RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Project report on

IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING ON SALES OF AUTOMOBILES

Submitted By

MUSKANMAHESHWARI

ROLL NO. 25

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
S. PARTICULARS
No.
1. Chapter 1
1.1 Automobile Industry
1.2 Need for the Study

2. Chapter 2
Literature Review
3. Chapter 3

3.1 Objectives of the study

3.2 Scope of the Study
3.3 Hypothesis
3.4 Instrument Design
3.5 Method of Data Collection
3.6 Statistical Design

4. Chapter 4
Analysis and Interpretation
5. Chapter 5
Summary and Findings
6. Chapter 6
Recommendations and Conclusion
7. Appendix
8. References

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Automobile Industry

Introduction to the Industry

The automotive industry in India is one of the largest in the world with an annual production
of 23.96 million vehicles in FY (fiscal year) 2015–16, following a growth of 2.57 per cent
over the last year. The automobile industry accounts for 7.1 per cent of the country's gross
domestic product (GDP). The Two Wheelers segment, with 81 per cent market share, is the
leader of the Indian Automobile market, owing to a growing middle class and a young
population. Moreover, the growing interest of companies in exploring the rural markets
further aided the growth of the sector. The overall Passenger Vehicle (PV) segment has 13
per cent market share.
Market Size
The industry produced a total 14.25 million vehicles—including passenger vehicles (PV),
commercial vehicles (CV), and three- and two wheelers (3W and 2W)—in April–October
2015, as against 13.83 in April–October 2014, registering a marginal growth of 3.07 per cent,
year-to-year.
The sales of PVs grew by 8.51 per cent in April–October 2015 over the same period in the
previous year. The overall CVs segment registered a growth of 8.02 per cent in April–October
2015 as compared to same period last year. Medium- and heavy commercial vehicles (MCV and
HCV) registered very strong growth of 32.3 per cent, while sales of light commercial vehicles
(LCV) declined by 5.24 per cent during April–October 2015, year-to-year.
Government Initiatives
The Government of India encourages foreign investment in the automobile sector and allows
100 per cent FDI under the automatic route.
Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India are:

1. The Government of India aims to make automobile manufacturing the main driver of
"Make in India" initiative, as it expects the passenger vehicles market to triple to 9.4
million units by 2026, as highlighted in the Auto Mission Plan (AMP) 2016-26.
2. In the Union budget of 2015-16, the Government has announced plans to provide credit
of Rs 850,000 crore (US$127.5 billion) to farmers, which is expected to boost sales in the
tractors segment.
3. The government plans to promote eco-friendly cars in the country—i.e. CNG-based
vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and electric vehicles—and also to make mandatory 5 per cent
ethanol blending in petrol.
4. The government has formulated a Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of
Electric and Hybrid Vehicles in India, under the National Electric Mobility Mission 2020,
to encourage the progressive introduction of reliable, affordable, and efficient electric and
hybrid vehicles into the country.
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5. The Automobile Mission Plan (AMP) for the period 2006–2016, designed by the
government is aimed at accelerating and sustaining growth in this sector.

1.5 Need for Study

As of 2018, India is the 4th largest automobile market in the world and is foreseen to be the
2nd largest market by 2020. Automobile sector plays a vital part in overall economy of any
country, including India. As with all the new global trends, India isn't far behindhand in the
usage of digital marketing in the automotive business. User behaviour when researching and
buying product has encaptured at great pace over recent years, and also the use of digital
media during this journey is frequently increasing. Though most vehicle purchases are still
meted out in dealerships, the analysis meted out online beforehand is rising. Because there's a
large quantity of content on-line covering everything from product specifications and
customer reviews to product comparisons and rating, several purchase choices are made
before the client visits the dealership. These choices are considerably influenced by the
marketing content customers are presented with during the buying process.
Digital marketing is the all-mighty gateway between electronic technology and marketing
science, asserts Cory Linguist, a renowned marketing professional. And Asian automakers
are adhering to it quite seriously, so much so that they have nearly twofold their spent on
digital marketing in many cases and social media becomes the most serious among all forms
of digital marketing. According to sources at major automobile businesses, last period India's
top automakers, including but not closed Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra &
Mahindra, spent as much as Rs 2,600 crores on their digital marketing campaigns. This also
includes the amount spent during the 2016 Auto Expo held in Feb last year. Two-wheeler
makers find, digital marketing more efficient and effective g. The automobile industry is also
2nd largest advertiser ranking roughly 21.7 pct. of the India’s overall advertising capex.
The need for the study arises in the effort to understand whether these
advertisements are having the positive impact and are they influential
enough. The main question is, whether the expenditure on marketing is
justified and is there a boost in sales coming solely from digital marketing.

