores.

Leszczyc, Sinha and Timmermans, (2000) formulated and tested a model of store choice dynamics
to measure the effects of consumer demographics on consumer grocery store choice and switching
behavior. A dynamic hazard model was estimated to obtain an understanding of the components
influencing consumer purchase timing, store choice, and the competitive dynamics of retail
competition. The hazard model was combined with an internal market structure analysis using a
generalized factor analytic structure.

In today’s changing environment, both with respect to customer preference and organization's
offering and orientation in market. It becomes necessary to keep track on customer perception
more so when products like footwear offers different variety with respect to size, design, durability,
promotional activities etc.

Nowadays customer perception is one of the most important issues for maximum organizations
especially for service organizations. For this reason, customer satisfaction should be analyzed,
evaluated and translated into the parameters. As many researchers who worked on customer
perception before; they indicate that customer perception is often known in two ways: perception
as an outcome and perception as a process of services. The "key" indicators which determine
perception is service price, its quality, promotional tools, brand switching, celebrity endorsement
and so on. In this term paper, we will see mentioned parameters are subjective so for this reason
the number of customer perception factors can be continue because of practice of two footwear
companies, feelings during (or after) the given service.

6
3. Customer Perception

Customer Perception is a marketing concept that tells us what customers think about a brand or a
company or its offerings. It can be positive or negative feelings, perceptions, inhibitions,
predispositions, expectations or experiences that a customer has.

If you understand the concept of customer perception, you will figure out that it is arguably the
most important factor that decides the success of a brand, product or a company as a whole. How
a particular brand or company is positioned also plays a vital role in this. The characteristics of a
brand and its personality play a big role.

If we look at the company Apple, we can see that the company is positively perceived by most of
its customers. In fact, there are diehard fans of Apple. The reason being that the company has been
repeatedly innovative, it has good performing products which make a connection with their
customers. As a result, Apple is one of the consistently top performing brands across the world.

Customer perception is the reality of how customers view your brand, products and services. In
many cases, customers form impressions, assumptions and opinions about a brand that differ
substantially from how a brand views itself. The following are illustrative examples.

Brand

A company may position their brand to be luxury but customers may develop their own impression
that leans more towards budget.

Prices

Generally speaking, customers perceive each price as high, low or fair. Some customers may also
be indifferent to price for certain items.

7
Engineering

Software engineers may tell something isn't broken, but customers may view it as broken
nonetheless.

Usability

Customers often have a strongly formed opinion regarding the usability of tools such as mobile
devices, software and appliances.

Senses

The taste, smell, touch and sound of products and environments.

Promotion

Customers may interpret advertising and promotion in ways not envisioned by creative teams.

Quality

The quality of products and services are interpreted by customers using criteria that may differ
significantly from one person to the next. One customer may view a beverage in a plastic bottle
that is easy to open as high quality while another customer may view products in glass bottles as
inherently higher quality.

Reputation

A brand that presents itself as sustainable and reputable may not achieve the same image in the
market depending on their actions as a firm.

Customer Service

Some customers may prefer friendly customer service such as engaging in personal conversations.
Others have a strong preference for professional distance. Skilled customer service professionals
discover such preferences and adapt

8
Features

Features may be viewed as a bug or annoyance. For example, notifications that are repetitive,
trivial or delivered with unpleasant sounds may be unpopular.

Lack of Features

Features offered by competitors or things that customers intuitively expect of your product that are
missing.

Factors deciding customer perception

In general, customer perception can be influence by a lot of factors. Some of the major factors are:

 Consistency of performance – How has the brand performed in the past and how it is
performing currently.
 Emotional connect – Superb brands know that emotional connection with the customer is
critical to brand development.
 Marketing communications – How the brand communicates with the customers using the
various media vehicles.
 Holistic marketing – A brand cannot be excellent if it has good sales staff but pathetic
support staff. A brand has to be a good all rounder and satisfy customers from all its touch
points.

Based on the definitions and factors behind customer perception, we choose our research field as
footwear industry and company as two giant footwear company BATA and APEX. Then, we
collected customer perceptions about these two companies and analyzed the data.

9
4. Methodology:

This study is based on the quantitative information. Here we have used two companies and its
information.

To collect primary data, we have used questionnaire as well as group and individual interview.
We went to the retail shop and collected some information through mentioned process.

To collect secondary data, we have used company’s website, also used some journals in hope of
getting help to create this paper.

