contents
1.0 Introduction
9
2.0 Industry Profile
12
3.0 Company Profile
15
4.0 Need for the Study
27
5.0 Concepts of Retailing
34
6.0 Data Analysis
39
7.0 Findings
50
8.0Annexure
Questionnaire
53
Bibliography
54
CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION
CONSUMER: A Customer is someone who makes use of or receives the products or services of an individual or organisation. The word customer historically derives from “custom”, meaning ”habit”, a customer was someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods there, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her “custom”, meaning expected purchases in the future.
CONSUMER SATISFACTION: Customer satisfaction refers to the emotional response that people feel after making a purchase from a company. The more positive the level of customer satisfaction, the more likely the purchaser is to come back and buy again and to recommend that company to others who are looking for what the seller has to offer. Word of mouth and referrals are often the most promising ways for a business to grow.
DEFINITION :It is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as “the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction”. Therefore, it is essential for businesses to effectively manage customer satisfaction. To be able do this, firms need reliable and representative measures of satisfaction "Customer satisfaction provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase intentions and loyalty”."Customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected indicators of market perceptions. Their principal use is twofold:"
Here are the top six reasons why customer satisfaction is so important It’s a leading indicator of consumer repurchase intentions and loyalty It’s a point of differentiation It reduces customer churn It increases customer lifetime value It reduces negative word of mouth It’s cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones
CHAPTER-2 INDUSTRY PROFILE
INDUSTRY PROFILE:
FMCG goods are referred to as “fast moving”, quite simply, because they are the quickest items to leave the supermarket shelves. They also tend to be the high volume, low cost items. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) is the fourth largest sector in the Indian economy. The over all FMCG market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth(CAGR).
DEFINITION: “Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or consumer packaged goods(CPG) are products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable goods such as soft drinks, toiletries, over-the-counter drugs, toys, processed foods and many other consumables.” Though the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they generally sell in large quantities, so the cumulative profit on such products can be substantial.
WHAT IS THE FMCG INDUSTRY: “Resilient, rewarding and really, really fast” FMCG industry is also known as the Consumer Packaged Goods or CPG Industry, this multi-million dollar sector is made up of a huge range of famous brand names –the kind that we use every single day. These fast moving consumer goods are the essential items we purchase when we go shopping and use in our everyday lives. They are the household items you pick up when you are buying groceries or visit your local chemist or pharmacy. FMCG goods are referred to as “fast moving”, quite simply, because they are the quickest items to leave the supermarket shelves. They also tend to be the high volume, low cost items. Cleaning and laundry products, over the counter medicines, personal care items and food stuffs make up a large bulk of the goods in the FMCG arena, but it does not end there. Paper products, Pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, plastic goods, printing and stationery, alcoholic drinks, tobacco and Cigarettes can all be considered fast moving consumerable goods too.
CHAPTER-3 COMPANY PROFILE
Sanjiv Mehta COMPANY PROFILE: HUL was established on october17,1933 as Lever Brothers and, in 1956, became known as Hindustan Lever Limited, as a result of a merger between Lever Brothers, Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Ltd. It is headquartered in Mumbai, India and employs over 16,000 workers, whilst also indirectly helping to facilitate the employment of over 65,000 people. The company was renamed in June 2007 as "Hindustan Unilever Limited".
