INDUSTRY INTERNSHIP REPORT

on
“A PERCEPTUAL STUDY ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR
TOWARDS THE WATER PURIFIER”

(Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of

Post-Graduation Diploma in Management)
(Session 2018-2020)

Title of on Job Training (OJT)

Sales executive to promote Hindustan Unilever’s “pureit”

------------------
Name of the organization
Hindustan Unilever Limited
Hyderabad

Submitted by

P. PRASHANTH

(2018-20 Batch)
PGDM-(27-094)

Faculty Guide: Corporate Guide:

Dr. Arijit Santikary Mr. Suhas Limaye
Associate Professor, Marketing Area Sales Manager

Siva Sivani Institute of Management

Kompally, Secunderabad-500014
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr.-----------------------------------------------------

bearing HT. No---------------------------is the student of Siva Sivani
Institute of Management, Secunderabad. He/She has undergone
his/her Industry Internship Program at--------------------------------------
------------------(Name of the Corporate) from --------- to---------.
He/she worked on the topic “-------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------” and completed the project
successfully under my guidance.
I wish him/her all success.

Date: Signature of the Faculty Guide:

Place: Name of the Faculty
 DECLARATION

I Mr. P. Prashanth declare that this project titled “A perceptual study on consumer
buying behaviour towards the water purifier” is the original work done by me under
the guidance of Prof, Mr.Arijit Santikary Associate Professor, Siva Sivani
Institute of Management, Secunderabad.

I further declare that it is the original work made by me as a part of my Post

Graduate Diploma in Management.

Date: Signature of the student:

Place: Name of the student: P. Prashanth

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am privileged to thank all the people who were involved with lot of positivity to finish my
project. Firstly, I thank the HUL for choosing me and I am glad for the entire team for
supporting me in every aspect of Internship.

I am grateful to begin my sincere gramercy to the whole team, starting with Mr. Suhas –
(Regional Manager, HUL. & Mr. Vijay- (Area sales Manager), for the huge support and
enrichment.

Also blessed to have the optimistic team, with lot of positivity around, the entire guidance and
support pulled the way long and interesting. I appreciate the entire HUL Marketing team for
the support and help throughout.

On the other hand, having a best guidance and encouraging suggestions and advices from my
PGDM School (Siva Sivani Institute of Management).

Lastly, I am thankful to each individual who have supported me and guided me directly or
indirectly till the date.

Date: Name of the Student:

Place: P. Prashanth
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter No Content Page

Number

Brief Report On Job Training (OJT) 2-3

Chapter 1 Introduction 4-7

Chapter 2 Review of Literature 8-11

Chapter 3 About the company 12-29

Chapter 4 Research Methodology 30-31

Chapter 5 Data Analysis 32-39

Chapter 5 Findings and Conclusions 40-41

References 42
 LIST OF TABLES

Number Title of the Table Page Number

1 Organizational 14
structure
2 Organization 16

3 Gender, Age cross 37

tabulation
 LIST OF FIGURES

Number Title of the Figure Page Number

1 Market share 16

2 Business model 21

3 Company’s water 38
purifier
Abstract:

Access to clean water is a vital issue in the world today, spanning across multiple dimensions,
including environmental policy, industry, technology, and of course, poverty. Several million tons
of pesticides, fertilizers and synthetic compounds from industrial and consumer products find their
way into natural waters every year. Cooking with and drinking purified water helps to ensure a
family's peace of mind by knowing there is no foreign matter in their water. In this respect, the

present study is focused on the above said aspect. The investigator collected data with the help of
well-structured questionnaire. Two hundred and fifty samples were taken in Erode city for this
study. The data subjected to analysis and the findings of the study reveals that the maximum of the
respondents face the problems of electricity charges while using the water purifier and maximum
of the respondents are influenced by quality of the water purifier while selecting the brand.

1
 REPORT ON OJT
Name of the company: Hindustan Unilever Limited

Place: Hyderabad

Duration: 60 days

Title of OJT: Sales Executive to promote HUL Pureit

Tasks/ Targets Assigned:

Tasks is to Promote the sales of Pureit, Targets Assigned as per the corporate mentor said that
there are no fixed targets

Plan of Action:

To understand the customer needs and requirement and sell the product of pureit and to
demonstrate the customer about the new features and Double safety systems in pureit Hindustan
Unilever (HUL) has been heavily investing in the brand promotions as it needs them mostly for
brand recall and many a times for introducing new brands. Therefore, Hindustan Unilever
primarily uses aggressive promotion and advertising its marketing mix. The advertisements of
HUL brands are in the form of television commercials, newspaper ads or any other magazines and
as well as with the online presence as well

Status of Tasks/Target fulfilment:As per the Tasks assigned, I have fulfilled the requirements
and achieved the highest sales among the other intern members of our college

No. of Sales:
Product name Quantity sold
---------------------------------------------------------
Pureit copper RO+UV 2
Pureit ultima NXT 1
Pureit Marvella RO+UV+MF 1
----------------------------------------------------------
Total sales 4

2
Learning outcomes:

During this two month of internship learned a lot of things, which includes many classroom
activities are understood and covers entail subject of field sales management, expected working
conditions have gone beyond my think level, also change my attitude into will behaved and well
deserved, and this internship changed my classroom learnings now able to connect the concepts
made easy and understandable

Experiences as a sales executive:

Description:
I start with the special thanks to HUL team, managers of Bajaj electronics chintal, and Mr.
G.Ashoke (sales executive of pureit at Bajaj electronics Nizampet) and friends as I started my first
3 days at Bajaj electronics Nizampet, met sales executive (pureit) Mr. G.Ashoke and he gave
plenty of knowledge about the product and explained to me how to divert the customers towards
pureit and have said many tactics from receiving the customer to sell the products, in a gest,he
thought the salesman behaviour while interacting with the customer after 3 days of training I
was allotted to Bajaj electronics chintal, I have started their with no stock and no display and
acquired the stock and displayed pureit on the shelves and got ready for sales, felt pressurized for
few days later on every one in the store became friends in the store their use to be only one manager
for both large and small appliances later on small appliances manager was allotted to the store

Limitations:

1. As it is a MT market, selling strategy is pull market, is seen so as per research says that,
market is very effective in push market radar then pull market so customer interaction is
less compared push market
2. Their exist huge competition among the products and competitors
3. Geographic conditions effect the market
4. No of walk ins to the store are limited
5. Brand loyalty towards stores for customers is a effect to market

3
CHAPTER -1

INTRODUCTION

4
1.1) CORPORATE HISTORY: (HUL) is a British-Dutch manufacturing company
headquartered in Mumbai, India. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal
care products, water purifiers and consumer goods.

HUL was established in 1933 as Lever Brothers. Following merger of constituent groups in 1956,
it was renamed as Hindustan Lever Limited. The company was renamed in June 2007 as
"Hindustan Unilever Limited".

As of 2019 Hindustan Unilever portfolio had 35 product brands in 20 categories and employs
18,000 employees with sales of Rs. 34,619 crores in 2017-18.

MISSION: The company vision is to add vitality of life we meet every day needs for nutrition,
hygiene and personal care and looking to get more out of life.

VISION: The company vision is to grow the business while decoupling our environmental fact
print from our growth and increasing the positive social impact.

VALUES: values define how we do business and interact with our colleagues, partners, customers
and consumers. Our four core values are integrity, responsibility, respect and pioneering. As we
expand into new markets, recruit new talent and face new challenges, these guide our people in
the decisions and actions they take every day.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED: Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel, Fair &
Lovely, Ponds, Vaseline, Lakme, Dove, Clinic Plus, Sun silk, Peps dent, Closeup, Axe, Brooke
Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Kwality Walls and Pure it. HUL is a subsidiary of Unilever, one of
the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home Care, Personal Care and Refreshment products
with sales in over 190 countries and an annual sales turnover of 52.7 billion in 2016

5
1.2) INTRODUCTION:

Pureit is the world’s most advanced range of in-home water purifiers. Pureit is breakthrough
innovation designed by Hindustan Unilever and it provides complete protection from all water-
borne diseases, unmatched convenience and affordability.

In the developing world, most of all diseases are water-related - a major cause for this is the poor
quality of drinking water. The magnitude of the problem can be seen from the fact that diarrheal
disease alone leads to 2.5 billion episodes and 1.5 million child mortalities every year.

Boiling water, as a means of purification, is expensive, energy-intensive, and cumbersome.

Available storage and candle-based filters do not ensure safety from harmful germs. Given this
context, Unilever embarked on a mission to provide safe and affordable drinking water through
in-home water purification.

Unilever scientists have worked for many years to come up with a range of technological
breakthroughs that have led to the creation of ‘Pureit’ a unique offering by Unilever. Pureit breaks
through the barriers of convenience & affordability by providing water that is as safe as boiled
water and ensuring complete protection from water-borne diseases.

The Pureit innovation addresses one of the biggest technological challenges of the century – that
of making safe water accessible & affordable for millions. Access to clean water is a vital issue in
the world today, spanning across multiple dimensions, including environmental policy, industry,
technology, and of course, poverty. More than 1/3 of the world’s renewable fresh water is used for
agricultural, industrial, or domestic purposes. Most of these uses release compounds back into the
water that make it unsafe; we have become addicted to methods that poison surrounding bodies of
water. Several million tons of pesticides, fertilizers and synthetic compounds from industrial and
consumer products find their way into natural waters every year. It is now widely accepted that for
many people, access to clean and safe water in sufficient quantities is the most serious challenge
of survival in the twenty first century.

Even in small amounts, these compounds can have detrimental effects on sanitation, with proven
long-term consequences for aquatic stability and human health. Now, let’s consider the fact that

6
1/3 of the world’s population lives without access to clean water: clearly, we have a problem.
Technology must be paired with concern for the environment and public health in order to deal
with the need for a fast, inexpensive, and energy conserving method of water purification. Purified
water provides cleaner water for household needs. Cooking with and drinking purified water helps
to ensure a family's peace of mind by knowing there is no foreign matter in their water. Many
people prefer the flavour of pure water.

The success of any product mainly depends upon the preference and satisfaction of the consumers.
The preference of a product, in turns depends upon many factors such as quality, price offer brand,
taste etc. This study helps in obtaining the right and adequate information about the behaviour of
the consumers using water purifier as the market growth is on an increasing trend today.

1.3) OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

1. To find out whether customers are satisfied with the service of HUL Pureit.

2. To find out awareness regarding water purifier among the people.

3. To find out the important method people use for purifying the water.

4. To know the customer perception towards usage of water purifier.

5. To know the needs and requirements of the customer related to Pureit..

1.4) SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

The study is conducted to know the effectiveness of the HUL-Pureit (water purifier), with respect
to know the people or customer’s buying intention of the water purifiers. With the help of
questionnaire, the data has been collected.

7
 CHAPTER – 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

8
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The concept of “consumer buying process” is of prime importance in marketing and has evolved
over the recent years. It is important to understand consumer buying behaviour as it plays a vital
role in creating an impact on purchase of products. The human wants are unlimited and always
expect more and more towards the models & its features. In today’s world we see new models
coming into the market practically in every quarter. The market is a very important place to
study the behaviour of consumers and provide useful insights what a consumer requires in a
product. It is only through research that a company will be able to study the buying behaviour of
consumers. In this model, the consumer passes through five stages: problem recognition,
information search, evaluation and selection of alternatives, decision implementation, and post-
purchase evaluation.