In this explore, Quantitative Scheme has been used. In the Quantitative Method we can come
across out how people feel or what they consider about a particular brands, which are very relevant
in this explore. The investigation of this explore is stand on Secondary Data specially, together
with online databases, digital libraries, books, journals, conference papers, etc.

10
5. Data Analysis:

Question 1:

Question 2:

11
Question 3:

Question 4:

12
Question 5:

Question 6:

13
Question 7:

Question 8:

14
Question 9:

Question 10:

15
Question 11:

Question 12:

16
Question 13:

Question 14:

17
Question 15:

Question 16:

18
Question 17:

Question 18:

19
6. Data Interpretation and Findings:

Sample Size: 123. That means, we have done our analysis based on perception of 123 people.

Gender:

Among 123 respondents, 76 male (61.8%) and 47 female (38.2%) participated on this survey in
online.

Age Group:

Among 123 respondents, 10 (8.1%) belong to 18-21 years, 103 (83.7%) belong to 22-29 years, 9
(7.3%) belong to 30-45 years and 1 (0.9%) belong to 46 & above age group. That means, majority
respondents are from young generation.

Level of Education:

Among 123 respondents, 63 (51.2%) are from Post-Graduation and 54 (43.9%) are from
Graduation. A few students from High School and MPhil/PhD also participated; their population
is 6 (4.9%).

Occupation:

Most of the respondents are Student; it is about 65 persons (52.8%). Rest of the respondents are
42 (34.1%) Private job holders, Businessman, Self-employed, Unemployed and Govt. Job holder.

Marital Status:

101 (82.1%) single respondents participated on survey. Rest of them is married.

Monthly Income:

55 (44.7%) respondents earn BDT. 10,000 and below and 51 (41.5%) respondents earn BDT.
10,000-40,000. Rest of the respondents [17 (13.1%)] are earn BDT 40000 and above.

Preferred Brand:

Among 123 respondents, 62 (50.4%) persons preferred BATA and 61 (49.6%) preferred APEX.

20
Customer Perception towards BATA & APEX:

 We made an online and direct interview survey for our research on perception of the
customers. Our total respondent was 123. Among them BATA and APEX preferred
customers was almost the same. 62 respondents choose BATA as their preferred brand. On
the other hand 61 was the number of APEX lover.
 Our respondents were questioned regarding satisfaction with the quality of their preferred
brand. It’s usual that customers will prefer the quality. But all the customers are not
satisfied whether it’s their preferred or not. 7 BATA preferred respondents said no and 10
APEX preferred customers were not satisfied with the quality of the product.
 Price is the most important factor of a product or service. Consumer response varies greatly
according to the price. We asked whether they are satisfied the price range of their preferred
brand. Here we got astonishing answers. There were 65% respondents that means 80
respondents among 123 were not satisfied with the most two renowned brand in
Bangladesh.
 Different factors works as the catalyst of the purchase decision of a customer. People think
different factors before purchasing. From our questionnaire we found different factors that
influence our respondents to go for BATA or APEX. Those factors and the respondents of
those factors are given below:-
Factors BATA APEX Total

Quality 46 44 90

Durability 43 35 78

Price 29 19 48

Variety 16 14 30

Other 4 5 9

Here most of the customers think about the quality before purchasing footwear. But we
found BATA preferred customers loyal because of the durability of the durability of the
product. Price also matters for the lower and middle income level respondents.

21
  Both the company use different promotional tools to attract potential customers and retain
present customers. So they launch different offers and campaign for promotion. Customers
respond to these offers. We asked different promotional factors they will choose from the
list.
Factors BATA APEX

Discount 49 47

Buy one get one free 7 12

Free gift 5 2

Lucky Coupon 1 0

Here we found that most of the customers respond to the discount offers. They gather to different
occasional sales and promotional discount. Besides they also use discount on purchase and BKash
instant discount offer.

 Retaining the present customers is the most difficult task of a marketer. Now a customer
switches frequently to take the taste of different brands. So price fall or increase has a great
impact on the purchase decision of a customer. We asked respondents whether they will
purchase again if their preferred brand price increase to assume the brand loyalty. Among
123 respondents we found only 46 (37.4%) respondents to whom price changes doesn’t
matter. But remaining 62.6% respondent will switch to other brands if the price increases.
Condition BATA APEX

Any other Brand 25 27

Cheaper Brand 13 12

22
  In our survey we asked how celebrities influence their purchasing decision. In reply they
said these two famous brands don’t use that much famous celebrity for advertising or
promotional campaign. So they don’t have that much influence from celebrity
endorsement. They prefer the qualities rather than impact of the celebrities.