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company with a heritage of over 80 years in India and touches the lives of two out of three Indians. HUL works to create a better future every day and helps people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others. Hindustan Unilever's distribution covers over 2 million retail outlets across India directly and its products are available in over 6.4 million outlets in the country. As per Nielsen market research data, two out of three Indians use HUL products. The "most trusted brands" from HUL in the top 100 list (their rankings in brackets) are: Lux (6), Surf Excel (7), Clinic Plus (8), Rin (13), Lifebuoy (15), Close up (21), Pond's (22), Pepsodent (24), Fair & Lovely (29), Dove (30), Sunsilk (34), Vim (48), Wheel (67), Vaseline (70),Pears (78), Lakme (91). The latest launches for Hindustan Unilever include: Knorr Chinese Noodles, Schezwan and Hot & Spicy, Lakme Absolute Sculpt Range, Lakme Lip Love, Magnum Choco Cappuccino and Axe Gold Temptation. Its brands include:
Active wheel
Aviance
Brooke bond3 roses
3Roses
Annapurna
Axe
Breeze international
Bru
Brylcreem
Cif
Close up
Domex
Clear
Comfort
Dove
Clinic plus
Cornetto
Ellei8
Fair& Lovely
Indulekha bringha oil
Kissan
Knorr
Lakme
Ayush therapy
Hamam
Kwality wall’s
Lifebuoy
Lipton
Magnum
Rexona
Lux
Pears
Sunlight
Liril
Ponds
Rin
Pure it
V sure
Surf excel
Vaseline
Vim
Tresemme
Toni&guy
Tigi
Taj mahal
HEAD QUARTERS OF HUL:
HUL PORTFOLIO:
CHAPTER-4 NEED FOR STUDY
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Primary objective:
To determine the “consumer satisfaction towards HUL products”. To analyse the customer’s requirement. To study the competitors service attitude to customers. To find out the strengths and weaknesses of HUL products. To know the opinion and suggestions of customers.
Secondary objective: To study about the consideration set of alternatives during the satisfaction of the customer. To identify the external forces influencing the satisfaction.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The project consisted of analysis of performance of the several consumer durable brands .In this particular project fundamental research was also carries out which attempted to explore knowledge through methods like personal interaction with the customer. The required information for the project was gathered through the following ways. The research methodology is used to analyse the project is mainly based on survey method and this survey was conducted for knowing about awareness, preference and satisfaction of HUL products through questionnaires and it also include direct contact with consumer. For survey sample size was taken from different location of Kurnool. So the total number of sample is 100. Research design: A research design is purely and simply the work or plan for a study that guides the collection and analyses of the data. We have chosen descriptive research design for study. The researcher specifically pinpoints that to carry out the research properly. How the data to be collected? Which instruments for data collection would be used? What sampling plan would be used? Research instrument: contacting the customer through personally and studying the responds. The questionnaire was field up, related to usages of particular branded products. For the collection of primary data a structured questionnaire was prepared covering various aspects of the study. The questionnaire contains close-ended and dichotomus question. Research approach: Sample survey method. Sampling:
Sample unit: Individual is different occupation of different group were taken into account because all they come under the segment of potential customer. Sample design: Random sampling. Sampling size: Sampling size is the number of people being surveyed. In my research, 100 consumers are my sample size.
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS: Questionnaire method. Data analysis technique: The data analyses instruments used for conducting the research stastical tools. Bar chart. Pie chart.
LIMITATIONS OF STUDY:
Although all efforts have been taken to make the results of survey as accurate as possible but the survey suffers from the following limitations. The sample size is restricted to 100 respondents only. Due to certain constraints, the survey is limited to the Kurnool city. The time period of study was very less so it was not possible to cover all the areas and make analysis. The survey cannot be generalised to rural areas. Some respondents left some of the questions unanswered either due to inability to put a strain on mind or they did not know answer. Some respondents did not provide the requisite information pertaining to the question.
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CHAPTER-5 CONCEPTS OF CONSUMER SATISFACTION
Theoretical Background of Consumer Satisfaction
It is no longer enough to satisfy consumers. You must delight them.