Author: Nilima Das

Year of Publication: 2013

A Study on Factors Affecting Consumer Purchase Decision of Water Purifier, Indian Journal of
Marketing, A study on the topic “A Study on Factors Affecting Consumer Purchase Decision of
Water Purifier”, concludes that behaviour of consumers is affected by various factors like price
of product, technology, health and safety, brand name, marketing activities as well as their own
characteristics.

Author: Prakash

Year of Publication: 2017

A product success mainly depends on the customer aspects. In this project the Ultra-Low-Cost
Water Purifier is taken for Design for the rural market. Even though the product can be made in
some low-cost plastic, this product is made in clay keeping the rural people in consideration. In
this product the total product context study with the relevant market study was made to
understand the user. Then, the PDS was made keeping the user needs as base, Concepts are
generated with reference to Product Design Specification.

9
Analysing the existing systems of water consumption in rural area, lifestyle of the user, mood
board and the usage board of the targeted customer helps to generate the concepts. Product was
designed for the rural area, so all the concepts were exhibited for the rural people and feedback
was collected to pick the best one. Working model of the final product was developed to give the
justification in terms of low cost and hygienic water for the rural area.

Author: Mr. Manish Uprety

Year of Publication: 2017

Brand Preference towards Water Purifier – A Study published in the Indian Journal of Marketing,
An Article on “Brand Preference towards Water Purifier” indicated that consumer preferences are
based on their personal background, experience, quality, reliability and service available for a
specific brand.

Author: Elisa Giacosa and Guido Giovando

Year of Publication:2012

Bottled Water Consumption: The Case of Italy, World Journal of Social Sciences, A study
entitled “Bottled Water Consumption: The Case of Italy”. The aim of this research is to analyze
the beverage sector, with reference to the bottled water sector.

Author: Dana M. Johnson

Year of Publication: 2007

Feasibility of Water Purification Technology in Rural Areas of Developing Countries, Journal of

Environment Management, in this research study on “Feasibility of Water Purification
Technology in Rural Areas of Developing Countries” revealed that water scarcity is threatening
social and economic growth in rural areas of developing countries.

10
Authors: Elvira Tabaku*, Mirela Zerellari (Mersini)

Year of Publication: 2015

Brand loyalty and loyalty programs. The critical analysis of the literature suggests that brands are
significant elements of the everyday focus of marketers. Companies worldwide are striving to
create and develop strong brands which will lead to higher profitability. The advantages of the
brand mixed with the advantages of brand loyalty have provided businesses with powerful
competitive advantages. Because of the many benefits customers but especially businesses gain
from the implementation of these constructs much attention is dedicated to loyalty programs and
the profitability they generate for the business

11
 CHAPTER 3

ABOUT THE COMPANY

12
INTRODUCTION:

HUL was established in 1933 as Lever Brothers. Following merger of constituent groups in 1956,
it was renamed as Hindustan Lever Limited. The company was renamed in June 2007 as
"Hindustan Unilever Limited". As of 2019 Hindustan Unilever portfolio had 35 product brands in
20 categories and employs 18,000 employees with sales of Rs. 34,619 crores in 2017-18.

In December 2018, HUL announced its acquisition of Glaxo Smithkline's India business for $3.8
billion in an all equity merger deal with 1:4.39 ratio. However, the integration of 3800 employees
of GSK remained uncertain as HUL stated there was no clause for retention of employees in the
deal. In January 2019, HUL said that it expects to complete the merger with Glaxo Smith Kline
Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH India) this year.

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest fast-moving consumer goods Company, with
leadership in Home & Personal Care Products and Foods & Beverages. HUL's brands, spread
across 20 distinct consumer categories, touch the lives of two out of three Indians. They endow
the company with a scale of combined volumes of about 4 million tonnes and sales of nearly Rs.13,
718 crores. The mission that inspires HUL's over 15,000 employees is to "add vitality to life".
With 35 Power Brands, HUL meets every day needs for nutrition, hygiene, and personal care with
brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. It is a mission HUL shares
with its parent company, Unilever, which holds 51.55% of the equity. The rest of the shareholding
is distributed among 360,675 individual shareholders and financial institutions. A Fortune 500
transnational, Unilever sells Foods and Home and Personal Care brands in about 100 countries
worldwide.

SWOT ANALYSIS:

STRENGTHS: -
1.HUL is a part of the Unilever group, hence strong brand equity and name.
2.Strong distribution network.
3.Market capitalization of Rs.110421.76(crores)
4.Project SHAKTI-creating brand awareness in rural areas.
5.Part of CSR

13
6.Efficient man power:15000 employees,1400 managers.

OPPORTUNITIES: -
Tap rural markets and increase penetration in urban areas
1.Mergers and acquisitions
2.New brand segments: medicines etc.
3.Diversification
4.Expansion of horizon outside Asia.

WEEKNESS: -
Stiff competition with domestic and international brands.
1.Inability to transform its strategies at right time.
2.Lacked the ability to call shots and power pricing.
3.HUL is continuously losing its market share due to presence of other strong FMCG brands.

THREATS: -
1.Intense and increasing competition amongst other FMCG companies can affect business of HUL.
2. FDI in retail thereby allowing international brands.
3. Competition from unbranded and local products can hurt Hindustan Unilever's market.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:

14
SYSTEMS & PROCESSES OF ORGANIZATION:

A structured method of formally and objectively evaluating employees’ performance with respect
to their objectives. – Addresses the issue of an employee’s development by providing them with
structured and in-depth analysis of strengths and areas of improvement – Provides with input for
annual increments, training and development. – Employee Performance management at HUL
includes planning work and setting expectations, developing the capacity to perform, continuously
monitoring performance and evaluating it.

