A PROJECT REPORT ON ROLE OF SALES PROMOTION IN more

Submitted in Partial fulfilment for the Award of degree of Master of Business Administration

CONTENTS CHPTERS 1 1.1 1.2 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 5 5.1 5.2 PARTICULARS Introduction Industry Profile Company Profile Introduction to the topic Scope of the study Objectives of the study Research methodology Limitations of the study Data analysis SWOT analysis Strength Weakness Opportunity Threats Findings and Suggestions Findings Suggestions CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY ANNEXURE PAGE NUMBER

EXECUTIVSUMMERY Retailing is the interface between the producer and the individual consumer buying for personal consumption. This excludes direct interface between the manufacturer and institutional buyers such as the government and other bulk customers. A retailer is one who stocks the producers goods and is involved in the act of selling it to the individual consumer, at a margin of profit. As such, retailing is the last link that connects the individual consumer with the manufacturing and distribution chain. The retail industry in India is of late often being

hailed as one of the sunrise sectors in the economy. AT Kearney, the well-known international management consultancy, recently identified India as the first most attractive retail destination globally from among thirty emergent markets. It has made India the cause of a good deal of excitement and the cynosure of many foreign and domestic eyes. The entry of foreign and Indian retail giants like Wal-Mart, Metro, More, Birla, Tata etc. made Indian market more competitive which is at cut throat level. Sohow retailers can reach to their end customers, to win the mind share and increase the basket size of each shopping trip. Now the role of advertisement and promotions come If you don't discount you'll lose business fast Money talks louder than into play. nationalistic appeals to the public not to purchase from the lower-priced Advertisement is quot;Foreign storequot; down the road. A large band of wholly Thai-owned stores ranging from small family firms to medium-sized players protested against the way of 7 the presence of the international retailers. effective communication to the customers and promotions plays an important role to attract the customer and to do business. To understand the effectiveness and types which are used by the retailers in India this project was done on the more a retail chain with a PAN India presence. The role of promotions, Advertisements are now become a strategy to win the race as per the Bangkok Post in year 2001. After analyzing all the aspects of promotions at more, I concluded that the communication mix used is more effective and penetrating. more is able to attract customers attention and earn targets. The area where more needs to focus is the concept ofIMC programme which can make its promotional programme more effective and efficient. At the end congratulations and all the best to whole more team for doing such a wonderful task, this helped me in improving my knowledge.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION A companys product may be superb. It may be attractively packaged. It may have reasonable price. It may be built according to customer needs and desires. But people will not buy the product if they have never heard of it. People must know the availability of product and its features, price etc. marketers must communicate the product, its features etc. to the right target customers by formulating right message in the language that is understood by them. There must be proper flow of information from the producer to the consumer either along with the product or well in advance of the introduction of the product into the market. This role is played by promotion. The essence of promotion is effective communication. Without promotion or marketing communication, sales do not take place automatically.

Promotion is one of the four elements in the marketing mix. Many people strongly believe that marketing begins as well as ends with promotion. The main object of promotion is to move forward a product, service or idea in a channel of distribution. Simply, promotion is communication between seller and buyer. It is telling, persuading and selling. It involves various activities used to inform, persuade and remind the target market about a company, its products and its activities. It motivates the people to buy whatever a company is selling.

According to Masson and Ruth, promotion consists of those activities that are designed to bring a companys goods or services to the favourable attention of customers.

Thus promotion means communicating information between the seller and potential buyer and others in the channel to influence attitudes and behaviour.

The objectives of promotion are: 1) To bring about the sale of a product 2) To creating awareness 3) To stimulate demand 4) To help distributors or agents 5) To popularise brand-name 6) To become market leader 7) To remain loyal customers 8) To differentiate a product.

Retailing is the interface between the producer and the individual consumer buying for personal consumption. This excludes direct interface between the manufacturer and institutional buyers such as the government and other bulk customers. A retailer is one who stocks the producers goods and is involved in the act of selling it to the individual consumer, at a margin of profit. As such, retailing is the last link that connects the individual consumer with the manufacturing and distribution chain. The retail industry in India is of late often being hailed as one of the sunrise sectors in the economy. AT Kearney, the well-known international management consultancy, recently identified India as the first most attractive retail destination globally from among thirty emergent markets. It has made India the cause of a good deal of excitement and the cynosure of many foreign and domestic eyes.

The entry of foreign and Indian retail giants like Wal-Mart, Metro, More, Birla, Tata etc. made Indian market more competitive which is at cut throat level. So how retailers can reach to their end customers, to win the mind share and increase the basket size of each shopping trip. Now the role of advertisement and promotions come into play. With a 27% share of world GDP, retail is a significant contributor to overall economic activity across the world. Of this, organized retailing contributes between 20% and 55% in

various developing markets. The Indian retail industry is pegged at $ 300 billion and growing at over 13% per year. Of this, presently, organized retailing is about 5%. This is expected to grow to 10% by 2011. more retail has embarked upon an implementation plan to build state-ofthe-art retail infrastructure in India, which includes a multi-format store strategy of opening neighbourhood convenience stores, hypermarkets, and specialty and wholesale stores across India.

INDUSTRY PROFILE

1.1 INDUSTRY PROFILE: Retailing The word retail is derived from the French word retailer, meaning to cut a piece off or to break bulk. In simple terms, it implies a first-hand transaction with the customer.

Retailing involvers a direct interface with the customer and the coordination of business activities right from the concept or design stage of a product or offering to its delivery and postdelivery service to the customer. The industry has contributed to the economic growth of many countries and is undoubtedly one of the fastest changing and dynamic industries in the world today. Indian retail industry The Indian retail industry is the fifth largest in the world. Comprising of organized and unorganized sectors, India retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries in India, especially over the last few years. Though initially, the retail industry in India was mostly unorganized, however with the change of tastes and preferences of the consumers, the industry is getting more popular these days and getting organized as well. With growing market demand, the industry is expected to grow at a pace of 25-30% annually. The India retail industry is expected to grow from Rs. 35,000 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 109,000 crore by the year 2010.

The retail scenario in India is unique. Much of it is in the unorganized sector, with over 12 million retail outlets of various sizes and formats. Almost 96% of these retail outlets are less than 500 square feet in size, the per capital retail space India being 2 square feet compared to the US figure of 16 square feet Indias per capital retailing space is thus the lowest in the world.

With more than 9 outlets per 1000 people, India has the largest number in the world. Most of them are independent and contribute as much as 96% to total retail sales. Because of the increasing number of the nuclear families, working women, greater work pressure and increased commuting time, convenience has become apriority for Indian consumers. They want everything under one roof for easy access and multiplicity of choice. This offers an excellent opportunity for organized retailers in the country which account for just 2% and modern stores 0.5% of the estimated US Dollar 180 billion worth of goods that are retailed in India every chain, Wal-Mart.

