CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

 According to Mittal and Kamakura (2001) also address the link between satisfactions
and repurchase behavior. Their major findings indicate that despite identical rating on
Satisfaction, due to respondent characteristics such as age, education, marital status, sex
and area of residence, significant difference was observed in repurchase behavior. Over
the past Decade, retailers use manufacturer brands to generate consumer interest,
patronage and Loyalty in a store.
 Jegan, A. And Dr. Sudalaiyandi, S.( 2013) A study on consumer buying behavior
Towards various awareness about various brands, about the choice and their Frequency
of preference, satisfaction of Perry’s Biscuit. The result of the study shows that Perry’s
biscuits have a good market share in Madurai city.
 Dr. M. Arutselvi,( 2012), The consumer behavior varies from brand to Brand on the
basis of quality, quantity, price, taste, advertisement etc. It is concluded that the Market
study on biscuits at Madurai town as helped to know the status of biscuits. It has revealed
the requirements of the taste of the consumer of biscuits. Perry’s Biscuits are having a
good market share in Madurai Town.
 Brosekhan Abdul et. Al, the study explores that the importance of various factors
including lifestyle and its impact on the consumer buying behavior. It describes the
dominant, positivistic consumer perspectives. This discussion surrounds the issues of
fundamental assumptions and techniques of analysis of various alternative modes of
enquiry.
 Goldsmith (1996) states that, college students have unique self image as fashion
innovators and consider they more exciting, dominating and colorful than fashion
followers.
 Hogg Margret (1998), the study explores that young female consumers play an
important role in the market place as they exert enormous influence over the allocation of
spending power across growing number of product categories including clothing.
 Schiffman, L.G. and Kanuk, L -consumer behave in the form of acquiring, buying,
using, evaluating, or consuming product, service andidea to fulfill own need, and be the
study of the decision making of consumer in spending resources,both money ,time and
power for consuming products and services that included
 Renuka Hirekenchanagoudar (2008) says that the present investigation made an
attempt to analyze the buying behavior of ready-to-eat food products by consumers of
Madurai. A total sample of 100 respondents was selected for the study. Television was
the major source for getting information about various brands in all the four productsThe
main factors influencing brand preference for biscuits, chips, fruit juice and ice creams
were quality, taste and reasonable price. Most of the respondents would go to other shops
if preferred brand in all the four products was not available. Thus, the study revealed that
the younger generation preferred more ready-to-eat food products than the other age
groups. The consumer behavior also varies from product to product.
 Yughasha Gupta (2010) says that after going thick on the things, now time is to make a
complete picture. While making a product a SKU (stock keeping unit) of the shop
retailers think about the GMROI (gross margin return on investment) and they promote
the brand which provides them highest. They expect return in the form of profit margin,
company schemes, window display and reference of the shop. Among these, company
schemes make the difference and are the highest sources of motivation after profit
margin. Retailing demands a constant push from the company. Marketer needs to use
advertising and brand building strategies to address the discerning buyers and retail push
to in different buyers. The manufacturer should understand consumer behavior because
retailers can’t help quality and price. It is only up to manufacturers to deliver what
consumer wants.
 Suresh Garg (2010) Detailed that Day by day the intensifying global competition is
throwing challenges in the form of uncertainty and fluctuation in demand, necessity to
provide wide variety to attract and hold the ever demanding customer. To survive and
succeed under such competitive environment, organizations are forced to find and adopt
efficient and effective ways for their operations. Organizations are seeking ways to
increase the value of their products and services by eliminating unnecessary processes
and practices from all systems. Lean manufacturing is a systematic team-based approach
 for finding and eliminating waste. The implementation of Lean manufacturing system
helps organizations to reduce lead-time and inventory, improve quality, and achieve
better on-time deliveries and utilization of resources leading towards increased sales and
profit through customer satisfaction. The Indian biscuit industry is the third largest
manufacturer of biscuit in the world producing around 60% of the total production in
organised sector and the balance 40% by the unorganised bakeries.
 F.MohamedSabura; Dr.T.Vijaya Kumar; Abdul Hameed (2012) explain that unlike
urban markets, rural markets are difficult to predict and possess special characteristics.
