HOMES ON WHEELS

Mr Arvind Krishna, a Harvard educated lawyer, decided to become an entrepreneur. He

decided to set up a company called Bharat Caravans Pvt Ltd. as a viable, practical holiday
option. He perceives his company to be a pioneer venturing into a nascent market. The
company plans to offer homes -on-wheels as per the following tariff

For Rs 5000 per day, a customer gets an air-conditioned Tata Sumo with an attached air-
conditioned caravan
For Rs 3000 per day, a customer is given an air-conditioned caravan alone with the
customer making his arrangements for hauling

All caravans have plush interiors, kitchen with fixtures such as refrigerators, entertainment
facilities like TVs, bath facilities etc. The company has already invested Rs 6 crore in the
project and has placed orders for 5 caravans. Mr Arvind has signed an MOU with Tamilnadu
Tourism and Karnataka Tourism for providing caravan operations in the respective states.
However, these two government agencies felt that Mr Arvind could operate caravans on
specified tourism circuits such as wildlife, coastal, heritage etc and develop caravan parks in
suitable locations. A caravan could have space to park the caravans and entertainment
facilities.

Mr Arvind wants to test this concept. How should he proceed?

(Caselet prepared for Classroom Case Discussion at IRMA, by Prof M R Suresh and Prof R
Nair)
The preliminary stages of Marketing research process.
Step 1-Decision making context
Launch of Caravan vehicle for tourism services.
Step2-Research Purpose
It comprises a shared understanding between us and our Manager.
It includes these:
Problem -
Risk associated with the security of the customers,
Probability of stealing of vehicle
Damage to vehicle
Unavailability of space to park the vehicle.
Opportunities
Scope for Caravans for tourism as holiday option.
An alternative to hotels.
Everywhere access
Decision alternatives to be evaluated
Whether Caravans should be provided with or without hauling.
Complementary food will be given or not.
Fuel charges will be included or not.
Research users
Mr Arvind Krishna, Tamilnadu & Karnataka tourism
Step 3: Research Objective
Objective is something which we want to achieve and leads you towards goal.
To examine market acceptance of Caravan based tourism.
To find out which circuit offers more customer base.
To find out risk associated with operation of caravans.
To find out whether Caravan based tourism will be more attractive than other holiday
option.
It has three components, the first is research question. Second is development of hypothesis
and the third or boundary of research.
A-Research questions
Is advertisement going to boost the revenue?
Is the pricing appropriate?
Which circuit is more preferable?
Is there any scope for adding value added services?
 Is there any scope that Caravan is more attractive than other holiday option?

B-Hypothesis Development
Advertisement will boost the revenue.
Pricing is appropriate.
There is a scope for value added services.
Caravan is more attractive than any other holiday option.

C-Research boundaries
Within Karnataka & Tamilnadu tourism area.

Step 4- Estimating the value of information

It will help us estimate the amount which is going to spend on research and it will going to
answer the value related to research.
What will be the value of the loss incurred after security breakdown?
How much expenditure require to launch the caravan based tourism?
Which circuit will cost lowest among all?
Average fuel cost spent each day?
How many members can live within a single caravan vehicle?