Growth of Indian retail industry According to the 8th Annual Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) of AT Kearney, India retail industry is the most promising emerging market for investment. In 2007, the retail trade in India had a share of 8-10% in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country. In 2009, it rose to 12%. It is also expected to reach 22% by 2010.

According to a report by North bride Capita, the India retail industry is expected to grow to US$ 700 billion by 2010. By the same time, the organized sector will be 20% of the total market share. It can be mentioned here that, the share of organized sector in 2007 was 7.5% of the total retail market. India is rapidly evolving into a competitive marketplace with potential target consumers in the niche and middle class segments. The market trends indicate tremendous growth opportunities. Global majors too are showing a keen interest in the Indian retail market. Over the years, international brands like marks and spencer, Samsonite, Lacoste, McDonalds, Swarovski, Dominos among a host of others have come into India through the franchise route following the relaxation of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) restrictions. Large Indian companies- among them the Tata, Goenka and the Piramal groups are investing heavily in this industry. Major Retailers in India More: More is one of the biggest players in Indian retail industry. More than 300More stores and More Mart are quite popular in the Indian retail market. It's expecting its sales to reach Rs. 90,000 crores by 2010 Pantaloon: Pantaloon is one of the biggest retailers in India with more than 450 stores across the country. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has more than 5 million sq. ft retail space located across the country. It's growing at an enviable pace and is expected to reach 30 million sq. ft. by the year 2010. In 2001, Pantaloon launched country's first hypermarket Big Bazaar. It has the following retail segments:

Food & Grocery: Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar

Home Solutions: Hometown, Furniture Bazaar, Collection-I Consumer Electronics: e-zone Shoes: Shoe Factory Books, Music & Gifts: Depot Health & Beauty Care: Star, Sitara E-tailing: Futurebazaar.com Entertainment: Bowling Co.

Tata Group: Tata group is another major player in Indian retail industry with its subsidiary Trent, which operates Westside and Star India Bazaar. Established in 1998,it also acquired the largest book and music retailer in India Landmark in 2005.Trent owns over 4 lake sq. ft retail space across the country. RPG Group: RPG Group is one of the earlier entrants in the Indian retail market, when it came into food & grocery retailing in 1996 with its retail Food world stores. Later it also opened the pharmacy and beauty care outlets Health & Glow.

AV Birla Group: AV Birla Group has a strong presence in Indian apparel retailing. The brands like Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, and Peter England are quite popular. It's also investing in other segments of retail. It will invest Rs. 8000-9000crores by 2010.

Another big player in the segment will be the Bharti group. Overhauling this part of the supply chain will be the key to the success of any retail venture in food and groceries segment.

Wal-Mart, the worlds largest retailer, and Bharti Enterprises have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore business opportunities in the Indian retail industry. This joint venture will mark the entry of Wal-Mart into the Indian retailing industry a retail chain like Future Groups Big Bazaar may be clocking heady sales (growing at 100% year- on- year), but the dozen odd shops operating in its proximity wear a deserted look, giving a somewhat hollow ring to the much- talked- about retail boom in the country. The key players currently operating in the Indian retail industry includes Future Group, Trent Ltd, RPG Enterprise, Vishal Retail Ltd, Shoppers Stop Ltd, Bata India Ltd, Provogue India Ltd, Videocon Appliances Ltd, ITC Ltd, Godrej Agrovert Ltd, and DCM-Hariyah Kissan Bazaar.

Retailers ranging from Pantaloon to RPG to Piramals or the Tatas are working towards exploiting this model, perceived by consumers as more value enhancing. But in the long run, what is most likely to succeed is a more balanced multi-format strategy. Finally, while in the first flush of the retail boom, the elimination of traditional intermediaries may bring windfall gains (as well as bring welcome and much-needed relief to the producers), this source will increasingly dry out as competition intensifies and margins come under pressure a few years down the line. What would set the survivors apart from those who are forced to sell out or go belly-up will be differentiators like location, value-added services (convenience), private labels and customer loyalty programs other than price. The last, a result of retailermanufacturer tie-ups, state-of-the-art supply chain infrastructure, global sourcing and scale will be a key factor. And, if experience in other markets is anything to go by, an uncanny ability to read shifting trends

Retail formats in India Hyper markets /supermarkets: large self-servicing outlets offering products from a variety of categories.

Mom-and-pop stores: they are family owned business catering to small sections; they are individually handled retail outlets and have a personal touch.

Departmental stores: are general retail merchandisers offering quality products and services.

Convenience stores: are located in residential areas with slightly higher prices goods due to the convenience offered.

Shopping malls: the biggest form of retail in India, malls offers customers a mix of all types of products and services including entertainment and food under a single roof.

E-trailers: are retailers providing online buying and selling of products and services. Discount stores: these are factory outlets that give discount on the MRP. Vending: it is a relatively new entry, in the retail sector. Here beverages, snacks and other small items can be bought via vending machine.

Category killers: small specialty stores that offer a variety of categories. They are known as category killers as they focus on specific categories, such as electronics and sporting goods. This is also known as Multi Brand Outlets or MBO's.

Specialty stores: are retail chains dealing in specific categories and provide deep assortment. Mumbai's Crossword Book Store and RPG's Music World is a couple of examples.

Challenges facing Indian retail industry

The tax structure in India favours small business Lack of adequate infrastructure facilities High cost of real estate

Dissimilarity in consumer groups Restrictions in Foreign Direct Investment Shortage of retail study options Shortage of trained manpower Low retail management skill

The retail industry in India is currently growing at a great pace and is expected to go up to US$ 833 billion by the year 2013. It is further expected to reach US$ 1.3 trillion by the year 2018 at a CAGR of 10%. As the country has got a high growth rates, the consumer spending has also gone up and is also expected to go up further in the future. In the last four year, the consumer spending in India climbed up to 75%. As a result, the India retail industry is expected to grow further in the future days. By the year 2013, the organized sector is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 40%.

Categories of Indian Retailers:Corporate Houses Tatas: Tata Trent

RPG group: Food World, Health and Glow etc. ITC: Wills Life Style

Raheja group: (Shoppers Stop), DLF (DT cinemas). Nike, Rbk. Zodiac Multi-brand outlets Vijay Sales, Viveks etc. Manufacturers/ Exporters Pantaloons, Bata, Week

Classifying Indian Retailers: 1. Modern Format Retailers

Supermarkets (food World) Hypermarkets (Big Bazaar) Department Stores (shoppers Stop) Specialty Chains (Ikea) Company Owned Company Operated

2. Traditional Format Retailers

Kiranas: traditional Mom and Pop Stores Kiosks Street Market Exclusive /Multiple Brand Outlets

