Volume XXXVIII • Number  2 • February  2008

A Study of Liked/Disliked Television Commercials in India

This study analyzes consumers’ attitudes towards television commercials using telephone interviews in Mumbai to provide an insight into the constructs of “advertising likeability” and “advertising dislikeability”. While there have been a number of studies which have emphasized the role of ‘liking’ a commercial as an important evaluative measurement, few studies have observed the what factors cause the ‘liking’ and ‘disliking’ of an advertisement in India. The findings raise some issues for those advertising in the Indian marketplace.

David S. Waller
School of Marketing
University of Technology
Syndey,AUSTRALIA

Adding Value to Customer Relationships through Corporate Blogs

As Consumer Generated Media (CGM) through blogs, wikis and online communities and forums becomes a force to be reckoned with, organizations understand the need to engage into meaningful interactions with their consumers. Consumer Generated Media has changed company relationships with their consumers from a unidirectional "attract customer" strategy to a culture of participation and co-creation. As consumer voices start echoing, organizations have woken up to the need to establish a meaningful interaction with their customers. As customer value addition moves into a new arena, Corporate Blogging is emerging as a new tool to evoke value perception in the mind of a customer. This paper aims to understand the concept of Corporate Blogging and its attempt to cater to the goals of Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Vandana Ahuja
Visiting Faculty
Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University,Ghaziabad
Uttar Pradesh

Getting Personal Online :Can Consumers Be Targeted Behvaiorally For Internet Advertising?

IThe emergence of the internet as a tool for business to consumers has far – reaching ramifications. It has enabled consumers to perform many stages of the sales process in a quick and efficient manner. It also provides comprehensive product information, facilitates comparison-shopping and allows for a condensed sales process. But the basic question is how to know the customers on line? Is it really possible to study the psychographics of the on line customers and then to tap them accordingly with the right kind of ads and appropriate messages? Behavioral targeting is one of the many innovations developed by web savvy businesses to log on to personal traits and preferences of the target customers. It is believed that A CUSTOMER VISITING A WEB SITE IS THE MOST POWERFUL BEHAVIOR THAT HE CAN SHOW.

Profile and Perception of Retail Consumers -An Empirical Study in Palakkad District

Retailing is considered the world's largest industry with US $ 6.6 trillion sales annually. The retailing industry in India is worth around 300b$. There are around 5 million retail outlets of all sizes and styles. The retail market is likely to increase by 20% annually. As much as 96 % of the 5 million-plus outlets are smaller than 500 square feet area. This means that India per capita retailing space is about 2 square feet compared to 16 square feet in the United States. Just over 8 % of India’s population is engaged in retailing. (20 % in USA). People flock to the outlets for convenience, merchandise, and for enjoying the shopping and entertainment experience. This article attempts to bring out the profile and perception of consumers’ shopping at two leading retail outlets of Palakkad District; Spencer’s’ Daily and Big Bazaar. Kerala’s retail market is dominated by Margin Free Markets, Supplyco and local Kirana Stores. With the arrival of new-generation stores like Spencer’s Big Bazaar, etc, the shopping habits of Keralites is changing. The present study throws light on that vital aspect. The study focuses on three parts, the profile of the consumers, their preferences and the satisfaction level of the shoppers.

A Study on Consumer Preference and Satisfaction in Uzhavar Sandai at Namakkal District

Uzhavar Sandhai had its birth in the concept of Kal Ghoj in Russia. The former Union agriculture secretary, MS Gill on his visit to this country was impressed by this concept of farmers’ market and he replicated this concept by initiating Apna Mandis in Punjab and Haryana in early 1987.8

The ruling DMK government in Tamil Nadu subsequently replicated this concept in 1999 in the form of Uzhavar Sandhais. Andhra Pradesh followed suit and started the Ryothu Bazar on similar lines. Both Kallummal and Srinivasan asserted the relevance of Uzhavar Sandhais and said that it can protect the farmers from the impact of falling prices caused by opening up for cheap imports and distorted trade practices in the WTO regime. “The trade policies pursued by the government since 1990s have been taking the country towards a tariff-alone approach, which has opened the economy to large imports of much cheaper agricultural goods and has threatened the very livelihood of both agricultural labour and small farmers. On many occasions, Indian imports of vegetables and fruits have displaced an equivalent demand for the same produced in the country, which has direct impact on prices that farmers get.

Marketing of Grapes in Karnataka: A Case of Bangalore and Bijapur District

In India we are producing all varieties of grapes; Indian climatic condition is well suites for production of good quality grapes. At the same time our productivity is also considerably good. Besides increasing productivity and production of grape, creation of integrated physical distribution network for grape crop is the need of the hour. Fruits marketing in India are in a highly deplorable condition. The fruit growers in India are at the mercy of the middlemen. Even today the marketing system and channels of distribution, for fruits in India is traditional in nature, usually the standing crop is sold to a pre-harvest contractors. These contractors take care of the crop and sell it in a wholesale market where commission agents and wholesalers take a major share in that. The number of middlemen in the channel is generally more; the study discloses a very interesting picture with a changed situation in Bangalore and Bijapur market.

A Study in Vendor Development Micro & Small Enterprises Supplies to PSUs in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam

Marketing has always been a bottleneck operation in the business operations of a small-scale enterprise. A small-scale enterprise is saddled with many inhibiting factors, where market operations are concerned. Unlike large enterprises, where there is a separate Marketing department, headed by a Marketing Manager, with many persons assisting him, and a large budget for all kinds of marketing activities, including advertisement, a single person or a few persons manage the entire range of operations in a Small-scale unit. In this scenario, reaching out to the market, accessing information, identifying prospective buyers, executing job orders, planning marketing strategies, timely realization of sales amounts etc become very taxing for the entrepreneur. Consequently, the entrepreneur is unable to pay due attention towards planning marketing strategies, and exploring new markets. However, the entrepreneur has to realize the importance of marketing his goods to the right buyer, and has to focus on his product meeting the requirement of the customers, be it regarding quality, timely delivery, price or quantity

A Dealer Centric Analysis of Competitive Marketing Strategies of Cement Companies in India

In today’s dynamic business world, marketing in case of cement industry has a very vital role to play. Since all big names are involved in cement manufacturing and with new technological know how available at the disposal for all of them, the quality of cement manufactured by every big company is almost same, the only thing which makes the difference is the marketing. The company which has most sophisticated network of marketing will win the battle i.e., will be the market leader. Therefore due to this fact the main thrust of cement companies always goes behind marketing. This paper tries to visualize the current state of cement dealers, analyzing their role in complementing the marketing campaigns of different companies and the essential characteristics that govern them.

A Study on Used Goods Market (UGM)

Feel shy and nervous even to have an idea of buying used goods? Social values and cultural pattern are oriented to adore only new things. People still think twice about their participation into a used goods market. Keeping aside the social and cultural values of used goods, this paper argues for the economic value of used goods and it suggests that economic value be valued.

The present study is a modest attempt to understand the dynamics of UGM. It studies about the players of the used goods market, nature of goods, price, place, rules, and values. It also attempts provide suggestion to government to make necessary institutional arrangements to facilitate used goods markets so as to retain the value of the said goods.

                                   Dr.M.Venkateshwarlu
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
Osmania University
Hyderabad