A PROJECT REPORT ON Study of Customers Satisfaction towards the “ Pure it” (HUL) (With special reference to Cuttack city) For partial fulfillment of MBA degree course of Biju Pattnaik University of Technology Submitted By: Soumya Prakash Pani Roll No. B/10/01 Reg. No.1006281028 MBA 2010-12 External Guide: Internal Guide: Mr. Pratim Chatterjee Mr. Biswarup Singh Territory Sales Officer Sc Lect. Marketing HUL( Pure it ) IPSAR 1
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A PROJECT REPORT ON
Study of Customers Satisfaction towards the
“ Pure it” (HUL)
(With special reference to Cuttack city)
For partial fulfillment of MBA degree course of Biju Pattnaik University of Technology
Submitted By:
Soumya Prakash PaniRoll No. B/10/01
Reg. No.1006281028MBA 2010-12
External Guide: Internal Guide: Mr. Pratim Chatterjee Mr. Biswarup Singh
Territory Sales Officer Sc Lect. Marketing
HUL( Pure it ) IPSAR
INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES & RESEARCH
CDA SECTOR-6 , CUTTACK-753014,ORISSA
1
DECLARATION
I, Soumya Prakash Pani, a student of MBA (2010-12) studying at IPSAR
(Institute of Professional Studies & Research), Cuttack, solemnly declare
that the project work titled- ‘ Study of customers satisfaction towards
“Pure it” (HUL)’ was carried out by me at Hindustan Unilever Limited;
Cuttack, in partial fulfillment of the MBA programme. This programme was
undertaken as a part of academic curriculum according to the University
Date : Soumya Prakash Pani
Place MBA
2010-12
2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I feel great pleasure for the completion of this project. At the very outset I would
express my sincere thanks and deep sense of gratitude to personnel who helped me
during the collection of data and gave me rare and valuable guidance for the
preparation of this report.
I am thankful to Dr J. K. Mishra, Director of IPSAR and Prof A. K. Mishra, Dean MBA
for giving us such a wonderful opportunity to work with corporate as a part of our
project work and constantly motivating right from the beginning.
I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude and appreciation to my
Kwality Wall's – are household names across the country and span many categories -
soaps, detergents, personal products, tea, coffee, branded staples, ice cream and
culinary products. They are manufactured over 40 factories across India. The
operations involve over 2,000 suppliers and associates. HUL's distribution network,
comprising about 4,000 redistribution stockiest, covering 6.3 million retail outlets
reaching the entire urban population, and about 250 million rural consumers.
HUL believes that an organisation's worth is also in the service it renders to the
community. HUL is focusing on health & hygiene education, women empowerment, and
water management. It is also involved in education and rehabilitation of special or
17
underprivileged children, care for the destitute and HIV-positive, and rural
development.
HUL has also responded in case of national calamities / adversities and contributes
through various welfare measures, most recent being the village built by HUL in
earthquake affected Gujarat, and relief & rehabilitation after the Tsunami caused
devastation in South India. In 2001, the company embarked on an ambitious
programme, Shakti. Through Shakti,HUL is creating micro-enterprise opportunities for
rural women, thereby improving their livelihood and the standard of living in rural
communities. Shakti also includes health and hygiene education through the Shakti Vani
Programme, and creating access to relevant information through the iShakti community
portal. The program now covers 15 states in ndia and has over 45,000 women
entrepreneurs in its fold, reaching out to 100,000 plus villages and directly reaching to
150 million rural consumers. By the end of 2010, Shakti aims to have 100,000 Shakti
entrepreneurs covering 500,000 villages, touching the lives of over 600 million people.
HUL is also running a rural health programme – Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana. The
programme endeavors to induce adoption of hygienic practices among rural Indians
and aims to bring down the incidence of diarrhea. It has already touched 84.6 million
people in approximately 43890 villages of 8 states. The vision is to make a billion
Indians feel safe and secure.
18
Home care brands
HUL has a diverse portfolio of brands offering home care solutions for millions of consumers
across India.
Personal care brands
Company’s personal care brands, including Axe, Dove, Lux, Pond's, Rexona and Sunsilk,
are recognized and love by consumers across India. They help consumers to look good
and feel good and in turn get more out of life.
