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CHAPTER 1

Executive Summary

This research is conducted to find out the different consumer behavior of

different people in the Laptop market and its relation and how it is

influenced by the Marketing mix enforced by the laptop companies.

The project describes about the different types of consumer behavior and

how it is influenced by different internal and external factors.

The research brings out the fact that people do buy laptops taking into

consideration different things such as price, feature and profitability.

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Statement of the Problem

In the present competitive environment consumers usually face a broad array

of product and services that might satisfy a given need. How do they choose

among these market offerings? Customers form expectations about the value

and satisfaction that various market offerings will deliver and buy

accordingly. Satisfied customers buy again and tell others about their good

experiences. Dissatisfied customers often switch to competitors and

disparage the products to others. So customer value and customer

satisfaction are key building blocks for developing and managing customer

relationship. So there should be a better understanding about the

expectations of the customers and the satisfaction level of the customers.

Here Marketing mix plays an important role as marketing mix is used to

reinforce the advantages of product (Laptop) carefully, reflecting its core

value and positioning. It confirms how and why it will be to interest to

various segments of Laptop buying public.

It is also found that there are certain difficulties in the understanding of

various factors that influence consumer buying behavior in the Laptop

sector. Considering that consumer needs, wants, taste and preference varies

from one another many companies carries out different market research on

consumer buying decision in great detail to answer questions about what

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consumers buy, how consumers buy, where consumers buy, when

consumers buy and why Consumers buy to identify these needs and wants.

The results of these researches are sometimes biased, inaccurate, inadequate

and misleading. So in this present competitive environment it is very crucial

for every business firm to ensure satisfaction to its customer. As customer

satisfaction is one of the single strongest predictors of customer retention.

So in order to expand our knowledge base and to come up with a reasonable

solution to the above discussed problem the project has been undertaken.

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Objective of the Project

• To study consumer trends in Laptop sector.

• To study consumer decision-making and preferences.

• To study the market potentials.

• To study the consumer purchase decision behavior.

• To understand the needs and wants of different customer segments.

• To Study the level of customer satisfaction in Laptop sector.

• To know the consumer expectation on product offered by the different

Laptop companies.

• Comparative study of the different Laptop companies.

• To know the features and the additional benefits offered by the

different laptop companies to its customer.

• To identify how the brand building helps in meeting the customers

expectation to meet the consumer needs and wants.

• To determine the impact of employee motivation on customer

satisfaction.

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Review of Literature

• A project report on “ The Laptop Industry in India”

• A project on “consumer behavior”.

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Research Methodology

A descriptive approach will be adopted in the study. The data will be

generated through extensive study method. Sufficient time will be give to

the respondents for the extraction of the desired data.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD

1. PRIMARY DATA

• Questionnaires- The questionnaires will be compiled

personally using qualitative and quantitative method and

consist of closed-end and open-end questions, designed

accordingly administered to target group of customers.

• Sampling- It will be done randomly. Sampling size will be 100.

• Data analysis.

• Conclusion

Analysis Tool

• Statistical Data

• Non-statistical Data- Charts, graphs.

2. SECONDARY DATA

• Books

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• Magazines

• Internet

• News papers.

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Limitations of the study

Every project has some limitation and here are some limitation faced during

the research:

• The sample size was only restricted to 100.

• The research was restricted in kolkata only.

• There was a bias on the part of respondent.

• Time constrain serves as the main limitation for the study. As the

project study is vast in nature and respondent have less time to give

answer.

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CHAPTER 2

Understanding Consumer Behavior

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their

marketing strategies by understanding issues such as how

• The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select

between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products);

• The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her

environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media);

• The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing

decisions;

• Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing

abilities influence decisions and marketing outcome;

• How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between

products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they

entail for the consumer; and

• How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and

marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

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One "official" definition of consumer behavior is "The study of

individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select,

secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy

needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and

society." Although it is not necessary to memorize this definition, it brings

up some useful points:

• Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group

(e.g., friends influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an

organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products

the firm should use).

• Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well

as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great

interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is

best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption.

Since many environmental problems result from product disposal

(e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling

fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest.

• Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible

products.

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• The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For

example, aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive

marketing of easy credit, may have serious repercussions for the

national health and economy.

There are four main applications of consumer behavior:

• The most obvious is for marketing strategy—i.e., for making better

marketing campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers

are more receptive to food advertising when they are hungry, we learn

to schedule snack advertisements late in the afternoon. By

understanding that new products are usually initially adopted by a few

consumers and only spread later, and then only gradually, to the rest

of the population, we learn that (1) companies that introduce new

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products must be well financed so that they can stay afloat until their

products become a commercial success and (2) it is important to

please initial customers, since they will in turn influence many

subsequent customers’ brand choices.

• A second application is public policy. In the 1980s, Accutane, a near

miracle cure for acne, was introduced. Unfortunately, Accutane

resulted in severe birth defects if taken by pregnant women. Although

physicians were instructed to warn their female patients of this, a

number still became pregnant while taking the drug. To get

consumers’ attention, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) took

the step of requiring that very graphic pictures of deformed babies be

shown on the medicine containers.

• Social marketing involves getting ideas across to consumers rather

than selling something. Marty Fishbein, a marketing professor, went

on sabbatical to work for the Centers for Disease Control trying to

reduce the incidence of transmission of diseases through illegal drug

use. The best solution, obviously, would be if we could get illegal

drug users to stop. This, however, was deemed to be infeasible. It was

also determined that the practice of sharing needles was too ingrained

in the drug culture to be stopped. As a result, using knowledge of

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consumer attitudes, Dr. Fishbein created a campaign that encouraged

the cleaning of needles in bleach before sharing them, a goal that was

believed to be more realistic.

• As a final benefit, studying consumer behavior should make us better

consumers. Common sense suggests, for example, that if you buy a 64

liquid ounce bottle of laundry detergent, you should pay less per

ounce than if you bought two 32 ounce bottles. In practice, however,

you often pay a size premium by buying the larger quantity. In other

words, in this case, knowing this fact will sensitize you to the need to

check the unit cost labels to determine if you are really getting a

bargain.

There are several units in the market that can be analyzed. Our main thrust in

this course is the consumer. However, we will also need to analyze our own

firm’s strengths and weaknesses and those of competing firms. Suppose, for

example, that we make a product aimed at older consumers, a growing

segment. A competing firm that targets babies, a shrinking market, is likely

to consider repositioning toward our market. To assess a competing firm’s

potential threat, we need to examine its assets (e.g., technology, patents,

market knowledge, awareness of its brands) against pressures it faces from

the market. Finally, we need to assess conditions (the marketing

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environment). For example, although we may have developed a product that

offers great appeal for consumers, a recession may cut demand dramatically.

So my conclusion about the measurement of consumer behavior is the

impact of consumer behavior on society is also of important. For example,

aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy

credit, may have serious effect for the national health and economy.

The influences on buyer behavior

The behavior of buyers is the product of two broad categories of influence;

these are endogenous factors (i.e. those internal to the individual) and

exogenous factors (i.e. those external to the individual). The most important

of these two categories of factors are depicted in figure 5.1 and elaborated

upon in the following sections of this chapter.

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Endogenous and exogenous factors impinging upon buyer behaviour

Whilst these are variables that are largely outside the direct control of

marketing managers, an understanding of them can be harnessed to great

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effect. The discussion that follows goes beyond merely describing the nature

of the principal factors which shape behaviour to explain the relevance of

each factor to marketing strategy.

Exogenous influences on buyer behaviour

Factors which are external to the individual but have a substantial impact

upon his/her behaviour are social and cultural in nature. These include

culture, social class or status, reference groups and family membership.

Culture

Culture is perhaps the most fundamental and most pervasive external

influence on an individual's behaviour, including his/her buying behaviour.

Culture has been defined as:

“…the complex of values, ideas, attitudes and other meaningful symbols

created by people to shape human behaviour and the artifacts of that

behaviour as they are transmitted from one generation to the next.”

Three key aspects of culture are brought out by this definition. First, culture

is created by people. The behavioural patterns, ideas, economic and social

activities and artifacts of a people's forebears shapes the culture of today.

Second, culture is enduring. It evolves over time but is stable in the short to

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medium term and is in fact passed, largely intact, fròm generation to

generation. In particular, the values of the society tend to be enduring. Third,

cultural influences have both tangible and intangible results. For instance,

language and patterns of speech are products of culture and are observable.

Basic beliefs and values are also the outcome of the cultural environment

within which a person lives but these mental phenomena are intangible

outcomes. Culture is the mechanism by which each society evolves its

distinctive behavioural patterns and values and transmits these to subsequent

generations.

Without a knowledge of the culture into which a product is being marketed

mistakes can be made and opportunities missed. Nestlé's launch of Nescafé

instant coffee, mentioned elsewhere in this chapter, is a case in point. The

cultural norms of the day were rather different. The prevailing values

dictated that good coffee took time to prepare and that shortcuts in the

preparation of foods and beverages reflected laziness on the part of the user

and carelessness with the household budget since convenience foods

invariably cost more than ‘natural’ foods. With a better understanding of the

culture of the day it is possible that Nestlé could have avoided the initial

rejection of the product by a significant proportion of the target market.

