A STUDY ON IMPACT OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES AND CONSUMER SATISFACTION [AMONG AUTOMOBILES]
Submitted by Saumya Parmarthi Division B; Roll No. 3; PRN: 11010224063
Manu Gupta Division C; Roll No. 39; PRN: 11010224161
Rohit Nema Division C; Roll No. 52; PRN: 11010224063
Batch: 2011-16; BBA.LLB
Of Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA Symbiosis International University, PUNE In March, 2014 Under the guidance of Dr. Sunita Dwivedi Faculty-in-Charge Customer Relationship Management Email id:
[email protected]
CERTIFICATE
The Project entitled “A Study on Impact of Promotional Activities and Consumer Satisfaction- among Automobiles” submitted to the Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA for Customer Relationship Management as part of internal assessment is based on our original work carried out under the guidance of Prof. Sunita Dwivedi from December’2013 to April’2014. The research work has not been submitted elsewhere for award of any degree. The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the thesis has been duly acknowledged. I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for plagiarism, if any, detected later on.
Signature of the candidates Date: 3rd April’2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Foremost, we would like to express my sincere gratitude to our advisor Prof. Sunita Dwivedi the continuous support, patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge which she has provided. Finally, we take this opportunity to extend our deep appreciation to our family and friends, for all that they meant to us during the decisive times of the completion of our project.
INDEX
S. No.
Particulars
1.
Introduction
2.
Object of the Study
3.
Literature Review
4.
5.
Research Methodology
6.
Data Analysis
7.
8.
Conclusion
9.
References
Page No.
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig.
Page No.
For Manufacturers: 1.
Are there any promotional activities being conducted presently by your company?
2.
What kinds of activities are being conducted?
3.
What was the date of commencement of such offer/s?
4.
If more than one, which one of such offers has enhanced the customer satisfaction the most?
5.
How are the sales figures of your company affected after such an offer? For Customers:
6.
What car do you drive?
7.
What offers did you get on such purchase, if any?
8.
Did these offers incline you towards making such purchase?
9.
Did you compare the offers by other manufacturers too while purchasing this car?
10.
Are you satisfied with the offers you got?
car
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY To know about the impact of promotional activities done by the organisation and their customer’s response/ satisfaction level with respect to automobile sector.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The group will be conducting a quantitative primary empirical research as a part of the research thesis of Customer Relationship Management. And also will be referring to Secondary data provided in: •
Books
•
Journals
•
Articles
•
Cyber space
HYPOTHESIS Assuming
INTRODUCTION
Customer Relationship Management: In the mid-twentieth century, mass production techniques and mass marketing changed the competitive landscape by increasing product availability for consumers. However, the purchasing process that allowed the shopkeeper and customer to spend quality time interacting with each other was also fundamentally changed. As a result, customers lost their uniqueness becoming an “account number”. Shopkeepers lost track of their customers’ individual needs as the market became full of product and service options. Many companies today are striving to re-establish their connections to new as well as existing customers to boost long-term customer loyalty (Chen and Popovich, 2003). Most
companies
management.
engage
When
a
in
some
company
form builds
of a
customer customer
relationship list,
assigns
opportunities to sales representatives, or handles customer support cases, they are undertaking CRM-related activities. CRM applications standardize, automate, and share these activities across organizations to improve how companies interact with their customers.
An integrated approach to identifying, acquiring and maintaining customers.
Allows companies to coordinate their approach across channels, departments and also geographically.
Pre-CRM Practices: Before adopting a CRM application, companies should understand how they interact with customers in order to understand the benefits they can derive from CRM applications. Customer satisfaction: The degree of satisfaction by the goods and services of the company as measured by the number of repeat customers.
Importance of promotional activities
LITERATURE REVIEW
Modern marketers are rediscovering the ancient mantras for success in corporate
world
and
blending
them
with
contemporary
marketing
practices. Long term survival and competitive advantage can only be attained by establishing an emotional bond with the customers. A shift is taking place from marketing to anonymous masses of customers to developing and managing relationships with more or less well known or at least some identified customers (Gronroos, 1994). CRM
refers
to
all
business
activities
directed
towards
initiating,
establishing, maintaining, and developing successful long-term relational exchanges (Heide, 1994; Reinartz & Kumar, 2003). One of the results of CRM is the promotion of customer loyalty (Evans & Laskin, 1994), which is considered to be a relational phenomenon, (Chow & Holden, 1997; Jacoby & Kyner, 1973; Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995; cited by Macintosh & Lockshin, 1997). The benefits of customer loyalty to a provider
of
either
services
or
products
are
numerous,
and
thus
organizations are eager to secure as significant a loyal customer base as possible (Gefen, 2002; Reinartz & Kumar, 2003; Rowley & Dawes, 2000). Recent developments in Internet technology have given the Internet a new role to facilitate the link between CRM and customer loyalty (Body and Limayem, 2004). It is common knowledge that a dissatisfied and unhappy customer will share his unfortunate experience more than a satisfied customer. It is also observed that a fraction of unhappy customers choose to complain while others simply switch their loyalty to others service providers. Loss of customer is loss of business along with the opportunity for business growth and profitability. Feedback collection from the customer is essential for the supplier to ascertain customer satisfaction and scope for improvisation (Sugandhi, 2002).
QUESTIONNAIRE We are students of Symbiosis University and conducting a research study to examine the customer satisfaction. Your participation in this research project is entirely voluntary and your responses will be kept completely CONFIDENTIAL.
