SAMPLE

Nabil Nazir Shaikh

2108026
Subject - A Study on Brand awareness and customer
Satisfaction of HUL
INDEX:

SR.NO PARTICULARS PAGE. NO

1 Executive Summary

2 Introduction

3 Introduction to company profile with chart

4 Industry overview

5 Department organization with chart

6 Literature review

7 Need of the study, Objectives of the study

8 Research methodology.

9 Analysis of data and results Process

10 Findings and Interpretations

11 Recommendations, future scope

12 Conclusion

13 Appendix

14 References

15 URKUND ANALYSIS RESULTS

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The new millennium is not just a new beginning. It is a continuation of trends in human behavior
that have been following cyclical patterns throughout our country’s history. just because we have
entered a new era does-not mean we have to start from scratch when it comes to interpreting why
certain customer are loyal to certain brands, and what type of factors influence those kind of
buying behavior. Brand awareness is the customer’s conscious or unconscious decision,
expressed through intention or behavior, to repurchase a brand continually. It occurs because the
customer perceives that the brand offers the right product features, image or level of quality at
right price. Customer’s behavior is habitual because habits are safe and familiar. In order to
create brand loyalty, advertisers must break customer habits, help them acquire new habits, and
reinforce those habits by reminding retailers of the value of their purchase and encourage them to
continue purchasing those products in the future.

Brand awareness has key role in determining the behavior of a customer and it has the final
decision. Until a customer has clear cut of view about the product he never to purchase, whereas
awareness about a particular brand makes him to take quick decision and go forward.
A Study on Brand awareness and customer Satisfaction of
HUL

INTRODUCTION:

Brand awareness refers to the extent to which customers can recall or recognize a
brand. Brand awareness is a key consideration in consumer behavior, advertising
management, brand management and strategy development.

Basically, there are different types of brand awareness operate in fundamentally

different ways and this is most important implications for the purchase decision
process and for marketing communication.

Consumers are believed for to hold between three and seven brands in the
consideration set of broad product range of categories.

Brand awareness is a key indicator for to identify the competitive market

performance. Marketers are also being developed analytics tools for to measure
brand health. These tools are known as awareness, attitude & usage (AAU)
metrics.

It is related to the functions of brand identities in consumers memory and can be

measured how well the consumer can identify the brand through in various
situations. Brand awareness is also central tendency for to understanding the
consumer purchase decision process. Strong brand awareness can be a predictor of
brand success. It is an important measure of brand strength and brand equity and is
also involved in customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and the customer's brand
relationships.

“Customer satisfaction “is a measurement to determine the how happy customer

towards the particular company’s brand, product, services, etc. customer
satisfaction is a set of data which can help the company for to improve the quality
of brand, product or services which makes the customer satisfaction.
INTRODUCTION:
In FMCG industries “Hindustan Unilever” comes in first positions in top 10 FMCG
companies in India.

FMCG are products that are sold quickly and a relatively low cost. Example includes
household goods such as packaging of foods, beverages, toiletries, over the counter drugs
and other consumables.

“Hindustan Unilever limited” is a British-Dutch company. Where, established in the

year 1933 as lever brothers and following constitute merger groups in 1956 renamed as
Hindustan Unilever limited. CEO”SanjivMehta”.s

As of 2019 Hindustan Unilever portfolio had 35 product brands in 20 categories and

18000 employees with sales of rs.34,619 crores in 2017-18.

It’s products are foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products, water
purifiers and consumers goods.

Brands and products:

HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over 20
consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos amongst others with
over 700 million Indian consumers using its products. Sixteen of HUL's brands featured
in the ACNielsen Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2014),
carried out by Brand Equity, a supplement of The Economic Times.

Foods

 Annapurna salt and Atta (formerly known as Kissan Annapurna)

 Bru coffee
 Brooke Bond (3 Roses, Taj Mahal, Taaza, Red Label) tea
 Kissan squashes, ketchups, juices and jams
 Lipton ice tea
 Knorr soups & meal makers and soupy noodles
 Kwality Wall's frozen dessert
 Modern Bread, ready to eat chapattis and other bakery items (now sold
to Everstone Capital)
 Magnum (ice cream)
Homecare brands:

 Active Wheel detergent
 Cif Cream Cleaner
 Comfort fabric softeners
 Domex disinfectant/toilet cleaner
 Rin detergents and bleach
 Sunlight detergent and colour care
 Surf Excel detergent and gentle wash
 Vim dishwash
 Love & Care fabric gentle wash

Personal care brands:

 Aviance Beauty Solutions

 Axe deodorant and aftershaving lotion and soap
 LEVER Ayush Therapy ayurvedic health care and personal care products
 International breeze
 Brylcreem hair cream and hair gel
 Clear anti-dandruff hair products
 Clinic Plus shampoo and oil
 Close Up toothpaste
 Dove skin cleansing & hair care range: bar, lotions, creams and anti-perspirant
deodorants
 Denim shaving products
 Fair and Lovely, skin lightening cream
 Hamam
 Indulekha ayurvedic hair oil
 Lakmé beauty products and salons
 Lifebuoy soaps and handwash range
 Liril 2000 soap
 Lux soap, body wash and deodorant
 Pears soap, body wash
 Pepsodent toothpaste
 Pond's talcs and creams
 Rexona
 Sunsilk shampoo
 Sure anti-perspirant
 Vaseline petroleum jelly, skin care lotions
 TIGI
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW:
Fast moving consumer goods comes the 4th largest sector in Indian economy. Where,
there are 3 important segments in these sectors.