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Creative marketers who do have a knowledge of cultural norms and values

can profit by aligning product benefits and characteristics with these social

standards. Over the past ten to fifteen years people in Western Europe and

North America have become increasingly concerned about the amount of fat

in their diet and the adverse health effects resulting from high cholesterol

levels. The message to reduce the fat content of meals has been widely

accepted. It is no longer culturally acceptable to maintain a high fat diet. An

individual's family doctor will disapprove, employers who provide health

schemes disapprove, ‘good mothers’ don't allow their children to consume

high fat foods in more than modest amounts. A person's friends, neighbours,

colleagues and other personal acquaintances are likely to communicate their

disapproval, in one way or another, if that individual is known to continue

with a high fat diet. This has created a marketing opportunity for producers

of low fat meats. The official grading systems for meats in Western Europe

and North America financially penalise meat with a high fat content and low

fat meat fetches a premium price in retail stores. This cultural change has

also opened up market opportunities for ostrich producers in Australia,

Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Ostrich meat is almost fat

free and so enables those who are fond of meat in their diet to continue

consuming meat without increasing their cholesterol levels. Such is the

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increase in demand for this type of meat that ostrich farming in the USA,

where previously it was barely known, and in the United Kingdom, where it

was not previously known at all, is growing fast.

Within any particular society the culture will comprise of a number of

subcultures. That is, there will be various racial, ethnic and religious groups.

Each, to some degree, will have distinct beliefs and values. Subcultures are

of interest to marketers not least because it is a useful variable to be used in

segmenting a market.

Social status

Social class or social status is a powerful tool for segmenting markets.

Empirical research suggests that people from the same social group tend to

have similar opportunities, live in similar types of housing, in the same

areas, by similar products from the same types of outlets and generally

conform to similar styles of living. At the same time, whilst people within

the same social category exhibit close similarities to one another, there are

usually considerable differences in consumption behaviour between social

groups. The variables used to stratify a population into social classes or

groups normally include income, occupation, education and lifestyle.

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The importance of status, to marketers, is not confined to its potential as a

basis for market segmentation. Bennett2 says that:

“Every status has its roles - a set of proper behaviors specified by culturally

defined rules….. A group influences its members primarily through the roles

and behavioral norms expected of them.”

Thus, the behaviour of an individual, on a given occasion, will relate to the

social role which he/she is acting out. For instance, rural peoples sometimes

defer to the judgment of the biggest landowner in the area and thereby

ascribe a role of leadership to that person. This landowner will act and

behave in accordance with the status of community leader when the occasion

so requires. On other occasions the same individual will pursue his own

interests and behave as a landowner. Moreover, each of the roles assumed by

the landowner will be played in accordance with the norms established by

the group which confers and sustains his leadership office. That is, the

landowner will mould his behaviour to fit the expectations the local

community (i.e. group) has of him as a community leader.

The marketer needs to know what role a person of a given status is playing

and what is expected of that individual by the group which has conferred the

status upon him/her. Such an understanding can significantly affect the

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marketing strategy employed with respect to that category of customer.

Abdulsalami's3 experience of marketing herbicides to Nigerian maize

growers is a case in point. The Ilorin Agricultural Development Project's

(ADP) attempts to encourage farmers in its region to adopt herbicides only

became successful when it targeted promotional efforts on tribal chiefs. The

ADP appealed to the paternalistic role of the chiefs who were expected to

discern what was in the best interests of their people. The promotional

material sensitively reminded the chief of his paternalistic role and subtly

connected this with the benefits to his people of herbicide application. No

attempt was made to appeal to the chiefs in their own right as owners of

substantial areas of land since the objective was to achieve widespread

adoption of herbicides rather than to exploit the profit opportunities arising

from successfully penetrating this wealthy market niche.

Reference groups

People are social animals who tend to live in groups. The group(s) to which

a person belongs exerts an influence upon the behaviour, beliefs and

attitudes of its members by communicating norms and expectations about

the roles they are to assume. Thus, an individual will refer to others with

respect to: ‘correct’ modes of dress and speech; the legitimacy of values,

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beliefs and attitudes; the appropriateness of certain forms of behaviour, and

also on the social acceptability of the consumption of given products and

services. These “others' constitute reference groups. Reference groups

provide a standard of comparison against which an individual can judge

his/her own attitudes, beliefs and behaviour.

An individual need not belong to a given group in order for that group to

exert an influence upon his/her behaviour. Shibutani4 has identified three

distinct reference groups:

• a group to which an individual belongs (also known as a peer group)

• a group to which an individual aspires, and

• a group whose perspective has been adopted by the individual

A small scale miller will identify with other millers whose operations are

similar in size and technology and will feel that he/she belongs to this group.

He/she may have ambitions to become a larger scale operation employing

more sophisticated milling technology and so aspires to membership of a

group recognised as industrial millers. At the same time, the small scale

miller may adopt the views and opinions of a grain trader's association since

he/she believes that when this group voices an opinion about trends or

proposed changes to the grain trade their arguments are well articulated,

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forceful and normally in the best interests of small scale millers as well as

grain traders. The common factor between these three groups is that they

each provide a frame of reference for the individual. As the example of the

small scale miller illustrates, an individual can have several reference

groups.

Reference groups can have a significant influence on patterns of product use

and consumption. In China, the practice of purchasing fish whilst it is still

alive is so deeply ingrained that the marketing of frozen fish has barely been

established. Certain norms and values run so deep in a reference group that it

is usually counter-productive to challenge them. In other instances, reference

groups have only the weakest influence on buying behaviour. The key

difference appears to be the extent to which a product is used or consumed

publicly. That is, if the product or brand is evident to those within the

reference group then that group's influence is likely to stronger with regard

to purchasing behaviour.

Families as reference groups

The family is another group which influences the behaviour of individuals

including buying behaviour. Two types of family may be distinguished from

one another, the nuclear family and the extended family. The nuclear family

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is the basic family unit and describes the parents and immediate off-spring

and/or their adopted children. The extended family includes all living

relatives in addition to the parents and their children - grandparents, aunts,

uncles, cousins, step-relatives and in-laws (i.e. relatives through marriage).

Families often form a Decision-Making Unit (DMU) with respect to

household purchases, with each member performing a different role. For

instance, the children may initiate the purchase by requesting a breakfast

cereal in place of maize porridge, the male head of the household may

decide whether a certain category of purchase may be made such as this

more expensive type of breakfast food and the female head of the household

may contribute to the decision to buy a processed breakfast food and decide

which brand and from which retail outlet it is to be bought. Where the

extended family becomes involved in a purchasing decision the DMU

becomes larger and the roles of family members more diverse.

When marketing to families it is essential to know which members play a

role in certain types of decision and what role they play. Thus, for instance,

the cereals manufacturer may target mass media advertising at children since

they trigger a purchase whilst in-store merchandising and promotion is

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designed to appeal to the housewives or other female heads of household

because they make the brand choice.

Endogenous influences on buyer behaviour

Endogenous influences are those which are internal to the individual. These

are psychological in nature and include needs and motives, perceptions,

learning processes, attitudes, personality type and self-image.

Needs and motives

The terms needs and motivations are often viewed to be interchangeable.

However, there is a difference between them. When an individual recognises

that he/she has a need, this acts to trigger a motivated state. Need

recognition occurs when the individual becomes aware of a discrepancy

between his/her actual state and some perceived desired state. The housewife

who buys polished rice, or roller milled maize meal (actual state), who is

made aware of the vitamin deficiencies in these products and is anxious to

be, and to be seen to be, a wife and/or mother who looks after the health of

her family (desired state) could be motivated to purchase less highly refined

rice or maize meal. More formally, a need is a perceived difference between

an ideal state and some desired state which is sufficiently large and

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important to stimulate a behavioural reaction. Figure 5.2 provides additional

examples of differences between an ideal and an actual state which could

motivate behaviour intended to reduce or remove differences between the

two states.

Desired and actual states

It will be seen from this diagram that a range of factors can be responsible

for activating needs awareness. These may be emotional, physiological or

sociological in nature. Once the need is recognised then the individual

concerned will form a motive. A motive may be defined as an impulse to act

in such a way as to bring about the meeting of a specific need.

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Perceptions

Whereas motivation is a stimulus to action, how an individual perceives

situations, products, promotional messages, and even the source of such

messages, largely determines how an individual acts. A basic definition of

perception would be ‘how people see things’. Berelson and Steiner5 have

defined perception more formally as:

“…the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets

information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world.”

Individuals can have vastly differing interpretations of the same situation.

Whilst all human beings receive information through the same five senses-

vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch the extent to which they attend to a

piece of information, how they organise that information and how

information is interpreted tends to differ. It differs because perceptions are a

product of three variables: the physical stimuli (e.g. the product), the

relationship between the stimuli and the immediate environment (e.g. a

gradually increasing disposable income) and the psychology of the

individual (e.g. a desire to be seen as someone who had graduated from

humble economic origins to a person of economic stature). Moreover,

individuals can hold widely differing perceptions, or interpretations, of the

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same stimulus due to three perceptual processes, i.e. selective attention,

selective distortion and selective retention.