The featured population is predominantly illiterate, have low income, characterized by
irregular income, lack of monthly income and flow of income fluctuating with the
monsoon winds. The rural consumer expects value for money and owing to has unsteady
and meager status of weekly income; increasing the household income and improving
distribution are the viable strategies that have to be adapted to tap the immense potential
of the market. It is uneconomical to access a large number of small villages with a very
low population density spread over a large geographic area. Social norms, traditions,
castes, and social customs have greater influence on the consumer behavior in rural areas
than in urban areas. Factors such as limited physical access, low density of shops, limited
storage facilities, need for a large number of intermediaries in the distribution channel to
reach the end customers, and low capacity of intermediaries to invest in business make
the tasks of reaching rural consumers very complex.
 K. M. Mubarak Ali (1993) in his study endeavored “to find out the purchasing pattern
brand preference, brand loyalty and suggest and suitable measures to improve the brand
loyalty. The study was concluded that a carefully chosen promotion strategy is to be used
to increase the brand loyalty of the product. The purchases of consumer durables are
influenced by personal opinions. Well brand sales force may be used to persuade the
prospective customers
 Renuka and Hirekenchanagoudar (2008) in their on a “study on consumer buying
behaviour of ready-to-eat food products”. To determine the market penetration of Perry’s
Marie biscuits by retailers. The data were collected from 150 respondents. The tools used
in are simple percentage and correlation co efficient. It is concluded that the main factors
influencing brand preference for biscuits, chips, fruit juice and ice creams were quality,
 taste and reasonable price. Thus, the study revealed that the younger generation preferred
more ready-to-eat food products than the other age groups. The consumer behaviour also
varies from product to product
 F. Mohamed Sabura, and Dr. T. Vijayakumar (2009) made a ”study on retailer
attitude towards Perry’s biscuits with special reference to rural areas of Madurai city”.
To analyse the customer satisfaction about Perry’s biscuits. the total sample respondents
was fixed at judgment randam basis. The data was collected from 250 respondents in
Coimbatore city. Different statistical tools are for used by analysis of the collected data,
such as tabulation, percentage analysis, bar diagram, ANOVA and Karl Pearson‟s co
efficient of correlation. The conclusion draw from the retailer‟s point and that, the
distribution system of Perry’s biscuits needs improvement through the direct selling
method to satisfy the customer
 Mr. S.D. Nidhyananth, and Mr. B. Vigneshwaran (2011) in made a “study on
customer satisfaction towards Perry’s biscuits in Coimbatore city”. To find out the factors
those influence the purchase of Perry’s biscuits. The data are collected directly from the
sample by interviewing or mailing questionnaires at particular period of time. In this
study the sample size was 100 respondents. Tools used in this study are percentage
analysis, chi square test. It is concluded that consumer’s satisfaction with preferable taste,
awareness about various brands, about choice and their frequency of preference
satisfaction of Perry’s biscuits
 Suresh Garg (2010) carried out a study entitled “A study on consumer preference
towards Perry’s Good day biscuit” Detailed that Day by day the intensifying global
competition is throwing challenges in the form of uncertainty and fluctuation in demand,
necessity to provide wide variety to attract and hold the ever demanding customer. To
survive and succeed under such competitive environment, organizations are forced to find
and adopt efficient and effective ways for their operations. Organizations are seeking
ways to increase the value of their products and services by eliminating unnecessary
processes and practices from all systems. Lean manufacturing is a systematic team-based
approach for finding and eliminating waste. The implementation of Lean manufacturing
system helps organisations to reduce lead-time and inventory, improve quality, and
achieve better on-time deliveries and utilisation of resources leading towards increased
 sales and profit through customer satisfaction. The Indian biscuit industry is the third
largest manufacturer of biscuit in the world producing around 60% of the total production
in organised sector and the balance 40% by the unorganized bakeries
 According to Moye & Kincade, Consumers express preference or lack of preference for
stores, brands, advertisements and other marketing stimuli by reflecting a favorable or
unfavorable attitude. In this sense, consumers with a favorable attitude towards a store
will most likely select the store and buy its products, but consumers with unfavorable
attitudes will not select the store and not purchase the product
 CHAPTER II
 LITERATURE REVIEW
 LITERATURE REVIEW