 Foods and beverages 19%

 Healthcare 31%
 Personal care 50%

The FMCG sector has grown from (US$31.6 billion) to (US$52.75 billion) in the
year 2017-18.

In the year 2019 annual growth rate is increased 11-12 Percent increased which is
(US$59.08billion)

And further were expecting to grow the annual compound rate to 27.86% which is
(US$103.7 billion) in the year 2020.

Where the maximum no’s of the consumption of an FMCG products is done from
rural area which is 16.5% and from urban area 10% of the consumption had done in
the year 2017-18.

TOP 10 FMCG COMPANIES IN INDIA:

 Hindustan Unilever Limited.

 ITC
 Nestle
 Colgate-palmolive
 Parle
 Britannia Industries
 Marico
 Procter & Gamble
 Godrej group
 Amul
GROWTH SIZE OF FMCG INDUSTRIES IN THE YEAR 2018-19:

Fast moving consumer goods is the fourth largest sector in Indian economy with
the household and personal care accounting 50% of FMCG sales in India.

In the urban segment 55% of the revenue generated by the FMCG sector in India,
from the last five years & 50% of the revenue generated from the rural area.

Revenue generated from the FMCG industries in FY18 was 3.4lakh crore
(US$52.75billion) and were expected to reach US$103.7 billion in FY2020.

In the FY18 the FMCG in rural consumption area was US$23.6 billion.

In the FY18 the FMCG in urban consumption area was US$29.15 billion.

MARKET GROWTH RATE (Jan 09, 2020, 11:59am):

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER: 1,938.80INR 9.45(0.49%)

Colgate Palmolive: 1,457.45INR 6.45 (0.44%)

ITC Limited:235.75 INR 1.55 (0.66%)

Nestle India limited: 14,606.80 INR215.55 (1.50%)

Britannia industries limited: 3,009.55INR -14.05(-0.46%)

Marico limited: 334.80INR 1.30 (0.39%)

Procter and gamble: 4,363.00 INR 104.55 (2.46%)

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES:

 The Government of India has approved 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) in the cash and carry segment and in single-brand retail along with 51 per
cent FDI in multi-brand retail.
 The Government of India has drafted a new Consumer Protection Bill with special
emphasis on setting up an extensive mechanism to ensure simple, speedy,
accessible, affordable and timely delivery of justice to consumers.
 The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is beneficial for the FMCG industry as many
of the FMCG products such as Soap, Toothpaste and Hair oil now come under 18
per cent tax bracket against the previous 23-24 per cent rate. Also rates on food
products and hygiene products have been reduced to 0-5 per cent and 12-18 per
cent respectively.
 The GST is expected to transform logistics in the FMCG sector into a modern and
efficient model as all major corporations are remodeling their operations into
larger logistics and warehousing.

Market Share of FMCG Companies in India:

 Percentage
Hindustan unilever Ltd
Procter and gamble 16%
19%

Godrej Consumers products

marico Ltd. 11%
7%

Britannia industrie Ltd. ITC

8% 13%
Nestle
11%

Anchor Health & Beauty care Ltd.

Colgate Palmolive 7%
8%

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF HUL:

Chairman & managing director Mr. Sanjiv Mehta

Executive director, Finance & IT &chief

Financial officer. Mr. Srinivas Pathak

Executive Director & supply chain Mr. Willem Uijen

Independent director Mr. Aditya Narayan

 Independent director Mr. Leo Puri

Independent director Mr. O.P. Bhatt

Independent director Dr. Sanjiv Mishra

Independent director Ms. Kalpana Morparia

LITERATURE REVIEW:
Customer needs desires and expectations. Kotler (2003) also defines satisfaction as a
person’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a products
perceived a performance in relation to his or her expectations’. Satisfaction is an overall
customer attitude towards a service provider, or an emotional reaction to the difference
between what the customer anticipates and what they actually receive, as far as the
fulfillment of some need, goal and desire is concerned. (Hans mark and Albinson2004).

Motley, (2003), corroborates the idea of matching the service performance with customer
expectations. He notes that the mission of a business is the creation of satisfied clients
who tends to favor the organization through time by patronizing the services being
delivered by the business. He goes further to mentions the businesses can achieve this
aim by understanding what satisfies and dissatisfies their customers or clients.

Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (1993) have defined service quality as the ability of
the organization to meet or exceed customer expectations. Service quality is believed to
depend on the gap between expected and perceived performance (Anderson, Fornell, &
Lehmann, 1994). Gitlow, Oppenheim (1989) also stated that service quality is the extent
to which the customer or users believe the service surpasses their needs and expectations.

