A STUDY ON CONSUMER

PREFERENCE TOWARDS
DABUR PRODUCTS

NAME: - M LALITH
USN NO: - 19MBAR0286
CLASS: - MHR
ABSTRACT:
This study aims to investigate the consumer preference regarding the Dabur brand through a survey.
The responses suggested that competitive pricing, quality of products and good communication
strategies were the most important reasons for the popularity of Dabur products. Further analysis
brought out the following factors as being the most important in influencing the decision to purchase
Dabur products among its customers like benefits/attributes consumer acquaintances with herbal
products, awareness on health the usage and attitude related to Dabur products increased.
Dabur company wants to formulate an effective marketing strategy to attract health conscious
consumers as it is a multinational consumer goods conglomerate with a focus in Ayurvedic products.
For this purpose, a survey was conducted as more and more consumers are becoming health conscious
and prefer to buy healthy and nutritious products.

On the basis or the survey, the consumers were divided into three categories

1. Old Consumers (elderly people)

2. Young Consumers (teenagers, unmarried, working singles)
3. Middle Aged Consumers (Big Families, Married Couples)

And the following information was found:

Old consumers: They were health conscious, brand loyal and highly involved in buying food items.
This is due to their medical considerations. They are very cautious while buying new products.

Young Consumers: They are less health conscious and less brand loyal than older people and have
less involvement in buying. They are more influenced by product appeals than the brand name or
price of the product.

Families and Households: They are moderately health conscious, moderate brand loyal and are very
particular about their purchases of items. They focus more on the brand, quality quantity and price of
a product rather than product appeals. This segment Usually consists of big families and married
couples with kids who look for value of money products.

Objectives of the study:

1. To identify the factors affecting consumer buying behaviour and consumer
decision making process.
2. To conclude and suggest strategies for effective marketing of FMCG products.

Intensity of the case:

Competition intensity is waning and market shares are improving for dabur. While the macroeconomic
environment continues to be challenging amid overall demand slowdown in India and high competitive
intensity, Dabur has executed well on distribution expansion strategy in rural India.
The leading FMCG brand has gained market share across categories like Health Supplements, Hair
Care, Oral Care and Foods.
FINDINGS:

1. consumers say that Dabur product is good for health.

2. 22% of the consumers say brand loyalty is the reason for using Dabur product.
3. 23% of the consumers say taste is the reason for using Dabur product.
4. 18% of the consumers say price is the reason for using Dabur product.
5. 17% of the consumers say some other reason for using that Dabur product.
6. 20% of the consumers say Television is encourage to buy a Dabur product.
7. 19% of the consumers say Internet is encourage to buy a Dabur product.
8. 24% of the consumers say friends are encourage to buy a Dabur product.
9. 20% of the consumers say family is encourage to buy a Dabur product.

SWOT ANALYSIS:
Strengths

1. First mover in Ayurveda R&D

2. Investments in manufacturing and Supply chain
3. Foray into ayurvedic drugs segment
4. Healthy financials and strong brand

Weakness:

1. Does not have company owned outlets

2. Dependent on distributors and retailers

Opportunities:

1. Growing acceptance of ayurvedic and natural products by Indian consumers

2. Capitalizing on the Herbal Wave in India
3. Growth in urbanization and affluent households

Threats:

1. Disruptive competition from new entrants

2. Demonetization impact to prevail in Indian market
3. Challenging environment in key markets

PESTLE ANALYSIS:

Political Factors:

Dabur is an Indian brand and it was founded in 1884 with the aim to provide Ayurvedic products to
the people. Today, Dabur has a huge product portfolio with the company being 4th largest in the Fast-
moving Consumer goods sector. A significant credit for Dabur’s success goes to the constant
government backing. Seeing, Dabur’s product quality and consistency, the government provided
favourable conditions to Dabur to expand in the foreign markets as well. It is the result of this that
today 27% of Dabur’s revenue is generated from the foreign markets. Dabur is yet to show its presence
in Australia and South America. Seeing the Political instabilities in the major countries such as Brazil,
Argentina etc.; it is not the right time to invest in South American nations. But Australia has shown
constant political stability. Also, Australia is ranked 18th on the Ease of doing Business index. So, it
is evident that Australia can be turn out to be a good source for revenue for Dabur.

