Volume XXXVI • Number 2 •February  2006

Measuring Customer Satisfaction For Small Cars - An Empirical Study

Consumer satisfaction is a growing concern of businesses throughout the world. Increased competition and consumer demand for quality have moved corporations to devote larger portions of their market research budgets to studies of customer satisfaction. Today, manufacturing and service companies, large and small, use satisfaction research to determine the critical product attributes that result in customer satisfaction. This research reports and measures customer satisfaction of small cars in Bangalore city. The research identified sales support, vehicle design, purchase support, cost of ownership and delight features as underlying factors of customer satisfaction. The research tries to rank the small cars on these factors. The study also tries to find out whether customer satisfaction varies among customers on the basis of demographics.

Prof.A.M.Suresh
Head of Department
PG Department of Management Studies
Dayanand Sagar College of Management
& Information Technology,Bangalore

Mr.Raja K.G
Faculty Member
PG Department of Management Studies
Dayanand Sagar College of Management
& Information Technology,Bangalore

CRM- A New Dimension of Marketing

Customer Relationship Management /Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) has today become a typical marketing strategy in the milieu of changed customer behaviour. Of late, customers have become smarter and have all the information at their fingertips with internet explosion and communication revolution. They have become more cost driven, value conscious and are approached by a legion of competitors with equal or better offers.  It has also dawn on companies that retaining a customer is much less expensive than attracting a new customer. Accordingly, marketing practices have shifted from basic marketing to reactive marketing and then to relationship marketing.  Companies have started to align their processes and practices around the customers as well as the product. CRM is, thus, the process of building profitable, long-term relationships with customers by fostering repeated purchases. For its successful implementation, CRM should be seen as a philosophy cutting across the organization rather than a mere short-term marketing tool to boost sales 

Dr. B. C. Saraswathy
Selection Grade Lecturer in Commerce
Government College for Men
Cuddapah
Andhra Pradesh

Medical Tourism- The Next Big Opportunity to Prosperity

Thanks to the advancements in Medical Science and Technology - treatment is becoming more and more sophisticated and specialized.  The availability of highly qualified doctors and well-equipped hospitals has made India attain a dominant position in the field of medical tourism.  Many patients from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and even from West Asia prefer coming to India for treatment rather than going to Europe or North America.  In the first place, medical treatment in India costs much less than what it costs in Europe and America.  A number of world-class hospitals and super specialty clinics have come up in places like Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Delhi. This article deals with the different segments of present medical treatment, role of private hospitals, challenges, market for medical tourism and highlights the ingredients for a vibrant medical tourism industry in India.

V.Selvam
Senior Lecturer
VIT-Business School
Vellore Institute of Technology
Vellore,Tamil Nadu

Parallel Distribution Channels-Source of Internal Conflict

Many consumer good companies who are basically into retail sales have a substantial market in institutions to justify setting up of an institutional sales group. Examples in India are – Gillette, Dabur, Lakhanpal (Novino), Blow Plast (VIP Luggage), and Luxor – Parker etc. With my first hand experience of either working or interacting with many such companies, I can say that there is an underlying tussle and sometimes even contentious relationship between the retail and institutional sales force. This conflict many times flares up into arguments and accusations. It is not suggested that this is a serious problem universally. The companies with established systems have evolved mechanisms to avoid such unhealthy conflict or deal with it at the branch level itself so that it is not a regular irritant. However, for companies who are new to operating parallel distribution systems, such a conflict can build up and cause harm to the overall interests. The top management can do well to recognize the telltale signs of such a conflict, which are going to be talked about later in this article, and proactively implement measures to control it.

Asif Zameer
Assistant Professor
Fortune Institute of International Business
New Delhi

Impact of the Phenomenon of Social Class Mobility on the Consumer Buying & Disposal Behaviour in Indian Perspective : A case study of White Goods Market

Phenomenon of social mobility has affected the consumption pattern and consumer-buying behavior in different social classes in India. Specifically in white goods category, this phenomenon is clearly evident since in the beginning of 21^st century. Besides, it has also affected the disposal of the white goods in a very unique manner. Some form of Social Class structure or Social Stratification has existed in all societies throughout the history of human existence. In contemporary societies, an indication of the presence of social classes is the common reality that people who are better educated are more highly valued than those who are less educated or under-privileged.

Dr.Urvashi Makkar
Professor & Area Chairperson (Marketing)
Institute of Management Studies
Ghaziabad

Consumer Attitude Analysis With Respect to Reading of Newspapers & Magazines (With Reference to Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu)

Reading books and journals has become a part and parcel of every day life of human beings.  The reading habits help the people to make use of the leisure time usefully.  Newspapers are brought largely for their news value. As such they are most appropriate for announcing new products and the development of existing products. Because of the frequency of publication they are also well suited to “Opportunity Market”.Journalism includes the writing and editing of newspapers and periodicals.  The word “Journalism” is derived from “Journal” which means a daily register or a diary or a book containing each day’s business or transactions.  The word Journal also connects a newspaper published every day or even less often or a magazine.

Mr.K.Chandrasekar
Faculty and Research Associate
Algappa Institute of Management
Algappa University
Karaikudi,Tamil Nadu

Recent Issues in Changes of Global Brands into Domestic Brands

In Today’s business, leaders face new challenges at every moment, especially in building brands. To borrow a word coined by Tom Friedman, “Glocalism” – a combination of globalism and localism. Like it or nor, LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization), is a fact of life. International trade is growing twice as fast as world production and overseas investment is growing more than twice as fast as trade. Globally active companies outperform their strict domestic counterparts both in sales growth and earnings. However, just as all politics are local, all business are in an increasingly interconnected age is local. There is no substitute for being there when it comes to understand and relating to key customers, suppliers and partners in different parts of the world. To put in another way, when it comes to dealing with other people, the fastest way of reaching a true meeting of the minds has been will always be through independency that can be named as “GLOCALIZATION”.

J.Venkatesh
Department of Management Studies
Velalar College of Engineering and Technology
Erode,Tamil Nadu
Email :venkijv@gmail.com

Dr.V.Balachandran
Reader in Corporate Secretaryship
Alagappa University
Karaikudi
Tamil Nadu