1. Determine promotion of employees

2. Determine increment in pay of employees.
3. Determine transfer & change in job assignments.
4. Determine retention or termination
5. Decide on layoffs.
6. Decide need for training
7. Decide salary & related issues.
8. Provide performance feedback to all concerned
9. Identify individual skills, core competencies, strength & weaknesses.
10. Assist employees in setting goals.
11. Identify training needs.
12. Improve communication

MANAGEMENT:

1. Mr Sanjiv Mehta - Chairman & Managing Director

2. Mr Srinivas Phatak - Executive Director, Finance and IT and Chief Financial Officer

3. Mr Pradeep Banerjee - Executive Director, Supply Chain

4. Mr Aditya Narayan - Independent Director

5. Mr Leo Puri - Independent Director

6. Dr Vibhav R Sanzgiri - Global VP R&D Skin Cleansing & Site Leader R&D

15
ORGANIZATION:

MARKET SHARE OF DIFFERENT PRODUCTS:

16
OBJECTIVE OF HR PRECTICE:
The main objective of HR Practices is to differentiate the organization from its competitors by
effective and efficient HR Practices. By following this, the organization does its whole work
process. The objective of HR Practices is to increase productivity and quality, and to gain the
competitive advantage of a workforce strategically aligned with the organization’s goals and
objectives.

HR PRACTICES OF HINDUSTAN UNILEVER:

Effective and Efficient HR practices are very much important for every organization. So, HUL has
also its HR Practices, which helps it a lot to achieve the targets. Human Resource Management
initiatives in any Organization endeavour to change, redefine, revisit, renew, reinvent, revitalize
& restructure the Organization architecture. This is effectively done with the help of alignment &
integration of HR policies & strategies with business goal & objectives.

RECRUITMENT:
It is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing
schedules and to employ the effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers
to facilitate effective selection of an efficient workforce. Edwin B. Flippo has defined it as “The
process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the
organization. Process Of Recruitment: Finding out the requirement (hiring vs.exit), upcoming
vacancies, kind of employees needed.
1.Developing suitable techniques to attract suitable candidates.
2.Stimulating as many candidates as possible

SELECTION:
1. Selection is 'buying' an employee (the price being the wage or salary multiplied by probable
years of service) hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason, some firms (and some
firms for particular jobs) use external expert consultants for recruitment and selection.
2. It is one area where the interference of external factors is minimal. Hence the HR department
can use its discretion in framing its selection policy and using various selection tools for the best
result.

17
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:
It is a structured method of formally and objectively evaluating employees’ performance with
respect to their objectives. It addresses the issue of an employee’s development by providing them
with structured and in-depth analysis of strengths and areas of improvement. It provides with input
for annual increments, training and development.

Performance Management System is essential to the success of any organization because it

influences the effort expended by employees, which in turn, drives bottom-line business results.
Furthermore, the Performance Management System helps an organization identify, recruit,
motivate, and retain key employees.

360-degree performance appraisal:

Mechanisms like 360-degree feedback provide feedback from superiors, peer groups and
subordinates to provide holistic and objective evaluation of the employees. Assessment on their
potential is communicated transparently to all employees individually and career paths are shared
with them.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:

The training and development program is charted out to cover the number of trainees, existing
staff. The programs also cover the identification of resource personnel for conducting development
program, frequency of training and development programs and budget allocation. Training and
development programs can also be designed depending upon job requirement and analysis.
Selection of trainees is also facilitated by job analysis.

1. The company has a strong focus on manpower training according to their requirements.
The internal training department aims at improving the skill sets relevant to the work
profile of employees.
2. This includes improving communication, Different skills, E-mail programming, Operation
systems.

18
COMPENSATION:
Hindustan Unilever offers compensation packages on par or
higher than the industry standards based on the technical skills and experience of the candidates.
Employee benefits were standardized across employees.
The benefit schemes were re-evaluated twice a year. The benefit programs included:
 Medical benefits that were aimed keeping the employees healthy and motivated, so as to
reach expected productivity levels.
 Tuition assistance programs which included financial assistance to meet tuition expenses
for all employees. This gave them the opportunity to continue their formal education while
working. A range of professional counselling and support services for employees and
eligible family members.
 Facilitation for employees to relocate if transferred to help them settle easily in the new
location.
 Assistance programs in case of emergency for employees and their eligible dependents
travelling on company work to locations worldwide.
 Company stock offers to the employees to enable them to share the benefits of the
company’s performance.

OPERATIONS:
For rural India, HUL has established a single distribution channel by consolidating categories. In
a significant move, with long-term benefits, HUL has mounted an initiative to further increase its
rural reach with the help of rural sub stockists. It has already appointed 6000 sub stockists. As a
result, the distribution network directly covers about 50,000 villages, reaching about 250 million
consumers.

Unilever has extensive systems in place to monitor supplier performance on a range of issues.
Typically, an operating company such as Unilever Indonesia will conduct a full audit of all its
suppliers on a rolling programme. The audit covers quality, health, safety, environment, and labour
law issues. The audit did not include labour conditions as local laws set high standards for all
companies that are effectively enforced.

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 FIANACIAL:
PBIT/SHARE: 40.63
EPS: 27.89
PBIT: 22.96
DILUTED EPS: 30.37

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT:

Company employ more than 6,000 R&D professionals globally and offer unrivalled career
diversity and progression.

R&D is structured to support the key innovation areas: Discover delivers functional benefits
through new product technology

Design creates winning products, packages and claims

Deploy implements mixes for local markets.

