RESEACH PROPOSAL

TOPIC: CONSUMER PREFERENCE TOWARDS A NEW

BRAND AND A BRAND EXTENSION

SUBMITTED TO: Prof. Dr. VSR Vijaykumar

SECTION A
SUBMITTED BY:

ABHINAV JAIN 2015002

ADHISHREE SINGH 2015006
MONIKANKANA BORA 2015031
NEHA SINGH 2015032
PURBITA BAL 2015044

INDEX:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

INTRODUCTION
THE RESEARCH QUESTION
JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PROPOSED RESEARCH
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONTRIBUTION OF THE RSEARCH
PROPOSED RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH PLAN
RESEARCH TIMETABLE
LIST OF REFERENCES

1.INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to identify various consumer reactions towards a
NEW BRAND and a BRAND EXTENSION. On the basis of these reactions we
try to reach a conclusion whether to go for a brand extension or a new brand.
In this research we have taken a hypothesis that CONSUMER PREFERENCE
TOWARDS A NEW BRAND AND A BRAND EXTENSION.
The products that we have selected are ATTA as the functional product and
APPAREL as the prestigious product.

BACKGROUNG
There are various private labels available in the market for both Atta and
Apparel. Private label products or services are typically those manufactured or
provided by one company for offer under another company's brand (Private
label goods and services are available in a wide range of industries from food to
cosmetics to web hosting). Atta is Indian wheat flour used to make various
items such as chapatti, roti, naan etc. Apparel is basically the clothing that is
used by people across the world made of fibre and textile.
To introduce a new brand or a brand extension in the market both for atta and
apparel it is important for us to know as what are the perceptions that consumers
have for the existing available brands. So to get a hint of the consumer
perception two fictitious brands have been selected by our group that are

Fresh and Pure and Stop. On the basis of the results that we draw from
our research with these two fictitious brands we will try to reach a conclusion
whether to go with brand extension or a new brand.

2.The Research Question

In our research, we are investigating whether to go for brand extension or a new
brand while launching a new product, based on what consumers can easily
identify the product with.
In our research, we have taken ATTA as a functional product. So if we launch a
slightly different product, whether we should launch it under the same brand
name or a new brand name. Same goes with the other product that we have
taken, which is, apparels; a prestigious product.
Since we are launching a new product which is slightly different from the
products that we have taken, we need to see if consumers can link the newly
launched product with the same brand name; if not, then we will have to launch
it under a new brand name.

3.Justification for the proposed research:

Weve focussed on private labels of the products Atta and apparel so that we
could understand how much the consumers do know about these brands, their
satisfaction, expectations and awareness towards these existing brands. The
research question is whether consumers prefer brand extension of an existing
brand or creation of a new brand. The methodology we are using are surveys
both online and offline and internet research. In surveys weve used various
questionnaires to know how much are the customers aware about the brand and
what comes to their minds when they hear brand names .Because we have
chosen one grocery and one apparel brand we focussed on young housewives
especially in metropolitans so that we could get opinions about both the brands.

4.LITERATURE REVIEW:
The research mainly focuses on the private labels available in the
market for the atta and apparel. It is an attempt to understand how
consumers relate and what the consumer perception is attached to a
particular brand. How would they react to when a known brand
produces a different product with a new brand or by brand extension?

This research will help us to bridge the gap between the manufacturer
and the consumer.

5. Contribution of the research

The research would be important as it would make way easier for the companies
in decision making so as to go for a new brand or a brand extension. It would
give us a clear outlook of customers preferences and perception towards a
brand. It would have a practical impact than theoretical as it would help in the
decision making process.

6.Proposed Research Methodology:

In this Research methodology, we used the Qualitative research to understand
the customers behaviour and mind about different brands. We have listed down
different reasons to bring the research methodology:
We have gone about using the qualitative research by keeping in mind the
customers behaviour for an existing brand or a new brand for Atta and
Apparels.
We went through this study by providing questionnaires to different
people who have knowledge about brands.
On field studies have also been conducted for this topic.
Stratified Sampling and representative sampling has been done in this
research methodology.
We have also provided easy questionnaires to the customer and ways in
which we can analyse the data provided by the customers in order to
understand the behaviour of the customer in our thorough research.

7.Research plan:

As we have already come to know that Business Research is very essential for a
sound business decision. And Research plan is the paradigm how to achieve it.
Now in our case for detailed research first of all we have set an outline to work
stepwise. One of the point is that research plan is vital because there is a
conjunction with time to work efficiently.
1) Setting Goals: we first decided our research topic by discussing with our
Professor. Then first we understood who the consumers are. What is the
difference between customers and consumers. What is a brand actually and
finally how consumers behavior varies with persisting to new brand. For this
we did some qualitative study for selection of a hypothesis.
2) Objectives: Then we discussed who can be the tentative focus group. How
exactly we are going to conduct the survey and how we are going to collect the
customer data. We calculated the costs that are going to occur.
3) Collection channel: collection is the same as distribution channel. We decided
that exactly mediums that we can use, like,
1. We will distribute the survey questions in hardcopies,
2. We will shoot mails
3. We will post and ask via social media
4. We will also some telephonic surveys.
Another issue that we set here is we determined our focused group 4) Making
the questionnaire: we arranged some brainstorming sessions and fixed some
questions that we are going to ask in the research survey, like, what comes in
your mind when you think about the brand stop.
5) Field work: Then we actually started the data collection process. We set some
definite time span for this process.
6) Interpretation and Analysis: Then we started to wind up all the collected data
and assemble them properly. We used various statistical methods like sampling,
regression, behavioral theories and other related market research statistical and
descriptive method to analyze the data to understand consumer behavior.
7)Reports: whatever conclusion we have reached collectively after several
brainstorming sessions we noted down and submitted to our mentor.

8.Research Timetable:
Sr
No.
1
2
3
4
5

Topic
Introduction
Preliminary literature review
Methodology
Data Analysis
Conclusions and Implications

Duration(days)
1
1
4
5
4

9.List of references:
In this section we are supposed to list down all the references we have used in
our research.
1. Research guideline provided by the mentor
2. Marketing Management by Kotler
3. Surveygizmo.com
4. Slideshare.net
5. Research methods for Business by Sekaran

6. The psychology influence of persuasion by Robert Cialdini

7. Essentials of Market Research by Paurav Shukla