Economic Factors:

More than 60% of Dabur’s revenues are generated from the Indian markets. So, it might seem that due
to the current economic slowdown persisting in the nation; Dabur would also be facing the wrath of it.
But the reality is different. As most of the products which Dabur produces can be afforded by an
average Indian customer; Dabur has not been affected much by the slowdown. Rather the sales number
has been constantly increasing. For Dabur to maintain this growth it is important that the inflation rate
should be lower, otherwise sales would drop.

Social Factors:

Dabur has very smartly positioned its brands. The products which are strongly related to Ayurveda i.e.
Dabur Amla Oil, Dabur Babool Toothpaste and Dabur Chawanprash have the logo of Dabur attached
very close to its own name. However, there is no great visibility of Dabur’s logo on products like Real
juice, Odonil etc. This is done keeping in view that people perceive Dabur as a company which
produces Ayurvedic products. Having a logo of dabur near the Real Juice might not create that impact
and would not lead to higher sales. Any behavioural changes in the people of a particular group based
on caste, religion and age won’t affect Dabur much as they have a portfolio which covers people from
all demographics

Technological Factors:

Apart from the fact that Dabur should find ways to streamline their operations, it is also necessary to
have a strong online presence. With people shifting from Televisions to Mobile phones, Laptops; it is
important for Dabur to also change their advertising methods. While other competitors like Hindustan
Unilever Limited seem to be interested in heavily investing towards online marketing and coming out
with its e-commerce portal, Dabur seems to be lagging in this aspect.

Legal Factors:

For any firm one of the most important legal factors is the Protection of Intellectual property Rights.
Just a year ago, one of the Dabur’s competitors; Marico violated the trademark and copyright laws by
publishing an advertisement in which Dabur Amla Oil was shown in a bad light. For this Marico was
fined by the Delhi High Court as well. Also, the company needs to have clear understanding about the
Employment laws. Rigorous checks should be done during the manufacturing of a product. If a faulty
sample reaches the customer; the customer can sue the company in Consumer court.

Environmental Factors:

Since people are becoming more conscious about the environment, Dabur’s products are getting its
benefits. Since the company’s products are Eco-friendly, it tends to compel people to start producing
its products. Also, the climate of the country where Dabur is selling its products matter. In a country
like India where summers persist for around 8 months, the beauty products like Shampoos, Juice will
observe higher sales.
Suggestions:
1. The samples should be distributed to the people.
2. The product needs more promotional activities.
3. The package of the product should be more attractive to increase the sales.
4. Offers and discounts should be announced frequently.
5. Focus on growing core brands across categories.
6. Improve operational efficiencies by leveraging technology.
7. Target consumers with safe, efficacious, natural solutions by synthesizing the deep knowledge of
Dabur products.
8. Provide consumers with innovative products within easy reach.
9. The demand was because the herbal products are mostly skin friendly, nonallergic and healthy to
human body and provide the benefits naturally. The only problems with them is that they are little
costly. These products should be made available at affordable prices.
10. Promotion of the personal care brands is one of the very important factors. To capture consumers
mind and pocket it is very essential.

Conclusion:
Dabur is enjoying the advantageous position in market through spirituality element involved in its
products. The people now are not considering the herbal as luxury. Most of the consumers feel that
there were chemicals in herbal, which cause many side effects, and started switching over to ayurvedic
based cosmetics. The herbal manufacturing company after realizing the need of the customers‟ started
ayurvedic based cosmetics. This study enabled the manufactures to know the need and preference of
the customers‟, which can be implemented by the manufactures to improve their products. Friends,
family and advertisements were found to be the decision influencers while buying the personal care
products. This is because the respondents are young population and are constantly in touch through
workplace, social media, mobile phones etc. so they have lot of influence on each other while buying
the personal care products particularly cosmetics, hair care and beauty related products. Television and
word of mouth emerged to be the most influential in promoting the personal care brands.

They are easily available and do not have side effects. With its rich biodiversity and rich heritage of
Indian medicinal system, India would draw world attention as an abode of eco-friendly systems that
are in harmony with the nature, it is concluded that all the customers are aware of the product, and the
customers are satisfied with the quality and price of the products. As we see a lot of commercial
advertisements on T.V. these days, they are bound to influence the youth and other members of the
society as well. Toady consumer wants quality product, good services, easy availability of product and
better benefits from the product. People are becoming more brands conscious and they are not satisfied
with the range of products available. So, it is up to the players in the market to provide multiple options
and at the same time maintain a perfect balance between the quality and price of the personal care
products.