Volume XXXVIII • Number  5 • May  2008

Exploration of Place Brand Attributes: A Study of Bangalore City

The study is based on quantitative exploration of Place Brand attributes using Bangalore as a case study. This paper determines the city attributes of Bangalore along with its three competing cities for the position of ‘The Top Place Brand in South India.’ Focus Group discussions were first carried out to identify six key place brand attributes. These comprised three Functional Attributes (shopping and attractions; service and amenities; and physical re-development) and three Representational Attributes (civic status and prestige; character, heritage and culture; and a pleasant city to live in). The Quantitative Method expounded by Romaniuk and Sharp (2000) was used to rank perceptions of both Functional and Representational City Attributes. A comparison of expected against observed results indicate which city attributes are viewed as positive and which are viewed as negative. The study of the place brand attributes may provide strategic direction to the city authorities and brand managers to plan ahead.

Service Failure and Recovery

Service provider’s inability to perform services properly is known as service failure. After failure, dissatisfied customer may engage in complaint & evaluation process. If a customer finds that his complain will result in compensation and/or in any other forms of recovery, he may either complain to provider or to third party. The Customer’s complaint provides the company with a chance to correct its mistake and satisfy its angry customer(s). Service provider’s response to service failure decides customer’s future purchase with the company. In the absence of positive response to the customers complain, probability of customer’s switch over increases. It is found that mere compensation cannot retain customers for a long time; hence service provider should have a mechanism to minimize failure incidences.

Amitabh Mishra
Lecturer
KNIPSS
Sultanpur,Uttar Pradesh

mr_amitabh2000@yahoo.com

Organized Supermarkets of South India- An Exploratory Study of the Margin Free Markets of Kerala

Retailing in India is in the process of getting more organized and professional. Medium-scale retail formats such as department stores and supermarket chains have already made an appearance and are slowly changing the face of retailing in the country. South India has taken lead in establishing organized retail chains in the food and grocery category. In South India, food and grocery is the largest retail category (Rs.1, 62,313 crore) which is more organized (1.2%) than all India (0.8%). Nilgiris, FabMall, Foodworld, Trinetra, Subiksha, Margin Free, Fresh@, Namdhari are among the leading south India based food and grocery retailers. Margin Free was the first organized supermarket stores of Kerala in private sector. Margin Free is completing 13 years and have 347 outlets with a total turnover of approximately Rs. 600 crores. An exploratory study done by the author through interview method of the 15 Margin Free Markets of Kerala reveals the context under which Margin Free Markets took birth and also the reasons for its success and widespread presence in Kerala. Today Margin Free Markets have become the benchmark among supermarkets with special focus on middle class customers. Margin Free Markets also represent a unique and successful franchise model operating in India for the last thirteen years.

80/20 Rule : How to Use It for Effective Business

Any individual business can gain immensely through practical application of Pareto’s Principle.This rule states that in many aspects of business and life, 80% of the potential value can be achieved from just 20% of the effort, and that one can spend the remaining 80% of effort for relatively little return. The key theme of the 80/20 Principle applied to business is how to create the greatest stakeholder value and generate most money with the least expenditure of assets and efforts. The most important use of the 80/20 Principle is "to isolate where the company is really making the profits and, just as important, where company is loosing money”. The reverse is true too, that things that take up 80% of time and resources will only produce 20% of results. It has been said that the 80/20 rule exists in every field, ranging from business to people. We can apply the 80/20 Rule to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world. The present article focuses on how companies can achieve progress by applying this principle and also examines the top 10 Pareto’s principles that can be applied for effective business.

The objective of the study is to identify the level of customer satisfaction towards Xerox Copiers and Corporation. The sample size is 200 respondents and the type of sampling is Convenience Sampling.Xerox Modi Corporation Limited owns a strong market share and brand image. Of the total consumers studied, 50% preferred Xerox, while 17% chose Canon, and 7% chose Ricoh. The rest preferred other brands like Godrej, Minolta, Sharp, and Toshiba.Xerox is a standard name for photocopiers and Xeroxing is a term that is identical with the word “photocopying”. There is lot of potential for digital copiers but due to lack of awareness, the jobbers are not shifting to it. Also, there is lot of unpleasantness associated with after-sales service.

A Study on Socio Economic Background and Status of Women Entrepreneurs in Small Scale Industries

Women were the first humans to taste bondage. She was a slave before slavery existed. Inferiority can largely be attributed to her sexual peculiarities. Man has always played the role of a Lord; as a result his physical and mental development took place at a good pace befitting his occupation and field of interest. On the contrary, the overall growth of women remained stunted. By sheer custom even the most ignorant and worthless man has been enjoying superiority over women, which they do not deserve. Women were denied the benefit of education. They had no opportunities to develop their natural capacities and became helpless, illiterate, narrow mined and peevish. Of the world’s one billion illiterate adults, two-third is women.

MNCs in Rural Marketing - The Case of Pepsi and Coca Cola

The cola majors, Coke and Pepsi, are trying to penetrate deep into the rural markets with innovative pricing and marketing strategies.Apart from the high-decibel price wars and the usual battle over market shares, cola brands Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been in a quiet behind-the-scenes skirmish - to reach the rural masses. After an almost stagnant growth in this segment for the last two years, both Coke and Pepsi have made efforts this year to penetrate deep into the rural markets by substantially increasing their retailer and distribution network and with innovative pricing and marketing strategies.

Buying Behaviour of Passenger Cars: A Study in South West Haryana

Indian Automobile sector is high on growth trajectory. According to auto industry experts Indian Automobile sales will grow at a CAGR of 9.5% to 13008 million by 2010. From 2006 through 2011, India will be the fastest-growing auto manufacturer among the world's top 20 car-making countries. The present study is conducted in South West Haryana which consists of Bhiwani and Mahendragarh districts. The study endeavor is to investigate empirically customer’s preference towards passenger car brand. Pre-purchase and post-purchase behaviour of the customers is evaluated and factors influencing the customers are determined by Perceptual mapping obtained from Multi-dimensional scaling. Overall results indicate that in south west Haryana region customers are more influences by friends and relatives than dealer and salespersons. Maruti dominates the market with three of its brands namely Maruti 800, Alto and Wagon-R. Brand name, fuel efficiency and price were found to be primary determinant for buying car in this region.

                   Dr.V.K.Kaushik
Asst Professor
Dept of Management Studies
TITS, Bhiwani, Haryana
virenderk_kaushik@rediffmail.com