A study on consumer satisfaction and purchase perception

towards suzuki motors in salem city

CHAPTER-1 
INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH DESIGN 

INTRODUCTION :

Consumer markets in India undergo rapid changes. The evolution and revolution
in the field of science and technology have brought in drastic changes in every business
and its allied activities. Such situations have demanded the governments, both the
central and the state, to bring in changes in the existing business policies. These new
policies of the governments influence very much the national and the multinational
companies. Along with this evolution in technological characteristics of the vehicles that
are marketed in the country, there have been concomitant changes in the manufacturing
and assembling processes, and the within suppliers of components and fuels. As a result
there has been a substantial deepening of technological capabilities in the industry. This
is a welcome development because such capabilities are essential for managing
technological changes, which lie at the heart of any approach to meet market or
environmental challenges that face the automobile industry in the future.
India's automobile industry has undergone a great transformation in the last
decade owing to liberalization of the Indian economic policy. This period has seen a
remarkable expansion of this industry and the entry of a host of new ventures as well as
orientation on the part of some existing firms, which is the result of an abundance of
choice and significant upgradation in technologies from the point of view of the
consumer. At the same time, vehicles with outdated technology changed mostly to the
use of contemporary products available in the global markets.

· CONSUMERS AND THEIR BEHAVIOUR

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, "Consumers are
individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the
economy.A consumer is assumed to have a budget which can be spent on a range of goods
and services available in the market. Under the assumption of rationality, the budget
allocation is chosen according to the preference of the consumer. Based on the above
discussion consumer preference could be a study in the context of consumer behaviour.
According to Tamar and Tory, "Consumer behaviour is a study of individuals, groups, or
organization and the processes they use to select, use and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy their needs and desires" 11• It is important to understand
consumer behaviour and realize that consumers are never naive. The marketer must offer the
goods and services on the needs and desires of the consumer. Nevertheless, marketers must
study their target customers, wants perception, preferences, attitudes, experience, and
shopping and buying behaviours. The behaviour of the consumer displays in scanning for
purchasing, using and disposing of products and services, which they expect, will satisfy
their needs.
The study of consumer behaviour is the study of how individuals make decisions
to spend their available resources such as time, money, effort on consumption related
items. It includes the study of what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where
they buy it, how often they buy it and how often they use it. Thus, it is further observed
from Norris, Preyas Desai and Richard that, "The consumers behaviour models have
helped in giving a framework for studying the buying preferences of the consumers and
changes taking place in their order in view of the fast changes occurring in the socio
economic environment in all parts of the world" 12• Every day individual consumers
make choices regarding the products they want to purchase and perhaps more
importantly where they decide to purchase them.

· NEED OF THE STUDY :

Amidst the competitive and complex market scenario m India, it is difficult to
analyze the changing attitudes, likes, dislikes and perception of customers. The field is
such that only the ending and most outstanding will survive without being choked. The
attempt made here is to make an analysis of the consumer perception towards cars.
Consumer behaviour reflects the totality of consumers decision with respect to the
acquisition, consumption, and disposition of goods, service, time and ideas by decision
making units. Consumer behaviour involves not only buying but also the manner by
which the consumer buys.
A rapidly growing middle class, rising per capita incomes and relatively easier
availability of finance have been driving the vehicle demand in India, which in tum, has
prompted the government to invest at unprecedented levels in roads infrastructure,
including projects such as Golden Quadrilateral and North-East-South-West Corridor
with feeder roads. The Reserve Bank of India' s (RBI) Annual Policy Statement
documents an annual growth of 37.9 per cent in credit flow to vehicles industry in
2006. Given that passenger car penetration rate is just about 8.5 vehicles per thousand,
which is among the lowest in the world and there is a huge potential demand for
automobiles in the country.

· SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Consumer behaviour plays a vital role in indentifying, analyzing and evaluating

the product attributes and use. Various studies have been done in the field of consumer
behaviour, but the study on the brand preference and perception is unique in nature
and it is a new investigation altogether. Thus, the nature of present study itself is of
great importance. Therefore, I consider scope of the study lies in the following:

· This research is unique m nature because it focuses on investigating the

consumers behaviour reactions towards Maruti Suzuki cars.

· The study broadly aims at examining perception of the consumers mainly

in terms of the pre-purchase behaviour, attribute evaluation, purchase
decision, information search and ultimately post-purchase behaviour

· This research would probably lead to a further research in the field of

consumer behaviour and brand preference.

· By and large this research would add a new dimension to the marketing
research.

· It would largely help the company to assess the consumers reactions

towards their products and services.

· OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following are objectives:

· To study the significance of car industry m India and Tamil Nadu, and in
particular, Chennai.
 · To identify the factors responsible for consumers pre-purchase behaviour.

· To analyze the influence of product attributes, information search and

purchase decision of consumers.

· To study the post-purchase behaviour and benefits of consumers.

· HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

The following research hypotheses are formulated and structured for the
study:

· The factors responsible for purchase of cars such as consumer preference,

product attributes, purchase decision, information search and post-
purchase behaviour do not differ significantly.

· The consumers do not differ in the perception of consumer behavioural

aspects for purchase of cars.

· There is no association between demographic variables of

consumers and their perceptual difference towards the purchase of
cars.

RESEARCH DESIGN

This is a scientific and systematic study. The basic information is obtained through the
survey method by administering a questionnaire through personal enquiries. Statistical
tools are used to identify the different factors affecting consumers car purchase behaviour

· Data for the Study

The data have been collected from the following sources of information for the
purpose of this study.

· Sources of Data
 The primary and secondary data were utilized to perform the research. The

primary data collected by structured questionnaire from users of suzuki cars in salem

city. The secondary data collected from multiple publications including journals,

reviews, articles, magazines, newspapers and investigation papers concerning the

consumer satisfaction and purchase perception of suzuki motors.

· Questionnaire

The primary data was obtained through a well-structured questionnaire

comprising 9 type questions. The questionnaire covered the questions regarding

demographic profile of the consumers satisfaction and purchase perception of suzuki

motor products, factors which influence the consumers to the usage of suzuki motors,

consumers purchase behavior of suzuki motors, consumer’s satisfaction and post-

purchase attitude regarding the suzuki motors in the study area

· Sampling size

The convinient sampling method was used ti collect the neccessary information

frpm the customers of suzuki motors in salem district.Due to cost and time constraints,the

researcher distributes 100 samples.

· Period of Study

The primary data were collected from August 2021 to November 2021

· Data Analysis

The primary data collected were analyzed using Statistical tools. The following
statistical tools have been employed in the study to obtain the results from the primary

data analysis like percentage analysis, t-test, F-test, chi-square test.

· LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

· The sample size of the study is restricted to 500and it covers the

consumers of salem city due to time and cost factors.

· The study takes into account only limited factors influencing the purchase
decision process of consumers of cars.

· The study assumes information given by the consumers as valid and

reliable.

· This study is not a comparative studies between differnt companies

· The study focuses mainly on the factors influencing the purchasing

behaviour of the consumers of cars. However, the role of dealers is not
analyzed through the views of the consumers.

· ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The present study has been split into five chapters:

Chapter I

The first chapter introduces the study undertaken by the researcher. It contains
definition of the consumer behaviour, need of the study, statement of the problem,
scope of the study, objectives of the study, hypothesis, research methodology,
limitations of the study and chapterisation.

Chapter II

Review of literature sketches a detailed review of the literature relevant to the

present study. Previous studies and research findings on consumer behaviour and the
 factors influencing the consumer beahviour are included in this chapter.

Chapter III

This chapter deals with Theoritical background of the study or profile of the

study.

Chapter IV

This chapter deals with Analysis and Interpretation of the study list.

Chapter V

The last chapter summarizes the findings of the study and the conclusions
arrived at from the study. It also summarises the marketing implication strategies and
suggestions for further improvement in salem city