3. Hypermarket

Big Bazaar Giants Shoprite Star

4. Department

Lifestyle Pantaloons

Pyramids Shoppers Stop Trent

5. Entertainment

Fame Ad labs Fun Republic Inox PVR

COMPANY PROFILE

ADITYA BIRLA GROUP A US$ 30 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. It is anchored by an extraordinary force of 130,600 employees, belonging to 40 different nationalities. In the year 2009, the Group was ranked among the top six great places for leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, in a study conducted by Hewitt Associates, RBL Group and Fortune magazine. In India, the Group has been adjudged the best employer in India and among the top 20 in Asia by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007. Over 60 per cent of the Group's revenues flow from its overseas operations. The Group operates in 27 countries Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, UAE, UK, USA and Vietnam. Globally, the Aditya Birla Group is: A metals powerhouse, among the world's most costefficient aluminium and copper producers. Hindalco-Novelis is the largest aluminium rolling company. It is one of the three biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia, with the largest single location copper smelter No.1 in viscose staple fiber The fourth-largest producer of insulators The fourth-largest producer of carbon black The fifth-largest producer of acrylic fiber The eighth-largest cement producer Among the best energy-efficient fertilizer plants

In India One of the leading cement producers The top fashion (branded apparel) and lifestyle player The second-largest producer of viscose filament yarn The second-largest in the chlor-alkali sector Among the top four mobile telephony companies Among top 10 Indian BPO companies by revenue size A leading player in life insurance and asset management Among the top three supermarket chains in the retail business

Rock solid in fundamentals, the Aditya Birla Group nurtures a culture where success does not come in the way of the need to keep learning afresh, to keep experimenting. Beyond business Transcending business for over 50 years now, the Group has been and continues to be involved in meaningful welfare-driven initiatives that distinctly impact the quality of life of the weaker sections of society in India, South-East Asia and Egypt. In India, the Group's social projects span 3,000 villages. It reaches out to seven million people annually through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, spearheaded by Mrs. Rajashree Birla. Its focus is healthcare, education, sustainable livelihood, infrastructure and espousing social causes. The Group runs 42 schools, which provide quality education to over 45,000 children in India's interiors. Of these, over 18,000 children receive free education. An additional 8,000 students receive merit scholarships. Likewise at its 18 hospitals in India, more than a million patients are given extremely subsidized medical care. To embed corporate social responsibility as a way of life in organizations, the Group has set up the FICCI Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence, in Delhi. The Group transcends the conventional barriers of business and reaches out to the marginalized because of its conviction of bringing in a more equitable society.

Aditya Birla Retail Limited

The Groups foray into the retail sector began in December 2006 when it acquired Trinethra, the chain of stores based in south India. May 2007 saw Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) launch their own brand of stores called 'More.' ABRLs vision is to consistently provide the Indian consumer complete and differentiated shopping experiences and be amongst Indias top retailers while delivering superior returns to all stakeholders. Till end-September 2009, the company had set up 640 supermarkets and five hypermarkets. All the supermarkets are branded More and the hypermarkets are branded More Megastore. The company has around 11,000 employees and has a pan-India presence. More super markets are neighborhood stores with the core proposition of offering value, convenience and trust to the customers and averaging 2,500 sq ft area. The hypermarkets are self-service superstores offering value and range in food and non-food products and services at a single location. Hypermarkets are located in large catchment areas and encourage mass consumption with discount prices and substantial depth of assortment with an average store size of 55,000 sq ft shopping area.

In May 2009 Aditya Birla Retail introduced a value proposition for its supermarkets and encapsulated it into a promise of giving its customers Hamesha Extra which has resonated with the consumer. Hamesha Extra is the core essence of More. It means customers will always feel that they have got something extra while shopping at More Within a short span of less than three years, More has more than 1.6 million members as part of its loyalty programme. More has also launched a huge range of private labels in food and grocery, staples and apparel which have already obtained a significant share of category as well as salience with the consumer.

Aditya Birla Retail Limited currently has employee strength of over 11,000. Key functions are headed by professionals with vast retail experience in India & globally. Quality Policy ABRL is committed to assure our consumers of the quality of our products and services on a consistent basis and earn consumer trust and recognition of ABRL as India's premier retail organization. The above will be achieved by 1. Ensure that the products available at the stores meet the regulatory and statutory requirements through implementation of best practices (Good Manufacturing Practices, Good Hygienic Practices, Good House Keeping, etc.) at every stage and in every operation. 2. Ensuring that for 'Own Brand', the products meet our stringent specification requirements; while at our processing sites and extended supply chain, the manufacturing practices and processes meet the highest standards of GHP & GMP at every stage and in every operation. 3. Ensuring that manpower resources are committed, competent, fully trained and working in a seamless manner. 4. Ensuring that different functions including buying and merchandising, supply chain management, operations and business partners understand and share our concern for quality. 5. Implementing a rigorous, credible & efficient assessment, inspection, and testing & certification system. 6. Striving for continuous improvement through dynamic review process. Product Category The list below shows the product categories available in the stores: Bakery Beauty Concepts Beverages Basic Apparels Cutlery & Cookware Fruits & Vegetables Frozen & Dairy Products

FMCG Products Grocery General Merchandise Home Care Products Home Needs & Home Upkeep Home Decor Products Personal Care & Cosmetics Processed Food Pharmacy Ready to Cook/Prepared Food Small White Appliances Staples Stationery Women's Accessories

Value through own labels Aditya Birla Retail Ltd provides customers a wide choice of products under its own labels. The objective is to provide quality products at attractive price points to customers. Since quality of the products is of prime importance, stringent quality norms have been set and are followed. All manufacturing partners are the best in their class. Own label Food Brands are more., Feasters, Kitchen's Promise, and Best of India and other Home & Personal care brands are more., Enriche, 110%, Pestex, Paradise, and Germex Aditya Birla Retail was presented the Retail Best Employer of the Year award at the Reid and Taylor Awards for Retail Excellence, by the global jury of the Asia Retail Congress 2009. Aditya Birla Retail was also recognized for impactful retail and visual merchandising at the same forum. The company bagged the Most Admired Retailer of the Year Award in the Smart Strategy category at the prestigious Images Retail Awards 2009, during the India Retail Forum at Mumbai.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

CHPTER-2 INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, and place). It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision.

The following are two types of promotion:

1) Above the line promotion: Promotion in mass media (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers,

internet, mobile phones, and, historically, illustrated songs) in which the advertiser pays an advertising agency to place the advertisement
2) Below the line promotion: All other promotion. Much of this is intended to be

subtle enough for the consumer to be unaware that promotion is taking place. E.g. sponsorship, product placement, testimonials, sales promotion, merchandising, direct mail, personal selling, public relations, trade shows.

PROMOTION MIX Promotion involves all selling activities- advertisement, personal selling, public relation and sales promotion. Advertising, personal selling, public relation and sales promotion are promotional tools. A firm may use one or a combination of two or more of the promotional tools. Promotion mix includes all those activities undertaken to promote sales. In short, promotion mix is the combination of components or elements of promotion. These elements are sometimes referred to as promotional blend. There are two types of promotion blend- push blend and pull blend.

