SYNOPSIS OF THE PROJECT REPORT

A STUDY OF IMPACT OF BRANDING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR WITH COMPARISON OF TWO CHOCOLATE COMPANIES

INTRODUCTION
Branding:
Branding is the discipline of deciding what a product will be called, and is very similar in concept and approach to the process of deciding on a name for a company or organization. Product naming is considered a critical part of the branding process, which includes all of the marketing activities that affect the brand image, such as positioning and the design of logo, packaging and the product itself. Product naming involves the application of creative and linguistic strategy and results in a brand name that becomes a products shorthand. The process involved in product naming can take months or years to complete. Some key steps include specifying the objectives of the branding, developing the product name itself, evaluating names through target market testing and focus groups, choosing a final product name, and finally identifying it as a trademark it for protection.

Consumer Behaviour:
Consumer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one marketing. Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

Each method for vote counting is assumed as a social function but if Arrows possibility theorem is used for a social function, social welfare function is achieved. Some specifications of the social functions are decisiveness, neutrality, anonymity, monotonocity, unanimity, homogeneity and weak and strong Pareto optimality. No social choice function meets these requirements in an ordinal scale simultaneously. The most important characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level, to the end of the cycle, the consumer (Kioumarsi et al., 2009). Belch and Belch define consumer behaviour as 'the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This project is based on the comparative study of Nestle and Cadbury chocolates. Objectives of the study are: To know the effect of brands on Consumer Behavior. To know about the customer satisfaction level associated with the product and the customer preference level. To increase customer satisfaction by fullfilling the customer needs.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Personality characteristics impact consumer behavior because they shape the way in which consumers respond to messages at a given time. This response changes minute to minute based upon the unique characteristics of the target consumer and their ongoing life experience. The online environment presents a vast opportunity for companies to interact with consumers on a personal, customized level. Individual differences are an important aspect of this interaction as they provide insight into how people with varying levels of experience with the online environment respond to interactive persuasion techniques. Friestad and Wright (1994), in their presentation of the PKM, posit that the effectiveness of advertising persuasion techniques depends upon the level of persuasion expertise each individual possesses. In an online environment, measurement of this effect can be achieved by looking at user experience levels, self efficacy, and number of hours spent online. General knowledge gleaned from the PKM dictates that consumers with more experience in the online environment will be better at coping with persuasion techniques therein, such as open, visually rhetorical advertisements. An individual's need for cognition refers to their motivation to engage in meaningful cognitive thought or undertaking. A consumer's need for cognition will impact their ability to deal with tasks and social settings, such as responding to advertising messages or calls to action. This applies directly to the concept of open, visually rhetorical advertising because such messages require a higher cognitive processing load to be understood and learned. Although need for cognition was not found to impact interpretations of open advertisements in the 2004 Ketelaar et al. study, it is still an interesting variable that can be effectively measured and manipulated for this type of research endeavor. (Ketelaar et al., 2004) Additionally, cognitive response, and the need therein serve an important part in the

development of brand attitudes within a target consumer. This concept was elaborated upon by McGinnis and Jaworski (1989) in their seminal piece regarding information processing in advertising: "Cognitive and emotional responses related to imagined product consumption experiences are the strongest determinants of brand attitude." (MacInnis & Jaworski, 1989) As shown, need for cognition is linked to the development of brand attitude in consumers. When examined in terms of its relationship to time spent processing online, visually rhetorical advertising, need for cognition could prove to be an interesting differentiator within the sample group. In addition to need for cognition, an internal motivation toward the product being advertised should be apparent within driven consumers. This motivation helps push the consumer toward unraveling the visual riddle presented in an open advertisement. Type of motivation, either utilitarian ("goal-oriented") or hedonic ("expressive"), is a diverse and interesting factor to analyze across consumer groups. As shown in research undertaken by Phillips (2000), consumers with utilitarian, goal-oriented motivations are keen on evaluating product attributes and therefore less likely to be attracted to open advertisements. Consumers with hedonic or "expressive" goals are more likely to seek out the entertainment value in the open advertisement. (Phillips, 2000) To further support this stance, Huang (2003), in his online study of websites, found that level of attention in consumers is most linked to utilitarian design while both control and interest are linked to hedonic performance measures. Liu, et al (2002), based on their online research, concluded that higher levels of active control within consumers resulted in being geared towards more utilitarian, goal-based website designs. As shown in these studies, motivation is an individual difference worth characterizing. Type of consumer motivation is extremely important when analyzing online consumer behavior as it helps categorize amongst user groups, across sites. In past studies, level of interactivity has also had an impact on type of motivation and need for cognition. The following section will review this important research area.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology of the study. This project is based on information collected from primary sources. After the detailed study, an attempt has been made to present comprehensive analysis of consumption of Cadbury and nestle chocolates consumed by the people. The data had been used to cover various aspects like consumption, consumers preference and customers satisfaction regarding Cadbury and Nestle chocolates.

Survey design:
The study is a cross sectional study because the data were collected at a single point of time. For the purpose of present study a related sample of population was selected on the basis of convenience.

Sample Size and Design:

A sample of 100 people was taken . The actual consumers were contacted on the basis of random sampling.

Data Collection:
The data, which is collected for the purpose of study, is divided into 2 bases:

Primary Source: The primary data comprises information survey of Comparative study of consumer behavior towards Nestle and Cadbury chocolates. The data has been collected directly from respondent with the help of structured questionnaires.

 Secondary Source: The secondary data was collected from internet.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS: Philip Kotler, Marketing Management, Pearson Education 2nd ed. G.Schiffman Leon, Consumer Behavior, Prentice-Hall India 8th ed. Kotler Philip & Kevin Lane Keller ,Marketing Management,Pearson Education 4th ed. C.R. Kothari, Research Methodology, 2nd edition

Websites: http://www.cadburyindia.com http://www.nestle.com http://www.aphrodite-chocolates.co.uk/history_chocolate.htm http://www.google.com http://www.cadbury.co.nz/carnival/index.htm http://www.packaging-technology.com//cadbury4.html http://www.chocolatereview.co.uk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/preference