Satisfaction Satisfaction is a person feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing the products received performance is or (outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. As this definition makes clear satisfaction is a function of received performance and expectations. With the performance falls sharp expectations, the customer is dissatisfied. If the performance exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. Mini companies are aiming for high satifactioons because customers who are just satisfied still find it easy to switch when a better offer comes along. Those who are highly satisfied are much less ready to switch. High satisfactions are delights create an emotional brand. Not just rational performance the result in high customer loyalty Xeroxes senior managers believes that a very satisfied or delighted customer is worth tenth times as much to the company as a satisfied customer. A very satisfied customer is likely to stay with Xerox many more years and buy more than a satisfied customer. A customer’s decision to be loyal or to defect is the some of many small encounters with the company. Consulting from forum corporation says that in order for all this small encounters to add up to customers loyalty, companies need to create a “branded customer experience” in addition to customer value expectations and satisfactions companies need to monitor their competitors performance in this areas. For example a company was pleased to find 80% of his customers said they were satisfied. Then the CEO found out that its leading competitors attended a 90% customer satisfaction score. He was further dismayed when he learned that this competitor was aiming to reach a 95% satisfaction score. Although the customer centered firm seeks to create high customer satisfaction, its main goal is not to maximize customer satisfaction by lowering its prices or increasing its services, the result may be lower profits. The company might be
able to increase its profitability by means other than increased satisfaction (for example, by improving manufacturing processes are investing more in R & B), also the company has many stake holders, including employers, dealers, suppliers and stock holders. Spending more to increase customer satisfaction might divert funds from increasing the satisfaction of other partners. Ultimately the company must operate on philosophy that it is trying to deliver faction to other stake holders within the constraints of its total resources.
Defining consumer satisfaction: Over 35 years above PETER DRUCKER observed that a company’s first task is to create customers. But today’s customer’s face a vast vary of product and brand choices, prices and suppliers. The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction. A highly satisfied customer: Stay loyal longer. Buys more as the company introduces new products and upgrade existing products. Talks favourably about the company and its products. Pays less attention to competing brands and advertising and is less sensitive to price. Offers products or services and ideas to the company. Costs less to serve than new customers because transactions are routinized. Thus a company would be wise to measure customer satisfaction regularly. The Company could phone resent buyers and inquire how many are highly satisfied, indifferent and dissatisfied.
Consumer Satisfaction: Today in the consumer driven economy, all firms are engaged in a rat race to attract customers and build a long term relationship with their loyal relationship. The key to customer’s loyalty is through customer satisfaction.
A satisfied customer will act as a spoke person of the company’s product, and bring in more buyers. There is the pareto principle or the 80/20 rules; it says 80% of one thing comes from 20% of another. That is to say a small percentage of loyal customers will lend a large weight to the company’s sales. So marketers have to ensure customers value satisfaction. For this they have to ensure: Products are developed to meet consumer requirements. Brands are positioned so as to convey distinctiveness. Communications are used to convey to customer to experience that goes on using a value added product. Delivery to reinforce the promptness in making available to the consumers a value added product. Relationships are build to offer life time customer value to enable the consumer to experience value satisfaction.
Here are the top six reasons why customer satisfaction is so important: 1. It’s a leading indicator of consumer repurchase intentions and loyalty Customer satisfaction is the best indicator of how likely a customer will make a purchase in the future. Asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-10 is a good way to see if they will become repeat customers or even advocates. Any customers that give you a rating of 7 and above, can be considered satisfied, and you can safely expect them to come back and make repeat purchases. Customers who give you a rating of 9 or 10 are your potential customer advocates who you can leverage to become evangelists for your company.
2. It’s a point of differentiation: In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers; customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator. Businesses who succeed in these cut-throat environments are the ones that make customer satisfaction a key element of their business strategy.
3. It reduces customer churn: An Accenture global customer satisfaction report (2008) found that price is not the main reason for customer churn; it is actually due to the overall poor quality of customer service. Customer satisfaction is the metric you can use to reduce customer churn. By measuring and tracking customer satisfaction you can put new processes in place to increase the overall quality of your customer service. I recommend you put an emphasis on exceeding customer expectations and ‘wowing’ customers at every opportunity. Do that for six months, than measure customer satisfaction again. See whether your new initiatives have had a positive or negative impact on satisfaction.
4. It increases customer lifetime value: A study by InfoQuest found that a ‘totally satisfied customer’ contributes 2.6 times more revenue than a ‘somewhat satisfied customer’. Furthermore, a ‘totally satisfied customer’ contributes 14 times more revenue than a ‘somewhat dissatisfied customer’. Satisfaction plays a significant role in how much revenue a customer generates for your business. Successful businesses understand the importance of customer lifetime value (CLV). If you increase CLV, you increase the returns on your marketing dollar.
