Factors influ

WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR PURCHASE DECISION OF CUSTOMERS

TOWARDS V-GUARD WAIRES

Introduction

V-Guard Industries Limited is a household name across India. A Kerala based company,
manufacturing and marketing of electrical and electronic products. It was incorporated in
February 1996. The Company was converted into a private limited company in November 15,
2001 and subsequently got converted into a public limited company on August 1, 2007 and
received a fresh certificate of incorporation in the name of 'V-Guard Industries Limited'.
Products marketed under the brand name V-GUARD' are Electronic Voltage Stabilizers,
Monobloc, Jet, Submersible pumps and Electric Motors, Insulated Electrical Cables (House
Wiring & Industrial), Electric Storage & Instant Water Heaters, Solar Water Heaters, UPS for
computers, Electric Fans and the company also busy with Generation of power through wind
mills. It has a network of sixteen branches including our head office located in Cochin, 105
distributors, 75 service centres, 7000 retailers and spread 12 states across the country, V-Guard,
with its array of products for the home, has a consumer base exceeding 40 million. The
company has care on manufacture products that meets international quality standards and
provide trouble-free performance. The Company have Electro-Controls Division is a state-of-
the-art facility to produce stabilizer cabinets, the fully automated, ISO 9001 certified Electrical
Cable Division located at Coimbatore facility that manufactures electrical cables starting from
0.25sqmm size to 10sqmm size and the Solar Water Heater plant uses international
manufacturing technologies with high quality standards. The company received Vyavasaya
Jyothi Award from the Ernakulam Chamber of Commerce for the year 1996 and also Industry
Excellence Award for Medium Scale Industries from The Institution of Engineering (India),
Cochin for the year 1998. Kochouseph Chittilappilly ventured into the leisure industry in the
year 2000, established Veega Land' one of the most attractive amusement parks in the country,
with a spectacular range of rides and entertainment, located at Pallikara in Kochi. Veega Land
has lent a new dimension to the tourism scenario in Kerala. Veega Land is the first amusement
park in the country to be awarded the ISO 14001 - 2004 Certification for environment
friendliness and conservation of natural resources. The company won the Kerala State Tourism
Award for the year 2001 - 02 for being the eco-friendliest tourism project through its group
company Veega Land. As a successful result the V-Guard Group has set up their second and
India's biggest amusement park Wonder La' in Bangalore.

Statement of Problem

The study is designed to conduct a satisfaction survey among the end customers ie,
traders/ dealers and builders at V-Guard India Pvt Ltd, Cochin. The organization wants to
analyse the trends in the market and needs to get suggestions for retaining their customers. The
company wants to see whether the customers are satisfied with the current offering of the
products and to find out the areas which need improvement. Hence problem of the study can
be stated as “what are the reasons for purchase decision of customers towards V-Guard wires.”

Literature Review

The topic of consumer behaviour is one of the massively studied topics by the researchers and
marketers in the past and still being studied. One of the common views is that understanding
consumer behaviour has become a factor that has a direct impact on the overall performance
of the businesses (Kotler and Keller, 2012). It is worth noting that consumer buying behaviour
is studied as a part of the marketing and its main objective it to learn the way how the
individuals, groups or organizations choose, buy use and dispose the goods and the factors such
as their previous experience, taste, price and branding on which the consumers base their
purchasing decisions (Kotler and Keller, 2012).

One of such studies of consumer buying behaviour has been conducted by Acebron et
al (2000). The aim of the study was to analyse the impact of previous experience on buying
behaviour of fresh foods, particularly mussels. In their studies the authors used structural
equation model in order to identify the relationship between the habits and previous experience
on the consumer buying decision. Their findings show that personal habits and previous
experience of the consumers have a direct impact on the consumer’s purchase decision in the
example of purchasing fresh mussels. They also found that the image of the product has a
crucial impact on the purchasing decision of the consumer and further recommended that the
product image should continuously be improved in order to encourage the consumers towards
purchasing.
 Five Stages Model of consumer decision making process has also been studied by a
number of other researchers. Although different researchers offer various tendencies towards
the definitions of five stages, all of them have common views as they describe the stages in
similar ways. One of the common models of consumer decision making process has been
offered by Blackwell et al (2006). According to him, the five stages of consumer decision
making process are followings: problem/need recognition, information search, evaluation of
alternatives, purchase decision made and post-purchase evaluation.

Objectives of the Study

Primary Objective: -

 A relative study of the purchase decision of customers towards V-Guard wires.

Secondary Objective: -

 To find out the V-Guard brand image in comparison to rival firms.

 To find V-Guard growth and standing in the minds of the customers and dealers.

Methodology of Study

The method of study opted for this project is Descriptive research method. Descriptive
Research method attempts to determine the extent of differences in the needs, perceptions,
attitude and characteristics of subgroups. It determines the answers as to who, what, when,
where, and how questions.

Type of data used. Primary and Secondary data were used for this study.

Source of data. Primary data were collected from 2 series of customers (builders and dealers)
of V-Guard India Pvt Ltd, Cochin and Secondary data were collected from company records
and websites.

Population. The population under this study includes the customers of V-Guard India Pvt Ltd,
Cochin (Builders and traders).

Sampling method. The method of sampling was Convenient sampling.

Sample size. Fifty end-customers (including builders and traders) were contacted for the study.

Method of data collection. The method used for data collection was survey and questionnaire
method.