Selective attention: All people are daily bombarded by stimuli, both

commercial and non-commercial. People simply cannot pay attention to all

these messages and therefore they develop mechanisms to reduce the

amount of information that they actually process.

People pay attention to stimuli which meet an immediate need. Thus a

farmer within whose district poultry have been reported as suffering from

Newcastle disease will be especially attentive to messages relating to the

prevention of this affliction in his/her ostrich flock.

Selective distortion: Incoming information is often distorted to fit existing

beliefs, opinions and expectations. Thus a wine connoisseur finds it easy to

believe that French growers can produce a high quality Chardonnay but find

it difficult to believe that Tanzanian growers can supply a Chardonnay

comparable in its characteristics. Such beliefs are based on perceptions

rather than experiences.

Selective retention: People forget all too easily. The information retained is

generally that which supports the decision maker's existing attitudes and

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beliefs. Thus a consumer who is strongly loyal to a particular brand of maize

meal will easily recall the benefits claimed for that product in advertising

campaigns but will forget the claims made for a competing product.

Learning

Much of human behaviour is learned. The evidence of learning is a change

in a person's behaviour as a result of experience. Theory suggests that

learning is the product of interactions between drives, stimuli, cues,

responses and reinforcement. For instance, a farmer may have a strong drive

towards increasing his/her productivity. A drive is a strong internal stimulus

impelling action. Drive turns to motive when it focuses upon a particular

drive-reducing stimulus object. A farmer may see the adoption of a newly

available two-wheeled tractor as a way of increasing his/her productivity to

the extent required. The farmer's response to the notion of buying a two-

wheeled tractor is influenced by the surrounding cues. A cue is a lesser

stimulus that can determine whether an individual responds and, if so, how

he/she responds. The encouragement of the farmer's neighbours, and perhaps

his/her village headman, seeing the same type of tractor operating

successfully on a neighbouring farm, receiving visits from salesmen and

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reading promotion literature are all cues that can impinge upon the farmer's

impulse to invest in a two-wheeled tractor.

If the farmer buys the two-wheeled tractor and if he/she finds that it works

well and improves his/her productivity to the level required, then learning is

positively reinforced. If the buyer's experience does not match expectations

then he/she is likely to suffer cognitive dissonance. Cognitive consistency

theories hold that individuals strive to maintain a consistent set of attitudes

and beliefs. When attitudes and beliefs about a product or service are

challenged, due to its performance falling short of expectations, then the

buyer experiences an uncomfortable psychological state and becomes

motivated to redress the balance between expectations and experience.

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Psychological Influences on the Buying Decision Process

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

The five levels of needs that humans are motivated to seek and satisfy.

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Cognitive dissonance

The more major the purchase the greater the degree of dissonance

experienced and the greater the ramifications for the supplier of the product

or service. Referring to the hypothetical example of ‘Pukka Pasta’ in figure

5.3, the purchase is not major with respect to the cost of the purchase but

may be considered ‘major’ from the buyer's perspective if he/she perceived

the occasion to have been an important social event.

Market oriented organisations have policies which seek to deal with

cognitive dissonance. No matter how much care an organisations takes in the

manufacture and distribution of its products it is unlikely to achieve ‘zero

defects’ all of the time. Consequently, some buyers will be dissatisfied at

some point in time. The fact that this happens is less important than how the

company deals with dissatisfaction. Many companies operate a policy of

giving buyers a choice of having their money back or accepting a

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replacement product. The company does not look closely at each and every

case where a product is returned but operates a blanket policy of assuming

that the customer is always right. Some organisations are nervous of

operating such policies because they feel it might be abused and result in a

high number of returns and high costs to the enterprise. Others reason that

their marketing task is not to sell a product but to create a customer. They

are willing to bear the costs of a liberal customer complaints policy in the

belief that long term profitability comes from establishing long term

relationships with buyers.

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Attitudes

Fishbein and Ajzen put forward a definition of attitudes which has become

widely accepted. Their definition is:

“…a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or

unfavourable manner with respect to a given object.”

This definition draws attention to four fundamental characteristics of

attitudes. First it suggests that attitudes are enduring. They may change over

time but they tend to be reasonably stable in the short to medium term.

Second, the definition stresses that attitudes are learned from the individual's

own experience and/or from what they read or hear from others. Third, that

attitudes precede and impact upon behaviour. Attitudes reflect an

individual's predispositions towards another person, an event, product or

other object. A person may be either favourably or unfavourably predisposed

towards an object; or they may be indifferent towards that object and

therefore fail to display any behavioural pattern with respect to the object.

Fourth, the chief function of attitudes is to facilitate the evaluation of

objects. Attitudes are a generalisation and therefore the individual does not

have to go through a process of evaluation tailored to each and every object.

A consumer may be unfavourably predisposed towards locally manufactured

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dairy products because of dissatisfaction in the past with the quality of a

specific type of cheese and with the shelf-life of fresh milk from the

country's Dairy Produce Board. The negative experience of the consumer,

which relates to very specific products, is readily transferred to all other

dairy products marketed by the Board and the consumer exhibits a

preference for imported dairy products. A common marketing tactic of

enterprises that find themselves operating in an environment hostile to

locally manufactured merchandise is to promote certain products as “Export

Quality”, and thereby infer that a level of quality control, above that applied

to products for the local market, has been exercised.

Marketers have to work hard at creating positive attitudes towards the

organisation, its products or services and any intermediaries it may channel

these products/services through. Changing negative attitudes requires even

more effort. In the 1980s, the Kano Tomato Grower's Association, in

Northern Nigeria, carefully established a reputation for supplying superior

produce. However, the reputation of the product was destroyed by the

practice of unscrupulous members who intentionally concealed damaged

tomatoes beneath top quality produce. The Association was never able to

fully restore the reputation of its product to previous levels. It is generally

more difficult, and expensive, to change a negative attitude than to cultivate

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a positive attitude at the outset. Indeed, it is usually more productive to make

changes to the product's characteristics and/or image, to fit the existing

attitudes of buyers, than to seek to change firmly entrenched attitudes.

Personality and self-concept

Individuals tend to perceive other human beings as ‘types of persons’. There

are, for example, people perceived to be nervous types, ambitious types,

self-confident types, introverts, extroverts, the timid, the bold, the self-

deprecating, and so on. These are personality traits. Like attitudes,

personality traits serve to bring about a consistency in the behaviour of an

individual with respect to his/her environment. Thus, for example, a

personality characterised by a high degree of self-confidence will

consistently be outspoken with respect to his/her views on new ideas,

products, processes and practices. Moreover, where there is an element of

risk in adopting an innovative product the self-confident personality will be

more often among the risk-takers than the risk-averse.

Although great hopes have been expressed by theorists that it would

eventually be possible to equate buying and consumption patterns with

personality types, this has yet to become a reality. Personality types have

proven to overlap and whilst personality traits may serve to bring about a

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consistency in the behaviour of an individual with respect to his/her

environment, there is no firm evidence that there is a similar level of

consistency in respect of consumption patterns.

In practice, to marketing management, perhaps the most rewarding aspect of

personality studies to date has been the concept of self-image. An

individual's self-image is how he/she sees him/herself. Self-image is a fusion

of how a person would ideally like to be, the way a person believes others

see him/her and how a person actually is. The resulting self-image can be

wholly inaccurate. People tend to exaggerate the extent to which they are in

proximity to the ideal self and underestimate the extent to which others are

aware of weaknesses in their character, and their real self can be quite

different from either of the other two.

For the marketer the importance of self-images rests in the opportunities to

relate product characteristics to these images. For instance, it may be

possible to persuade those who see themselves as being in the emerging

middle class of a developing country to trade up from coarsely ground maize

meal, which the consumer has to collect in his/her own container, to more

expensive roller milled maize meal, highly refined and sold in sophisticated

packaging. The promotional campaign would focus on the congruence

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between the self-image and the product image, i.e. a sophisticated, more

refined product for a sophisticated, more refined consumer.

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The consumer buying decision process

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Buying decisions may be made by individuals or a group such as a family or

a committee within a commercial or industrial organisation. Where a

group is involved, the term Decision-Making Unit (DMU) is commonly

used. Marketers are interested in identifying all of the parties involved

in the decision making process and are careful to distinguish between

buyers and users. The farmer may make the final decision as to whether

a given piece of agricultural equipment is purchased but his/her

decision could well be influenced by the views, attitudes and

amptitudes of the farm worker who will operate the machine.

Moreover, the subsequent experience of the operator will play a major

role in determining whether or not the decision to buy is positively

reinforced. Similarly, the mother in the family may be the chief buyer

of household foods but children may have a major influence on the

purchase of those food items of which they are the main consumers.

