Volume XXXIX • Number  4 • April 2009

Managing New Products Successfully: A Strategic Imperative

For any company to push its new product to consumers in a particular time, advertisements are just not enough. Innovative sales promotion techniques are also needed to suit various products. The paper primarily focuses on the abilities of the organizations to manage innovative products all through the product life cycle. The paper aims at highlighting the strategies which product manager should develop for getting the best out of the innovative products. This Paper extends Emotional marketing Conceptual model for brand management by relating different stages of the product life cycle that consumers engage in.

Brand Positioning: The Unbeatable Weapon in Present Marketing Scenario

Over the decades, the sea change in the attitudes and lifestyles of people provided various big ideas to marketers, which can be nurtured out of changing social needs, desires and values of the target customers. These innovative ideas resulted in reshaping the thinking of marketers by first identifying and understanding the needs and expectations of the target group and then to come up with suitable products. In the present scenario, the innovations are taking place rapidly but even the best demanded brands are not sure regarding their survival because the innovations are difficult to develop and easy to copy. So, the marketers are continuously seeking the distinct positions for their brands in the minds of customers and hence brand positioning has emerged as the most challenging job in today’s mature and overcrowded markets. It aims at imprinting a differentiated image of the brand in the minds of the prospective customers. According to Charles Mittelstadt, “Positioning refers to how you want your brand ‘thought about’ in connections with the competitors in its product category. It needs to be specific to your brand aimed at specific target audience”. A successful brand positioning strategy concentrates on finding out the strong position in customer’s mind and then sitting on it, which leads to gain the competitive advantage in the market. The marketing managers are constantly facing the dilemma to position and reposition the brands according to the changing perceptions, needs and desires of the customers. Therefore, in the light of this fact, in this present study, we tend to focus upon describing the various strategies to position brands accurately in the market. The objective of our study is twofold. Firstly, to contemplate the basic concept of positioning and secondly, to give a brief account of puzzles and advancements in positioning.

Prof. M.K.Jain
Lecturer
University School of Management
Kurukshetra University
Kurukshetra,Haryana
 

The present case study deals with the distribution and supply chain management of Asian Paints. The case study tries to throw light on the key strategies of Asian Paints in terms of distribution and supply chain, which have made Asian Paints, the number one paint company in India. The case study also focuses on the current scenario in the paint industry and the trends in the industry. The scope of case study is limited to the Indian paint market and the strategies applied by Asian Paints in the India market only.

Corporate Customer Behaviour & Indian Hardware Market(With Special Reference to HCL Infosystem Ltd)

In today’s rein of globalized consumerism, understanding the consumer behavior has attained paramount significance. Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources, namely time, effort and money on consumption related items. The heterogeneity among consumers across markets makes understanding consumer behavior an intricate and challenging task. In modern era of brisk economic development; the organizational market above all, has gained prime significance. With constantly changing business environment, the dynamics of industrial markets more than any other form of market is evolving most rapidly. Companies in this form of market have thus realized the significance of reduction of customer centric product development, technological advancement and effective innovation. The primary objective of this project was to decipher to the extent possible, the intricacies of the buying behavior of the corporate customer in the IT hardware market and to study and understand the major factors affecting the same. The research was facilitated through both primary data analysis as well as secondary study. The report summarizes the findings in the form of a statistical analysis. SPSS software has been used to interpret the different statistical relationships among the variables studied. The analysis included Correlation & Regression, Discriminant Analysis and Factor analysis. Besides, the report incorporates a comparative analysis of the different business parameters among the market leaders. The findings have revealed a stark disapprobation between the current market scenario and the customer preferences. It has become evident through the study that Service and Technological expertise are the major influencing factors in the IT hardware industry. Interestingly, Price is only a secondary concern in organizational buying decision. A high correlation has also been observed between Loyalty, Service, Customization and the tenure of association.

In 19th century, Prof. Alfred Graham Bell invented the telephony to talk to others. The first real improvement in the telephone was due to Thomas Alva Edison’s carbon transmitter, which was then further improved by the Blake microphone. Another improvement was the combination of mouthpiece and the earpiece into a single handset, giving a new freedom of movement to users. The individual parts of the telephone were discovered and developed by different people at different times. On February 14, 1876, the day that Graham Bell applied for a patent for his version of the telephone, Elisha Gray applied for a caveat – a document indicating that he intended to file his own patent claim within three months. But Gray was a few hours too late –Bell had already filed an actual patent application. London’s first trunk telephone line linked the city with Brighton. For the first time, telephone communication was opened between London and what were then termed ‘the Midland and Northern countries’ Thomas Watson was Alexander Graham Bell’s right- hand man who helped him create the telephone. Cellular Phones are an offshoot of Graham Bell’s invention. These devices work and have to be activated with the help of an electronic chip which are provided by many service providers.The cellphone has revolutionized the way in which people communicate with each other. India has a population of 100 crores and 60% of the people use cell phones.

Role of Cooperative Banks In Catering to the Credit Needs of Rural Masses

The study exams the impact of the co- operative banks for rural development. Data for the study were obtained from personal discussion through questionnaire. Result obtained from the study showed that the co-operative banks played a major role for the development of rural area in Kerala. Researcher made suggestion for improving the operational efficiency of rural banks in Kerala.

Tourism industry today is one of the world’s fastest growing industries. India with its glorious past has ensured that the present and subsequent generations have plenty of historical and cultural heritages to be proud of. Tourism Industry is playing a vital role in the GDP of Indian Economy. Every year a lot of tourists come in India. Indian Government, with all its efforts tries to satisfy these tourists. This paper is an attempt to understand the satisfaction indicator among International Travelers relating to the heritage sites of India. A detailed study has been done on the basis of primary as well as secondary data. Secondary data was collected from journals, books, magazines, Internet as well as government agencies, whereas primary data was collected through brief, on-site interviews based on a structured, non-disguised questionnaire. The study shows that the satisfaction level of tourists in India is 5.72 in the scale of 10. This data was further analyzed on different factors and researcher tried to find out the impact of various factors on overall tourist satisfaction. The satisfaction was also analyzed gender wise, which gave an idea that overall women are more satisfied than men. Through this research paper researcher tries to find out the factors which is crucial for the success of tourist destinations and their positioning. The researcher also tries to find out the status of these factors in India and suggested some measures which can be utilized for up gradation of tourism Industry in India.