Push blend: It emphasizes on personal selling. The producer pushes the product through the channel of distribution. This means that the middlemen promotes the product to buyers. Pull blend: It emphasizes on impersonal selling. It is a strategy of using heavy advertisement and sales promotion methods. The promotion mix or strategy includes five tools or elements namely Advertising Public relation Sales promotion Direct marketing Personal selling.

Traditionally, sales Promotions have been used by marketer to increase sales in the short term. However, in the last few decades this communication tool has evolved and now is considered from a strategic point of view. For this reason, it is necessary to realize new studies in this area and study how consumers evaluate sales promotions.

Sales promotions have grown in both importance and frequency over the past few decades. Although an accurate estimate for total sales promotions expenditures does not exist, we can be sure that the trend is up. Sales promotion serves three essential roles: It informs, persuades and reminds prospective customers about a company and its products. Even the most useful product or brand will be a failure if no one knows that it is available. As we know, channels of distribution

take more time in creating awareness because a product has to pass through many hands between a producer and consumers.

Therefore, a producer has to inform channel members as well as ultimate consumers about the attributes and availability of his products. The second purpose of promotion is persuasion. The cut throat competition among different products puts tremendous pressure on their manufacturers and they are compelled to undertake sales promotion activities. The third purpose of promotion is reminding consumers about products availability and its potential to satisfy their needs.

From these elements Sales Promotion is the element which is in the focus of this project. Further Sales Promotion is quite broad term it includes

Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion Trade Oriented Sales Promotion CONSUMER ORIENTED SALES PROMOTION Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion is the main topic of this project. Here emphasize is given to motivate consumer to increase sales. Consumer Oriented Sales Promotion includes Sampling, Couponing, Premiums, Contest, Refunds, Rebates, Bonus Packs, Price-off, Event marketing etc. Definition: For the purpose of this study, following definitions of sales promotion were kept in mind. Kotler defines sales promotion as: Sales promotion consists of a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term designed to stimulate quicker and/or greater purchase of particular products/services by consumers or the trade.

Roger Strang has given a more simplistic definition i.e. sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product or service. Hence, any forms of incentives (price cut or value added nature) offered for short period either to trade or consumers are considered as sales promotion activities.

Marketers uses consumer oriented sales promotion tools for the following reasons: To increase short term sales To induce trial To reduce inventory To establish a brand name To make cross selling To cope up with competition To avoid advertising clutter

TOOLS ORIENTED SALES PROMOTION There are so many tools or technique available to the marketers for achieving objective of sales promotion. These tools should be used considering all other factors affecting such as cost, time, competitors, availability of goods etc. These tools are as under 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Coupons Price-Off Freebies Scratch Cards Lucky Draws Bundling Offer Extra Quantity

Lets have look at each tool 1. Coupons: Coupon is the oldest and most widely used way of sales promotion. Coupons have been used since 1895. It is mostly used by packaged goods. It is worthwhile to use coupon as a promotion tool because data shows that market for packaged goods increased from 16 billion in 1968 to 310 billion in 1994. A coupon leads to price reductions so as to encourage price sensitive customers. Non users can try a product which may leads to regular sales.

2.

Price-off: A price-off is simply a reduction in the price of the product to increase sales and is very

often used when introduction a new product. A reduction in price always increases sales but the use of this technique should be carefully considered in the current market situation.

Price-off is the most preferred sales promotion technique because consumers response very positively to this scheme. Not only that but it also cause large increase in sales volume. Price-off reductions are typically offered tight on the package through specially marked price packs.

3.

Freebies Freebies are a popular form of modern marketing and are some of the best things about

the internet. The definition of freebies is products or services given away for free at no cost to the consumer. Well thats the definition we came up with. I am a bargain freebie shopper, pretty much going for any free product and informing everyone about it.

At different times, big and small companies often give away prizes and money which is too good to be true. Often its in the pursuit of more customers or a larger fan base and it often works. 4. Scratch Cards A scratch card (also called a scratch off, scratch ticket, scratcher, scratchy, scratch-it, scratch game, scratch-and-win or instant game) is a small token, usually made of cardboard, where one or more areas contain concealed information: they are covered by a substance that cannot be seen through, but can be scratched off.

5.

Bundling Offers Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale

as one combined product. This strategy is very common in the software business (for example: bundle a word processor, a spread sheet, and a database into a single office suite), in the cable television industry (for example, basic cable in the United States generally offers many channels at one price), and in the fast food industry in which multiple items are combined into a complete meal. A bundle of products is sometimes referred to as a package deal or a compilation or an anthology. Factors Influencing Consumer Oriented sales promotion:

Mainly four factors should be taken into account while determining the sales promotion program. > Target market > Nature of product > Stage of product life cycle > Budget available for promotion

1. Target Market: While doing sales promotion, marketer must know who their target market is; otherwise there is no use of all effort because it leads to nowhere. A target market can be in any of the stages of buying hierarchy i.e. awareness, knowledge, liking, preferences, conviction and purchase. Each stage defines a possible goal of promotion. 2. Nature of the product: There are various product attributes which influence sales promotional strategy. When the unit price is low the manufacturer as well as the customer has low risk but he can get the benefit of mass marketing. Therefore, mass marketing requires mass sales promotion schemes. Sales promotion scheme differ for products like its durability, perishable goods etc. 3. Stage of product Life Cycle: Sales promotion strategies are influenced by the life cycle of a product. When a new product introduced, prospective buyers must be informed about its existence and its benefits and middlemen must be convinced to stock it. Later, if a product becomes successful, competition intensifies and more emphasis is placed on sales promotion to increase its sales.

4. Budget Available for Promotion: The funds available for promotion are the ultimate determinant of the promotional programme. A business with ample funds can make more effective use of sales promotion programme than a firm with limited financial resources. The budget for sales promotion can be prepared by the following methods o Percentage of Sales o Fixed funds available for sales promotion o Following the competition and
o

Budgeting based on objective.

SALES PROMOTION FROM THE CONSUMERS POINT OF VIEW

Willingness to buy on sales promotion offer Sixty per cent of the sample did not show willingness to buy a brand due to promotion while 30% showed willingness and 10% were not sure. This indicates that when 30% showed willingness and 10% consumers who were not sure, these groups might be lured through innovative and lucrative sales promotion offer. Ability to induce trial Forty per cent of the respondents had said that sales promotion had the ability to induce trial which reinforces the above inference. Long-term impact In order to understand ability of the promotions to increase long-term sales, respondents were asked about continuity of purchase of a brand after the withdrawal of promotion. Eighty per cent of the respondents indicated that they would not continue. But 20% said they would. Thus, it could be inferred that promotions in this category (low involvement products) might encourage trial and brand switching but not long term loyalty. Preference of Schemes: Price off was the most preferred type of scheme. Maximum customers ranked priceoffs as number one or two.