Winstanley and Martha (1997), have a different view about the relationship between
customer satisfaction and loyalty. They perceive the direct relationship between
satisfaction and loyalty. They claim that when customers are satisfied, they concentrate
their business with one business or service provider. Also, customers who are highly
satisfied are much more likely to view their service providers as their main relationship
business. Thus, Clarke (2001), has put forward the argument that, ‘a business that
focuses exclusively on customer satisfaction runs the risk on becoming an
undifferentiated brand whose customers believe only that it meets the minimum
performance criteria for the category 2010. Brand image has a significant and positive
relationship with purchase intension. (Sebastianelli and tamimi (2002) : explained
about the quality of the product or services reflects the excellence, which means it comes
from the production level and it should be constant or improved. they suggest that the
quality should consist the measurable features instead of preferences. It is basically based
upon the design of the product. Where product quality satisfies the needs of the
customers which may include different features and this quality would absolutely
enhance the performance of the company

Advertisement and consumer cognitive processing (Friestad and wright, 1994;

Mitchell,1986; Moonand Balasubramanian, 2004): organization feels that the most
important tool for to make the product effective in a market or to make a unique
comparing to the other competitors is done through an advertising.

Earlier, the studies had done how to develop a Cognitive process and changed through
advertisements while focusing on the attributes of the product. It is basically used where
there are lots of competitors in the market and plenty no’s of product and brand
advertisements which intensity of messages affects the consumer memory. Therefore,
advertisers use repetitive advertisements to start cognitive process.

Brand awareness in rural area (Hoyer et al. 1990) &.(Laurent, et al. 1995): the most
important part for to understand or to measure the brand awareness is done through brand
reorganization and recall. This study is done for to compare a pictorial advertisement to a
non-pictorial advertisement indicates that how much more effective rural consumers were
as compared to urban consumers.

NEED OF THE STUDY:

The main purpose of the study is to improve the level of brand awareness and the
satisfaction of the customer regarding to the HUL products. So, the most important part
in market is the customer. Customer decides what to purchase, why to purchase, where to
purchase & how much to purchase. In order to become the competitive market leader,
he/she supposed to know about the like or dislike of the customer. The aspects of the
study are to understand the brand image and brand awareness of the company in to the
market. It helps to check the loyalty of the customer towards a HUL brands. So, the HUL
needs to improvise the strategies of promotional tools which create a image of a Brand in
the mind of customers.

Objectives of study:

 To study the satisfaction level of the customer towards HUL products

 To understand the brand awareness of HUL products
 To know the customer perception while purchasing the HUL products.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

 Research design: Exploratory research &Focus.

 Research method: Quantitative
 Sample source: Secondary data - company literature & internet.
Primary data – Generated through questionnaire.
 Sample population: Customers from India.
 Sampling Technique: convenience Sampling & Simple random Sampling.
 Sample size: 100
 Data collection tool: Questionnaire.

Scope of study:
The geographical scope of study was done in Mumbai city due to time and resource
constraints. The study being exploratory in nature, sample size was taken to 100
consumers.
Data analysis of survey through questionnaire

Q.1. Categorizing the respondents.

From the 100 respondents there are 52% are of female and 48% are of male.

Q.2. Who prefers to buy the HUL products ?

As per the above survey, 30% comes under age group of 36-45, 29% comes under
age group of 26-35, 25% comes under the age group of 46-55,15% comes under
the age group of 18-25, and remaining 1% comes under the age group of 56&
above (This all are the different age of group respondents who prefers to buy the
HUL products or not).

Q.3. Marital Status

62% of respondents are married who comes under the age group of 36-45,46-55
&remaining 56& above.

38% of respondents are unmarried who comes under the age group of 18-25,26-35.

Q.4. Occupational Status

As per the above survey the occupation of a respondentsshows that 20% are
studentswho comes under the age of 18-25, 26-35 , 24% are housewife who comes
under the age of 36 & above, 44% are employed who comes under the age of 25 &
above, and remaining 12% are businessman.

Q.5. Monthly Income of the Family?

The following survey shows the monthly income of the respondents, maximum
number of respondents who earns 40,000 & above is 75%, 21% of the respondents
who earns 30,000 to 40,000 & remaining respondents which is 4% who earns
20,000 to 30,000.

Q.6. Whether you prefer to buy HUL products?

Analysis

The following survey shows that, 65% of a respondent prefers to buy HUL
products and 35% of a respondent who don’t prefers to buy HUL products.

Interpretation

This means, that a majority of respondents who were surveyed have indicated their
liking for the brand

Q.7. If no, why do you don’t prefer HUL products?

Analysis:

When the following asked to the people why they don’t like to buy the HUL
products, the following respondents shows that 25.6% of a people doesn’t want to
buy HUL products due to discount are not available, 20.5% of a people doesn’t
prefers to buy due to the price of a HUL product is high comparatively to the other
brands, 20.5 % of the people doesn’t prefer to buy HUL product due to not
available in there nearby stores, & 12.8% of a people are not being aware about
some of the HUL products due to less awareness.