 1.Awng Di (june 2008) “This study compares consumers’ perceptions between retail stores:
superstores and family-run stores in Bangkok. The superstores which were used to compare
with family-run stores in this study are Big C, Carrefour and Tesco-Lotus. The study was
quantitative research using survey questionnaires to collect data from 400 shoppers in Bangkok
areas. Quantitative statistics were used to analyze data variables and test hypotheses. The
results from this study found that the competition between superstores and family-run stores
resulted in more benefits to customers. The customers were aware that many family-run stores
closed down because of superstores, but they preferred free and fair competition. The results
also found that the customers wanted the Thai government to impose restrictions on superstore
expansion and support family-run stores, though they still agreed that superstores are essential
for consumers and family-run stores are not well allocated for consumers in Bangkok.
Consumers were satisfied more with marketing factors including product quality, product
variety, and stable prices of superstores. They also preferred the store environment of
superstores than with those of family-run stores. Consumers also thought that superstores
benefited the economy and society than family-run stores.”



 2. NISSAR MOHAMED.S (MAY 2012) “The purchasing power of the consumer has
also increased; giving rise to his wants and needs. It is over here that big retail chains
such as Big Bazaar come into picture satisfying various consumer needs under one roof.
 From the survey conducted on the customers' perception towards the marketing mix of
Big Bazaar the following can be concluded regarding the P's: The customers are highly
satisfied with the variety and of products, but at the same time they are not very happy
with the quality and availability of branded products. Big Bazaar has definitely succeeded
in keeping up its image of a value for money store, as its price has been rated positively.
The promotions are not hitting the target. Although Big Bazaar has been promoting their
offers, most of the customers are introduced to these only at the store. Customers are
delighted with the location of Big Bazaar as it is located in the most intensely populated
area of Chennai. Big Bazaar has been successful in keeping up its promise of providing
value for money goods, but today customers look beyond price, such as quality,
employee behaviour, store atmosphere etc. Big Bazaar has scope for improvement in
these yields.

 3. According to Kotler et al. (1999), a person’s buying choices are influenced by four major
psychological factors namely; motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes among
other factors. He further adds that perception depends not only on the physical stimuli but also
on the stimuli’s relation to the surrounding field and on conditions with the individual.
Perception can be defined as the process of receiving organizing and assigning meaning to
information or stimuli detected through human beings five senses. In other words it is an
approximation of reality. The brain attempts to make sense out of the stimuli to which it is
exposed the outcome of this process is assigning meaning to the stimuli sensed (Kotler,2000). It
has further been said that the perception is the critical activity that links the individual
consumers to groups, situations, and marketer influences (Hawkins et al, 1992).Kotler (2000)
further alludes that people can emerge
 with different perceptions of the same object because of the pre-perceptual processes; selective
attention, selective distortion and selective retention. According to Loudon et al. (1979), in
selective attention, consumers tend to screen out some stimuli and notice some because people
are exposed to tremendous amount of daily stimuli. What an individual chooses to notice
depends on his/her situation in terms of the needs among others factors.
 On the other hand, Loudon et al. (1979) describe selective distortions as the tendency to twist
information into personal meaning and interprets information in a way that will fit our
preconceptions. He further describes selective retention as a process in which people forget
much of what they learn but retain information that supports their attitudes and beliefs. In
today’s market place, perception becomes important because when consumers makes buying
decisions, they evaluates the benefits perceived from particular products or services and
compares them with the costs. The value a customer perceives when buying and using a product
or a service go beyond usability. There is a set of emotional values as well, such as social status,
exclusivity, friendliness and responsiveness or the degree to which personal expectations and
preferences are satisfied. Similarly, the costs perceived by the consumer, normally comprise
more than the actual price. They also include costs of usage, the lost opportunity to use another
offering, and potential switching costsa. Hence the customer establishes an equation between
perceived benefits and perceived costs of one product and compares this to similar equations of
other products or services. Moreover, if the customers’ circumstances change, their needs and
preferences often change too. In the external environment, the offerings of the competitors,
with which a customer compares a product or a service, will change, thus altering perception.
Research on the impact of market share as relates to the perceived quality of a product (Hellofs
et al, 1999) shows that, depending on the nature of the product or service and the customers’
preferences; increasing market share can have positive or negative effects on how a customer
perceives the product or service.
 Zeithaml et al. (1996) suggest that to find out customers’ feelings, on product or service in
research, one needs to incorporate several behavioural intention questions to identify signals
that are potentially of higher validity and richer diagnostic value than the overall service quality
or customer satisfaction variable. Since these questions are to find out potential future actions,
they indicate changes in the demand and market trends.