Perceived Quality: Majority of respondents had a perception that the quality of the promoted brands remained the same during promotion, while some of them felt that it was inferior to before. It can be inferred that promotions were not leading to negative brand quality perceptions. It is found that some customer strongly preferred to buy their regular brand and said that sales promotion would not weaken their loyalty towards the brand. Perceptions regarding underlying company motivations On tapping perceptions regarding underlying company motivations for sales promotion, to increase sales was ranked highest followed by to attract switchers and to sell excess stocks. While providing value to customers and To reinforce company image were ranked lowest. This indicates that consumers believed that companies were undertaking such activities only for their own benefit and not for the benefit of consumers. Findings from retailer and consumer perception studies, it is evident that there was a matching of perceptions regarding nature of scheme (price offs as most preferred type of scheme mentioned by consumers and retailers perceptions about consumer preferences). Since retailers observe consumers in store behaviour were frequently and directly, their perceptions regarding providing consumer behaviour are likely to be accurate. Such inputs from the retailers would be useful to companies. The retailers had the perception that those schemes which were announced through mass media had better response. This was reinforced by the consumer survey which showed that recall in case of heavily promoted schemes on TV was found to be very high. Retailers prediction of companies motivation for offering sales promotion were matching with the consumer perception regarding the same. Thus both viewed that companies were using sales promotion activities mainly to increase short term sales or encourage switching or selling excess stock and not really to give value benefit or enhance/reinforce brand/company image.

TRADE ORIENTED SALES PROMOTION

Trade Oriented Sales Promotion aimed to motivate channel member of the company and to encourage them to push companys product. Trade Oriented Sales Promotion includes dealer contest and incentives, trade allowances. Point-of-purchase displays, sales training programs, trade shows, cooperative advertising, and other programs designed to motivate distributors and retailers to carry a product and make an extra effort to push it to their customers Sales promotion from the retailers point of view: Perceptions on Scheme Preference It was found that retailer perceived price offs as a better form of sales promotion activity. Price offs in their opinion had relatively a greater impact compared to any other form of sales promotion activity like Bonus packs, Premium, Contests etc. Retailers preferred price offs the most, then bonus pack, premium, contests, in order of importance. Perceptions about Buying Roles Retailers viewed that the person who came to the shop (who may be a maid, son, daughter, daughter-in-law and child) was the decider of a toilet soap brand and not the Income provider (e.g. head of the family). It could be inferred that visibility of information about the sales promotion activity at the point of purchase could result into the purchase of a promoted brand. Perceptions about their role in decision-making Retailer had relatively very low influence in affecting choice. It could be inferred that visibility and awareness about the scheme were the critical success factors so that pull could be created.

Perceptions about Response to Sales Promotion Offers They believed that younger age-groups were more experimental in nature, amenable to trying new brands, and sought/looked for or asked whether there were any) sales promotion schemes running on any toilet soap at the time of purchase.

Perceptions about Communications of Sales Promotion Schemes Retailers perceived that role of word of mouth and television advertising played an important part in providing information inputs to consumers regarding sales promotion activities. Variations in Information Flow Smaller (non-supermarket, small format store) retailers received relatively less support compared to supermarkets in terms of servicing, margins, information about sales promotion activities from the dealers. Many a times small retailers were only informed verbally about sales promotion schemes by the dealer salesmen during the scheduled weekly visits. Dealer-Retailer Dynamics At the time of sales promotion activities, dealers had tendency to push unwanted stocks onto the smaller retailers. In fact these retailers preferred to stock variety of brands and wanted payment for shelf and window display to increase traffic into their store. However, supermarkets and big retailers were pampered and given special services and given better margins and better allowances. Margins It was found that in sales promotion schemes margins varied from 6 to15% depending of the size of the retail outlet, bargaining power of a retailer, quantity ordered by him etc. Mostly margins were linked to size of the volumes that were ordered.

Perceptions about terms and conditions Retailers were not found to be happy with sales promotion schemes where their margins were cut on the pretext of just fast movement of inventory of the brand being promoted. Also if additional incentive was offered it was subject to minimum performance requirement. Nature of POP Retailers indicated that most of the POP (Point of Purchase) materials were meant for brand advertisement and not for giving information regarding the schemes. Thus it could be inferred that companys follow up was not adequate. Servicing during duration of Scheme In stock-out situation during the running of the sales promotion schemes, smaller retailers had to wait for replenishment of stocks till the next scheduled weekly visit by the dealer salesman but big retailers were serviced on telephonic request for replenishment of stocks. This clearly indicated the disparity in treatment. Problem of left-over A leftover stock at the end of any scheme was required to be sold by the retailers before they ordered fresh stocks. In case of bonus packs scheme, leftover stock was often dismantled (cut open buy one get one free) and sold them individually as a regular soap. This approach of the company leads to misappropriation which in turn could result in adverse brand image. Gifts for Retailer motivation Companies at times were rewarding retailers by giving free gifts like thermos flasks or clocks if they sold more than certain quantity in a given period. Companies were making a half-hearted effort to motivate retailers. Perceptions about mass media announcements

Retailers viewed that whenever sales promotion scheme was announced on TV, it created pull and they were more than willing to stock such brands. For example Medimix and Dettol contest was not advertised on TV, hence there was very little awareness leading to unsold stock till 6 months. While Lux Gold Star which was heavily promoted on T.V. is recalled even today. Post Promotion Behaviour Retailers observed that in most cases sales promotion scheme on a brand might encourage a buyer to switch a brand temporarily but he would revert back to original brand after promotion. Handling Problems Many a times retailers had to handle various sales promotion offers simultaneously in a category and also across categories and there was no formal communication planning either from the dealer or the company. Remembering each offer and handling was a problem especially for a small retailer which was often an as one-man show.

WHY DO SALES PROMOTION SCHEMES AFFECT SALES?

There are three mechanisms behind these facts. It is Purchase quantity, Brand switching and Category expansion. First, consumer can increase the quantity they buy just because the product is on sale. Second, consumers are inducing to purchase another brand different from the one they would have purchased when there is no promotional incentive.

Finally, consumers total consumption of the product category is increased by the promotion. However, in the long term this positive effect may be diluted because a promotional campaign has no permanent effect in the sales of the firm SALES PROMOTION STATEGY Sales are the lifeblood of a business, without sales there would be no business in the first place; therefore it is very important that if a business wants to succeed, it should have a sales promotion strategy in mind. The primary objective of a sales promotion is to improve a companys sales by predicting and modifying your target customers purchasing behaviour and patterns. Sales promotion is very important as it not only helps to boost sales but it also helps a business to draw new customers while at the same time retaining older ones. There are a variety of sales promotional strategies that a business can use to increase their sales, however it is important that we first understand what a sales promotion strategy actually is and why it is so important. A sales promotion strategy is an activity that is designed to help boost the sales of a product or service. This can be done through an advertising campaign, public relation activities, a free sampling campaign, a free gift campaign, a trading stamps campaign, through demonstrations and exhibitions, through prize giving competitions, through temporary price cuts, and through door-to-door sales, telemarketing, personal sales letters, and emails. The importance of a sales promotion strategy cannot be underestimated. This is because a sales promotion strategy is important to a business boosting its sales. When developing a sales promotion strategy for your business, it is important that you keep the following points in mind. Consumer attitudes and buying patterns Your brand strategy Your competitive strategy Your advertising strategy

Other external factors that can influence products availability and pricing.

