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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 strategyi.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 firms 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 firms 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 behavioral 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, frm 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. Nestl's launch of Nescaf 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 Nestl 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 behavior 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 sensesvision, 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 twowheeled 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 Maslows 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 selfdeprecating, 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.

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

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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. Buyers do not invariably pass through all five stages described here. Much depends upon the circumstances surrounding the purchase decision. In the

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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.

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

ACER

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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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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 users to opt for the HP Product Take Back Program. It will enable
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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 entire user's information, personal and work-related. The campaign also

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seeks to go beyond the technological aspects and convey the message that HP's personal computers are a more powerful personal tool, and userfriendly, 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 isnt 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. Its 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 rebranding exercise. The new HCL ME campaign has been made keeping in mind the requirements of todays 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 jobseekers 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 Concentrated marketing marketing. This can be a high risk strategy since 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 marketing mix is employed for each market 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

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it). On 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. Dells 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 Dells 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 Dells strengths. Dell Computer's award-winning customer ser vice, industryleading 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 customers specifications. Reliability, Service and Support Dells 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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Dells biggest weakness is attracting the college student segment of the market. Dells sales revenue from educational institutions such as colleges only accounts for a measly 5% of the total. Dells 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, Dells direct method and customization approach posed problems. For one, customers cannot go to retailers because Dell does not use distribution channels. Customers just cant 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 Acers 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 P21P2110, 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 HCLs 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 hasnt 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, Lenovos 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 its 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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29 Data Analysis & Interpretation

Q1. Gender Male Female

Chapter 4

Male 71 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 30-39 years 50-59 years 20-29 years 40-49 years >59 years

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44

38

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

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 HCL Toshiba

Dell Lenovo

HP Sony Vaio

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 Newspaper/Magazine ads TV Ads Friends/Family

By looking at the actual products in store From consumer review websites Others(please specify)

14

0 7 9

Websites TV Ads looking at the actual product in store Friends/Family Newspaper/magazin e

13

37 20

Consumer review website 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 Reliable Brand/High quality Durability Promotion/Product on sale Good After sales service Security Style Features configuration Profitability Extended Warranty Latest Technology Easy movability

Others(please specify)

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7 2 0 1 4

Price Promotion Brand image Style

3 7

39

Features After sales service Profitability Extended warranty Durability

16

Security Latest Technology Movability

10

Others

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 Security Business Others. Study Office Work Personal

20 23

6
Entertainment Study Security Office work Business

29

Personal others

22 9

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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 30000-35000 40000-45000 50000-55000 25000-30000 35000-40000 45000-50000 >55000

21

12 0 2 5 17

43

<25000 25000-30000 30000-35000 35000-40000 40000-45000 45000-50000 50000-55000 >55000

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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 HCL Toshiba Dell Lenovo HP Sony Vaio

Others(please specify)..

25 Acer Dell HP HCL lenovo Sony Vaio Toshiba Others-Apple

17 29 2 0

5 3 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 Convenience Features Heavy usage Features Security Features Easy movability Features Gaming Features

Others

22 2 17 13 0 7 Style Easy movability Security 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 4-6 Lacs 2-4 Lacs >6 lacs

6 0

78

16

<2 Lacs 2-4 lacs 4-6 Lacs >6 Lacs

Analysis

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From the chart we can interpret that 78% of the respondents family income is within 2-4 lakh rupees, 16% of the respondents 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 Student Professional Retiree Refused Business Housewife Unemployed Work from home Others..

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Service
46

Business Student Professional

4 0

Housewife Refused Unemployed Retiree Work from home Others

13 0 2 0 27

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 centers 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 30-39 years 50-59 years Q3. Do you own a Laptop? Yes No 20-29 years 40-49 years >59 years

Q4. If yes, which brand of Laptop you are currently using? Acer HCL Dell Lenovo HP Sony Vaio

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Toshiba

Others(please specify)..

Q5. Where do you gather information about laptop while Purchasing? Websites Newspaper/Magazine ads TV 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 Reliable Brand/High quality Durability Promotion/Product on sale Style Features configuration Profitability Extended Warranty

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Good After sales service Security

Latest Technology Easy movability

Others(please specify) Q7. What is the purpose of your purchasing a Laptop? Entertainment Security Business Others. Study Office Work Personal

Q8. How much would you spend on purchasing the Laptop of your choice? < 25000 30000-35000 40000-45000 25000-30000 35000-40000 45000-50000

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50000-55000

>55000

Q9. Which of the following Laptop would you choose to buy? Acer HCL Toshiba Dell Lenovo HP Sony Vaio

Others(please specify)..

Q10. What are the various features that you would like to have in your Laptop? Style Features Convenience Features Heavy usage Features Security Features Easy movability Features Gaming Features

Others Q11. Family Income? <2 Lacs 4-6 Lacs 2-4 Lacs >6 lacs

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Q12. What is your occupation? Service Student Professional Retiree Refused Business Housewife Unemployed Work from home Others.. ... Signature

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