Acknowledgement
I take this opportunity to express my sense of gratitude to all those who helped me in completing this project. The successful task would be incomplete without the mention of the people whose wh ose constant const ant guidance guidanc e and encouragem en couragement ent crown all efforts with succe suc cess. ss. First of all I would like to convey my thanks to Mr. Lalit patil (Mentor) for his constant suggestions which have resulted in successful completion of project I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Vijay Gawad (Chairman, G.M Group) for giving me the opportunity to work and learn with G.M. Group. I would also like to thank Mr. Rakesh Patil (Marketing and Sales) who extended to me all the support and cooperation I required during working in the field in various areas from time to time. The individual and personal efforts of everyone concerned were memorable and I am once again sincerely thankful to the whole team of G.M Group and for their cooperation and providing me the required requ ired information informa tion and resources reso urces and helping me m e throughout througho ut for the successful completion completion of this project.
Date: 15rd July 2013 Place: Mumbai Amit Gawad
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I started my internship project on 6th May 2013 in G.M. Group asked to recommend Estado on how G.M group should improve the brand. I was asked to collect the information related to real estate and also conduct a survey on brand recall and brand association. I prepared the questionnaire for brand recall and brand association. The objectives of my questionnaire are as follows 1. To find which brand has maximum recall. 2. To find what attributes are related with the brand and 3. To find out the buying preferences. I worked directly under Mr. Rakesh Patil (Marketing and Sales) on branding options for the company and also in forming various marketing strategies.
1 INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPANY
Formed in the year 2004, by 2 young & dynamic entrepreneurs: Mr. Govind Gawad, MS in Entrepreneurship Mr. Madhukar Gawad, PGDBM in Finance and Entrepreneurship
G.M Group is a young company with a fresh and unique approach to the Virar„s Real Estate market. G.M is headed by its Chairman Mr. Vijay Gawad G.M group has been formed on the simple premise that the realty markets need to create credibility through transparency in transactions, quality products, customizing products to customer needs and above all timely deliveries. We believe that this guiding principle will help the group to develop its unique position in the market as a developer who delivers a quality product on time and has the flexibility to create homes suited to client needs. The culture of the organization is deep rooted into its four pillars, Quality, Ethics, and Relationship & Transparency (QERT).
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
What is research? Research can be defined as a scientific and systematic search for pertaining information on a specific topic. We define research as the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific situation facing the company.
3.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Project has mainly two following objective1. To determine the customer„s perception. 2. To determine the customer„s expectations.
3.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY: The project undertaken gives me a broad view of the virar Real Estate industry and also helps me to understand the consumer behavior.
3.3 DATA COLLECTTION METHODS:1. Primary data are collected through questionnaire method which is designed to keep n view the objective of the study. 2. Secondary data is collected through internet sources, research papers, and published reports by various institutions.
3 BRAND ASSOCIATION Brand association is anything which is deep seated i n customer„s mind about the brand. Brand should be associated with something positive so that the customers relate your brand to being positive. Brand associations are the attributes of brand which come into consumers mind when the brand is talked about. It is related with the implicit and explicit meanings which a consumer relates/associates with a specific brand name. Brand association can also be defined as the degree to which a specific product/service is recognized within its product/service class/category. While choosing a brand name, it is essential that the name chosen should reinforce an important attribute or benefit association that forms it„s product positioning.