There are three types of sales promotion strategies:

A push strategy A pull strategy or A combination of the two

A Push Strategy: A push sales promotion strategy involves pushing distributors and retailers to sell your products and services to the consumer by offering various kinds of promotions and personal selling efforts. What happens here is that a company promotes their product/services to a reseller who in turn promotes it to another reseller or to the consumer. The basic objective of this strategy is to persuade retailers, wholesalers and distributors to carry your brand, give it shelf space, promote it by advertising, and ultimately push it forward to the consumer. Typical push sales promotion strategies include; buy-back guarantees, free trials, contests, discounts, and specialty advertising items. A Pull Strategy: A pull sales promotion strategy focuses more on the consumer instead of the reseller or distributor. This strategy involves getting the consumer to pull or purchase the product/services directly from the company itself. This strategy targets its marketing efforts directly on the consumers with the hope that it will stimulate interest and demand for the product. This pull strategy is often used when distributors are reluctant to carry or distribute a product. Typical pull sales promotion strategies include; samples, coupons, cash refunds or rebates, loyalty programs and rewards, contests, sweepstakes, games, and point-of-purchase displays.

A Combination of Two Strategies: A combination sales promotion strategy is just that; it is a combination of a push and a pull strategy. It focuses both on the distributor as well as the consumers, targeting both parties directly. It offers consumer incentives side by side with dealer discounts The Short term Impact of Promotions: Lets have look at the impact of promotions on purchase behaviour during the promotional period i.e. the week or the month when the promotion was being run. The majority of the empirical studies have focused on the impact of promotions in the short term. The key findings across the studies are discussed below. Temporary price reductions (price off) substantially increase sales: There is ample evidence to show that promotions lead to dramatic increases in sales of promoted brand in the short term. Studies have consistently reported high sales effects and high price elasticity of brands which are on promotion. The economic rationale for the promotional response is clear temporary price cuts increase the value of the product to the consumer and it leads to immediate action. Sales boost can be quantified on the basis of brand switching, primary demand expansion and consumer stockpiling during a promotion. Sales Promotion leads to brand substitution with the product category: The sales bump during the promotional period into sales due to brand switching, purchase time acceleration and stockpiling. Studies on brand switching have shown that brand switching effects within a category are asymmetric such that promotions on higher quality brands impacts weaker brands disproportionately. During a promotion, higher quality brands induce a large number of consumers to switch to them as compared to lower quality brands. One explanation advanced for this finding by researchers is that large share brands have higher brand equity and attract switchers more than low share brands.

Sales Promotion leads to purchase acceleration/stockpiling effects: In response to a promotion, consumers may buy more quantity of the product category or buy at an earlier time than usual (purchase acceleration effect). If consumers buy extra quantity during a promotion or earlier than normal, then they are not in the market to buy products once the promotion is over. Thus purchase acceleration is demonstrated through A lengthening of inter purchase times after a promotion. Purchase acceleration was more likely to be exhibited in increased purchase quantity than in shortened inter purchase times. Results showed that consumers mostly made up for the large quantity purchased by waiting longer until purchasing again. Results indicated that heavy users tended to accelerate purchases more than light users. There was negligible difference in the acceleration propensities of high versus low income groups. Sales Promotion leads to primary demand expansion for a category: While it was traditionally assumed that consumption rates remain fixed during and after a promotion, but from this project I came to know that promotions also have a primary demand expansion effect. When a primary demand expansion occurs, promotion induced increase in purchase quantities does not significantly extend the time till the next purchase in the category occurs, thus indicating that there has been an increase in consumption promotions induced consumers to buy more and consume faster. It is found that promotion induced inventory temporarily increased consumption rates within the category e.g. in categories such as bacon, salted snacks, soft drinks and yogurt exhibited primary demand expansions as a result of promotion while bathroom tissue, coffee, detergent and paper towels exhibited stockpiling only.

Sales Promotions affect sales in complementary and competitive categories: From this project it is found that promotion not only increases sales of main product but it also lead to increase in sales of complementary categories. Found strong cross relationships

between products of the promoted product category indicating brand substitution behaviour. They stated that retail price promotions work as a form of implicit price bundling whereby the consumer surplus is transferred from the promoted item to non-promoted items. Also found that retail price promotions create significant complementary and substitution effects within the store.

The Long term Impact of Promotions: Strategies are builds to reap the benefits for longer period of time; same is true in sales promotion strategies. Let us see impact of promotions effort and study the impact over a longer time period e.g. 4-6 months or even a few years after a sales promotion campaign. The result showed that consumer promotions for leading brands of established packaged products had no after-effects on the brands sales or repeat buying loyalty. The extra sales of a brand while promoted came virtually all from the brands existing long-term customer base for which the experience of buying the promoted brand was nothing new. It is found that although the short term effects of promotions are strong; these promotions rarely exhibit long term effects. It is observed that each sales component generally lacked a permanent effect and the effect of promotion was short lived and increase in promotions affected consumers stockpiling decisions in the long run. They found that the combined short and long-term elasticity of promotions was zero. The stockpiling induced by a promotion was essentially offset by reduced demand in the long term. Thus increased sales were more a result of sales borrowed from the future than increased consumption

PRODUCT RANGE IN more: The various products in more are as follows: 1) Vegetables and fruits

2) House hold items 3) Food and beverages(all premiere brand + private label) 4) Groceries-only private label 5) Dairy products 6) Non veg food items 7) Ready to eat items COLLECTION CENTRES More is having 47 stores all over the city. The supply of products like fruits and vegetables for all these stores is from the following collection centres: Olakkur Oddanchatram Local farmers Koyembedu Karnadaka Anthra Newsland Washington Australia

PROMOTIONS IN more more is offering promotions on various days of the week. During Saturdays and Sundays, special promotions are offered for the products, most especially for fruits and vegetables. A special promotion named Puthan Santhai is conducted on every Wednesdays, so that corporate customers can be pulled to the shop on week days too. Thursday is specially quoted as Product Day on which promotions are given for some specific products. All these

promotions are decided based on the past sales data. Generally, even on the other days of the week, the price of the products in more will be comparatively less. These were the reasons why more is more preferred by most of the customers than other shops in the city. The following are the promotion tools used : Paper Ads Leaflets SMS Plaza Radio

Future it is planned to advertise promotions through TV Ads and Announcing the Ads over streets.

2.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

1) The result of this research can be considered for using it in improved future growth.

The scope of the study is limited to Pudhucherry.

2) The scope of the project to assist more retail to get an insight about promotional

strategies which affect the decision of customers.

3) This project would be useful for further causal and descriptive studies to formulate a scientific method of evaluation of the effectiveness of promotional strategies.