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 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Internet Marketing by Automobile Industry: Special Reference of Indian Counterparts
The central idea behind this paper is to reflect on the question if Internet Marketing is being
widely used as a tool within the Automobile sector in India for imparting mass scale
information of their products and for large scale promotions. The paper focuses on how 3
completely different automobile corporations with different origins apply internet marketing
for sales and promotions of their product. It shows the comparison between German
manufacturer Volkswagen, South Korean manufacturer Hyundai and French manufacturer
Renault. the main reason for selecting these corporations is owing to all the 3 having totally
different origins and their cars are quite to seek out in Indian market. therefore it had been to
seek out choice to search out how 3 completely different nation based corporations use social
media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and also the information was collected first
week of Jan 2014 to the last week of February 2014.
The data showed quite spectacular results and established that brands promoting through
completely different social sites keeps the interest of the followers intact through varied
activities performed through real time updates.
As per data, Volkswagen India has performed quite higher during a short span of time to
impress the Indian market, whereas Hyundai India additionally performs quite better having
customers from nearly past twenty years. On the other hand, Renault India has successfully
affected through its most well-liked car, Duster.
Hence promotions through internet marketing are significantly essential by these corporations
to gather tastes and preferences of the purchasers for giving higher competition to the other
makers. It may be concluded that internet marketing is the best practice to possess during this
era for the promotions of latest advancements and activities.

The research on automobile marketing channel management model

China can become the world's largest automobile potential market and ranks second in the
world automobile market, therefore he market opportunities in China's automobile market is
unexampled. Because the automotive trade is rushing up the process of survival of the fittest,
automobile marketing is crucial for any brands, distributors and operators. The article first
introduces connected ideas, likewise as automobile marketing mode, and lastly suggests
relevant proposals and measures by probing the dealers’ competitive analysis.

As per study, there's a requirement of raising the level of the product, employing a new form
of automotive promoting management so as to get eliminate issues of low gain and product
attractiveness. So as to fulfill the demand of invasive car market, whereas within the case of
the already saturated marketing channels in central cities, there should be a rise in the range
of automobile marketing channels, vigorously develop marketing channels in 3 or four tier
cities and permit a lot of versatile marketing channel mode in the future. both automobile
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makers and dealers are in want of a whole and unified layout and group management to
strengthen the strategic management of enterprises and strengthen their coaching system and
establish a talent system with the assistance of Western marketing channel models, in order
that they will meet the incessantly increasing client demand, promote the stable and speedy
development of automobile marketing channel and increase dealers competition.

Digital Marketing Communication and Consumer Buying Decision Process: An

Empirical Study in the Indian Passenger Car Market

The effect of digital marketing communication on product categories like books, music,
fashion accessories, clothing, banking and online gaming etc. has been well researched by the
researchers; but automobile industry despite being one of the largest digital spenders has
faced dearth of academic studies especially in India. The present study aims to understand the
effect of digital marketing communication on consumer buying decision process in Indian
passenger car market. Mixed methodology was adopted for the study. Primary data was
collected from 784 respondents from ‘Delhi’ using area wise proportionate sampling. One
sample Wilocoxon Signed Rank, one sample binomial test and chi-sqaure tests were applied
as tests of significance. The study concluded that 75% of the respondents used at least one
digital channel of communication while buying a car. ‘Website’ was the most used digital
channel of communication while buying a car followed by ‘social networking sites’ and
‘smartphones’. Each and every stage of car buying decision making process right from ‘need
recognition’ to ‘post purchase’ was ‘significantly’ affected from digital marketing
communication with ‘evaluation’ being the most affected stage.

The results of the study confirmed that digital marketing communication is capable of even
triggering need recognition in high involvement product category like car. The results also
established that consumers feel positive towards digital communication, get affected from
other customers' reviews and express their post-purchase feeling feelings over digital
platforms. However, the study also confirmed that although customers appreciate the usage of
digital channels throughout the decision making journey, still they don't book a car online.
Marketing Strategies of Indian Automobile Companies: A Case Study of Maruti Suzuki
India Limited
In today’s competitive era the word ‘Strategy’ is extremely crucial for all business
organizations. Presently organizations started realizing that client centric and aggressive
marketing strategies plays very important role to become eminent leader. to get distinctive
and differential advantage, a company must be inventive in its marketing strategy. In today‘s
cutthroat competition it's very tough to survive. Stiff competition has forced makers to be
innovative and attentive to client demands and desires. One such manufacturer is Maruti
Suzuki that today due to innovative marketing methods Maruti Suzuki has become the
leading & largest seller of vehicles in India. The objective of the article is to target varied
marketing ways of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd .Maruti Suzuki India limited is a leading
company in Indian Automobile sector that occupies outstanding place thanks to its innovative
strategic marketing, promotional, brand positioning, and advertising methods. The article
concludes stating that, in today‘s scenario the success of company lies in structuring and
restructuring the marketing strategies and continuous innovation of product and services.