Behaviouralists have used empirical evidence to develop models of the

buying process. These models usually portray the buying decision as having

several discrete stages. It should be emphasised that these models have been

developed in the context of buying decisions in which there is a high level of

involvement on the part of the potential buyer, that is, where the item under

consideration is expensive and purchased infrequently. Typically, the buying

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decision models comprised five stages: problem recognition, information

search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post-purchase

behaviour. Such models underline the fact that the actual decision to

purchase is but a single event in a process which begins sometime

beforehand and continues after the item is bought. The marketer is

encouraged to think about influencing a buying process rather than a buying

decision.

A five-stage model of the buying process

Problem recognition: The buying process begins with a recognition on the

part of an individual or organisation that they have a problem or need. The

farmer recognises that he/she is approaching a new cultivation season and

requires seed; a grain trading company realises that stocks are depleted but

demand is rising and therefore wheat, rice and maize must be procured; a

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rural family is expecting an important guest who must be honoured by the

slaughter and preparation of a goat for a feast.

Problems and needs can be triggered by either internal or external stimuli. A

poor peasant family may purchase a goat, which they can ill-afford, either

because they have an innate sense of hospitality (internal stimulus) or

because social convention dictates that a goat be procured and prepared for

special visitors (external stimulus).

Marketing research needs to identify the stimuli that trigger the recognition

of particular problems and needs. Research should be directed towards

establishing the needs/problems that arose, how these were brought about

and how buyers arrived at the decision that a particular product was likely to

meet their need or solve their problem. By so doing marketers can design

products/services capable of meeting those needs/problems and develop

marketing strategies that can trigger customer interest in those products or

services.

Information search: Information gathering may be passive or active.

Passive information gathering occurs when an individual or group simply

becomes more attentive to a recognised solution to a given need. That is,

he/she exhibits heightened attention. The potential buyer becomes more

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aware of advertisements or other messages concerning the product in

question. In other circumstances the individual is proactive rather than

reactive with respect to information. A trader who sees potential in a new

vegetable which is being imported into the country will actively search out

information about the product, sources of supply, prices and import

regulations. He/she is likely to converse with other traders, request literature

from potential suppliers, etc.

Marketers will be interested to establish what information sources tend to

seek out. Kotler states that the information sources used will fall into four

categories:

• personal sources (family, friends, work colleagues, neighbours,

acquaintances)

• commercial sources (promotional materials, press releases, technical

journals or consumer magazines, distributors, packaging)

• public sources (mass media)

• experiential (handling, using the product).

Kotler suggests that, in the case of consumers, these sources of information

will play different roles. It is generally held that communications from

commercial and other non-personal sources provide information whilst

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personal sources, such as family or friends, help in evaluating a product or in

making choices between alternatives. The extent of information seeking will

vary with the intensity of the drive to ‘solve’ the problem and the amount of

information that the individual already possesses.

As an individual engages in information gathering he/she becomes more

knowledgeable about the range of alternative products or brands available.

In highly competitive markets where there is a large number of competing

products or brands the customer rarely makes a choice from the entire set of

alternatives available. Rather, the customer selects from a subset of the

alternative products or brands that are actually available, termed ‘the evoked

set’. Figure 5.5 illustrates the process involved in arriving at the evoked set,

i.e. the set of products/brands from which the customer actually chooses.

The Buying Decision cycle.

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The concept of an evoked set

Since a customer's information is likely to be imperfect he/she will be

ignorant of the existence of a number of products/brands that are actually

available on the market. This happens for a variety of reasons. The customer

may only engage in limited information gathering, some products/brands

may not be strongly promoted or some may be heavily promoted in

distribution channels that a particular customer does not frequent. Thus, the

customer is seldom in a position to choose products/brands from the total

set. Rather, the customer is only aware of a subset of the total set. Some of

these will fail to meet the customer's initial screening criteria. Some will lie

outside the customer's price range (they may be either too expensive or too

cheap), some will have too high or too low a specification, others might not

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have the basic level of technical service support in the country. Therefore,

the set of products/brands of which the customer is aware is then reduced to

a further subset of products/brands to which the customer gives serious

consideration. However, as the prospective customer gathers more

information the set of alternatives is further reduced until he/she arrives at an

evoked set. This is the set of alternative products or brands from which a

customer's actual choice is made.

The important implication of the evoked set theory for marketing managers

is that they must know when their products are failing to get into the evoked

set and should determine what criteria potential customers are using as a

basis for including and excluding products/brands from their evoked sets. It

is equally important, although not always easy, to establish what information

sources customers are using and the roles and relative importance of

alternative sources.

Evaluation of alternatives: The process of evaluating alternatives not only

differs from customer to customer prospective customer but the individual

will also adopt different processes in accordance with the situation. It is

likely that when making judgments customers will focus on those product

attributes and features that are most relevant to their needs at a given point in

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time. Here, the marketer can differentiate between those characteristics

which a product must have before it is allowed to enter the customer's

evoked set. Consider for instance a manufacturer of pasta products sourcing

durum wheat. The manufacturer may have criteria he/she uses in deciding

whether or not a prospective supplier's wheat ‘qualifies’ for entry to the

evoked set, e.g. a maximum of 14% moisture content, a guarantee of a

maximum of 1.5% material other than grain (MOG), and price within a

given range. A quite different set of criteria might be used in deciding

between alternative products and suppliers within the evoked set e.g. the

period of credit given by the supplier, the ability of the supplier to deliver

the total order in periodic batches and the reliability of the supplier in the

past.

Purchase decision: At the evaluation stage the prospective customer will

have arrived at a judgement about his/her preference among the evoked set

and have formed a purchase intention. However, two factors can intervene

between the intention and the purchase decision: the attitude of others and

unanticipated events. If the attitude of other individuals or organisations who

influence the prospective customer is strongly negative then the intention

may not be converted to a firm commitment or decision. The case of the

Swiss-Pakistan Agricultural Light Engineering Programme, which is

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outlined below, illustrates a situation where the attitudes of peers and

reference groups frequently determine whether intentions ever become

decisions. Unanticipated events can also intervene between intention and

action. Whenever human beings form judgements or seek to make decisions

they invariably make assumptions. These assumptions are often implicit

rather than explicit. A farmer may state an intention to purchase a

mechanical thresher within the next twelve months but when his/her implicit

assumption of ‘a good harvest’ is not realised, due to drought, the purchase

of the machine is postponed.

Purchase Decision Process

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Factors intervening between intention and purchase

Postpurchase behaviour: The process of marketing is not concluded when

a sale is made. Marketing continues into the postpurchase period. The aim of

marketing is not to make a sale but to create a long term relationship with a

customer. Organisations maintain profitability and growth through repeat

purchases of their products and services by loyal customers.

Having procured the product the customer will experience either satisfaction

or dissatisfaction with his/her purchase. The level of satisfaction or

dissatisfaction is largely a function of the congruence between the buyer's

expectations of the product and the product's perceived performance. Buyer

expectations of a product are usually based upon promotional messages from

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the product's supplier, family, friends, work colleagues and, perhaps,

professional advisors. In addition, the buyer's own perceptual processes

influence expectations. If the product's perceived performance either

matches or exceeds its expected performance then the buyer is likely to feel

highly satisfied. It is in the best long term interests of commercial

organisations not to oversell their products. That is, the claims made for

products should faithfully reflect the product's actual performance

capabilities. Even then, this will not prevent some buyers from holding

unreasonable expectations of the product.

Another aspect of postpurchase behaviour that is of interest to marketers is

how the buyer actually uses the product. It is common to find buyers using a

product in a different way from that for which it was either designed or

intended. Such deviations can present problems or opportunities to the

product supplier. For instance, whilst maize meal is chiefly used as a

foodstuff, consumers discovered that it makes an excellent cleansing agent

for suede shoes and other items of clothing when these have become badly

stained. This new use for the product could represent a marketing

opportunity for a repackaged and repositioned product.

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Buyers do not invariably pass through all five stages described here. Much

depends upon the circumstances surrounding the purchase decision. In the

case of less expensive and/or frequently purchased items there would

probably be far less searching for information. If the prospective buyer is

loyal to a particular brand then the evaluation of alternatives may not figure

at all. The fact that some of the stages depicted in figure 5.4 may be skipped,

in certain circumstances, does not invalidate the model. The five-stage

model outlined here shows the complete sequence of possible events in the

buying process. It can be modified to fit the particular circumstances

surrounding a given buying decision.

Influences on the Consumer Purchase Decision Process

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Marketing Mix Influences

The Marketing Mix Influences - Marketing mix is used to reinforce the

advantages of the Laptop carefully reflecting its core values and positioning.

It confirms how and why it will be of interest to various segments of the

Laptop-buying public.

Product – Reflecting the Brand

In branding and market positioning, brand wishes to communicate a number

of key attributes of the Laptop. The brands positioning statement is designed

to convey the product advantages and the ‘character’ of the model in a way

that will best attract the target market.

Place’ – Getting the Product o the Customer

In order to succeed at getting the product to the consumer, the companies’

employs national or International network of ‘agents’ or dealers who carry

Laptop. This means that support should be given to the dealers around

to promote the model in a way that generates demand for the Laptop.