4) The study will help in improving the promotional strategies for the growth of more

retail and the convenience of the more employees by these strategies.

2.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1) To understand store promotion at more

2) To analyse the effectives of promotional strategy

3) To study the measures to be adopted from the customers feedback.

4) To measure the quality of products

5) Impact of location on sales.

2.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problems. It helps in studying how research is done scientifically. Research methodology provides various steps that can be adopted by the researcher in studying in research problems. Research methodology includes not only research but also considers the logic behind that method.

MARKETING RESEARCH Marketing research as a functional area of management is becoming increasingly important as compared to other field. All decisions in modern business organization revolve around the marketing information. Because the success of the business does not depend upon the guess work rather have the correct information about the customer, what they want, how want, how much they are able to pay, and the substitute available in the they market etc. This informations can be collected and utilized the help of marketing research. Marketing research is the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, discrimination, and use of information for the purpose of improving decision making related to the identification and solution of problem in marketing.

In this project report I have chosen Descriptive Research Design

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN: Descriptive research design are those studies which are concerned with described the characteristics of particular individual. In descriptive Studies, the researcher must be able to define clearly, what he wants to measure and must find adequate methods for measuring it along with a clear cut definition of population he want to study .Since the aim is to obtain complete and accurate information in said studies , the procedure to be used must be carefully planned.

This seeks to describe a market, a competitor or other issue. The majority of marketing research is descriptive and designed to help marketers get a better picture of their customers and their markets. SAMPLE DESIGN A Sample Design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It refers to the technique to the procedure adopted in selecting items for the sampling designs. Sample universe: Sample universe in statistics denotes the aggregate from which the sample is to be taken. In mine case, it is the population of Pudhucherry. Sample frame: Sample frame is Subset taken out from Sample universe in order to form sample. In mine Case, it is population of Pudhucherry town Sample Size: A Sample is that part of the Universe which I select for the purpose of research. In my Case, it is 100

Sampling method: Convenience Sampling Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected because of their convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher. It is a sampling method in which units are selected based on easy access/availability. The disadvantage of convenience sampling is that the units that are easiest to obtain may not be representative of the population. For example products on top of a box of parts may be a different quality from those at the bottom, people who are at home when the market researcher calls may not be representative of the entire population. It is also called as Accidental Sampling.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION For the present study data are collected from Primary and Secondary sources. Primary data Primary data can be collected through following methods:Survey through questionnaire:-

For my market study, when I have used a prescribed sequence of questions, it is referred to as structured questionnaire. When questionnaire are constructed so that the objective is clear to the respondents they are Non-disguised questionnaire. To making a well-structured questionnaire, I have adopted two types of questions:-

Open ended questions Multiple choice questions

The survey is based on primary data. For collecting primary data, I did the following task:

Secondary data Secondary data for this study where obtained from websites and books.

2.4LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY It is a fact that always there are some barriers for doing any study. The limitations of this study are: Unable to cover large customers due to of shortage of time. Sample size is small and may not be able to show the true picture of universe. Respondents may not give their exact views or hide some information. The questionnaire has only maximum four options, so the respondents have to choose that options. Most suitable time for the survey was late in the evening and it was difficult to find a customer at the day time.

DATA ANALYSIS

CHAPTER-3 DATA ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE: A survey was done to know the customer feedback about the more. This was done with the help of questionnaire.

SAMPLE SIZE 100 The survey aimed to find out the perception of people about more and analysis of more with its competitors.

The results of the study were as follows:

CHRTER-4 SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT is a widely used technique through which managers create a quick overview of a companys strategic situation. It is based on the assumption that an effective strategy derives from a sound fit between a firms internal resource (Strength & Weakness) and its external situation (Opportunities & Threats). A good fit maximizes a firms strength and opportunities and minimizes its weakness and threats. Understanding the key opportunities and threats facing a firm helps its managers identify realistic options from which to choose an appropriate strategy and clarifies the most effective method for the firm. The second fundamental focus in SWOT analysis is the identification of internal standard and weaknesses. 4.1 STRENGTHS: Brand More: Due to the attachment of Brand more, which is symbol of quality, trust& transparency gives an edge to the more as people know that this brand will never deceive them at any point of time. This name itself earns lots of customers for the retail venture of more.

Centralized Management and Inventory System: Technology provides interconnectivity among the different stores & thus makes the management among the stores more efficient and helps in the flow of information regarding various aspects of the management of the stores, especially inventory of goods & services. This centralized system helps in balancing the deficiency and surplus of different goods & services at different stores. If any product is deficient at any store and is required urgently, then the required product is arranged from the store having the surpluses. Rate of Fruits & Vegetables are Nominal: The rates of fruits & vegetables are nominal compared other retail stores in the city and this low price gives the best utility to the consumers. Home Delivery Facility: Home Delivery Facility was started to tap those customers who have time paucity to come to the store for shopping & this ultimately increases the customer base of the more. Multi Commodity Shopping: This store provides opportunity to the customer to shop many different commodities at one place and this saves their time & money and thus enhances their utility. Good Ambience: Hygiene, cleanliness, housekeeping & friendly behaviour of the staff makes the store ambiance perfect for shopping. Cordial Staff: Cordial & Cooperative staff makes the shopping experience of the customers excellent and makes customer a delighted customer as he or she returns home with a smiling face.

Promotional Schemes:

Excellent promotional schemes attract the customers towards the retail outlets. When the promotional schemes are attached with the different activities then it becomes the best tool to showcase that the company is customer oriented.

4.2 WEAKNESS Products are sold only at MRP: All the products are sold at their MRP only and this may hamper sales as, many customers wants the products at discounted rate and thus this may drive the customers towards other retail formats & competitors. So this weakness has to be tackled with utmost importance, as the customer always wants maximum utility at the lowest prices. Slow Billing System: During the peak hours or rush hours, only two or three counters remain operational out of five. Most of the time staff is not available at the counters. Billing takes too tong sometimes as the system shows different prices of the same products. This will deter the customer and others in his contact to visit the stores during the rush hours & thus more lose its customer base. Shortage of Man Power: Staffs less in more in comparison to its competitors like Spencers & Big Bazaar. Shortage of manpower is mainly felt during peak hours and thus quality of services deteriorates considerably & this impacts the consumers satisfaction level.