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of marketing ways, which will facilitate economical strategic promoting activities, was
developed.
The study analyzed the important elements of building a strategic plan for the corporate,
offered by domestic and foreign scientists, allowed to formulate the main stages of the
strategic marketing plan for enterprises of automotive industry, which are including: market
trends, competition, performance, and legislative conditions.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN

3.1 Objectives of the Study

A) Primary Objective
To assess the channels of digital marketing used by automobile companies on its consumers
resulting in change in volume of sales.
B) Secondary Objectives
a. To understand the idea and to learn the modern scenario of digital marketing usage in the
Indian automobile industry
b. To obtain understanding regarding a customer’s perceptions towards digital marketing
usage by an automobile entity.
c. To learn and find out the consumer preferences for digital marketing channels or activities
of an automobile company
d. To acquire customer-centric methodology for performing digital marketing in Indian
automobile industry by utilising digital marketing forms i.e. internet marketing, kiosk
marketing etc.
.
3.5 Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1:
Null Hypothesis (H0): In the present scenario, 75% of customers have bought vehicles due to
influence of digital marketing.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1): In the present scenario, more than 75% of customers have
bought vehicles due to influence of digital marketing.
Hypothesis 2:
Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference in preference of digital marketing
form for male and female respondents.
Alternative Hypothesis (H1): There is a significant difference in preference of digital
marketing form for male and female respondents.
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3.6 Instrument Design
A questionnaire was used as the instrumental design.

3.7 Method of Data Collection

Primary Data: Questionnaire, Survey, Interviews.
Secondary Data: Internet, Magazines, Newspapers.

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 CHAPTER 4

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

As shown the majority of the respondents were Females.

Half of the respondents were above 40 years of age, and most of them were in the 40 – 60
year bracket.

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Most of the respondents were earning more than 5,00,000. They were classified as people
with a high income level.

More than half of the respondents owned an automobile, and half of them owned a 2 wheeler.

Only half of the respondents agreed to be aware of digital marketing at some level.

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The most common mode of digital media according to the respondents is E-mail Marketing

More than half of the respondents have agreed to have been impacted by digital marketing to
make a purchasing choice at some level.

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More than half of the respondents disagree to be active on social media, but still the most
used social media platforms are Whatsapp, Twitter, and Facebook.

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A big majority of the respondents believe that automobile companies should focus on digital
marketing.

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Most of the automobile dealerships are located in urban areas, and they sell cars more than
bikes.

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More than half of the dealerships are not active on social media.

The most used social media platform among the dealerships is Whatsapp.

More than half of the dealerships responded that digital marketing has affected the sales of
products in some way.

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More than half of the dealerships responded that there has been a significant difference is
sales before and after the use of digital marketing in some way.

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 CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

● From the sample size, it is found that around 53% of the respondents own
automobiles.
● Out of those 37% own cars, and 50% own 2 wheelers.
● 49% of the respondents have little idea what Digital Marketing was, and only 38%
were confident that they were fully aware. The rest were not completely aware but
had some idea.
● E-mail marketing was the most common form of digital marketing according to the
respondents and Mobile Phone advertisements were lease common.
● About 37% of the respondents agree that digital marketing has an impact on consumer
purchasing choice, while about 39% disagree on the same question.
● More than 52.5% of the respondents are not very active on social media.
● Out of those active on social media, most of the respondents agree that digital
marketing had some sort of influence on them, in purchasing their automobile.
● Out of the Automobile Dealerships, almost 68% of the respondents were from urban
areas, the rest were from rural areas.
● Out dealerships, there were more bike dealerships than car. But there was not a very
big difference.
● 52% of the dealerships revealed that they had no presence on social media
whatsoever.
● Out of those who were active on social media, the most common platform was
Whatsapp, followed by Instagram.
● Less than half of the dealerships said that digital marketing had no impact on the sales
of the product.
● 34% of the respondents revealed that digital marketing had a positive impact on the
sales.
● 39% of the dealerships revealed that there is a significant difference in the sales,
before and after implementing digital marketing.
● Majority of the respondents agree that digital marketing positively affects sales.
● Most of the respondents say that digital marketing is better than traditional marketing.

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 CHAPTER 6

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSION:
The Automobile Industry in India is a very dynamic and established industry. It is one of the
biggest industries in the country. Despite the constraints put up by the petroleum prices, the
automobile industry remains one of the most constantly growing industries in India.
With the surge of social media and smart devices in the last decade, the marketing of products
has taken a huge diversion, from traditional methods to digital. Every industry is using digital
marketing in some way or the other. The most visible advertisers still is the automobile
industry. The companies, along with the local dealers are putting a great effort to get the
digital marketing of the industry the best in the country.
Currently the influence is majorly only in urban areas, but as the influence of social media
and smart devices spreads through the rural areas, the automobile manufacturers will not
leave a stone unturned to get digital marketing there.
RECOMMENDATION:
Although the study was called successful, there are a few points to note for further studies.
1. The sample size was very small, there should be a larger sample to get the
results from different parts of the country.
2. The sample size was much categorized, there was little variation in the sample
population. The sample population should be from different lines of life in the
country. As the variation grows, the relevance of the data grows, otherwise,
the data remains a little biased.

Some recommendations for the automobile dealerships and manufacturers.

1. The automobile manufacturers and dealerships should focus more on digital
marketing, but they should not forget traditional marketing, as there are still a very
large number of people who do not have access to and are not aware of digital
marketing.
2. The automobile manufacturers and dealerships should try to educate the people
about digital marketing.

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APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE

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