FOR THE MANUFACTURERS: 1. Are there any promotional activities being conducted presently by your company? ⃝ No
⃝ Yes
2. What kinds of activities are being conducted? O
Cash discount/ Corporate discount
O
Exchange bonus
O
Loyalty bonus
O
Limited editions/ special editions
O
Free goodies
O
Introductory Price
O
Any other
______________________________
3. What was the date of commencement of such offer/s? ___________________________________________________________ 4. If more than one, which one of such offers has enhanced the customer satisfaction the most? ___________________________________________________________ 5. How are the sales figures of your company affected after such an offer? ___________________________________________________________
FOR THE CUSTOMERS: 1. What brand’s car(s) do you drive? O Hyundai
O Maruti-Suzuki
O Honda
O Toyota
O Volkswagen
O Ford
O Chevrolet
O Tata
O Skoda
O Renault
O Any Other ___________
2. What offers did you get on such purchase, if any? O
Cash discount/ Corporate discount
O
Exchange bonus
O
Loyalty bonus
O
Limited editions/ special editions
O
Free goodies
O
Introductory Price
O
Any other
______________________________
3. Did these offers incline you towards making such purchase? ⃝ Yes
⃝ No
4. Did you compare the offers by other car manufacturers too while purchasing this car? ⃝ Yes
⃝ No
5. Are you satisfied with the offers you got? ⃝ Yes
⃝ No
DATA ANALYSIS
Manufacturers:
1. Promotional activities in companies
80%
20% Yes
No
2. Kinds of promotional offers in companies 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Cash discount
Exchange bonus
Loyalty Bonus
Special/ Ltd editions
Free Goodies
Intro price
3. Age of such offers 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 01-01-13 to 31-06-13
01-07-13 to 31-12-13
After 01-01-14
Customers:
4. Car owned 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Hyundai
Honda
Volkswagen
Chevrolet
Skoda
5. Offers Received 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Cash discount Exchange bonus Loyalty Bonus
Special/ Ltd editions
Free Goodies
6. Inclination towards making purchase due to offers
70%
30%
Yes
No
7. Comparisons of offers by other car manufacturers
Intro price
90%
10% Yes
No
8. Customer Satisfaction
80%
20% Yes
No
RESULTS •
As we can see from Graph 1, from all the manufacturers we approached to, 100% of the manufacturers were continuing with promotional activities in their companies as a tool for increasing the sales figures and enhancing the customer satisfaction and experience levels.
•
The
manufacturing
concerns
concentrate
on
indulging
in
the
promotional activities like Cash discount, Exchange bonus and Loyalty bonus with bonuses like free goodies coming at the last as seen in Graph 2. •
From Graph 3 we can see that these offers do not continue till a long time and the frequency of the commencement of ongoing offers in the last six months is significantly more than the preceding six months or before that.
•
Graph 4 shows the ownership of cars among the customers of different brands.
•
We can see from Graph 5 that the customers received the Loyalty bonus and Cash discount more as compared to promotional activities like free goodies and introductory price.
•
70% of the customers incline towards the purchase as a result of such offers as shown by Graph 6
•
90%
of
the
customers
compare
the
offers
by
different
car
manufacturers before making the decision of buying an automobile as shown in Graph 7. •
Lastly, 80% of the respondent customers are reportedly satisfied with all the promotional offers they got with their purchase of the automobile as seen in Graph 8 but still, 20% of the customers are not satisfied with the available offers in the market.
CONCLUSION
This project report was to analyze the satisfaction among customers resulting
out
of
the
promotional
activities
carried
out
by
the
manufacturing concerns in the automobile industry. At the end of this research thesis, we have learnt that promotional activities form a major component in enhancing the customer satisfaction and can affect the buying decision of a customer. From the empirical research we found out that almost every automobile manufacturing company uses promotional activities to lure more and more customers. And the customer's decision to buy a product or not can be affected by the offers he is getting on different products and their alternates in the market. As a matter of fact, in our study, 90% people admitted that they compare the offers given by different manufacturing companies before buying an automobile. We also found out that the companies, from their previous experiences, have learnt that the customers want something new in the offers department so they do not run these offers for a long time and terminate and initiate new promotional offers within 6 months or an year of the commencement of such offer. Considering the fact that our study showed that 80% of the people are satisfied with their purchase of an automobile as a result of the ongoing promotional offers going on them, what we have derived from this empirical research thesis is that the customer satisfaction is affected to a large extent by promotional activities in the automobile industry and the companies need to focus more towards satisfying the needs of the customers in this regard and make an attempt to cater to that remaining 20% of the people as well so as to increase their sales volume and in turn their market presence, productivity and brand value.
REFERENCES
JOURNALS: Macintosh, G., & Lockshin, L. S. (1997). “Retail relationships and loyalty: A multi-level perspective”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 14(5), 487-497. McDonald,
L.
(2002),
“Customer
Relationship
Management
-
An
Overvie”w, Available at: http://www.brillianceweb.com/betterwebdesign/tips_48.aspx,
Accessed
on July 30, 2006 Gronroos, C. (1983), “Strategic Management and Marketing in the Service Sector”, Report No. 83-104, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA. Buttle, F. (2004), Customer Relationship Management: concepts and tools, Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann Anonymous,
“Research
variables:
Reliability
and
Validity
of
Measurement”, available on: http://cbdd.wsu.edu/edev/NetTOM_ToT/Resources/Other/TOM614/page6 8.htm, [last accessed on September 3, 2006]
NON-PERIODICAL DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET:
Businessdictionary.com
Qualtrics.com