 4M.Ramakrishnan (2010) The study aims to analyze the Consumer Perception towards Private
Label Brands on Big Bazaar, Coimbatore. The objective of the study is to understand the
possibility of success when retailers introduce private brands. The research is aimed to explore if
buying choices are made based on brand loyalty and to analyze whether customers actively seek
for new brands or strict to the old brands.
 From this study, one can come to the conclusion that private labels are able to position
themselves significantly in the mind of customers and are gaining acceptance. Growth in specific
private label segments like food and apparel segments are growing at a faster rate. While, the
future of private labels is dependent on the retailer’s ability to overcome key challenges such as
adaptive supply chain practices, quality infrastructure, accelerated growth in new categories,
blurring dividing lines between private label and national brands. From the study, it was found
that good quality, price, trustworthy, large variety are the most influencing factor which drive
the customer to buy the private label brand. Therefore, these are the factors which should be
considered while coming with the future private brand. This in return it will help the retail stores
to increase sales.

 5. PRIYANKU RAWAT(2012) Liberalization of the economy in the nineties and the entry of large
players in the retail business have brought the retail industry into spotlight. Big players and
national retail chains are changing the rules of the game, in spite of their meager share in the
overall retail trade. Organized retailing though still in an embryonic stage has huge growth
potential. To meet the challenges of organized retailing that is luring customers away from the
unorganized sector, the unorganized sector is getting organized. Because of preference of
middle class for these stores is going to increase day by day. The organized retail chains, display
all the products and the most attractive product catches the customer attention. The customers
of the 21st century would expect to pick his/her own products form an array of choices rather
than asking the local kirana wallas to deliver a list of monthly groceries. Thus, the way of
distribution of products has gained importance in the past decade. The first challenge facing the
organized retail industry in India is: competition from the unorganized sector. Traditional
retailing has established in India for some centuries. It is a low cost structure, mostly owner-
operated, has negligible real estate and labor costs and little or no taxes to pay. Consumer
familiarity that runs from generation to generation is one big advantage for the traditional
retailing sector. That is the basic reason now organized sector facing more challenges from
unorganized sector but this research report is also concluding that preference of middle class for
organized retail is going to increase rapidly but it is little bit slow in daily use items but the day is
not so for when middle class people frequently purchase daily need items maximum from
organized retail shop. In contrast, players in the organized sector have big expenses to meet,
and yet have to keep prices low enough to be able to compete with the traditional sector. High
 costs for the organized sector arises from: higher labor costs, social security to employees, high
quality real estate, much bigger premises, comfort facilities.