1. Customer benefit
Customer benefit refers to the need that is satisfied by a product. For Example, cavity control by a toothpaste is a customer benefit. Customer benefit may be rational, psychological (emotional) benefit, or self- expressive benefit. A rational benefit is closely linked to a product„s attribute and would be part of a ―rational‖ decision process. A psychological benefit relates to what feelings are engendered when buying and or using the brand. An example of a rational benefit for a computer to a consumer would be its ability not to lose work whereas a psychological benefit would be the feeling of being professi onal. For a car, the emotional benefit would be the feeling of safety when driving it as a driver of a Volvo car would testify. The self-expressive benefit relates to the ability of a brand to help a consumer to communicate his or her self-image. Since consumers have multiple roles, the consumer has an associated self-concept and a need to express that self-concept. The purchase and use of brands is one way to fulfil the need for self-expression. He gives the example of a consumer who may define him/herself as successful and powerful by driving a Mercedes Benz. 2. Product attributes
These refer to a product„s characteristics. Attributes are associated with a product„s rational benefit. For example, a Volvo car„s attribute is durability. Similarly, a shampoo„s attribute would be its safety to use every day. A marketer requires to identify an attribute that is important to a major segment and not already claimed by a competitor, e.g. an attribute that offers something extra (like features or services that offer something better). The identification of an unmet customer problem can sometimes lead to an attribute previously ignore by competitors. Indeed, unmet needs are strategically important because they can represent opportunities for firms that want to make major moves in the market. 3. Use / application
A marketer can associate a brand with a particular use or application. For example, a beer can be associated with good friends in a warm social setting. A study of the coffee market revealed that there were nine relevant use contexts for coffee. 4. User / Customer
Another way of positioning a brand is to associate it with a type of user or customer. This involves identifying the brand with its target segment. For example, a brand can be associated with those who are interested in weight control as would be the case of a new drug. 5. Celebrity
This is the individual who endorses a brand. Linking a celebrity with a brand can transf er associations such as reliability, strength, performance, and so on. The extent to which the association can be linked to the celebrity depends on how credible the person is perceived by the audience. Specifically, a source is more persuasive when the audience perceives him or her as highly credible as when perceived as bei ng low in credibility. In other words, the person need not be credible but it is how the consumers perceive him. 6. Lifestyle / Personality
The brand can be viewed as a person. Like a person, a brand can be perceived as being competent, trustworthy, active, or youthful. A brand personality may help communicate a product„s attribute and thus contribute to a functional benefit. Similarly, it can help create a self-expressive benefit that becomes a vehicle for the customer to express his or her own personality.
7. Competitors
A firm positions its brand using the organization„s attributes such as innovation, a drive for quality, and a concern for the environment. A firm can position its brand with respect to a competitor. Sometimes it is not important how good customers think a firm is, but how they believe it is better than a given competitor. While this brand association can be accomplished by comparative advertising, it is not usually allowed in some countries 8. Country of Origin
One more strategic option that a marketer has is to associate a brand with a country. The country of origin has an effect on the market„s perception of a product - either a positive or a negative perception. Cateora (1996) asserts that a company competing in global markets may manufacture products world-wide and when the customer becomes aware of the country of origin, there is the possibility that the place of manufacture will affect product/brand image. The influence may be to add credibility or to lower it. Examples of Brand Association. When I say 5-star Hotel I immediately recall the brand J.W.Marriott. Thus the brand Marriott is associated with Premium 5star hotels. The Nike Swoosh, Nokia sound, Film Stars as with ―Lux‖, signature tune Ting -ting-ta-ding with Britannia, Blue colour with Pepsi, etc. Associations are not ―r easons-to- buy‖ but provide acquaintance and differentiation that„s not replicable. It is relating perceived qualities of a brand to a known entity. For instance- BMW is ass ociated with sophistication, fun driving, and superior engineering. Most popular brand associations are with the owners of brand, such as - Bill Gates and Microsoft, Reliance and Dhirubhai Ambani.
4 BRAND ASSOCIATIONS ROLE IN CREATING BRAND EQUITY The value premium that a company realizes from a product with a recognizable name as compared to its generic equivalent. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable and superior in quality and reliabil ity. Mass marketing campaigns can also help to create brand equity. If consumers are willing to pay more for a generic product than for a branded one, however, the brand is sai d to have negative brand equity. This might happen if a company had a major product recall or caused a widely publicized environmental disaster. In his significant work on brand equity Aaker suggests that brand associations are vital in creating value for the company since the host of different brand associations provide value to in different ways. He identifies five propositions t hat all feed into creating value for the company and thereby help generate strong brand equity. Those are; helping to process/ retrieve information, differentiating the brand, generating a reason to bu y, creating positive attitudes/feelings and lastly providing a basis for brand extensions. In his significant work on brand equity Aaker suggests that brand associations are vital in creating value for the company since the host of different brand associations provide value to in different ways. He identifies five propositions that all feed into creating value for the company and thereby help generate strong brand equity. Those are; helping to process/ retrieve information, differentiating the brand, generating a reason to bu y, creating positive attitudes/feelings and lastly providing a basis for brand extensions .