We also have functional capabilities to accelerate, protect and differentiate our innovations:

 Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre

 Patents
 Information and Technology Management
 Regulatory Affairs
 Clinicals
 Open Innovation.

Segmentation, positioning, and targeting: - The brand is intended in the popular range segment,
which consists of powders sold in for Rs 18-22 per kg. The popular segment was founded as a
result of the launch and subsequent success of Nirma. Other brands in this segment now are Wheel,
OK, and Nima. Wheel is positioned as a tough fighter of dirt and offers value for money. The
advertisements always show a sari-clad lady in the middle-to lower-middle-class setting. Wheel is
targeted as the mass market and at people moving up the economy ladder from the lower-middle
to middle class segments. The same positioning with better benefits and a variant called Wheel
Active continues.

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MAJOR COMPETITORS: -
1. ITC
2. P&G
3. Marico

Environment: Unilever is committed to making continuous improvements in the management of

our environmental impact and to the longer-term goal of developing a sustainable business.
Unilever will work in partnership with others to promote environmental care, increase
understanding of environmental issues and disseminate good practice.
Competition: Unilever believes in vigorous yet fair competition and supports the development of
appropriate competition laws. Unilever companies and employees will conduct their operations in
accordance with the principles of fair competition and all applicable regulations.

BUSINESS MODEL OF HUL:

21
Direct-to Home Demonstration system: HUL built up a 10,000 strong demonstrator team of Pure
it Water Experts (PWEs) in partnership with a range of external agencies. Broadly, this
demonstrator force comprised four kinds of water specialists who created an immersive brand
experience for consumers providing them with the opportunity to touch, feel, experience, and buy
the product. The demonstrator team comprised CCPWEs (Cold Call Pure it Water Experts) who
demonstrated via direct-to-home cold calls, typically visiting about 40 households per day;
OPWEs (Outreach Pure it Water Experts) who demonstrated via kiosks; CPWEs (Clinic Pure it
Experts) who created awareness amongst doctors and other key opinion makers; PWEs (Pure it
Water Experts) who worked in small towns and handled all three channels; Rural PWEs who
worked only in rural areas, Retail PWEs who serviced general and modern format retail stores,
and CCEs (Customer Care Experts) who provided after-sales services. To ensure effective
supervision there would be a team leader with a team of typically ten front-line demonstrators. The
same demonstrator who educated the consumer also installed the Pure it purifier at the consumer’s
home after it had been sold. About a month later the demonstrator would again visit the home to
check on product experience, problems with installation/product, and also get referrals and
recommendations for contacting the consumers’ friends and relatives. Thus, the experiential brand
connect was enhanced by a relationship building initiative. Marvella, however, posed additional
distribution challenges. Being a high-end product for more affluent consumers, only the Champion
PWEs (star performers) were identified for direct-selling of this product. Further, at each Safe
Water Zone, HUL had to expand their CCEs because Marvella required specialized plumbing and
a wall-mounted installation. Thus, the roll out of Marvella beyond the currently targeted towns
(towns that had a population greater than 500,000), depended on the speed with which the after-
sales support team was created. In towns which had a population below 200,000, HUL decided to
retain licensed service providers of other durable companies to install Marvella in return for a fee
per installation.

Doctor’s Partnership Program: HUL built brand authority through its ‘Protecting Lives’ Program
in which their Pure it Clinic Experts (PCE’s) reached out to 10% of the doctors and other key
opinion makers in urban India. This program was setup because HUL was virtually creating a new
product category—and it was therefore important that awareness and conviction was also created
among doctors regarding the efficacy of Pure it.

22
Retail Channel:

Retail sales only accounted for about 40% of total sales in the POU industry.24 HUL offered 8%
margins to retailers and 7% to distributors, which was similar to that offered by Tata for Swachh
but was lower than EFL’s 14% which included additional trade schemes. EFL had recently tied up
with a cooking gas distributor and had begun retail sales at drug stores, general merchandise stores,
and consumer durables stores. Kent followed a retail dominated route to market, but also used
direct sales. As consumer awareness increased, the newer entrants like Philips and Whirlpool chose
to solely use the retail route. Margins were a critical issue, as a Pure it sales manager explained,
“Although, HUL’s retail margin at 8% is lower than that offered by its competitors, for example
Eureka Forbes’ 14%, our retail sales are growing while direct-to-home sales are stable.” He
underscored HULs challenge in differentiating Pure it from its competitors at the retail store: While
EFL gives higher margins to retailers to encourage push marketing, HUL does consumer activation
programs and generates brand pull. Therefore mom-and-pop stores selling typical Indian style steel
cookware, who earlier didn’t want to stock Pure it, now did because of consumer pull. But retailers
don’t take time to educate consumers. For example, they won’t ask about the size of the customer’s
family to help them determine the size of the device to buy. HUL believed that relying solely on
their direct-to-home channel would limit their growth and in the past year they had turned their
attention to building up their retail channel. However, because they had only one product in the
durable’s category, they had to work hard to build influence with white goods retailers. Typical
retailer margins for large white goods such as televisions and refrigerators were 8% to 12%, while
for small appliances such as irons and vacuum cleaners it was 16% to 18%. So far, the water
purifier market had been dominated by high end products which relied predominantly on direct
selling networks. With the recent entry of high-end brands like Philips, water purifiers had made
some limited entry into retailer outlets. However, offering 8% retailer margins Pure it received
poor product placement at retail outlets. Thus, HUL first focused on brand building for creating
consumer pull and started opening the retail channel only by late 2009 when they managed to
persuade retailers to settle for the lower margin they offered. Also, as HUL operated both the DTH
and the retail channel simultaneously, the PWEs in the DTH system were under pressure to close
a sale in the first call to a home, or else the consumer would likely visit a retailer after the PWE
visit and make the final purchase.