‘Price’ – Reflecting the Positioning Strategy

The company should have a clear understanding of its key target market for

e.g.

The comfort level of consumers in Kolkata starts from 30,000 Rs.

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Starting range of laptops:

1. HP – Rs 35000

2. Sony – Rs 38000

3. Dell – Rs 32000

4. Acer – Rs 24000

DELL

Dell Laptops for Home Users:

Dell Inspiron 14 Price – 39,500/- to Dell Inspiron 15 Price – 36,900/-

Dell Studio 15 Price – 40,900/- to Dell Studio XPS 16 Price – 67,900/-

Dell Laptops For Small Businesses:

Dell Vostro A840 – 31,500/- to Dell Vostro A840 – 29,000/-

Dell laptops for performance demanding applications:

Dell Latitude 2100 – 26,750/- to Dell Latitude E5400 – 63,800/-

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ACER

For Home users:

Acer Aspire 5315 – 22999/- to Acer Aspire 8920G – 80999/-

For Travelers:

Acer TravelMate 4720 – 45999/- to Acer TravelMate 5720 – 50999/-

For niche users:

Acer Ferrari 1100 – 80399/-

HCL:

For personal users:

HCL ME G3843 Laptop price - Rs.23700 to HCL ME Z3935 Laptop price

- Rs.43928

For niche users:

HCL ME P3859 LEAPTOP price – Rs.30480

For small businesses:

HCL Netbook MH04 price - Rs.15,999

For young users:

HCL ME G3843 Laptop price - Rs.23892 to HCL ME Z3935 Laptop price

- Rs.43928

HP:

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For professionals:

HP Pavilion DV9502AU Price – 39,000/- to HP Pavilion DV9731TX Price

– 67,500/-

For businesses:

HP 530 Business Laptop Price – 27500/- to HP 520 Business Laptop Price –

28500/-

Sony Viao:

The pricing for Vaio notebooks including the X series featuring Kareena

Kapoor as its brand ambassadors starts from Rs 64,990, Sony W series Net

books are priced at Rs 27,490 and the pricing of Vaio CW series ranges from

Rs 52,490 to 57,990.

‘Promotion’ – Communicating

The primary above the line medium used to promote and communicate a

new Laptop is through advertising. The choice of TV and outdoor

advertising makes perfect marketing sense.

Marketing Strategies

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HP Campaign

Last year, HP unveiled a versatile notebook PC featuring a unique and

award-winning design that takes individual style and entertainment

performance to new limits. HP and MTV held a contest for young people

around the world to help design a special edition HP notebook. The theme

was the cause that is most personal to you. It all starts with your personal

view. Imagine that your design is a positive thought, a belief, a message you

want to tell the world.

Hewlett-Packard is running a campaign, titled Greenovation, to urge

consumers to take a pledge that they will dispose electronic goods such as

printers, scanners and personal computers in a responsible manner. The

company has created a website, Greenovation.in, where users can reach and

provide their email address as consent to pledge. The website also offers

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users to opt for the HP Product Take Back Program. It will enable

consumers to handover HP products to the company, which will dispose the

products in a responsible way. HP is promoting the portal through online

banner ads across various websites such as Yahoo!, Rediff.com and In.com.

This campaign is mainly for brand building and consumers will now see HP

as a responsible environment-friendly company.

‘The Computer is Personal Again': A Global Integrated Marketing

Communications Campaign

HP wanted to step away from selling computers as a commodity to telling a

story in an autobiographical way. The campaign has resonated very well

with business customers and consumers around the world. Additionally, it

has established HP as the company on the forefront of delivering new

technologies to enable today's digital lifestyle.

The objective of the campaign was "to grow a more profitable worldwide

business through the introduction, support, and marketing of innovative

products, services, and solutions that will deliver the absolute best customer

experience in personal technology."

The campaign was targeted at PC users aged between 18 and 34 and small to

mid-sized companies. The campaign takes off from the basis that a personal

computer is an extension and expression of oneself, containing as it does the

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entire user's information, personal and work-related. The campaign also

seeks to go beyond the technological aspects and convey the message that

HP's personal computers are a more powerful personal tool, and user-

friendly, secure and reliable ones.

HCL Marketing Strategies:

The HCL Global branding initiatives was conceptualized in Jan 05 with an

objective to unify the global enterprise and connect with all stakeholders.

Done in three phases, the brand communication took a single thread (that of

HCL being in the leading edge of technology), while expressed it in different

ways.

The Fearless Campaign:

The 'Fearless' was a print-led TV campaign, which brought out the core

HCL values of Guts, Courage and Passion. The campaign also spoke about

the size and width of the enterprise, while introducing the HCL Heritage and

stature.

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'The Numbers do the talking' Campaign:

0 and 1, the binary digits were taken as HCL's brand ambassadors. The story

they weave around the different areas of expertise that HCL has is the crux

of the campaign.

The campaign, initiated in Jan 05 went on till March 06 and explained the

multifaceted technology width of HCL. The campaign helped in sustaining

and continuing the brand stature of the company.

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Touch Technology Campaign:

This was a Television advertisement. The idea was to see the world from the

eyes of a common man, someone who isn’t completely aware of our

presence. But as the film unfolds, he finds out that we are almost

everywhere, and that many of the things that he took for granted are in fact

powered by our technology. In order to initiate this process and give the

brand a face, a protagonist was introduced - the HCL employee.

And thus the ad becomes a chance encounter of two people from different

ends of the same spectrum. It’s the story of - The Hitchhiker. And the

campaign became the "Technology that touches lives."

More recently, in 2009 HCL Infosystems has re-branded its range of laptop

products as ‘ME’, and it aims to raise its market share in the segment to 20

per cent from the existing 7.34 per cent in two-three years. Over the next

two-three years, the company would spend Rs 40-50 crore around the re-

branding exercise.

The new HCL ME campaign has been made keeping in mind the

requirements of today’s customers who are on the move and seek seamless

connectivity to the virtual world. A survey carried out by research firm

IMRB on key youth trends has revealed that there is an increasing need for

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mobility among the target segment but the nuances of mobility varied in

different age brackets.

For teenagers, laptops are a means to belong to their community, while the

jobseeker’s biggest motivation is career growth and technology and the

laptop is an enabling tool. For the mid-level executive, the laptop offered

mobility and the ability to work at his own pace.

The new marketing campaign for ‘ME’ is aimed at establishing a youthful

and vibrant image of the brand and ensure a stronger connect with ‘NextGen

consumers’. All HCL Digilife stores and retail outlets would be re-branded

as part of the strategy.

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The win-win situation:

All the Dell's programmes are based on flat incentive or margin structure.

The sales-affiliates need not even directly handle the products. Dell is letting

them focus on what they do the best - sales. They just need to advise

customers on the right products, and simply place the order online. This

system also brings huge benefit to the customers. They get the freshest

technology, pay less for lower supply chain cost, get tax benefit and deal

directly with the manufacturer.

Acer marketing strategy

Acer had been aggressive in building its brand image in India. It signed up

Hrithik Roshan, a popular Hindi film star, as its brand ambassador to

promote its products. The advantage of having a brand ambassador like

Hrithik Roshan was that he helped in brand recall and in associating Acer

with high quality.

To have greater brand visibility, Acer began focusing on the retail outlets.

As of May 2006, Acer had 225 retail outlets and 179 retail partners. Analysts

felt that the retail network was a prime channel for the movement of

premium products like notebooks, consumer desktops, and home theater

solutions.

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Acer's retail strategy was such that each retail outlet was allocated a

geographical area in the city so that the individual retailers could grow their

business without infringing on another Acer partner's customer base. The

channel partners were provided training and emphasis was placed on

channel communication and relationship management.

Acer's focus in India is on education, youth, and retail. For the education

segment, it built solutions which fit the needs and budget of the students. On

the retail front, it tied up with large format retail stores such as Croma,

Home Solutions, Next, and Metro.

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Buyer behaviour and market segmentation

One of the principal applications of buyer behaviour theory, in marketing, is

market segmentation. Whether the customer is an individual consumer or

commercial/industrial organisation, each differs in their particular needs,

motivations, decision processes and buying behaviour. However, no

enterprise can provide a different product or service for each and every

customer. At the same time, if an enterprise attempts to provide a single

standardised product then only a proportion of the target customer group is

likely to be wholly satisfied and the remainder will suffer varying degrees of

dissatisfaction and will actively seek alternatives. The needs of the

dissatisfied are likely to be met by an existing or emerging competing

organisation.

The technique of segmenting a market helps an enterprise decide how far it

can go in tailoring its product or service to the needs of distinct groups of

customers. Mumby defines market segmentation as:

“…the process of identifying and then separating a total market into parts so

that different marketing strategies can be used for each part. This involves

collecting information about the different segments that the company has

identified.”

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To clarify these points, consider the position of suppliers of agricultural

inputs to arable farming enterprises (e.g. seed companies, fertilizer

manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, etc.). Figure 5.7. illustrates some

of the bases that might be used in segmenting the market.