19
Food brands
HUL is one of India’s leading food companies. Our passion for understanding what people want
and need from their food - and what they love about it - makes our brands a popular choice
Water purifier
Pure It is the world’s most advanced in-home water purifier. Pure It, a breakthrough
offering of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), provides complete protection from all water-
borne diseases, unmatched convenience and affordability.
The most advanced in-home water purifier in the world! Pure It, a breakthrough
offering of Hindustan Unilever, comes with many unique benefits – complete protection
from all water-borne diseases, great convenience, and unmatched affordability. Pure It’s
unique Germ kill Processor technology removes all harmful viruses and bacteria and
removes parasites and pesticide impurities, giving to people water that's 'as safe as
boiled water'. It assures your family of 100% protection from all water-borne diseases
like jaundice, diarrhea, typhoid and cholera. What’s more, it doesn’t need gas, electricity
or continuous tap water supply. People will be further reassured to know that Pure It
meets stringent international criteria of Environment Protection Agency (EPA), USA for
harmful virus and bacteria removal.
Four purifier stages of Pure It
20
Pure it purifies your drinking water in four stages, beginning with the removal of visible dirt, followed by the removal of harmful parasites and pesticide impurities. Then, the harmful viruses and bacteria are removed and finally the water is rendered clear, odour less and great tasting by removing remaining impurities.
Water Purifiers offered by HUL
Pureit Marvella & Pure it Auto fill
Pureit Classic &Pureit Compact
SELLING STRATEGY ADOPTED
21
Because of the low interest and since the product benefits needs to be demonstrated to
the customers, conventional distribution was not viable. Hence Hindustan Unilever
limited chose the less traveled Direct Selling route.
The Hindustan Unilever’s sales man in water division is called PWE. It has three
streams for selling of product i.e. cold calls (door to door selling), outreach (Kiosk) and
clinic (Hospital). It is a tough job for these salesmen who have to go through the "cold
calls" to get a sale. At one point of time, because of the aggressive nature of these sales
persons, people became scared even to listen to these sales persons. Now this
aggression has mellowed down to a more professional sales approach.
Selling Strategies adopted by company are 1. Direct Selling- Door-to-Door Selling 2.
Outreach (Kiosk) 3.Clinic (Hospital)
Product Segmentation
Hindustan Unilever sells different water-purifiers on the basis of classifying their utility and
price affordability. The water purifiers are classified as follows:
(1)Pure it compact – Rs 1000 /-
(2)Pure it M05 Model – Rs 2000 /-
(3)Pure it Autofill –Rs 3200 /-
(4)Pure it Marvella –Rs 6900 /-
22
CHAPTER-III
STUDY OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS PURE IT
23
‘Consumer is king’ –the statement carries profound truth in it. Today the success of any
firm depends upon the satisfaction of consumers. For satisfying the consumers the firm
should know about the behavior of the consumers. In these circumstances
understanding consumer is a very difficult task because of the changing technology,
innovation, and changes in life style. Researchers conducted many research in this area,
and they given only few suggestion, but there is no final conclusion. As per the ideas
given by the researchers, there are two factors influencing the consumers such as
intrinsic and extrinsic factors. It is difficult to classify consumers by conventional
demographic factors and unless their thought process and buying behavior are fully
understood, decisions on product designs and packaging, branding and distribution
channels are likely to be misplaced. With the inevitability of change looming large over
the horizon, Indian companies must learn from their western counterparts; not only to
identify the sources, timing and direction of the changes likely to affect India, but also
the new competencies and perspective that will enable them to respond to these
changes, comprehensively and effectively. This study mainly focus on understanding the
external factors like demographic, social, cultural ,price, quality ,product attributes etc
for buying water purifier like HUL Pureit . The market share of any product is highly
determined by the purchasing behavior of the consumers. Following study is conducted
by the researcher to find out the behavior of the consumers, to analyze the preference of
consumers, & consumer awareness. Descriptive research design was adopted and the
data is collected through primary and secondary sources.