Help process and retrieve information
A brand association can serve as an information c hunk that can help the decision maker to cope with the otherwise large amount of information that the consumer may have difficulties accessing and processing. Associations can also help i n the interpretation of facts. For example, with high-technology brands such as HP, brand associations may influence the interpretation of a long specifications list
Differentiate
Associations of a brand may play a critical role in differentiating brands from one another. A specific brand association linked to a certain brand can become the key competitive advantage. An example is the high performance soft-drink Gatorade that is highly associated with athletic competition where competing brands may have trouble being credible in claiming the same feature. Hence, brand associations can be a great barrier to competitors.
Reason to buy
Plenty of brand associations include product attributes or customer benefits that provide the decision maker with reason to buy or consume the brand. An example is ―That calls for a Carlsberg‖ which provides the consumer with a reason to buy the beer whenever one has an occasion. Another example is the Vestas tagline ―Experience the forces of wind‖. If this is well-positioned in the consumer„s memory as a brand association, it can provide future Vestas employees with a reason to ―buy‖. Other brand associations may provide credibility and confidence in the brand. Thus, influence the purchase decision. Create positive attitudes
Some brand associations are interlinked and can stimulate positive attitudes that are transferred to the brand. Celebrity endorsers, s ymbols, and slogans can in the right context elicit positive feelings towards the brand (Ibid). For inst ance, Nike has successfully used Michael Jordan as an endorser. Finally, Nokia„s slogan “connecting people” is s pot on in most situations. Basis for extension
An association can also serve as the basis for an extension by creating a sense of fit between the brand and the brand extension or by providing reason to buy the extension. For example the brand association ‗low cost with Easy Jet and Easy Hotel shows how marketers can use the associations as a platform for extension.
Brand association’s role in creating customer -based brand equity To create strong Customer Based Brand Equity the consumer needs to have strong, unique and favorable brand associations in mind. This is important because these brand associations will differentiate the brand from other competing brands.
Strong brand associations
The strength of brand associations is influenced by two factors; personal relevance and the consistency with which it is presented over time. The more deeply a consumer thinks about any brand information and relates it to existing knowledge in memory, the stronger the brand association will be. This corresponds to the way the association is spread in the associative network by the brand as a node. Strong associations will be recalled faster and will make the consumer pay attention to the brand
Favorable associations
Favorable associations for a brand are those identifi ed as desirable to consumers in terms of convenience, reliability, and effectiveness and deliverable by product. Marketers create favorable associations by convincing consumers that the brand possess just what the consumer need and want.
Unique associations
Unique brand associations refer to the brand„s unique selling proposition. At best, the brand associations should be exclusive to that specific brand and not be shared with any other competing brands.
5 QUESTIONNAIRE
1. What is the first name that comes to your mind when you think about a real estate company?
2. What attributes do you associate with the brand? Choose
Reliability Transparency On time Delivery Quality of construction
3. How did you form this opinion?
1)By coming in touch with the employees of the firm 2)Through advertisements 3)Through the association with the owners of the company 4)Word of mouth publicity 5)Product class 6)Celebrity/Person 7)Bought products 8)Friends recommendations
4. Have you ever purchase the product from this brand? Yes
No
5. If yes, does the product satisfy all your needs?
6. If no, then what changes are needed to be done?
7. Do you base your buying classifications on the following, please rank from 1-5 Location Brand Price Quality Visit to site
8. Does the brand increase the acceptance of the product? Yes
No
9. Have you visited the company website? Yes
10. If yes, how useful is the website for? Knowing more about the product Knowing more about the company Knowing the price Does not help
No
6 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Q1. Which is the first company that comes to your mind when you think about a real estate company? 6
5
4
3
2
1
0
The brand Viva has the maximum recall i.e. 5, 2nd is Swastik and ekta with 4 recalls and Ameya and hdil have 3 recalls each. Viva being having the maximum recall this shows that brand recall does not affect the purchasing decision of the consumer
Q2.What attributes do you associate with the brand?