5. It reduces negative word of mouth: McKinsey found that an unhappy customer tells between 9-15 people about their experience. In fact, 13% of unhappy customers tell over 20 people about their experience. That’s a lot of negative word of mouth. How much will that affect your business and its reputation in your industry? Customer satisfaction is tightly linked to revenue and repeat purchases. What often gets forgotten is how customer satisfaction negatively impacts your business. It’s one thing to lose a customer because they were unhappy. It’s another thing completely to lose 20 customers because of some bad word of mouth. To eliminate bad word of mouth you need to measure customer satisfaction on an ongoing basis. Tracking changes in satisfaction will help you identify if customers are actually happy with your product or service.
6. It’s cheaper to retain customers than acquire new ones: This is probably the most publicized customer satisfaction statistic out there. It costs six to seven times more to acquire new customers than it does to retain existing customers. If that stat does not strike accord with you then there’s not much else I can do to demonstrate why customer satisfaction is important. Customers cost a lot of money to acquire. You and your marketing team spend thousands of dollars getting the attention of prospects, nurturing them into leads and closing them into sales.
CHAPTER-6 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
1. Table showing the brand awareness
YES
NO
100 (100%)
0 (0%)
PIE DIAGRAM SHOWING BRAND AWARENESS 0
yes no
100
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that all the consumers are 100% aware of the brand hul.
2. Which brand you generally use?
BRANDS HUL ITC nestle Others
% OF RESPONDENTS 70% 20% 6% 4%
No.of respondents 70% 70% 60% 50% 40%
No.of respondents
30%
20%
20% 10%
6%
4%
nestle
others
0% Hul
ITC
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that all the consumers are 70% use the brand hul.
3.Do you think hul brand is? BRANDS TOP MIDDLE LAST Others
% OF RESPONDENTS 90% 30% 20% 10%
OTHERS
10
LAST
20 Series1
MIDDLE
30
TOP
90
0
20
40
60
80
100
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that HUL brand is 90% at the top.
4. Does your product satisfy your needs?
BRANDS YES DEFINITELY NOT SURE NO
% OF RESPONDENTS 95% 80% 30% 10%
95
100 90
80
80 70 60
Series1
50 40
30
30 20
10
10 0 1.YES
2.DEFINITELY 3.NOTSURE
4.NO
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that HUL brand satisfy the needs of the customer.
5. If you go for repurchase of your product, will you prefer going for the same product?
BRANDS YES DEFINITELY NOT SURE NO
% OF RESPONDENTS 90% 95% 80% 20%
100 90
95
90
80
80
70 60 50
Series1
40 30 20
20
10
0 0
1
2
3
4
5
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that HUL brand will repurchase by the customer.
6. Which product of HUL you use more? BRANDS HOMECARE FOODBRANDS PERSONAL BRANDS BEVERAGES
% OF RESPONDENTS 95% 90% 80% 20%
80
4.BEVERAGES
85
3.PERSONAL BRANDS
Series2 Series1
90
2.FOODBRANDS
95
1. HOMECARE
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that in HUL brand the customer use more homecare brands.
7. Do you find it is easily available in the market
BRANDS YES DEFINITELY NOT SURE NO
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
95
% OF RESPONDENTS 95% 90% 80% 10%
90
80
Series1 10
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that in HUL brand is easily available in market
8. Why did you like the brand most? BRANDS Sensitive to skin Fragrance Fresh Good
% OF RESPONDENTS 50% 70% 80% 90%
90
90
80
80
70
70 60
50
50
Series1
40
Series2
30 20 10 0 1. Sensitive to Skin
2. Fragrance
3. Fresh
4.GOOD
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that in HUL brand is liked by so many customers.
9. How you Know these Product? BRANDS Advertisement Mouth publicty Reference Group NEWS PAPER
% OF RESPONDENTS 80% 90% 70% 78%
90 80
70 60 50 Series1
40 30 20 10 0 PAP 1.Advertisement 2. Mouth Publicity 3. Reference Group 4.NEWS PAPER
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that HUL brand is popularly known by mouth publicity.
10. Will you recommend HUL brand to others?
BRANDS YES DEFINITELY NOT SURE NO
% OF RESPONDENTS 95% 90% 80% 10%
1.YES 2.DEFINITELY 3.NOT SURE 4.NO
INFERENCE: From the above pie chart it can be inferred that HUL brand will recommend by the customers to others.