Factors that affect the consumers decision & perception
Product Type:
Past research indicates that consumers purchase and channel decisions might be
influenced by the type of product being investigated (Cox and Rich 1964:Lumpkin and
Hawes 1985;Morrison and Roberts 1998:Papadopoulos 1980:Prasad 1975:Sheth 1983:
Thompson 1971).In particular ,these authors state 29 that certain products might be
more appropriate for one channel or another, which ultimately influences consumers
channel preference and choice.
24
Quality:
It is our aim to provide the best product for the consumer and we believe that if the
products have quality the consumer will pay the price, says , regional business director
of HUL.
Promotion:
The greatest challenge faced by companies today is holding and increasing their market
share and value. This is always a strenuous exercise and one of the tools for the same is
marketing. There is no specific game rule available for using these marketing tools .The
reason is: each promotional tool has its own characteristics.
Brand Awareness:According to Rossiter and Prey (1987), brand awareness precedes all other steps in the
buying process. A brand attitude cannot be performed, unless a consumer is aware of
the brand. In memory theory, brand awareness is positioned as a vital first step in
building the bundle of associations which are attached to the brand in memory (Stokes,
1985).
Family influence:A family exerts a complex influence on the behaviors of its members. Prior family
influence research has focused on intergenerational rather than intergenerational
influence in consumer renationalization. As has been compellingly demonstrated,
parents influence children (Moore, Willkie, and Lutz2002; Moschis 1987).Yet,
consumption domains clearly exist where sibling efforts may also be exerted
Demographic factor:Based on this study demographic factor like age, gender, education, status, and income
influence people indirectly for decision making. This is supported by following
evidence. Demographic factors play a major role in children’s power to influence their
parents. For example, Foxman et al. (1989) argue that age is a relevant variable as older
children are presumed to be more knowledgeable about products and family needs.
This is mainly due to their increase in cognitive development (Piaget, 1972)
Brand image:
25
Based on this study the preference for selecting water purifier is mainly based on brand,
quality, and taste. Brand image influencing the consumer mind and consumer feel the
quality of the product. This is supported by the following review. Zeithaml,
Parasuraman, and Berry (1985) suggested that the brand image was an extrinsic
attribute of the product.
Advertising:Based on this study majority of the respondents influenced by advertisement for
buying water purifier. In recent circumstances technology plays an important role in
decision making; especially in advertising field the technology role is very high.
Television advertisement inducing the consumer mind for decision making, especially
advertisement for water purifier influencing the consumer to buy a particular brand.
Other kind of advertisement in magazine, newspaper also influencing the people.
Advertising is a strong base for consumer.
Product attributes: Based on this study product attributes also influencing the consumers for decision
making. Most of the respondents gave importance to healthy prevention of any water
born diseases, herbal attribute, and fresh water. So people consider the benefit of the
product for buying water purifier.
Price: Based on this survey, most of the respondents are influenced by price then availability,
and then packaging .For increasing the price of a product the company should consider
the views of consumer otherwise the consumer switch over to competitor product.
Why customer will choose Pure it as ultimate water purifier?
26
Feature Comparison
Compared with other available water purification methods, Pureit is by far the best option, in
terms of safety, convenience and affordability.
Key features Pureit Boiling
process
Leading UV
inline
purifier
Candle
filter
Removes harmful Viruses Need to boil
Removes harmful Bacteria for 30-40
Removes harmful Parasites(causes
amoebiasis, diarrhoea, etc)
Min
End-of-life indicator
Advanced Auto Switch-off
Great taste
27
Improves clarity
Removes odour
Doesn't need expensive gas
Doesn't need electricity
Doesn't need continuous tap water
Doesn’t need plumbing
Doesn't need an expensive
maintenance contract
Low initial cost
Low on-going cost
28
The above table shows that Pureit’s initial price of Rs. 2000 and the ongoing price of
only Re. 1 for 4 litres of water is the most competitive offer in the market. This is
because Pureit doesn’t need expensive gas, doesn’t need electricity, doesn’t need
maintenance
This study is especially conducted on Consumer’s preference and buying interest
towards HUL Pure it and in this process of research I have take opinions of 100 people
through questionnaire method made by myself.