Segmenting markets for agricultural inputs -an illustration

The variables used to segment markets may be demographic (e.g. age, sex,

geographic location, occupation, education, race), psychographic (e.g.

activities, interests, opinions, personality, lifestyle) or behavioural (e.g.

product usage rate, degree of brand loyalty, occasions of product usage).

According to Engel et al. 10, the objective of market segmentation is to:“…

identify groups within the broader market that are sufficiently similar in

characteristics and responses to warrant separate treatment.”

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The enterprise concentrates on serving a single

market segment. This is also known as niche

marketing. This can be a high risk strategy since

Concentrated
marketing
the organisation is vulnerable without some degree

of diversification as niche markets can quickly

disappear.
Here the organisation elects to serve two or more

of the market segments identified. A distinct

Differentiated
marketing mix is employed for each market
marketing
segment which the organisation is seeking to

penetrate.
This is the antithesis of market segmentation in

that the enterprise seeks to attract as many buyers

as possible with a single marketing mix. Some

Undifferentiated
organisations have been very successful with this
marketing
simple formula but it becomes increasingly

difficult to sustain market position and share as the

level of competition becomes more intense.

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Thus, within a defined market segment customers should be very similar to

one another whilst between distinct market segments the groups of

customers should be very different from one another. As suggested by

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Mumby's definition of market segmentation, each market segment might

require a quite different marketing mix. This would include having a quite

distinct marketing mix for each market segment. Once the market has been

segmented the enterprise must decide which of these segments it can

profitably serve. The main strategic approaches which may be adopted in

this regard are:

Markets may be segmented a priori, where the basis of segmentation is

chosen in advance, or post hoc, where segments are formed after the product

has been developed, or even after it has been launched, on the basis of

customer response to the product. When the Zimbabwean company Quality

Dairies launched its drinking yoghurt it decided a priori that it would target

the 4 – 10 year olds. Intuitively, the management felt that this segment

represented a marketing opportunity. The pack size (250 ml), the pack

design (bright colours and a cartoon character named “Slurpy”) and the

flavours (chocolate and strawberry) were all predetermined and designed to

appeal to this age group. Quality Dairies could equally well have taken a

post hoc approach to market segment by placing samples in households and

then through follow-up interviews determines who used the product, on what

occasions, how it was used and with what result (liked it/did not like it). On

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the basis of this information the market for drinking yoghurt could have

been segmented.

The process of segmenting a market is likely to produce a number of

different possible customer groups. The enterprise then has to evaluate the

relative attractiveness of the market segment identified and select the target

segments(s) that it will seek to serve.

Of course, whilst some market segments may be attractive in terms of

potential profitability, the enterprise will only be able to serve these if its

resources match the needs of those segments. Thus, for instance, a small

company marketing fungicides might see great opportunities in targeting

grain traders but not having the necessary number of salesmen to adequately

serve this segment.

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Chapter 3

Major Competing Brands In the Market

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Dell Computers

Dell Computer Corporation started in 1984 by Michael Dell with this very

simple premise as its basic foundation: that personal computers could be

built and sold directly to customers and by doing this, Dell could address

their specific needs and provide the best computing solutions that meet those

needs.

Dell’s Direct Method provides two distinct advantages:

1. reducing marketing and sales cost by eliminating

markups of distributors and r etailers

2. building to order reduced inventory costs and risks of

retaining inventories

Dell’s Direct Model is the main reason why it has achieved its stellar status

in business today. This strategic model enables Dell to interact with

customers directly providing them with fast, reasonably-pr iced and friendly

means of production and distribution.

Strengths

Dell's Direct Model approach of enables the company to offer direct

relationships with customers such as corporate and institutional customers.

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Their strategic method also provides other forms of products and services

such as internet and telephone purchasing, customized computer systems;

phone and online technical support and next-day, on-site product service.

This extensive range of products and services is definitely one of Dell’s

strengths. Dell Computer's award-winning customer ser vice, industry-

leading growth and consistently strong financial performance differentiate

the company from competitors for the following reasons.

Price for Performance – Dell boasts a very efficient procurement,

manufacturing and distribution process allowing it to offer customers

powerful systems at competitive prices.

Customization - Each Dell system is built to order to meet each customer’s

specifications.

Reliability, Service and Support – Dell’s direct customer allows it to provide

top-notch customer service before and after the sale.

Latest Technology – Dell is able to introduce the latest relevant technology

compared to companies using the indirect distribution channels. Dell turns

over inventory for an average of every six days, keeping inventory costs

low.

Weaknesses

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Dell’s biggest weakness is attracting the college student segment of the

market. Dell’s sales revenue from educational institutions such as colleges

only accounts for a measly 5% of the total. Dell’s focus on the corporate and

government institutional customers somehow affected its ability to form

relationships with educational institutions. Since many students purchase

their PCs through their schools, Dell is obviously not popular among the

college market yet.

For home users, Dell’s direct method and customization approach posed

problems. For one, customers cannot go to retailers because Dell does not

use distribution channels. Customers just can’t buy Dell as simply as other

brands because each product is custom-built according to their specifications

and this might take days to finish.

Acer Incorporated

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Acer Incorporated is a Taiwan-based multinational electronics manufacturer.

Its product lineup includes desktops and laptops, as well as personal digital

assistants (PDAs), servers and storage, displays, peripherals, and e-business

services for business, government, education, and home users. Acer's

subsidiary in India is Acer India (Pvt) Limited, and was incorporated as a

wholly owned subsidiary of Acer Computer International, Ltd. in 1999. It is

a notable vendor in key segments such as education, desktop computers and

low profile notebooks for education purposes. Its headquarters are

in Bangalore, India.

• Travelmate series: Travel mate laptops/notebook offered by Acer in

India are lightweight and slim, appropriate for traveling people.

Integrated with latest technology and features travelmate series is the

best for people who are always on tour.

• Tablet Pc series: complementing mobile technology Acer tablet pc

series of laptops/computers offers exceptional mobility giving you

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high performance, flexibility and great dependability. It has option of

pen-input functionality. The configuration is best suited for high

performance.

• Aspire series: Aspire series of Acer laptops/notebook in India are

here to increase your productivity adding more value to mobile

computing. These Acer laptops/computer offers you great flexibility

and support to your needs.

• Ferrari series: The Ferrari series are as fast as Ferrari with the latest

technology implemented these Acer laptops/computer in India. Giving

you innovative design and flexibility these laptops are competing with

the best market standards.

Acer Support:

On Acer’s Indian website, www.acer.co.in, Acer has clearly mentioned their

support and service policies. It lists various Toll free numbers for customer

care. There is the facility to download drivers according to the model owned.

But the biggest drawback is that it does not offer any technical help online.

It does not even have a ‘getting started’ guide or a list of Frequently Asked

Questions and their answers. Common software related problems can be

easily resolved by the user if they follow a step-by-step detailed procedure.

But Acer does not seem to realise this

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Strengths

• Operational Efficiency — Tight Control on Overhead Costs.

• Improved Economies of Scale.

• Fast Reactions to Market Changes After Cautious ROI Evaluation.

• Strong Global Logistics.

• Aggressive Pr ice Strategy — Particularly Suitable to a Time of

Economic Recession.

• Strong Relationships with Suppliers.

• Simple and Effective Channel Program.

Weaknesses

• Low Profit Margins.

• Multiple Brands, Which Increase Costs and Dilute Resources.

• Brand Perception as Low-Cost PC Provider.

• Insufficient Attention to the Chinese Market — the Second-Largest in

the World and Growing.

• Limited Product Portfolio for Midsize business.

Hewlett-Packard Company

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Hewlett-Packard Company commonly referred to as HP, is a technology

corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States; with

offices at the old Compaq Campus in Houston, Texas. HP is the largest

technology company in the world and operates in nearly every country. HP

specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, storage, and

networking hardware, software and services. Major product lines include

personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as

well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. Today HP

serves more than one billion customers in more than 170 countries on six

continents. When HP merged with Compaq in 2002, it took over Compaq's

existing naming rights agreement. As a result, HP sells both HP and

Compaq-branded machines. Today, HP is considered to be the top-selling

brand of personal computers in the World.

Segments of HP:

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Students

Travelers

Home and Family

Entertainment

Technology and Style

Models of HP:

Mini: To help schools offer affordable computing to every student, HP

introduced a full-function, mini-notebook PC priced starting under

$500.Designed for the education market, the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC is

flexible enough for students to use from the classroom to the family room.

The HP Mini provides mobile professionals a sleek, lightweight device that

provides access to information and the ability to collaborate with others as

well as to communicate via email, instant messaging or even bloging.

Compaq Presario: Compaq Presario range of laptop computers in India are

used for daily computing works. Having great range of selection these

Compaq laptops are perfect for your daily use. Keeping in mind your entire

requirement HP Compaq in India has developed these laptops, more

technology oriented.

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HP Pavillion: HP pavillion range of laptops is more powerful and trendier

serving more in big businesses and traveling personnel. Supporting all kinds

of multimedia these laptops/notebook in Indian market are appropriate fro

multimedia. These are very powerful and easy to use laptops. The various

series that HP pavilion is available are dv8000 series, dv5000 series, dv2000

series and dv1000.

