Consumers Perception Regarding Branded and Unbranded shoes in the region of Bathinda.doc

a project report on consumers perception regarding branded and unbranded shoes in the region of bathindasubmitted tovaranasi university salemin fulfillment of degree of master of business administrationsubmitted to: submitted by: mrs parveen rani parveen rani mba ii (marketing) roll no bathindacertificatethis is certified that - of mba (marketing), punjab school of management studies varanasi university (campus) bathinda has undertaken project entitled “ consumer perception regarding branded and unbranded shoes” is a bonafide piece of work carried out under guidance and supervision. this is an original piece and no part of this work has been submitted for any other degree. the assistance and guidance received during completion of project have been fully acknowledged.project guidancemrs. parveen raniacknowledgmentas i write this acknowledgement, i must clarify that this is not just a formal acknowledgement but also a sincere note of thanks and regard from my side. i feel a deep sense of gratitude and affection for those who were associated with the project and without whose cooperation and guidance this project could not have been conducted properly.with deep sense of gratitude i would like to take this opportunity to thank my honorable project guide mrs parveen rani. i grateful to him for his co-operation and his invaluable and unstinted support. he has always given me the confidence to do hard work. without his guidance, this project report would not be accomplished. i would also like to thank them for giving me opportunity to work on this project. i would like to give my appreciation to friends for their constant encouragements and support accompanied me through the project work. last but not the least i like to thank my parents, my friends their support throughout the making of this report. a note of thanks to my colleagues who have always encouraged, motivated and given expert guidance to me. (parveen rani)table of contentsacknowledgementobjectiveslimitationsintroduction brand the emergence of brand how brands grow characteristics of a good brandbrand management branding in shoes brandingindian footwear industry import exporteconomies of world research methodology scope of the study research designdata analysis and interpretationfindings and conclusion recommendations bibliography annexurechapter-1objectives andlimitations of the studyobjectives of the studyv to determine & evaluate the factors that influences the customers perception while purchasing a particular product brand.v to evaluate the customers brand loyalty for a particular brand of the productv to examine the factors influencing the purchase decisions of the customers.v to discern the most popular sales promotion methods of branded shoes.v to delve on the reasons for brand switching in the branded shoes category.limitations of the studyalthough sincere efforts are done by me to collect the authentic and relevant information, the study may have the following limitations: the findings of this study are based on the subjective opinion of the respondents. although utmost care would be taken to obtain accurate results yet because of misinterpretation, biasness on the part of the respondents, some elements of inaccuracy may crepe in. hence it cannot be claimed that the present study is without any limitation as is the case with any other study. further lack of time and financial resources has prevent me from carrying out an in depth study .in addition to it some limitations regarding the scope of the validity of the conclusion may also be mentioned.1) the present study is confined to jalandhar city only. the findings of the study may not be applicable to the other parts of the country because of social, economical and cultural differences.2) the consumer behavior being dynamic in nature, there is very possibility that over the time findings of today may become invalid tomorrow.3) as described earlier, the study cant be generalized for all type of buyers. since the universe under study in my researches jalandhar city and the consumers in this region cant be called the representative of the entire all the consumers spread all over the universe.chapter-2introductionconsumers perception regarding branded and unbranded shoes in the region of patialaintroductionbrand: - a brand is name of a product/service which differntiate itself from its competitors.a brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. a brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. a brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. a brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.as diverse individuals we all have an inborn tendency to see the world in our own special ways. each and every individual can view the same event at the same time in different manner from all the other persons for each individual his reaction towards a particular based on his needs, wants, values and desire and his past experience.the way an individual reacts in a particular situation or an event is merely what that individual perceives about that situation. hence individual reacts on the basis of their perception .in other words we can say that the purchase behavior of the individual is the result of his perception. since the consumer purchase decision depends upon large extent of his perception, so it is important that the marketers understand the whole concept of the perceptionso that they can determine the factors that influence the consumer purchase decision.to form the perception about a particular