23
The Partnership Channel: To accelerate the penetration build up in rural areas, HUL wanted to
supplement the retail channel with a demonstration-based route to market as well. But creating a
DTH network for rural areas was not feasible. Instead, HUL sought to leverage its entrepreneurial
network of underprivileged rural women under Project Shakti. But this wasn’t easy. The Water
Team’s Partnership Director noted the double challenge: The Shakti network’s circle of influence
generally covers low income consumers, where affordability constraints are high… on the other
hand to target middle or affluent consumers in rural India, the Shakti women need to be given
significant training and capability inputs to equip them with the necessary technical and
communication skills. HUL had also been trying to develop partnerships with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), banks and government agencies. But the struggle here was creating
partnerships and ways- of-working that permitted the leveraging of their partners’ infrastructure
for creating awareness and imparting product knowledge. For the bottom-of-the-pyramid market
this could be an important enabler, and HUL had had some success with small-scale pilots. And
despite most NGOs’ initial discomfort with working with large multinational companies, HUL had
forget relationships with many NGOs over the last few years. As Jain pointed out, “What we are
seeking to do is to create a sustainable and scalable health intervention model. It is important that
this is not based on philanthropy as it would otherwise become self-limiting.”

MARKET RESEARCH AND TYPES

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers.
It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with
marketing research However, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing
research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned
specifically with markets.

Market research is a key factor to maintain competitiveness over competitors. Market research
provides important information to identify and analyse the market need, market size and
competition.

24
Market research, which includes social and opinion research, is the systematic gathering and
interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical
methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making.

DEMOGRAPHIC/SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS:

One type of primary data of great interest to marketers is the subject's demographic and
socioeconomic characteristics, such as age, education, occupation. These variables are used to
cross-classify the collected data and in some way make sense of it. We might be interested, for
instance, in determining whether people's attitudes toward ecology and pollution are related to
their level of formal education.

Alternatively, a common question asked by marketers is whether the consumption of a product is

related in any way to a person's or family's age, education, occupation, and so on, and if so, in what
way. These are questions of market segmentation. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics
are often used to delineate market segments.

ATTITUDES/OPINIONS:

Some authors distinguish between attitudes and opinions, while others use the terms
interchangeably. Most typically attitude is used to refer to an individual's "preference, inclination,
views or feelings toward some phenomenon, "while opinions are "verbal expressions of attitudes."
Since attitudes are typically secured from respondents by questioning, we shall not make the
distinction between the terms but will treat attitudes and opinions interchangeably as representing
a person's ideas, convictions, or liking with respect to a specific object or idea. Attitude is one of
the more important notions in the marketing literature, since it is generally thought that attitudes
are related to behaviour. Obviously, when an individual likes a product he will be more inclined
to buy it than when he does not like it; when he likes one brand more than another, he will tend to
buy the preferred brand. Thus, marketers are often interested in people's attitudes toward the
product itself, their overall attitudes with respect to specific brands, and their attitudes toward
specific aspects or features possessed by several brands.

25
AWARENESS/KNOWLEDGE:

Awareness/knowledge as used in marketing research refers to what respondents do and do not

know about some object or phenomenon. For instance, a problem of considerable importance is
the effectiveness of magazine ads. One measure of effectiveness is the product awareness
generated by the ad, using one of the three approaches. Although all three approaches are aimed
at assessing the respondent's awareness of and knowledge about the ad, there is a definite increase
in retention when knowledge is measured by recognition rather than by re call and by aided rather
than unaided recall. This, of course, raises the question of which method is the "most accurate."
There are problems with each method. The important thing to note is that when marketers speak
of a person's awareness, they often mean the individual's knowledge of the advertisement. A person
"very much aware" or possessing "high awareness" typically knows a great deal about the ad.
Intentions: A person's intentions refer to the individual's anticipated or planned future behaviour.
Marketers are interested in people's intentions primarily with regard to purchasing behaviour.

One of the better-known studies regarding purchase intentions is that conducted by the Survey
Research Centre at the University of Michigan. The centre regularly conducts surveys for the
Federal Reserve Board to determine the general financial condition of consumers and their outlook
with respect to the state of the economy in the near future. The centre asks consumers about their
buying intentions for big ticket items such as appliances, automobiles, and homes during the next
few months. The responses are then analysed, and the proportion of the sample that indicates each
of the following is reported:

 definite intention to buy

 probable intention to buy
 undecided
 Definite intention not to buy

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 About “Pureit”

Targeted customers: The target audience for PUREIT is adults, age 30-plus. Typically, the Indian
housewife initiates the need for a water purifier -- however, the husband, who is the financier for
household purchases and generally more technologically-savvy, is the final decision maker.
Hence, the brand needed to communicate to both husbands and wives. The woman is
the influencer; the purchaser is the man.