Special edition: Special edition for Hp pavilion laptops are mainly designed

to give you entertainment in secure environment. More technology sound

with higher power and speed these special edition laptops/notebook are here

to make your dreams come true.

HP support:

HP has a support section on its website, www.welcome.hp.com. The site

offers solutions to FAQs. However, the site is not ever user-friendly and

navigation can be a bit difficult for the uninitiated. The site offers consumer

and business support forums. It also offers an online support call and

diagnostic. There is an option to automatically check if the drivers are in

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need of an update. The site offers help categorically apart from some tips

and tricks posted by users on a forum.

Strengths:

HP laptops in India are beating technology to drive a great force of power

and core competency in the market. Technological advancement is the

market demand nowadays, but HP Compaq India is going beyond the

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market demand. Taking care of consumer need, HP Compaq is offering

trendier and more technologically advanced laptop computers in India.

Realizing the potential of Indian market, HP Compaq laptops\notebook are

flooded in Indian market with all great features and functionality.

Considering the needs of Indian consumer HP Compaq India has

researched the market and knows how to advertise their laptop computer

in Indian market.

HP offers great dependability. They have captured the market running

successfully all over globe. HP India a brand you can rely upon. Making

their mark in information technology world Compaq India is offering wide

range of stylish and awesome laptops, which are more trendy and jazzy.

Making their laptops computer lightweight, powerful and user friendly HP

Compaq has made easy for travelers to carry their laptops. Providing

services to large business houses to personal use HP laptops/notebook in

India are one of the best brands to look for.

Hp laptops are known to have high efficiency and performance. These

have high durability features. With its popularity spread in innumerable

countries, HP laptops are known to be highly affordable as well. There are

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many models of the Hp laptops meant for varied uses. Great designs along

with the right technology provide the best entertainment and productivity to

the user. The Hp laptops are also considered great in terms of mobility.

Weaknesses:

HP does not diversify its products. The range of models is not very

exhaustive. This is an area where other companies score over HP.

HCL Enterprise Limited

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HCL Enterprise Limited (formally known as HCL Computers Limited) is

one of India's largest electronics, computing and information

technology company. Based in Noida, near Delhi, the company comprises

two publicly listed Indian companies, HCL Technologies and HCL

Infosystems.

A formidable name in the Indian IT Market is HC which spans for more than

three decades. HCL is known for constant innovations which are visible in

their new ranges of laptops from time to time. Some of the popular models

of HCL laptops include HCL Laptop Z22- Z2201, HCL Notebook P21-

P2110, HCL Notebook K21- K2101, HCL Laptop X9912- AX9015, HCL

Laptop Z24- Z2403 and so on HCL laptops are known for their portability as

they are one of the slimmest in the Indian market. HCL laptops in India are

customized according to the Indian customers, keeping in mind their needs,

look and feel.

The three basic funda which HCL implements in their laptops or you can say

three basic points which is implemented in all the laptops in India are:

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• SLIM: HCL India is among companies making the slimmest

laptops/notebook in India.

• LIGHT: Lightweight is one of the main features, adding color to the

laptops/notebook.

• POWER: And the most important part is the power of this HCL

laptops/notebook. They are up to date and highly technology oriented.

All three features integrated together gives HCL laptops in Indian market,

over the edge advantage. Being designed for all the generation, HCL laptops

in India makes a rage among the people. With attractive color and design,

ravishing looks and best suited technology HCL India knows how to market

their products.

HCL Support:

On HCL’s special support website, http://hclsupportservice.in/, HCL only

gives details about its warranty program. It does not offer drivers for

download purpose, nor does it have any other feature. It does not even list

the phone numbers for technical help.

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Major Achievements of HCL

• Developed the first indigenous micro-computer in 1978.

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• Indigenously developed an RDBMS, a Networking OS and Client

Server architecture

in 1983.

• In 1986, HCL becomes the largest IT Company in India

• HCL introduced fine grained multi-processor Unix-3 year s ahead of

"Sun" and "HP".

Lenovo Group

Limited

Lenovo Group Limited is a multinational computer technology

corporation that develops, manufactures and

desktops and notebook PCs, workstations, servers, storage

drives, IT management software, and related services.

• 3000 family notebooks: 3000 lenovo laptops/notebook in India offers

innovative notebooks for your worry free access. Compiled with latest

technology these laptops/notebooks are suitable for small

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business houses and usage at home. All the features you need are

integrated in the laptop and the best services and support is provided

by lenovo India. Three series are available in 3000 family of lenovo

laptops/notebook in India. C, V and N series of laptops to give you the

best option according to your needs.

• ThinkPad notebooks: These are the more technology oriented and

true value for your money. Design wise these are perfect. Security is

the added advantage of these lenovo laptops/notebook. Built to serve

more speed and functionalities these can be used for everyday

computing, premium performance, thinnest and lightest and

convertible tablets. All these are most reliable notebooks/laptops to

server your daily needs.

Suggestions

Lenovo would like to carve out a lucrative niche. Interestingly, India was the

first country where Lenovo launched consumer PCs and notebooks.

However, despite some aggressive TV campaigns featuring sibling duo Saif

and Soha Ali Khan, it hasn’t managed to connect with Indian consumers in a

big way.

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Lenovo would be best served in the consumer market by focusing on brands

like its IdeaPad brand rather than on the 3000 value line. Time and again, we

have seen that Indian consumers deviate from the usual price consciousness

when it comes to laptops. In other product categories, price is the most

important factor but when it comes to notebooks, buyers want a full-fledged

model with loads of styling. Laptops priced below Rs 30,000 have never

done as well as those priced in the Rs 35,000 to 50,000 band. The relative

failure of netbooks to take off in the Indian market is another pointer to this

preference for value (features/price) rather than raw price.

Moreover, Lenovo’s 3000

line up starts with a bunch of

DOS laptops (although some

of the higher end models do

come with Vista Basic, not

all of them do). Laptops with an Operating System usually cost maybe 10%

more than laptops without and consumers have realized that it’s better to

have a legit copy of Windows.

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Toshiba Corporation

Toshiba Corporation is a

Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered

in Tokyo, Japan. The company's main business is in infrastructure,

consumer products, electronic devices and components.

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• Basic Laptops: Basic laptops offered by Toshiba India are designed

to meet your general needs. These can be used at home, office or any

other business purpose. Basic laptops/notebook in India offered by

Toshiba is powerful and configuration wise its appropriate to serve

your needs. Toshiba India takes care of the basic configuration of this

laptops/notebook to make it appropriate for all generations. Satellite

and tecra are the two laptop/notebook family offered by Toshiba

which belongs to Basic laptop.

• Thin and Light Laptops: Thin and light laptops offered by Toshiba

India are best suited for the traveling personnels. The lightweight and

thin Toshibalaptops in India makes you feel proud by their sound

features. Easy to carry and available in wonderful colors. Satellite and

tecra are the two laptop/notebook offered by Toshiba India which can

solve your weight problem.

• High Performance Laptops: High performance laptops in

India offered by Toshiba India are best suited for gamers and

engineers who need more processing speed to perform their daily

work. These Toshiba laptops/notebook are very powerful and high

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speed. Portege, Satellite and tecra are the three laptop/notebook

offered by Toshiba

India which are high

performance

laptops/notebook.

Qosimo is the newer brand of Toshiba laptops/notebook in India. Integrated

with alllatest technology it provides you all the functionalities and features

to serve your purpose. In addition these Toshiba India laptops are ultra

portable, lightweight, supporting gaming and multimedia features to the

fullest.

Sony Vaio

Even an uninitiated person can identify smart Sony VAIO laptops in India.

Reason? Its attractivelooks have made it a status symbol for some top

travelling executives. The colour choices repletewith upgraded technology

and features have made it viable for the company to even sell their

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premium range of laptops at morethan Rs. 1,00,000/-.Sony has been a very

in-your-face brand for many years in India. Withother electronic products

this Japanese giant has garnered more customer base for their new

laptop division in the country.

The VAIO CR series have a colour palette of red, blue, soft white, powder

pink and classic black. Young India has certainly noticed this and covets it

more than the highly rated mobiles. It has arange of in-built multimedia,

entertainment, Av mode, bright LCD lights, built in webcam, and

simple interface for blogging. Prices for Sony laptop India are equally eye

catching!

It starts with Rs. 55, 000/- with additional features at extra costs. Since they

know that there is enough competition in the country from America and

local computers they have reasonable prices. The end models for one lakh

and above are unique and can be found with select dealers. Buoyed by the

response form all customers Sony is now going to pump in more money to

introduce more sleeker models. Laptops shipment into the city harbours

increased from 25 % to 40 %. While rivals like HP is still dominant Sony is

proving to be a tough competitor. No doubt the attractive looks will fetch

more cool customers for the brand.

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Chapter 4
29
Data Analysis & Interpretation

Q1. Gender

Male 71
 Male  Female Female 29

71

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Analysis

From the above pie chart it can be interpret that out of the total respondent

71% are Male and 29% are female.