Interpretation:

This means, The discount 25.6%, price 20.5% & availability 20.5% of a products
makes an attracts the customers for to prefer to buy the HUL products.

Q.8. How would you like HUL for to improve its products?
Analysis:

As per the following survey shows that, there are some of the HUL products who
doesn’t create a proper awareness should create advertisements for a better recall,
it also shows that there are some of the stores where the HUL products are not
being available so the product of an HUL should be available widely for the
customers, the price of a HUL products is high comparatively to the other brands
so there should be discount or to decrease the price of a HUL products.

Q.9.Which of the following stores you preferred to buy HUL products?

Analysis:

As per the survey, the respondents who buy the HUL products from the stores are
52.3% are from supermarket, 9.2% are from kirana store, 9.2% are from
departmental store, 29.2% are from online store. (The people buy the HUL
products from those different modes because of easily available and discounts are
provided).

Interpretation:

This means the maximum number of customers which is 52.3% prefer to buy from
supermarket. Rather than from departmental store, kirana store & from online.

Q.10 What are those HUL products which you prefers for to buy from Stores
or Online shopping?
Analysis:

The people who buys the HUL products from store or from an online i.e. 64.6%
are of personal care products( Annapurna salt, Bru coffee, Brooke bond, Kissan
ketchup, Magnum), 27.7% are of home-care products(Active wheel, Comfort
fabric softeners, Rin detergents, surf excel,Vim dishwash), 7.7% are of foods
products(Aviance beauty solution, Axe deodorant, LEVER Ayush, clear anti-
dandruff hair products, clinic plus shampoo and oil, close up toothpaste, Dove skin
cleaning).

Interpretation:

This means maximum people prefers to buy the HUL Brand product for personal
care 64.6%, rather than foods and home-care products.

Q.11. How long you are buying HUL products?

Analysis:

As per the survey the people who buys the HUL products are from 3 years &
above are the maximum ones which is 67.7%, and the remaining 2-3 years are the
32.3%.

Interpretation:

This means maximum number of customers buy the HUL products 3 years and
above which is 67.7%.

Q.12. How did you come to know about HUL products?

Analysis:

As per the following survey, 33.8% are suggested from friends/family for to buy
HUL products, 29.2% buys from through internet, 30.8% buys the HUL products
from TV/newspaper ads & remaining buy the HUL product from product display.

Interpretation:

This means, the maximum numbers of customers get aware about the HUL brand
is due to through Friends and family which is 33.8%, TV/Newspaper ads which is
30.8%& Internet which is 29.2%.

Q.13. Which factors influences you for to buy HUL products?

Analysis:

The people who buys the HUL products is due to, 10.8% are because of price,
18.5% are due to brand name, 18.5% are due to quality, 15.4% are due to discount
facility, 32.8% are due to advertisements, 46.2% are due to easy availability in
nearby store or in online store & 3.1% are from packaging.

Interpretation:

This means, the factors that influence the customer for to buy the HUL products is
more due to the Easy availability 46.2%&advertisements 32.3% of the HUL
products.

Q.14. Do you think Gift/Schemes attracts customer to buy?

Analysis:

The gifts/schemes make a people for to attract to buy the HUL products, 86.2% of
the respondents says YES because there are many competitors in a market who
attract customers towards their brands by using unique strategies & 13.8% of the
respondents says NO because they are loyal towards the brand.

Interpretation:

This means, the customer attracts for to buy the HUL brand is based upon the
gifts/schemes which is 86.2%.

Q.15. In what way advertisements has influenced you?

Analysis:

As per the above survey, the advertisements of the HUL products influenced the
customers through 36.9% makes a positive impression, 29.2% makes an interest,
18.5% makes an better recall, 15.4% makes an better exposure.

Interpretation:

This means, the advertisements of the HUL brand creates positive impression
towards the brand it generates the trust of the customer for to buy their products
which is 36.9% as well as interest of the customers towards HUL brands 29.2%.

Q.16. How would you rate the level of satisfaction towards HUL?
Analysis:

As per the following survey, 40% of a respondent says that the satisfaction of an
HUL products is good and remaining of them says an excellent.

Interpretation:

Maximum number of customers are satisfied after using HUL products which is
60%. This happens due to the availability and the proper brand awareness which
creates a positive image in the mind of the customers.

Buyer Behavior
The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customers’ needs and wants. The field
of consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use,
and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires.
Understanding consumer behavior is never simple, because customers may say one thing
but do another. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivations, and they may
respond to influences and change their minds at the last minute. Still, all marketers can
profit from understanding how and why consumers buy. For example, Whirlpool’s staff’s
anthropologists go into people’s homes, observe how they use appliances, and talk with
household members. Whirlpool has found that in busy families, women are not the only
ones doing the laundry. Knowing this, the company’s engineers developed color-coded
washer and dryer controls to make it easier for kids and men to pitch in.