 6. Sproles and Kendall (1986) define a consumer decision making (CDM) style as “a
mental orientation characterizing a consumer’s approach to choices”. Broadly speaking,
there are three types of approaches instudying consumer decision-making styles: the
psychographic / lifestyle approach, which identifies hundreds of characteristics related to
consumer behavior; the consumer typology approach, which classifies consumers into
several types; and the consumer characteristics approach, which focuses on different
cognitive dimensions of consumer’s decision-making in the extent consumer behaviour
literature, most studies assume that the shopping approaches of all consumers with
certain decision making traits combine to form a consumer’s decision-making style.
Academicians and researchers have long been interested in identifying these underlying
decision styles of shoppers. For example, consumers are identified as economic shoppers,
personalizing shoppers, ethical shoppers, apathetic shoppers, store loyal shoppers,
recreational shoppers, convenience shoppers, price-oriented shoppers, brand-loyal
shoppers, name-conscious shoppers, problem-solving shoppers, fashion shoppers, brand
conscious shoppers and impulse shoppers. Using the consumer characteristics approach,
Sproles (1985) developed a 50-item instrument to profile the decision making styles of
consumers. Using data collected from 111 undergraduate women in two classes at the
University of Arizona and employing a factor analysis technique, Sproles (1985) found
six consumer decision-making style traits He named and described these traits: (1)
Perfectionism. (2) Value Conscious, (3) Brand Consciousness, (4) Novelty-Fad-Fashion
Consciousness, (5) Shopping Avoider-Time Saver-Satisfier, (6) Confused, Support-
Seeking Decision –Maker. In a later study, Sproles and Kendall (1986) developed a
comprehensive instrument called Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) to measure consumer
decision making styles. The instrument was administered to 482 students in 29home
economics classes in five high schools in the Tucson, Arizona area. This instrument
measures eight mental characteristics of consumer’s decision making: perfectionism,
brand consciousness, novelty-fashion consciousness, recreational, price-value
consciousness, impulsiveness, confused by over choice, and brand loyal/ habitual.

 7.Reeti , Sanjay and Malhotra,(2009) investigated about the customers perceptions
about banking services in an emerging economy for which the various determinants
affecting the customer perception as well as attitude towards banking services were
predicted through study that was conducted on the respondents taken from Northern part
of India .Major findings depicted that customer perceptions are influenced by the usage
of e-banking services by the kind of account they hold, age , profession , attached high
degree of usefulness to the balance enquiry service among e-banking services .It was also
found that security and truth are the most important factors in affecting their satisfaction
levels and slow transaction problem speed was the most frequent problem faced by
majority of Customers.

 8. Karthik. A.S.(2008) Customer perception will be a primary force in determining how this
transition will evolve. Getting closer to the customer in today’s highly competitive landscape is
essential for the entire industry and is no longer just a retail issue. It requires all organisations
across the supply chain to work as a single enterprise, sensing and responding rapidly to
consumer demand in a co-ordinated manner.




 9. U. Dineshkumar, P.Vikkraman (2012) “Organized retail outlets provide better quality of
service, product range as compared to the unorganized retail outlets. Most of the customers are
satisfied with the quality of service provided by the organized retail outlets.”
 10. Mittal and Mittal (2008) in their study ‘Store Choice in the Emerging Indian Apparel Retail
Market: An Empirical Analysis’ investigated the evaluation of apparel store attributes by
consumers in the context of apparel retail formats in India. They suggested retailers to consider
underlying perceptions and demographic correlates of local consumers. According to them,
retailers could use Loyalty Drivers and Shopping Experience Enhancers to be integrated into the
retail format to create sustainable store choice and hence, store loyalty. Further research is
needed to carry out research for other retail sectors such as food and grocery, consumer
 electronics, gifts and so on and also to investigate the influence of demographics and
psychographics on store choice and shopping orientations.


 11. Rajaguru and Matanda (2006) examined ‘Consumer Perception of Store and Product
Attributes and its Effect on Customer Loyalty within the Indian Retail Sector’ and observed
that except product price, other store and product attributes have positive effects on customer
loyalty. Further research is needed to identify retail managers focus on product quality, store
convenience as well as assure quality and availability of new products in order to enhance
customer loyalty and also to compare consumers using various retail formats and consumers‟
perception of product and store attributes on retail formats keeping in view demographic
correlates.