CHAPTER-7 FINDING
SUGGESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS
It is recommended that the HUL should focus more on the utility of the products while promoting in the rural areas. The life-style of these people is different from those in the urban areas. These people want value for their money, so they want the promotions to be more informative rather being more glamorous. The value-for-money´ means that people will definitely buy, but they will buy only that product which suits their needs. If once they purchase a wrong product they will never purchase it again. This word-of-mouth may spread across and company might loss in the long run The HUL should provide full information in the rural promotions starting for the need, utility, availability, price and the pack sizes available. It is recommended that the pack sizes should be small and the pricing should be done in coinage system example: Re.1, Rs.2, Rs.5, Rs.10 etc. This increases the affordability among the rural consumers. As per collected data it can be said that, 95% of rural respondents are using television as their main source of information. So H.U.L. should focus more on television advertisement. There is no doubt that high price products, have high customer involvement and lead towards the high product satisfaction with brand loyalty. But here H.U.L. being F.M.C.G. company, it should be ensured that customers have repetitive purchase which may turn them in loyal customers and to ensure the loyalty, the blending of 4p’s should be devised considering the specific needs, wants, perceived performance and various products attributes for the rural consumers. As per collected data, Annexure -1 Table-3, majority 93% of the rural.
CHAPTER-8 CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION In recent years, the FMCG sector declined due to down trading. Also
because of presence of large number of companies trying to seize this opportunity, this force the old HUL for the change and thus, their transformation has resulted in a new HUL, which has successfully faced this challenge and reversed this trend. It has done so by substantially strengthening their brands and building capabilities. This has already begun to yield benefits and they are returning to growth. Volume growth is being followed by value growth, which in turn is bringing profit growth. India is one of the most exciting markets offering great potential. Over the next10 years, the per capita income in India is likely to double. In FMCG, there is an opportunity to catalyze penetration, increase usage, and upgrade consumers. As a result, the FMCG market is expected to grow to over Rs.100,000 crores from its current base of Rs.40,000 crores. The new Hindustan Lever see an exciting opportunity for growth. They have 35 powerful brands covering all segments, with leading market positions in most. Today, these are stronger and more relevant to the consumer than ever. The people are energized by the scale of the opportunity and determined to seize it. The scale of the business and operations gives them the resources needed. They are delivering good services and the changes they brought in the products are well taken by the customers, by this they are generating sustainable profitable growth.
ANNEXURE
QUESTIONAIRE
1 .Are you aware of the brand HUL? 1. YES 2. NO 3.NOT SURE 4.DEFINITELY
2. Which brand you generally use? 1. HUL 2.ITC 4. HALDIGRAMS
3.OTHERS
3. Do you think HUL brand is ? 1. TOP 2. MIDDLE 3. LAST 4.NONE OF ABOVE 4. Does your product satisfy your needs? 1. YES 2. NO 3.DEFINITELY 4.NOT SURE
5. If you go for repurchase of your product, will you prefer going for the same product? 1. YES 2.NO 4.DEFINITELY 3.NOT SURE 6. Which product of HUL you use more? 1. HOMECARE 2.FOODBRANDS 3.PERSONAL BRANDS 4.BEVERAGES
7. Do you find it is easily available in the market? 1. YES 2.NO 3.DEFINETLY 4.NOT SURE
8. Why did you like the brand most? 1. Sensitive to Skin 2. Fragrance 3. Fresh 4.GOOD
9. How you Know these Product? 1.Advertisement 2. Mouth Publicity 3. Reference Group 4.NEWS PAPER
10. Will you recommend HUL brand to others? 1.YES 2. Definitely 2. Not sure 3. Definitely not
BIBLIOGRAPHY
While preparing the report I took the help of the internet and some related books. The names of the website that I have visited are given below
1. www.wikipedia.com 2. www.google.com 3. www.hul.com
Apart from visiting the websites I have also read books of marketing and consumer satisfaction of some authors like
Marketing Management
-
Philip Kotler
Consumer Satisfaction
- Peter Drucker