In fact, not understanding your customer’s motivations, needs, and preferences can lead
to major mistakes. This is what happened when Kodak introduced its Advanta camera—a
costly bust. The company proudly touted it as a high-tech product, but the marketplace
was dominated by middle-aged baby-boomers. In midlife, fancy new technology
generally loses its appeal, and simplicity begins to edge out complexity in consumer
preferences, so Advanta sales did not skyrocket. Such examples show why successful
marketers use both rigorous scientific procedures and more intuitive methods to study
customers and uncover clues for developing new products, product features, prices,
channels, messages, and other marketing-mix elements. This project explores individual
consumers’ buying dynamics.

Factors Influencing Buyer Behavior

The starting point for understanding consumer buying behavior is the stimulus response
model. As this model shows, both marketing and environmental stimuli enter the buyer’s
consciousness. In turn, the buyer’s characteristics and decision process lead to certain
purchase decisions. The marketer’s task is to understand what happens in the buyer’s
consciousness between the arrival of outside stimuli and the buyer’s purchase decisions.
As this model indicates, a consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social,
personal, and psychological factors.

1. Cultural Factors Influencing Buyer Behavior

Culture, subculture, and social class are particularly important influences on

consumer buying behavior.

 Culture.: Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and

behavior. The set of basic values, beliefs, norms, and associated behaviors that are
learned by a member of society.

 Subculture: Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more

specific identification and socialization for their members. Subcultures include
nationalities, religions, tribal groups, and geographic regions. Many subcultures
make up important market segments, leading marketers to tailor products and
marketing programs to their needs.

 Social class.: Social classes are relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in
a society. They are hierarchically ordered and their members share similar values,
interests, and behavior. Social classes reflect income as well as occupation,
education, and other indicators. Those within each social class tend to behave
more alike than do persons from different social classes. Also, within the culture,
persons are perceived as occupying inferior or superior positions according to
social class. Still, individuals can move from one social class to another—up or
down—during their lifetime. Because social classes often show distinct product
and brand preferences, some marketers focus their efforts on one social class.

2. Social Factors Influencing Buyer Behavior

 In addition to cultural factors, a consumer’s behavior is influenced by such social
factors as reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses.

 Reference Groups: Reference groups consist of all of the groups that have a direct
(face-to-face) or indirect influence on a person’s attitudes or behavior. Groups that
have a direct influence on a person are called membership groups. Some primary
membership groups are family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, with whom
individuals interact fairly continuously and informally. Secondary groups, such as
professional and trade-union groups, tend to be more formal and require less
continuous interaction. Reference groups expose people to new behaviors and
lifestyles, influence attitudes and self-concept, and create pressures for conformity
that may affect product and brand choices.
People are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong. Aspirational
groups are those the person hopes to join; dissociative groups are those whose
values or behavior an individual reject.
Although marketers try to identify target customers’ reference groups, the level of
reference-group influence varies among products and brands. Manufacturers of
products and brands with strong group influence must reach and influence the
opinion leaders in these reference groups. An opinion leader is the person in
informal product related communications who offers advice or information about a
product or product category. Marketers try to reach opinion leaders by identifying
demographic and psychographic characteristics associated with opinion
leadership, identifying the preferred media of opinion leaders, and directing
messages at the opinion leaders. For example, the hottest trends in teenage music
and fashion start in America’s inner cities, and then spread to youth in the suburbs.
As a result, clothing companies that target teens carefully monitor the style and
behavior of urban opinion leaders.

 Family: The family is the most important consumer-buying organization in

society, and it has been researched extensively. The family of orientation consists
of one’s parents and siblings. From parents, a person acquires an orientation
toward religion, politics, and economics as well as a sense of personal ambition,
self-worth, and love. A more direct influence on the everyday buying behavior of
adults is the family of procreation—namely, one’s spouse and children.
Marketers are interested in the roles and relative influence of the husband, wife,
and children in the purchase of a large variety of products and services. These
roles vary widely in different cultures and social classes.
 Today, traditional household purchasing patterns are changing, with baby-boomer
husbands and wives shopping jointly for products traditionally thought to be under
the separate control of one spouse or the other. For this reason, marketers of
products traditionally purchased by one spouse may need to start thinking of the
other as a possible purchaser.

 Roles and Statuses: A person participates in many groups, such as family, clubs,
or organizations. The person’s position in each group can be defined in terms of
role and status. A role consists of the activities that a person is expected to
perform. Each role carries a status. A Supreme Court justice has more status than
a sales manager, and a sales manager has more status than an administrative
assistant. In general, people choose products that communicate their role and
status in society. Thus, company presidents often drive Mercedes, wear expensive
suits, and drink Chivas Regal scotch. Savvy marketers are aware of the status
symbol potential of products and brands.

3. Personal Factors Influencing Buyer Behavior

Cultural and social factors are just two of the four major factors that influence
consumer buying behavior. The third factor is personal characteristics, including the
buyer’s age, stage in the life cycle, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle,
personality, and self-concept.