1. Easy availability nation wide

2. Best quality of used plastic [ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) food grade]
3. Best quality based technological parts used.
4. Designed and developed to provide “As safe as Boiled Water”
5. Very attractive design in various colours.
6. Pure it removes visible dirt, kills all harmful viruses and bacteria.
7. Removes parasites and pesticide impurities
8. Great sensorial- Clear, odor-free water: removes organics, pesticides, suspended matter (turbidity)
9. Very easy to use
10. Top most brand name (Hindustan Unilever Ltd)

Products

RO Water Purifier

Pureit Marvella RO UTS 25 LPH = 32599/-

Pureit Copper⁺ RO = 25990/-

Pureit Ultima Mineral RO + UV = 23490/-

Pureit Ultima Mineral RO + UV + MF = 21000/-

Pureit Marvella RO + UV with Fruit & Vegetable Purifier = 20000/-

27
Pureit Marvella RO UTS 15 LPH = 19890/-

Pureit Marvella RO + UV = 19500/-

Pureit Marvella RO + MF with Fruit & Vegetable Purifier = 18500/-

Pureit Classic G2 Mineral RO + UV = Rs13500/-

Pureit Advanced RO + UV = 11500/-

Pureit Classic RO + UV = 11500/-

Pureit Classic G2 Mineral RO + MF = 10500/-

Pureit Advanced RO + MF = 9200/-

Pureit Classic Nxt RO + MF = 9000/-

UV Water Purifier

Pureit Marvella UV G2 = 9299/-

Pureit Marvella UV G2 = 7299/-

Service

At Hindustan Unilever Ltd, customer relationship management is a key parameter accompanied

by judicious diversification, always in context with Indian opinions and aspirations towards
building a brand that serves our consumers better write to pureit.hul@unilever.com

28
Standards of Pureit:

“SAFE THE MILLION”

Pureit is a water purifier made by Hindustan Unilever. It is sold in India. Pureit is claimed to meet
the E.P.A. germ kill criteria, but it has not been substantiated whether actual EPA Guide Protocol
has been used. There are doubts whether Pureit actually meets the germ kill criteria under the
actual EPA Guide Protocol. Moreover, during a legal battle in Mumbai High Court in 2009, some
evidence was presented that the chlorine tablet used in Pureit is not approved by EPA (under EPA
Registration requirements for chemical disinfectants under United States FIFRA laws) for in-home
water purifiers, and therefore, the use of 'EPA' in Pureit's marketing literature was argued to be
misleading. EPA registration requires proving that the chemical poses no risks to public, animal
or aquatic life in the proposed end-use format, such as an in-home water purifier like Pureit. No
further information is available as the case was settled out of court.

Hindustan Unilever, which entered the water purifier segment over a decade ago with a mass
market offering, is driving its water purifier portfolio towards premiumization, top company
officials told media persons. The company is phasing out the models in the low-cost gravity
segment as part of the exercise. The company had called for a press conference to discuss its
December quarter earnings.

“In water purifiers, we are realigning our portfolio strategy towards premium devices while
phasing out the gravity segment," a company release posted by the company on micro blogging
site Twitter said. HUL markets its purifiers under the ‘Pureit brand. It offers air purifiers also under
the same brand name.

A gravity water purifier is a cheaper solution to clean water of impurities and does not need
electricity to operate. Most such purifiers come for less than ₹ 5,000 whereas premium offerings
come for well over ₹ 10,000.

Water purifier is ₹ 3,500 crore market in India and has several competitors including Kent, LG,
Tata Swach, Havells, Bajaj, Forbes Aquaguard and AO Smith

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 CHAPTER 4

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

30
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

It is the simplest type of research and is more specific. Mainly designed to gather descriptive
information and provides information for formulating Descriptive research, also known as
statistical research

For the measurement of variables, Nominal Scale is used which is the most widely used scale in
market research, where respondents specify their response to a statement.

Sample size:
I had chosen 100 samples for the analysis.
Questionnaire:
Here I have used Nominal scale of measurement to measure the respondent’s responses with
each of the series of the items in the form of statements. The respondents’ category ranges from
homemakers & working women and working men

1. Primary Data
Questionnaire: - A set of questions related to the research topic was formulated. Response for
each question included in the questionnaire has been collected from the customers.

2. Secondary Data
Secondary research was done to build an in-depth understanding of the satisfaction levels of
customers.

Information from various published resources like India stat and other research bodies were also
used to validate the market figures and cross-validate the data. Detailed analysis of secondary
information was used to arrive at the specific frameworks provided in the report.

31
 CHAPTER 5

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

32
 DATA ANALYSIS:
RESPONDENT PRATICE:

Interpretation: According to graph most of response are given by students (51%), and the next
highest response are from employee’s or govt. job holders (5.9%).

33
  How do you treat your drinking water:

Interpretation: For this response most of them use electric water purifier which is of 43.4% and
22.2% of them use non-electric water purifier.

 Do you know that boiling water is not a necessary a pure

Interpretation: 66.7% know that boiling water is 100% safe, and 33.3% people are unaware of safe
drinking water.

34
  Respond to what comes to your mind most

Interpretation: all most all the people look for health and safety, by this we can conclude that
people are aware of unhealthy or unsafe drinking water, and few people are concern about the
price or budget.

 What company water purifier are you currently using

Interpretation: 33.3% of people use pureit and 29% of them use kent, and 16.1% of people use
aqua guard purifiers in their homes, as these three brands are in first 3 positions in the market or
these three brands are at the top list of selling highest in the market, other brand also make a share
in the market.

35
  What is the price of the water purifier that you are currently using or are planning
to use

Interpretation: most of the people look for mid-range (5001/- to 10,000) pricing to afford for the
water purifier and there are also a segment of people who look both price, features.

 Where do you prefer to buy a water purifier from

Interpretation: Retail outlet are preferred by most of the people who are looking or planning to buy
a water purifier, there are only few direct outlets in the market of selling water purifiers but people
tend to buy from direct outlets also and very few customers are willing to buy from online.

36
  Where you did hear about the product

Interpretation: most of the people look the product at TV Commercials, and they are effective
marketing promotions, word of mouth it is most powerful promotion ever and it has a good
amount of share according to the responses, and people tend to trust most on reviews of previous
users.

 A survey conduced on consumer behaviour buying water purifier

Interpretation: Most of them who are aware water purifiers are between the age of 20-30,
this states that mostly this sort of people is aware of safe drinking water, and this has a
impact on consumer buying behaviour.