brand the consumer has to pass through many phases, which can be highlighted as:a) perceptual selectionb) perceptual organizationc) perceptual interpretationthe individual may perceive many stimuli but is highly selective in nature how the consumer perceives a stimulus depends to a large extent on the nature of the stimulus, which includes the productive nature, physical appearance, brand name, level of advertisement and feature associated with the product. this study accounts for all the factors while evaluating the consumer perception to words the branded vs unbranded shoes.the consumer has emerged as the king of the market, no doubt but to go for branded products is still i he hands of consumer. the branded products, in general are also not far from their branded counterparts in terms of availability, quality and technology, but does the formality prove to be the only criteria for consumer perception for a particular duct. the making of these unbranded products in the market has posed many question, as, will sweep the branded product market off there feet?how these unbranded products are going to change the perception of branded products, the branded product companies are going to formulate better strategies to remain and to have a better edge in the market.so we first start with getting families with word brand, a brand is defined as a name term, sign, or special design of some combinations of the elements that is intended to identify the goods or service s of one seller or group of seller. a brand differences these products from those competitors. and is a seller to deliver to a specific set of benefits or attributes or ice to the buyer. brand name is that part of a brand, which can be vocalized - the utter able examples are valvolin, american express, and cola.1.1the emergence of brandshistorically, most products went unbranded. producers and middleman their gods directly out of barrels, bins, and cases without any supplier identification .the earliest signs of branding were in the efforts of medieval guides craftsman to put trade marks quality .in the arts, too, branding in with artist singing their works.in the united states the earliest brand promoters were the it medicine. brandings real growth occurred after civil war with growth of national firms and national advertising media. some of the early is still survive, such as oats, vaseline and ivory soap.branding has grown so strong that today hardly anything goes unbranded. salt is packed in distinctive manufacturers containers, oranges are stamped with growers names, and common nuts and bolts are packed in cellophanes.with a distributors label, and automobile components-spark plugs, tires, filters bear separate brand names from the auto makers. if the first purpose of branding was to legal protection by the inventors appetent, and the second was to guaranty quality and homogeneity after to seller and buyers had lost face to face contact, a third purpose stems directly for oligopolies need to differentiate their products. they quite rightly see branding as a device to enable them to control their, better preventing other peoples products from being substituted for theirs.it is likely that oligopolists have ever felt the need to rationalize these purpose; their responses are quite instinctive in most case. it seems in the make up of more successful marketing men and women there is. the innate knowledge that branding is the key to protection and an important contributor to growth. generally oligopolist will compete on price normally by means of active and continuous price promotions. but competitors among them are not confined to price. the strengths of oligopolists brands and, in particular, the added values that enrich them move the field of competition from reduction to product and brand improvement, originates in the later tending to the need for the former.margins are at least maintained, but not all put into profit, because building brands a great deal of many. various brands of a certain article while if fact are most exactly alike may sold as different qualities under names and labels.which will induce rich and snobbish buyers to divide themselves from buyers?1.2how brands growfirst brands penetration is the consumer measure that has the greatest influences on a brands sale; big brands always have a higher penetration than smaller brands. second in the discussion of frequency distribution, the point was made that of stationary markets conditions slightly underestimate the amount purchasing by brand trialist. the percentages of movement need marginal to represent substitution numbers in absolute terms. these how stationary markets become a little less stationary? but would the emergence of one-time trialists use the normal pattern of skewed frequency distribution? in practice, there establishment of the normal frequency distributions more likely to be achieved with a growth in brand by the trailists remaining infrequent purchase; but with some of the former infrequent purchases becoming more frequent purchases. everybody moves up a rung. some non-users become minor users; thus the same normal frequency distribution will now hold form the higher level of penetration. when a brand declining, the opposite happens. some major users become minor user. and some minor users become non-users. the brand eventually settles down to the same frequency distribution pattern at a lower of penetration. british analysts tom corlet first worked at this hypothesis to explain growth and dealing in consumer term; it according with a common sense. the powerful tendencies towered