 Age and Stage in the Life Cycle: People buy different goods and services over a
lifetime. They eat baby food in the early years, most foods in the growing and
mature years, and special diets in the later years. Taste in clothes, furniture, and
recreation is also age-related, which is why smart marketers are attentive to the
influence of age.
Similarly, consumption is shaped by the family life cycle. The traditional family
life cycle covers stages in adult lives, starting with independence from parents and
continuing into marriage, child-rearing, empty-nest years, retirement, and later
life. Marketers often choose a specific group from this traditional life-cycle as
their target market. Yet target households are not always family based: There may
be single households.
Some recent research has identified psychological life-cycle stages. Adults
experience certain “passages” or “transformations” as they go through life.
 Leading marketers pay close attention to changing life circumstances—divorce,
widowhood, remarriage—and their effect on consumption behavior.

 Occupation and Economic Circumstances: Occupation also influences a person’s

consumption pattern. A blue-collar worker will buy work clothes and lunchboxes,
while a company president will buy expensive suits and a country club
membership. For this reason, marketers should identify the occupational groups
that are more interested in their products and services, and consider specializing
their products for certain occupations.
In addition, product choice is greatly affected by a consumer’s economic
circumstances: spendable income (level, stability, and time pattern), savings and
assets (including the percentage that is liquid), debts, borrowing power, and
attitude toward spending versus saving. Thus, marketers of income-sensitive
goods must track trends in personal income, savings, and interest rates. If a
recession is likely, marketers can redesign, reposition, and reprise their products to
offer more value to target customers.

 Lifestyle: People from the same subculture, social class, and occupation may
actually lead quite different lifestyles. A lifestyle is the person’s pattern of living
in the world as expressed in activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle portrays
the “whole person” interacting with his or her environment.
Successful marketers search for relationships between their products and lifestyle
groups. For example, a computer manufacturer might find that most computer
buyers are achievement-oriented. The marketer may then aim its brand more
clearly at the achiever lifestyle.

 Personality and Self-Concept: Each person has a distinct personality that

influences buying behavior. Personality refers to the distinguishing psychological
characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and enduring responses to
environment. Personality is usually described in terms of such traits as self-
confidence, dominance, autonomy, deference, sociability, defensiveness, and
adaptability.
Personality can be useful in analyzing consumer behavior, provided that
personality types can be classified accurately and that strong correlations exist
between certain personality types and product or brand choices. For example, a
computer company might discover that many prospects show high self-confidence,
 dominance, and autonomy, suggesting that computer ads should appeal to these
traits.
Self-concept (or self-image) is related to personality. Marketers often try to
develop brand images that match the target market’s self-image. Yet it is possible
that a person’s actual self-concept (how he/she views himself/herself) differs from
his/her ideal self-concept (how he/she would like to view himself/herself) and
from his/her others-self-concept (how he/she thinks others see him/her). Which
self-will he/she try to satisfy in making a purchase? Because it is difficult to
answer this question, self-concept theory has had a mixed record of success in
predicting consumer responses to brand images.

4. Psychological Factors Influencing Buyer Behavior

Psychological factors are the fourth major influence on consumer buying behavior
(in addition to cultural, social, and personal factors). In general, a person’s buying
choices are influenced by the psychological factors of motivation, perception, learning,
beliefs, and attitudes.

 Motivation: A person has many needs at any given time. Some needs are
biogenic; they arise from physiological states of tension such as hunger, thirst,
discomfort. Other needs are psychogenic; they arise from psychological states of
tension such as the need for recognition, esteem, or belonging. A need becomes a
motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity. A motive is a need that
is sufficiently pressing to drive the person to act.

 Perception: A motivated person is ready to act, yet how that person actually acts
is influenced by his or her perception of the situation. Perception is the process by
which an individual select, organizes, and interprets information inputs to create a
meaningful picture of the world. Perception depends not only on physical stimuli,
but also on the stimuli’s relation to the surrounding field and on conditions within
the individual. The key word is individual. Individuals can have different
perceptions of the same object because of three perceptual processes: selective
attention, selective distortion, and selective retention.

 Selective attention: People are exposed to many daily stimuli such as ads;
most of these stimuli are screened out—a process called selective attention.
The end result is that marketers have to work hard to attract consumers’
 attention. Through research, marketers have learned that people are more
likely to notice stimuli that relate to a current need, which is why car
shoppers notice car ads but not appliance ads. Furthermore, people are more
likely to notice stimuli that they anticipate—such as foods being promoted
on a food Web site. And people are more likely to notice stimuli whose
deviations are large in relation to the normal size of the stimuli, such as a
banner ad offering Rs.50 (on just Rs. 42) off a product’s list price.
 Selective distortion: Even noticed stimuli do not always come across the
way that marketers intend. Selective distortion is the tendency to twist
information into personal meanings and interpret information in a way that
fits our preconceptions. Unfortunately, marketers can do little about
selective distortion.
 Selective retention: People forget much that they learn but tend to retain
information that supports their attitudes and beliefs. Because of selective
retention, we are likely to remember good points mentioned about a
product we like and forget good points mentioned about competing
products. Selective retention explains why marketers use drama and
repetition in messages to target audiences.