Stock Outs & Bad Quality:

It was observed that many a times the quality of products was not up to the mark especially in F & V sections. It has also been observed that the old and bad stocks lay on the shelf for the sale with new stock due to which new stock also gets perish in very short time. Parking space is not good Offers announcements are not proper

4.3 OPPORTUNITIES: Provides Online Shopping: Most of the customers buy their products by home delivery service because going & buying the products from the store is very time consuming, therefore more has the opportunity to provide online shopping to such customers. Through a centralized online system, more can render services to any customer living anywhere in the town, state or in the country. Changing life style: Changing life style always provides best opportunity as it creates demand for new things & thus provides opportunity to the business community to tap the changing environment opportunities. Venturing into other commodities in demand more varieties of products & services can be added to the portfolio by analysing the demand for the new products and services. By venturing into new product market new customer can be gained and thus helps in increasing the customer base. Innovative promotional schemes to attract masses: Innovative promotional schemes which make the products and services more attractive and appeals the consumers to visit the stores to avail the scheme. For example If more gives discount to the customers for off time shopping then not only

the consumers will visit the stores during lean time but will also stores to manage the peak hours. Boom in the Retail Sector: Booming retail sector is providing new opportunities to the retail business. customers are becoming aware of this new way of shopping experience and are relishing this new experience.

Change in the mind sets of the customers towards retail industry:

With growing awareness among the customers about hygiene & health they have started buying the products from the retail stores to have quality products having highest standards.
New formats are coming like hypermarkets, supermarkets this gives opportunity to tap

the upper segment of the society & thus adds to the bottom line of the company.
Should keep providing gift vouchers more should keep providing gift vouchers to the

customers with the option of shopping anything with limit of the gift voucher. This would help to create new customers.

Can add more brands to its existing portfolio of brands

4.4 THREATS: Competition from the local vendors: Local vendors possess a major threat to the booming retail industry as they provide the cheapest goods & services, the only difference is the hygiene & quality of the goods and services being provided. Local vendors often had strong political support and thus may influence the decision makers.

 Competition from other retail players: Other retail competitors like Spencers, Heritage fresh, etc. also pose threat as they poach on the customer base of the company. Any innovative product & service can easily attract the customers towards them, thus reduces the customer base & hence profitability. Bad quality products One of the major threats for more is that customers are switching over the other retail outlets because fruits & vegetables are of 80% bad quality and even the rates are high according to the quality and thus make them dissatisfied with the services of the store. So the customers are now searching a place from where they can buy good quality products at reasonable prices.

Disappointing Staff Services Retail being a service industry heavily depends on the quality of services to retain its customer base and thus any mismatch in expected & delivered services can be fatal for the business. Most of the customers leave the store without buying anything from the store just because the staffs is not available to guide them, most of the counters are not operational even during the rush hours. Economic Factors Economic factors like inflation, recession, etc., heavily hampers the normal functioning of the business and leads to heavy losses to the industry as well as to the companies operating in that economy.

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

CHAPTER-5 FINDINGS & SUGGESTIONS In this chapter an attempt is being made to present the finding suggestions and recommendations. 5.1 FINDINGS Study reveals the following important findings.
The most effective methods used by more for promotions are Price off, and buy one get

one free.

The prime motive is to give the customer maximum satisfaction and value for their

money.

 The duration of promotional strategies for 1-5 day are preferable in more to attract

customers.

The Retail given response that family is first priority because they get all the materials under one shop, teenagers are in second place due to the status symbol and in last necessary to target the family by making strategy according to it.

Majority of the customer class is working and have different social and life style needs.

Store becomes too congested during peak hours.

Many times fresh Fruits and Vegetables are mixed with rotten ones.

In case of Fruits and Vegetables consistency in quality is not maintained.

5.2 SUGGESTIONS Based on the study and findings the following suggestions and recommendations can be made. Consistency in quality should be maintained Possibility of non-food FMCG

More promotional activities

There should be a centralised complaint system

More billing counters should be added and utilise the current available counters to save time during peak hours to save the customer better.

There should be separate billing counter for credit card holders, aged people and for customers who purchase few items.

Home delivery facility need to be implemented

More staff needs to be recruited especially in billing section.

Parking facility to be considered

Alternative brands should be made available

Should modify exchange policy against the defective products to satisfy the customer.

CONCLUSION It was a pleasant experience to have a project in a big company like more. The study in more was focused on various promotional methods used and they were keenly observed and understood by me. After a rigorous period of my project I came to know how practical knowledge is different from that of theoretical concepts.

After analysing all the aspects of promotions at more, I concluded that the communication mix used is more effective and penetrating. more is able to attract customers attention and earn targets. The area in which more needs to focus is the gap factor in communication, which by resolving, can make its promotional programme more effective and efficient.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Vinod, Marketing Management, Central Co-operative Stores Ltd, Revised Edition 2006 . Retailing Swapna Pradhan Management: TEXT & CASES

WEBSITES

www.scribd.com

www.morestore.com

www.Google.com

www.scribd.com

ANNEXURE

1) Gender of the consumer

a) Male(

b) Female( )

2) Which age group do you belong? a)Less than 20( ) b) 21- 40( ) c) 41- 60 ( ) d) 60 above ( )

3)How do you come to know about more?

a)Advertisement ( ) b) Friends ( ) c)Relatives ( ) d) Others ( )

3) How frequently you visit more?

a) Daily(

) b) Weekly ( ) c) Monthly ( ) d) Once in a while( )

4) Number of times visited in more?

a)> 5 times( ) b) 4 times( ) c) 3 times( ) d) < 3 times ( )

5) What do you mostly shop at more? (you can tick more than one)

a) F & V(

) b) Grocery( ) c) Food items( ) d) Non-food items (

6) Are you purchasing the item through?

a) Membership card( ) b) cash (

) c) both (

) d) none (

7) How much do you spend in purchasing from the store?

a) < Rs.500

( ) b) Rs. 500-1000 ( ) c) Rs. 1000-2500( ) d) > Rs.2500( )

8) Preference of shopping?

a)Quality( ) b) Price( ) c) Brand( ) d) One stop shop( )

9) Which store do you kept in preference for purchasing?

a)more( ) b) More fresh( ) c) Local market( ) d) Others ( )

10) Do advertisement and promotion influence your shopping decision?

a) Yes

( )

b) No( )

11) Which form of advertisement do you think is most effective?

a) Print/ Newspaper(

) b) Television( ) c) Radio( ) d) Telephone

( )

12) Are promotion scheme easy to understand?

a) Yes

( )

b) No( )

13) Will popular peoples promote the better marketing?

a) TV actor(

) b) Sports star( ) c) Television artist ( ) d) Famous person( )

14) How well do you remember these advertisements?

a) Very well (

) b) Somewhat( ) c) A few details( ) d) Not at all( )

15) Did you get help from staff when asked?

a) Yes

( ) b) Sometimes( )

c) Never( )

16)What do you like the most at more?

a)Price up to satisfaction( ) b) Various options available to choose c) Display of merchandise( )

17)Are you satisfied with the variety of products at more?

a) Yes

( )

b) No( ) c) some time (

18)Rate more Store on the following parameters (Please tick the option based on your

experience)

Parameters Offers& Schemes

Dont know Poor Average Good Excellent

Range & Variety of products Price & quality of the Products Parking Facility Home Delivery Brand Name Return or Exchange Policy Loyalty Experience Freshness of the product Compared to other malls Store ambiance Complaint handling Ability to meet your requirements Customer service Your perception about more