29
Cost comparison across purification methods
Method of purification paise/litre
Cost of Pureit water 24
Cost of Pureit water 35
Cost of boiling water 47
Cost of leading UV in-line
purifier
64
Cost of 20 litres of leading
bottled water brand
350
Cost of 1 litre of leading bottled
water brand
1200
CHAPTER-IV
30
SWOT ANALYSIS OF HUL PURE IT
STRENGTH HUL has more than 100 million customers. It is the largest FMCG company in
India, and also put a step forward to the water purifier industry by lunching Pure
it.
The company has covered the entire Indian nation with its Product. This has
underpinned its large and rising customer base.
It is the 4th largest FMCG Company in the world.
WEAKNESS UL have stopped door to door selling from 2009 which going to be a biggest
weakness for the company and newly introduced market strategy for Pure it
not working effectively.
OPPORTUNITY HUL Pure it have newly introduced Pure it Marvella RO with reverse osmosis
technology which now going to compete with Eureka Forbes Aqua guard Ro.
Opportunity is always there because of a strong brand name also.
HUL Pure it going to make available there product in rural areas in India by
spreading there distribution channels which going to help them to get more
consumers because the quality of drinking water is not good there.
THREAT Quickly changing global industry can be a matter of threat for HUL in india.
TATA have introduced its product in Indian water purifier market, Tata Swach
which is a matter of concern for Hul Pure it.
31
DATA PRESENTATION & ANALYSIS
The following data have been collected during the research period taken by me through
the questionnaire method on 100 people of Cuttack city, Orissa.
Frequency Table
Table 1: Frequency and Percentage of the respondents who have water purifier
Have a Water Purifier Frequency Percent
Yes 65 65.0
No 35 35.0
Total 100 100.0
Fig 5.1: Frequency and Percentage of the respondents who have water purifier
yes no
preference 65 35
5
15
25
35
45
55
65
preference
Axis Title
32
INTERPRETATION
The total no. of respondents includes in the research is 100.Out of 100 respondents, 65
% (65) of people have a water purifier and 35 % (35) people have not water purifier.
Table 5.2: Frequency and Percentage of respondents “which company water purifier, you are using and will use”
Which Company Frequency Percent
Eureka Forbes 35 35.0
HUL Pure it 25 25.0
Kent 15 15.0
Philips 10 10.0
Whirlpool 6 6.0
Any Other 9 9.0
Total 100 100.0
Fig 5.2: Frequency and Percentage of respondents “which company water purifier, you are using and will use”
33
Eureka Forbes
HUL Pure it
Kent Philips Whirlpool Any Other0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
35
25
1510
6 9
FREQUENCY
FREQUENCY
35
25
15
10
0.600000000000001
9 PERCENTAGE
Eureka Forbes
HUL Pure it
Kent
Philips
Whirlpool
Any Other
INTERPRETATION
Out of 100 respondents, the data of people are using water purifier and people are not
using water purifier .Those people are not using water purifier, if they will buy ,they will
buy only this company’s product like Eureka Forbes,Hul,Kent,Philips,Whirlpool.35%
(35),25% (25),15% (15),10%(10),6% (6),9% (9) of people are using and will use
Eureka Forbes, Hul, Kent, Philips, Whirlpool and any other company’s water purifier.
34
Table 5.3: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about the quality of Battery kits of Pure it
Quality Frequency Percent
Good 65 65.0
Poor
Don’t know
25
10
25.0
10.0
Total 100 100.0
Fig 5.3: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about quality of battery kits of pure it
Good Poor Don't Know0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
65
25
10
FREQUENCY
FREQUENCY
65
25
10 PERCENTAGE
good poor
Don't Know
INTERPRETATIONThe above data tells about Battery kit quality of Pure it water purifier, that is the Pure it
is working with battey kit is good or not. Out of 100 respondents, 65 % (65) of people
have given their view that ‘yes’ and 25 % (25) of people have given their view ‘No’& rest
10% have don’t know about it.
35
Pure it uses no chemical Frequency Percent
Yes 40 40.0
No 50 50.0
Don't Know 10 10.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 4: Frequency and Percentage of respondents “Pure it doesn’t use chemicals”.
Fig 4: Frequency and Percentage of respondents “Pure it doesn’t use chemicals”
Yes No Don't Know0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
40
50
10
FREQUENCY
FREQUENCY
40
50
10 PERCENTAGE
Yes No
Don't Know
INTERPRETATION
The above data has given that out of 100 respondent 40% (40 )of them agreed that
there is no chemical use in Pure it water purifier.50% (50) people not agreed to the
statement & rest 10% tell don’t know about it.