 Learning: When people act, they learn. Learning involves changes in an

individual’s behavior that arise from experience. Most human behavior is learned.
Theorists believe that learning is produced through the interplay of drives, stimuli,
cues, responses, and reinforcement. A drive is a strong internal stimulus that
impels action. Cues are minor stimuli that determine when, where, and how a
person responds.
Suppose you buy an IBM computer. If your experience is rewarding, your
response to computers and IBM will be positively reinforced. Later, when you
want to buy a printer, you may assume that because IBM makes good computers,
it also makes good printers. You have now generalized your response to similar
stimuli. A countertendency to generalization is discrimination, in which the
person learns to recognize differences in sets of similar stimuli and adjust
responses accordingly. Applying learning theory, marketers can build up demand
for a product by associating it with strong drives, using motivating cues, and
providing positive reinforcement.

 Beliefs and Attitudes: Through doing and learning, people acquire beliefs and
attitudes that, in turn, influence buying behavior. A belief is a descriptive thought
 that a person holds about something. Beliefs may be based on knowledge, opinion,
or faith, and they may or may not carry an emotional charge. Of course,
manufacturers are very interested in the beliefs that people have about their
products and services. These beliefs make up product and brand images, and
people act on their images. If some beliefs are wrong and inhibit purchase, the
manufacturer will want to launch a campaign to correct these beliefs.
Particularly important to global marketers is the fact that buyers often hold distinct
beliefs about brands or products based on their country of origin. Studies have
found, for example, that the impact of country of origin varies with the type of
product. Consumers want to know where a car was made but not where lubricating
oil came from. In addition, attitudes toward country of origin can change over
time; Japan, for instance, had a poor-quality image before World War II.
A company has several options when its products’ place of origin turns off
consumers. The company can consider co-production with a foreign company that
has a better name. Another alternative is to hire a well-known celebrity to endorse
the product or the company can adopt a strategy to achieve world-class quality in
the local industry.

THE CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS

Marketers have to go beyond the various influences on buyers and develop an in-
depth understanding of how consumers actually make their buying decisions.
Specifically, marketers must identify who makes the buying decision, the types of buying
decisions, and the stages in the buying process.

Buying Roles

Marketers can identify the buyer for many products easily. In the India, men
normally choose their shaving equipment, and women choose their cosmetics. Still,
marketers must be careful, because buying roles can change. After the giant British
chemical firm ICI discovered that women made 60 percent of the decisions on the brand
of household paint, it began advertising its deluxe brand to women.
We can distinguish five roles that people might play in a buying decision. An
initiator first suggests the idea of buying the product or service. An influence is the
person whose view or advice influences the decision. A decider actually decides whether
to buy, what to buy, how to buy, or where to buy. A buyer makes the actual purchase,
while a user consumes or uses the product or service.
Buying Behavior

Marketers also need to be aware that consumer decision making varies with the type of
buying decision. The decisions to buy toothpaste, a tennis racket, a personal computer,
and a new car are all very different. In general, complex and expensive purchases are
likely to involve more buyer deliberation and more participants.

 Complex buying behavior: applies to high-involvement products such as personal

computers. Buyers may not know what attributes to consider in these products, so
they do research. Knowing this, marketers can help educate buyers about product
attributes, differentiate and describe the brand’s features, and motivate store
personnel and others to influence the final brand choice.

 Dissonance-reducing buyer behavior: applies to high-involvement products such

as carpeting. Carpeting is expensive and self-expressive, yet the buyer may
consider most brands in a given price range to be the same. After buying, the
consumer might experience dissonance after noticing certain disquieting features
or hearing favorable things about other brands. Marketers should therefore supply
beliefs and evaluations that help consumers feel good about their brand choices.

 Habitual buying behavior: applies to low-involvement products such as salt.

Consumers keep buying the same brand out of habit, not due to strong brand
loyalty, because they are passive recipients of information conveyed by
advertising. Ad repetition creates brand familiarity rather than brand conviction.
Marketers of such products can use price and sales promotions to entice new
customers to try their products.

 Variety-seeking buying behavior: applies to low-involvement products such as

soaps. In this category, consumers switch brands often because they want more
variety. The market leader will therefore try to encourage habitual buying behavior
by dominating the shelf space, keeping shelves stocked, and running frequent
reminder ads. Challenger firms will encourage variety seeking by offering lower
prices, coupons, free samples, and ads that offer reasons for trying something new.
The Stages of the Buying Decision Process

Consumer buying decision process is the processes undertaken by consumer in regard to

a potential market transaction before, during and after the purchase of a product or
service.

Consumer decision making process generally involves five stages:

Need Post
Information Evaluation of Purchase
Recognition Purchase
Search Alternatives Decision
Behavior

1. Need Recognition

Purchase decision making process begins when a buyer becomes aware of an

unsatisfied need or problem. This is the vital stage in buying decision process, because
without recognizing the need or want, an individual would not seek to buy goods or
service.