Customer honest feedback:

In our questionnaire there was an option for customers to give their honest feedback about their
preferred brand. We got some amazing information from them about their perception towards
BATA and APEX. Some examples are given below:

“Overpriced brands don’t work for me. Being a student I look for something durable and
reasonable priced. Designs and Colors matter to me. I'm quite stylish.”

“I purchase apex because I trust its quality. Once I purchased Bata. But my perception about
Bata is now, it is nothing but waste of money. Even I do not enter the shop of other shoes. Only I
choose Apex. But if I somehow find that the quality of Apex is deteriorating I will be switched to
another brand.”

“Brand Loyalty depends on the price, quality and service standard of any company. Moreover,
'Brand Image' is another psychological factor of the consumers which is closely associated with
'Brand Loyalty'. Bata is serving more than two decades in our country with their best quality
footwear. I can’t even think my day without BATA”

23
7. Conclusion:

Nowadays customer perception is one of the most important issues for maximum organizations
especially for service organizations. For this reason, customer satisfaction should be analyzed,
evaluated and translated into the parameters. As many researchers who worked on customer
perception before; they indicate that customer perception is often known in two ways: perception
as an outcome and perception as a process of services. The "key" indicators which determine
perception is service price, its quality, promotional tools, brand switching, celebrity endorsement
and so on. In this term paper, we will see mentioned parameters are subjective so for this reason
the number of customer perception factors can be continue because of practice of two footwear
companies, feelings during (or after) the given service.

24
Bibliography:
1. Sondoh Stephen L. et al (2007).The Effect of Brand Image on Overall Satisfaction and Loyalty
Intention in the Context of Color Cosmetic. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 12(1), 83-
107

2. Haghighi Mohammad, Dorosti Ali, RahnamaAfshin, Hoseinpour Ali (2012). Evaluation of

factors affecting customer loyalty in the restaurant industry. African Journal of Business
Management, 6 (14), 5039-5046.

3. Rizwan Muhammad, Usman Ali, Hussain Tajamul, ShafiqAkasha, Rauf Sana, Ayaz Qurat Ul
Aian (2013). The Impact of the Perceived Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Brand Trust and
Contextual Factors on Brand Loyalty. International Journal of Research in Commerce &
Management, 4 (3), 83-90.

4. Cochran C. (2003). Customer satisfaction. Tools, Techniques, and Formulas for Success. USA:
Paton Professional.

5. Giese J. L., Cote J. A. (2000). Defining consumer satisfaction. Academy of Marketing Science
Review, Vo 2000 No.1. Available at: http://www.amsreview.org/articles/giese01-2000.pdf

6. Vavra T. G. (2002). Customer Satisfaction Measurement Simplified. United States: Quality

Press.

25
 Annex

Questionnaire:

1.What is your Gender?

a) Male

b) Female

2. What age group do you belong to?

a) 18-21 years

b) 22-29 years

c) 30-45 years

d) 46 and above

3. What is your level of education?

a) High School

b) Graduate

c) Post Graduate

d) MPhil/PhD

4. In what category does your occupation fall in?

a) Student

b) Business

c) Self employed

26
d) Unemployed

e) Govt. Job

f) Private Job

g) House wife

5. What is your marital Status?

a) Single

b) Married

c) Separated

d) Divorced

6. What is your monthly income?

a) Below Tk 10000

b) Tk. 10000-40000

c) Tk. 40000-80000

d) Tk. 80000 and above

7. Which brand do you prefer?

a) BATA

b) APEX

8. Are you satisfied with the quality of preferred brand?

a) Yes

b) No

27
9. Are you satisfied with the price range of preferred brand?

a) Yes

b) No

10. If the price of your preferred brand increases will you purchase again?

a) Same brand

b) Cheaper brand

c) Any other brand

11. What factors influence you to go for a particular brand? (Tick multiple if necessary)

a) Quality

b) Durability

c) Price

d) Variety

e) Any other

12. Do you normally switch over the brand?

a) Yes

b) No

13. Does the advertising play any role in selection of brands of shoes?

a) Yes

b) No

28
 14. What kind of promotional tools you prefer?

a) Lucky Coupon

b) Free Gift

c) Discount

d) Buy one get one free

15. Are you willing to buy the preferred brand at lower price with negligible quality?

a) Yes

b) No

16. Is there any impact of celebrities on your purchase of preferred brand?

a) Yes

b) No

17. Will you purchase another brand of same quality with less price?

a) Yes

b) No

18. Do you think design is a factor for choosing brand?

a) Yes

b) No

29

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