37
  What company water purifier are you currently using

Interpretation: AquaGuard and Kent stand 1st and 2nd position in place of sale and pureit stands on
4th place according to this survey.

FINDINGS:

In Marketing service are more necessary part of after or before sale goods or services. If services
are not good, then a product can’t be taken market place. According to kotler “Service is any
activity or benefits that one party can offer to another, that its essential intangible and doesn’t
results in the ownership of anything”.

From the above data analysis, we can know Pureit water purifier is almost better than other
water purifier. With the help of questionnaire, we come to know that Pureit is basically made for
all the customers and its price is normal, as most of the customers use it. This shows that the type
of service they provide is agreed by the customers, From the above diagram 42.2% of people use
Pureit purifier, which shows the service they provide to the customers. There are also few people
who would like to change their brand, this might be due to the service, quality etc which their
brand provide is not adequate as they were expecting. Through this we can come to know that
service and quality of the product plays an important role in the market.

38
LEARNINGS:

While working with Pureit for 2 months, has helped me in learning a lot of things. It taught me
that for doing any business patience is the very important. Especially in case of sales it is very important.
Through this project I have also experienced the people behaviour in different situations and their
different expectations from the same product. While working there I also got chance to deal with
the corporates and their way of dealing the proposals which will surely help me in future.

39
 CHAPTER 6

SUMMARY&CONCLUSION

40
Conclusion:
The success of any product mainly depends upon the preference and satisfaction of the consumers.
Majority of the consumers have locality for their own brand and for meeting the changing
environment the firm has to be constantly innovative and understand the consumer’s needs and
wants.

Suggestions: As per the survey done following are the suggestions:

Pricing:

As survey conducted many people prefer to buy less price of purifier with good quality, it is
necessary to provide Pureit less price of purifier with the better quality, which can suit both rural
and urban area consumers.

Improvement in technology:

HUL- Pureit is improving technology according to the needs of the customers, such as it has
introduced the copper model with normal water in 2019. But at the same time it should decide the
price by keeping customers in mind whether they can afford the purifier or not.

Awareness:

As the survey conducted the following reasons are found regarding the purifier.

HUL- Pureit needs to spend on advertisement to attract new customers.

There should not be any compromise with the quality, service of the product. Sales people should
have a proper knowledge of Pureit to explain the customers. Company should pay attention on the
customer needs.

41
REFERANCES
International Science Congress Association 1
A Study on Consumer Attitude towards Water Purifier with Special Reference to Erode City
Thilagavathi P. and Ramya S.
Department of Commerce (CA), Vellalar College for Women (Autonomous), Erode-12,
Tamilnadu, INDIAInternational Research Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2319–3565
Vol. 4(6), 1-6, June (2015) Int. Res. J. Social Sci

A comparative study of factors affecting consumer preference between local and branded water
purifiers with special reference to thiruvarur
Dr.A.Gunasundari, Dr.R.Vanitha, & S.Senthilvel
Assistant Professors, Dept. of Commerce, Swami Dayananda College, Manjakkudi, Tiruvarur
V.Rengarajan & V. Vijayanand
Assistant Professors, School of Management, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur
C.Kathirvel Babu
Assistant Professor, School of Management, SCSVMV Deemed University, Enathur,
Kancheepuram
Analysing household bottled water and water purifier expenditures: simultaneous equation
bivariate Tobit model
Seung-Hoon Yoo
School of Business and Economics, Hoseo University, 268 Anseo-Dong,
Cheonan, Chungnam, 330-180, Korea
E-mail: shyoo@office.hoseo.ac.kr

Factors affecting customer preference: a comparative analysis between local and branded water
purifiers

Mr. Deepak Dhariyal

Assistant Professor,
Amrapali Group of Institutes, Haldwani, Uttarakhand deepak_dhariyal@yahoo.co.in

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan_Unilever
https://www.hul.co.in/about/who-we-are/our-history/
https://www.hul.co.in/about/who-we-are/introduction-to-hindustan-unilever/
https://www.business-standard.com/company/hind-unilever-255/information/company-history
https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/hul-history-unlimited/cid/1423379
https://www.capitalmarket.com/Company-Information/Information/About-Company/Hindustan-Unilever-
Ltd/255
https://www.slideshare.net/Raashu82/hul-product-mix-60571603
https://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/what-is-product-line-and-product-depth-1433761528-1

42
 Appendix

Questionnaire design

Name
Occupation
Age
Income
10000-20000
21000-30000
31000-40000
41000-50000
Above 50000

1.How do you purify your drinking water?

a) Boiling
b) Do nothing
c) Use non electrical purifiers
d) Use electrical purifiers

2. Are you aware that 80% of the diseases in our country are water bounded?
a) Yes
b) No

3. Are you aware that boiling water is not a perfect process for purifying the water?
a) Yes
b) No

43
c) May Be

4. Is "BRAND-NAME" important to buy a water purifier?

a) Yes
b) No

5. Which company water purifier brand you prefer?

a) Pure It
b) Aqua guard
c) Kent
d) AO smith
e) LG
f) Tata Swatch
g) Livpure

6. What is the price of the water Purifier that you are currently using?
a) 5k – 10k
b) 11k – 15k
c)16k – 20k
f) 21k -25k

7. What comes to your mind when you are purchasing a water purifier?
a) Price
b) Quantity (Tank capacity)
c) Health and Safety
d) Quality

8. Where do you prefer to buy a purifier from?

44
a) Online Store
b) Retail Store

9. Are you aware of copper technology that is being used Pure It?
a) Yes
b) No
c) May Be

10. How do you got to know there is a copper technology in Pure It?
a) TV Commercial
b) Print Ad
c) Word of mouth

45