36
Table 5: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about taste good, odorless and looks clear
Fig 5: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about taste good, odorless and looks clear for Pure it
satisfied Not satisfied Say nothing0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
9085
1015
Frequency
Frequency
75
10
15
PERCENTAGE
satisfiedNot satisfiedSay nothing
INTERPRETATION
The above data has given the frequency and percentage of respondents about taste of
water is good, odorless, looks clear in case of Pure it . Out of 100 respondents, 75 %
(75) of people have given their view ‘YES’. the taste of water is good, odorless and looks
clear.10% (10) of people have told ‘NO’, the taste of water is good, odorless and looks
clear and 15 % (15) of people have given their view ‘don’t know’ about taste of water.
37
TASTE GOOD,ODORLESS LOOKS CLEAR
FREQUENCY PERCENT
satisfied 75 75.0
Not satisfied 10 10.0
Say nothing 15 15.0
Total 100 100.0
Pure it gives water as safe as boil water
FREQUENCY PERCENT
Yes 67 67.0
No 23 23.0
Don't Know 10 10.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 6: Frequency and percentage of respondents about “ Pure it give water as safe as
boil water”.
Fig6: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about “Pure it gives water as safe as boil water”.
Yes No Don't Know
67
2310
FREQUENCY
Frequency
67%
23%
10%
PERCENTAGE
Yes No Don't Know
INTERPRETATION
The above data has given the frequency and percentage of respondents about Pure it gives
water as safe as boil water. Out of 100 respondents, 67% (67) of people have given their view
‘YES’. the water is as safe as boiled water.23 % (23) of people have told ‘NO’ water is no as safe
as boil water and 10 % (10) of people have given their view ‘don’t know’ about taste of water.
38
Table 7: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about after sales service of Pure it
water purifier.
SERVICE AFTER SALES FREQUENCY PERCENT
Satisfied 68 68.0
Not satisfied 32 32.0
Total 100 100.0
Fig7: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about after sales service of Pure it
Yes No0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
68
32
FREQUENCY
68
32
PERCENTAGE
YesNo
INTERPRETATION
The above data has given frequency and percentage of respondents about service after
sales of Pure it.64 % (64) of people have given their view that they are satisfied with
after sales , service of Pure it and 36 % (36) of people have given their view that after
sales service of Pure it is not good.
39
What comes your mind first Frequency Percent
Price 16 16.0
Health & Safety 39 39.0
Both 45 45.0
Total 100 100.0
Table 8: Frequency and Percentage of respondents about what comes your mind first i.e.
Price or Health & Safety or Both
Fig 5.10: Frequency and percentage of respondents about what comes your mind first i.e.
Price or Health & Safety or Both
Price Health & Safety Both0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
16
3945
Frequency
Frequency
16
39
45
PERCENTAGE
Price Health & Safety
Both
INTERPRETATION
The above data has told, frequency and percentage of respondents about what comes
customers mind first i.e. Price or Health or Both. Out of 100 respondents, 45 % (45) of
respondents have given their view that both that is price as well as health and safety.
Percentage of respondents who are only concern about health and safety was found 39
% (39).Percentage of respondents who are concern about only price was found 16 %
(16).
40
Table 9: Cross tabulation between ‘Company and Taste of water
WHICH COMPANY
Tastes good ,odorless ,looks clear Total
Yes No Don’t Know
Eureka Forbes 45 1 4 50
Hul 9 2 3 14
kent 9 1 0 10
Philips 8 1 1 10
Whirlpool 4 2 1 7
Any Other 5 2 2 9
Total 80 9 11 100
Fig 5.12: Cross tabulation between ‘Company and Taste of water
41
Eureka Forbes
Hul kent Philips Whirlpool Any Other0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
45
9 9 8
4 5
1 2 1 1 2 24 3
0 1 1 2
YesNoDon’t Know
INTERPRETATION
1. PERCENTAGE WITHIN ‘COMPANY’
A. Eureka Forbes : Among the total 50 Eureka Forbes users
The view of Eureka Forbes users toward taste of water is good, odorless and looks clear