 12. William & Prabakar (2012) concluded that “The customer perception of retail service quality
is an important segment to the emerging and the existing retailers in the market as the study
reveals that perception of service quality influenced by the various nature with various
customers even some of the general factors like Personal interaction, physical aspects are the
dimensions on of the customer perception remains constant and common to all the customer
on a majority basis so the retail outlets have to frame their own strategies In order to attract the
customers on a longer basis”.


 13. Steve & Carralero (2000), Argues that for many retailers, competitive advantage in the
home market has been based upon the development of strong store and corporate images as
retailers strive to develop themselves as brands in their own right. The construction of store
image, comprising both tangible and intangible dimensions, compounds problems of moving
into international markets – as consumers in the host environment are less familiar with the
intangible dimensions of image, which have been built up over time with exposure to the retail
company. Retail companies therefore need to fully understand the importance of image in
competitive positioning and the components of store image before attempting to replicate this
image and positioning overseas. Explore these issues with reference to Marks & Spencer and the
company’s entry into the Spanish market. A survey of customer perceptions of a range of store
 image attributes in the UK and Spain reveals differences and similarities in perceptions, which
must be managed if a standardized position is to be sought in the host market.

 14. Uusitalo (2001), Grocery retailers are operating in a slow-growth market. The pursuit of
market share is one of the main concerns for retail managers. The retail structure is becoming
increasingly standardized and homogenous because of concentration of the ownership of
stores. Cultural differences remain, however, between different European countries. Cultural
factors influence the success of a positioning strategy. This study examined how consumers
perceive grocery retail formats and brands in Finland. Data from personal interviews were used
in highlighting the consumer perspective. Consumers perceive meaningful differences in various
store formats, meanwhile store brands are seen as quite similar. Consumers rely on functional
attributes of stores when discussing grocery stores. However, it seems that consumers are
unable to recognize the fabricated, often imaginary differences at the brand level. The
informant’s own, creative symbolic work results in this case to interpreting all grocery retail
brands as similar. Managerial implications of the study are presented.

 15. Paulins & Geistfeld (2003), Consumer perceptions of retail store attributes for a set of
particular stores were examined to determine their effect on store preference. Respondents
rated 13 stores. Four variables were found to affect store preference using forward stepwise
logistic regression: type of clothing desired in stock, outside store appearance, shopping hours,
and advertising. Significance of the effect of store attributes on store preference varied by store
type. In addition, associations between customer perception of store attributes, education and
age were observed. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

 16. Huddleston & Whipple & Mattick et al (2009), The purpose of this paper is to compare and
contrast customer perceptions related to satisfaction with conventional grocery stores as
compared to specialty grocery stores. The study examines store attributes of product
assortment, price, quality, and service in order to determine which attributes have the greatest
impact on store satisfaction for each store format. A mail survey was sent to a sample of
specialty and conventional grocery store customers. The ten state sample was drawn from US
households located in postal (ZIP) codes in areas where national specialty stores (e.g. whole
foods) were located. Perception of satisfaction was higher among specialty grocery store
customers compared to conventional grocery store customers. For both store formats, store
price, product assortment, service and quality positively influenced satisfaction. Stepwise
regression indicated that each store attribute contributed differently to store satisfaction for
conventional and specialty store formats. The results demonstrate that price, product
assortment, quality, and employee service influence store satisfaction regardless of store type
(conventional stores or specialty stores). However, the degree of influence of these attributes
varied by store type. The results imply that while specialty store shopper satisfaction
characteristics are clearly delineated, conventional store shopper characteristics are more
difficult to pinpoint. Research limitations include a sample that is more highly educated and has
higher incomes than the average American household. Despite the growth of new product
categories and new industry players, few studies have investigated customer satisfaction within
the retail food industry. Comparisons of specialty and conventional food stores are equally
scarce.