Q2. Indicate the age group you fall into

 < 20 years  20-29 years

 30-39 years  40-49 years

 50-59 years  >59 years

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<20 yrs-6
38 20-29 yrs-44
44
30-39 yrs-38
40-49 yrs-9
50-59 yrs-3
>59 yrs-0
9
6 03

Analysis

From the above pie chart we can see that majority of the respondent are of

age group 20-29 years in the research, 38% are of age group 30-39 years,

9% are of 40-49 years of age group, 6% are of age group below 20 years and

3% are within 50-59 years of age group.

Q3. Do you own a Laptop?

 Yes  No

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No-9
yes-91

91

Analysis

From the pie chart it is interpreted that 9% of the respondent do not have

Laptop.

Q4. If yes, which brand of Laptop you are currently using?

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Acer  Dell  HP

 HCL  Lenovo  Sony Vaio

 Toshiba  Others(please specify)………………………..

Acer- 24%
HP- 19%
Dell- 15%
HCL- 26%
Sony Vaio- 9%
Lenovo- 5%
Toshiba- 2%
Others- 0

Analysis

From the pie chart it is clear that out of the total respondent who owns

laptop majority uses of HCL laptops (26%), followed by Acer (24%), HP

(19%), Dell (15%). Thus HCL is found to be the leader in consolidated

market share of Laptops in Kolkata.

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Q5. Where do you gather information about laptop while Purchasing?

 Websites  TV Ads

 Newspaper/Magazine ads  Friends/Family

 By looking at the actual products in store

 From consumer review websites

 Others(please specify)…………………………………

0 7
14 Websites
9
TV Ads

looking at the actual

13 product in store
Friends/Family

Newspaper/magazin
e
37
Consumer review
website
20
Others

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Analysis

As it is evident from the chart that majority of the respondent gets

information from Newspapers and Magazines, followed by friends and

family and TV ads. This gives an insight that the media that can be effective

n conveying sales promotion offers is print media (newspapers &

magazines). This can be concluded from the fact that 37% of the respondents

seek information from newspapers & magazines while purchasing laptop.

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Q6. What are the various attributes that you look at while purchasing a

Laptop?

 Reasonable price  Style

 Reliable Brand/High quality  Features configuration

 Durability  Profitability

 Promotion/Product on sale  Extended Warranty

 Good After sales service  Latest Technology

 Security  Easy movability

 Others(please specify)…………………………………

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7 0 Price

4 Promotion
2
10 Brand image
3 Style

39 Features
7
After sales
service
Profitability

Extended
warranty
Durability

16 Security

Latest
Technology
Movability
3 Others
10
8

Analysis

From the chart it can be interpreted that most of the respondents considers

price as the most important attribute while purchasing Laptop, followed by

Feature configuration, promotional offers and After sales service. It can be

concluded that price plays a major role in the minds of purchaser as 39% of

the respondent has opted price as the most important attribute.

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Q7. What is the purpose of your purchasing a Laptop?

 Entertainment  Study

 Security  Office Work

 Business  Personal

 Others…………………….

20 6
Entertainment
23
Study

Security

Office work

Business
29 Personal

others

22

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Analysis

From the above chart it can be interpreted that out of the total respondent

who owns laptop the purpose of buying a laptop is mainly study, followed

by Business(25%) and Office work(24%). It can be concluded that majority

of the purpose of buying latop is studies(32%) and is concentrated mainly by

young crowed.

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Q8. How much would you spend on purchasing the Laptop of your

choice?

< 25000  25000-30000

 30000-35000  35000-40000

 40000-45000  45000-50000

50000-55000  >55000

21
<25000
25000-30000
30000-35000
43 35000-40000
12
40000-45000
0 45000-50000
2
5 50000-55000
>55000
17

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Analysis

From the above pie chart it can be interpreted that majority of the respondent

would be ready to spend between Rs.30000-35000 for Laptop, 21% of the

respondent are ready to spend Rs.25000-30000, 17% of the respondent are

ready to spend Rs.35000-40000. It can also be seen that none of the

respondent is ready to spend above Rs.50000 or more.

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Q9. Which of the following Laptop would you choose to buy?

Acer  Dell  HP

 HCL  Lenovo  Sony Vaio

 Toshiba  Others(please specify)………………………..

25
Acer
Dell
HP
17
HCL
29 lenovo
Sony Vaio
20
5 Toshiba
3 Others-Apple
19

Analysis

From the above pie chart it can interpreted that 29% of the respondent would

choose to buy Hp laptops, followed by Dell(25%), HCL(19%), Acer(17%).

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Q10. What are the various features that you would like to have in your

Laptop?

 Style Features  Security Features

 Convenience Features  Easy movability Features

 Heavy usage Features  Gaming Features

 Others………………………………

22

2 Style
13
Easy movability
0 Security
17
7 Convenience
Heavy usage
Gaming
Others
39

Analysis

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It is evident that majority of the respondent(39%) are wanting to have the

easy movability feature in their laptop, which means they want their laptop

to be small in size and light in weight.

Q11. Family Income?

 <2 Lacs  2-4 Lacs

 4-6 Lacs  >6 lacs

6
<2 Lacs
0 78 2-4 lacs
4-6 Lacs
16 >6 Lacs

Analysis

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From the chart we can interpret that 78% of the respondent’s family income

is within 2-4 lakh rupees, 16% of the respondent’s family income is within

4-6 lakh rupees, 6% of the respondents family income is less than 2 lakh.

Q12. What is your occupation?

 Service  Business

 Student  Housewife

 Professional  Unemployed

 Retiree  Work from home

 Refused  Others……………………………..

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Service
46 Business

Student

Professional

4 Housewife
0
Refused
13 8
Unemployed
20
0
Retiree
27 Work from
home
Others
Analysis

From the chart we can see that 46% respondent are student, 27% of the

respondents are in Service, 13% respondent are in business.

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Findings & Recommendation

• Majority of the Laptop owners are young, mainly students.

• Majority of the respondents have considered Price as their purchase

decision.

• Newspaper & Magazine are the major source of information for the

buyers.

• Majority of the respondent are ready to spend Rs. 30000-35000 for

purchasing laptops.

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• There is a greater demand for small size and light weight laptops.

• Family income has a significant impact on the selection of laptop

brands.

Recommendation

• All the brands should make more frequent TV ads and Magazine ads.

• All the laptop brands should give stress on the young consumer

market for brand development.

• More Customer service center’s should be opened by all the Laptop

brands.

• All the companies should increase their promotional activities.

Bibliography

• www.google.com

• www.en.wikipedia.org

• Kotler, Phillip and Gary Armstrong(2006), Principles of Marketing.

• “The Telegraph” Newspaper in kolkata.

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Questionnaire

Sir/Madam,

I am a student of Annamalai University. As part of the requirements for

my MBA degree, I am required to do a research based project. Kindly

spend a few minutes of your valuable time and fill in this questionnaire.

Personal Details

Name- ……………………………………………………

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Address-…………………………………………………………….

……………………………………………………………………..

Contact no-………………………………………………..

Q1. Gender

 Male  Female

Q2. Indicate the age group you fall into

 < 20 years  20-29 years

 30-39 years  40-49 years

 50-59 years  >59 years

Q3. Do you own a Laptop?

 Yes  No

Q4. If yes, which brand of Laptop you are currently using?

Acer  Dell  HP

 HCL  Lenovo  Sony Vaio

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 Toshiba  Others(please specify)………………………..

Q5. Where do you gather information about laptop while Purchasing?

 Websites  TV Ads

 Newspaper/Magazine ads  Friends/Family

 By looking at the actual products in store

 From consumer review websites

 Others(please specify)…………………………………

Q6. What are the various attributes that you look at while purchasing a

Laptop?

 Reasonable price  Style

 Reliable Brand/High quality  Features configuration

 Durability  Profitability

 Promotion/Product on sale  Extended Warranty

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 Good After sales service  Latest Technology

 Security  Easy movability

 Others(please specify)…………………………………

Q7. What is the purpose of your purchasing a Laptop?

 Entertainment  Study

 Security  Office Work

 Business  Personal

 Others…………………….

Q8. How much would you spend on purchasing the Laptop of your

choice?

< 25000  25000-30000

 30000-35000  35000-40000

 40000-45000  45000-50000

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50000-55000  >55000

Q9. Which of the following Laptop would you choose to buy?

Acer  Dell  HP

 HCL  Lenovo  Sony Vaio

 Toshiba  Others(please specify)………………………..

Q10. What are the various features that you would like to have in your

Laptop?

 Style Features  Security Features

 Convenience Features  Easy movability Features

 Heavy usage Features  Gaming Features

 Others………………………………

Q11. Family Income?

 <2 Lacs  2-4 Lacs

 4-6 Lacs  >6 lacs

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Q12. What is your occupation?

 Service  Business

 Student  Housewife

 Professional  Unemployed

 Retiree  Work from home

 Refused  Others………………………………..

…………………………………...

Signature

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