What attributes do you associate with the brand? 2%
2%
2% reliability
5%
Quality of construction
7% 46%
Transparency delivery on time Locality of schemes
36%
IPL personal contact
46 % people form an attribute that the brand they recalled is Reliable 36 % people form an attribute that the brand they recalled has quality of construction 7 % feel that the brand they recall maintains transparency 5 % form an attribute that the brand always delivers on time 2 % form an attribute because of IPL, Personal Contact and Locality of schemes. That means people prefer a brand which is Reliable, has quality of construction and maintains transparency. Reliability is the most vital factor for the consumers to buy a product from the builder, followed by quality of construction.
Q3. How did you form this opinion?
How did you form this opinion? friend recommendations 2% 5% 9%
through advertisement
19%
through association with the owners of the company
11% 18% 16%
product class by coming in touch with employyes of the firm bought products seen it
19 % form this attribute by recommendation made by friends 18 % by advertisements and word of mouth publicity 16 % by coming in association with the owners of the company 11 % by product class 9 % by coming in touch with the employees of the firm 5 % have bought the product and 2 % have seen it themselves and, relatives own a property with the builder
35% people form an attribute about a company by coming in touch with friends, word of mouth publicity and advertisements 27 % form an opinion by coming in association with the owners of the firm and product class Thus one can conclude that the Brand recall is bas ed on personal recommendations, advertisements also have a significant role to play.
Q4. Have you ever purchased a product from this company?
Have you ever purchased a product from this company?
8
Yes No
22
57.4 % people haven„t purchased any product from the companies still they recall those brands. It is significant to note that almost 60% people have not actually purchased the product, but already have a Brand recall
Q5. Does this product satisfy all your requirements?
Does this product satisfy all your requirements?
80%
yes no
3.2
20 % people are not satisfied with the products they have bought. It is also significant that t hose that have bought the products from a known brand are unsatisfied with the brand. Therefore of the 43% who buy the brand, 20% are dissatisf ied with the Brand therefore the dissatisfaction rate is as high as 9% which is alarming.
Q7. Rank the following buying preferences on the scale of 1 - 5.
scale 6
5
4
3
scale
2
1
0 location
brand
price
quality
visit to site
Location of the property is the first preference for buying, followed by price of the product, third is visit to site people prefer buying a property only after visiting the site, Brand ranks 4th when it comes to buying preference and the last preference is quality. It is significant to note that the first preference is location. Therefore the advertising strategy should be endemic to that area in which the product us being sold. Perception of qualit y needs to improve since buyers seem to feel that they have no control over the quality since location and price are their preference.
Q8. Does the brand increase the acceptance of the product?
Does the Brand Increase the acceptance of the product? 9%
Yes No
91%
91 % people agree that the presence of Brand incre ases the acceptance of that product I.e. most of the people are brand conscious.
Q9. Have you visited the company website?
Have you visited the comapny website?
39% Yes No 61%
61 % people have not visited the company website. Most people visit the company website before purchasing their product.
Q10. What was the company website useful for?
What was the company website useful for?
28% Knowing more about the product
36%
knowing more about the company knowing more about the price
1.2 17%
does not help
Company website is most useful to derive maximum information about the company, to know more about the product and pricing. Also many people feel that the company website is not at all useful. 19 % people think the company website is not useful at all 36% people think that website is more useful for knowing more about the company 45 % feel that it is useful for knowing more about the product and price.
7 RECOMMENDATION FOR G.M. Group
G.M should focus on getting in more walk-ins as the maximum audience choose recommendations by friends and word of mouth publicity helped them to form an opinion
about the company. Forming a Brand name is a long process and G.M should continue to focus on good locations, be reliable and maintain the good quality construction to be a successful brand over the years to come.
8 CONCLUSION
The conclusion of the report are as follows 1. G.M should focus of building reliability and maintain the quality of construction. 2. The company should focus on developing flat in the range of 25 - 40lakhs at good locations and maintain the same quality of construction. 3. On the basis of the Survey. I am of the firm belief that there is significant opportunity for G.M in establishing its brand as someone who provides excellent quality at a reasonable price in the preferred location 4. G.M therefore must focus on providing excellent quality at affordable price in the location they are in.