equilibrium. regularly in markets give a brand an inbuilt momentum once it crosses that first and most difficult hurdle of early establishment of penetration and repeat purchase. once a brand becomes a “goer” the tendency toward regularity is as much in its favor as it was an obstacle to be overcome during its initial market entry.1.3characteristics of a good brand namea good brand name should posses a many of the following characteristics as possible. they arev it should be distinctive: the market is filled with over worked names and over used symbol. a unique and distinctive symbol is not only easy to remember but also a distinguishing feature, e.g. north star shoes have a distinctive name.v it should be suggestive a well -chosen name or symbol should be suggestive of quality or may be associated with superiority or a great personality e.g vicco toothpaste is suggestive of an assurance of good health.v it should be appropriate: may products are surrounded by a certain mystique in the mind of consumers.v it should be easy to remember: the product brand should be easy to pronounce and spell, e.g. surf coca colathe top ten traits of a brandbuilding and properly managing brand equity as become a priority for the companies of all sizes, in all types of markets and in all types of industries. the rewards of strong brands are clear. the ten characteristics that a worlds strongest brand share and construct a brand report card a systematic way of grade the brands performance of each of those characteristics. the report card can help to identify are as that need improvement, recognize areas in which the brand is strong and learn more about the particular brand is configured.v the brand excels at delivering the benefits the customers truly desires. why do customers really buy a product? not because the product is a collection of a attributes but become those attributes, together with the brand image the service and man) others tangible and intangible factors create and attractive whole. in som3 cases whole is not even something that costumers know or can say they want.v the brand stays relevant and strong. in strong brands brand equities tide both to the actual quality of the product or the service and the various intangible factors. those intangible includes user imaginary (the type of person who uses the brand). usage imagery, the type of situation in which the brand is used; the personality the brand portrays, the feeling that it build with its customer. without losing sight of their core strengths, the strongest brands stay on the leading edge in the product arena and tweak their intangible to fit the times. gillette, for example pours millions of dollars into r & d to ensure that its razor blades are as technologically advanced as possible, calling attention of major advances, through sub brands and signaling minor improvements with modifiers. at the same time gillette has created a consistent, intangible sense of product superiority with its long running at the best the man can be which are through images of men at work and at play that have evolved over time to reflect contemporary trends. these days images can be quacked in many ways other than through traditional advertising , logos ,or slogans. relevance has a deeper, broader, meaning in todays market. increasingly consumers perception of a company as a whole and its role in society affect a brands strength as well. witness corporate brands that very visible support breast cancer research or current educational programs of one sort or other.v the pricing strategy is based on consumers perception of values, the right blend of product quality, design feature , costs and prices is very difficult to achieve but well worth the effort .many managers are woefully unaware of how price can and should relate to but the customers think of a product and they therefore charge too little or too much. for e.g. in implementing its value pricing strategy for the cascade automatic dish washing detergent brand, procter and gamble made a cost cutting edge in its formulations that had an adverse on the product performance under certain albeit somewhat typical water conditions. lever brothers quickly countered, attacking cascades coreequity producing virtually spotless dishes out off dishwasher. in response, p & g immediately returned to the brand old formulation the lesson to p&g and others is that value pricing should not adopt at the expense of essential brand building activities - by contrast with its well - known shift to everybody low pricing “strategy, p&g did successfully align its prices with consumer perception of its products value while maintaining acceptable profit levels. in fact, in the fiscal year after p&g switched to eldp (during which it also worked very hard to streamline operations and lower cost), the company reported its highest profit margin in 21 years.v the brand is properly positioned. brands that are well positioned occupy particular niches in consumers minds. they are similar to and different from competing brands in certain reliable identifiable ways. the most successfully brands in this regard keep up with competitors by creating points of parity in those area s where competitors are trying to find an advantage while at the same time creating points of difference to achieve advantage over competitors in some other areas the mecede-benz and sony brands, for example, hold clear advantage in product superiority and match competitors level of service. visa is particular good example of brand whose manager understands the positioning game in the 1970s and 1980s; american express