There are several situations that can cause problem recognition, these include:

 Non availability of particular brand

 Dissatisfaction with Quality
 Price Changes
 Change in Financial Situation

2. Information Search

After the consumer has recognized the need, he / she will try to find the means to
solve that need. First he will recall how he used to solve such kind of a problem in the
past, this is called nominal decision making. Secondly, a consumer will try to solve the
problem by asking a friend or goes to the market to seek advice for which product will
best serve his need, this is called limited decision making.
Sources of information include:

 Personal sources
 Commercial Sources
 Public sources
 Personal experience

3. Evaluation of Alternatives

Consumers’ evaluates criteria refer to various dimension; features, characteristics and benefits
that a consumer desires to solve a certain problem. Product features and its benefit is what
influence consumer to prefer that particular product. The consumer will decide which product to
buy from a set of alternative products depending on each unique feature that the product offers
and the benefit he / she can get out of that feature.

Consideration
Total Set Awarness Set Choice Set Decision
Set
Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux

Santooe Santooe Santoor Santoor

Godrej No. 1 Godrej No.1 Godreg No. 1

Nirma Nirma

Dyana

4. Purchase Decision

This stage involves selection of brand and the retail outlet to purchase such a
product. Retail outlet image and its location are important. Consumer usually prefers a
nearby retail outlet for minor shopping and they can willingly go to a far away store when
they purchase items which are of higher values and which involve higher sensitive
purchase decision. After selecting where to buy and what to buy, the consumer completes
the final step of transaction by either cash or credit.
 5. Post-purchase Behavior

Consumer favorable post-purchase evaluation leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction

with the purchase is basically a function of the initial performance level expectation and
perceived performance relative to those expectations. Consumer tends to evaluate their
wisdom on the purchase of that particular product. This can result to consumer
experiencing post purchase dissatisfaction. If the consumer’s perceived performance level
is below expectation and fail to meet satisfaction this will eventually cause
dissatisfaction, and so the brand and/ or the outlet will not be considered by the consumer
in the future purchases. This might cause the consumer to initiate complaint behavior and
spread negative word-of-mouth concerning that particular product.
Findings of the study:

 That a majority of respondents who were surveyed have indicated their liking for
the brand
 The discount 25.6%, price 20.5% & availability 20.5% of a product makes an
attracts the customers for to prefer to buy the HUL products.
 the maximum number of customers which is 52.3% prefer to buy from
supermarket. Rather than from departmental store, kirana store & from online.
 maximum people prefer to buy the HUL Brand product for personal care 64.6%,
rather than foods and home-care products.
 maximum number of customers buy the HUL products 3 years and above which is
67.7%.
 the maximum numbers of customers get aware about the HUL brand is due to
through Friends and family which is 33.8%, TV/Newspaper ads which is 30.8% &
Internet which is 29.2%.
 the factors that influence the customer for to buy the HUL products is more due to
the Easy availability 46.2% & advertisements 32.3% of the HUL products
 the customer attracts for to buy the HUL brand is based upon the gifts/schemes
which is 86.2%.
 the advertisements of the HUL brand creates positive impression towards the
brand it generates the trust of the customer for to buy their products which is
36.9% as well as interest of the customers towards HUL brands 29.2%.
 Maximum number of customers are satisfied after using HUL products which is
60%. This happens due to the availability and the proper brand awareness which
creates a positive image in the mind of the customers.
 The buying behavior of the consumer is depending upon the brand awareness.
 In consumer buying behavior variable like price, quality, availability, brand name,
discount, advertisements & packaging has great influence.
 Most of the population are aware about the brand name HUL and its products.
 Customer get aware about the brand name through friends/family, TV/newspaper
& internet.
 The aspects of advertisements play important role for to attract the customers.
 The overall brand image of HUL is high compare it with its products.
 Most of the customers were satisfied from the HUL products and its brand
awareness
Recommendations:

 Purchase decision making process begins when the buyers becomes aware of an
unsatisfied need. This is a vital stage in buying decision process, because without
recognizing, an individual would not seek to buy goods or service.

 There are several situations, where the brand should focus on it:

 The HUL brands products should be available on every retail store.

 Price of a HUL products should be less comparing to the other brands.
 There is a need to promote the HUL products as maximum sales generating
through channel.

Future Scope:
The study can be extended to another brand awareness and customer satisfaction of HUL.
With the sample size of 100 respondents of an existing customers it is not be enough to
get exact results. A large number of responses helps to diversified sample size can be
studied who have claimed their customer satisfaction and brand awareness of HUL and
conclusion. Also, additional variables are required to understand the customer that which
mode of channel customer prefers to buy the HUL products. Hence the future studies
should increase the sample size and to understand better about the brand awareness and
customer satisfaction of HUL.
Conclusion:
Study on customer satisfaction and the brand awareness of an HUL gave me lots of
knowledge & information. And on that basis I can say that the consumption of these
brands would be increased through more awareness about the brand, through easy
availability. The customers are highly motivated by the quality of the product i.e. the
psychological factors are affecting highly the buying behavior of consumer.
Advertisements and the sales promotional activities affect the purchasing behavior of the
customers to a large extent. Hence, it is concluded that customers prefer the HUL
products because of the advertisements and the promotional activities of the companies.
According to the highest market share of the HUL it is conclude that the HUL is highly
penetrated company in the FMCG segment.

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