A Study on Brand Positioning and Promotional Techniques of

Detergent Brands with Reference to Chennai

A first review report

(Submitted by Naresh Babu S, Roll No: 1722MBA0652, Reg No: 68217200078)

1. NEED FOR THE STUDY

Effective branding and brands serve to distinguish the goods and services of producers
and when markets create new logos, symbols, names, etc., for their products and services they
are engaged in branding (Keller, 2003; Keller, 1998). Branding functions set companies aside from
their competitors; as a way of distinguishing a company and/or its products and services as
different, and not just different, but better than competitors. Brands play an important role in
helping customers distinguish what they deem to be the best products and services (Peppers &
Rogers, 2004). Thus, companies strive to improve brand awareness of their products and services
and increase brand preference and brand loyalty among customers for which they and other
providers of goods and services compete. Brands have become major players in our globally
competitive society and economy where they infiltrate all spheres of our lives and we become
both consciously and unconsciously affected and influenced by them (Kapferer, 2004;
Kapferer,1992). Branding is and should be a basic decision in the marketing of any product or
service (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2009). It involves the use of a name, phrase, design, symbols,
or a combination of these by marketers and organizations to identify their products and
distinguish them from their competitors’ (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2009).Brands are
perceptions that result from experiences with, and information about a company or a line of
products (Duncan, 2005; Arpin & Casey, 2009). As such, brands live in the minds and hearts of
customers and companies and marketers who fully understand this are ever doing their best to
make sure that they remain there. This means creating powerful brand awareness –
communicating to customers effectively what a brand stands for, what benefits they will gain
from the brand compared to competitor brands, and the perceived service, quality, and the
image and price that accompany acquiring and obtaining value and satisfaction from that brand
(Weinstein, 2012). Brands are competing for consumers’ attention and most importantly, for
their dollars. As such, companies use various strategies and approaches to develop brand equity
or strong positive associations in consumers’ memories in order to command a lot of loyalty from
customers (Solomon, 2004). As Kapferer (2004) notes, brands are a major symbol of our
economies and postmodern societies and are pervasive in their influence in all aspects of life.
Distinctions in consumers’ minds always exist between competitive offerings and that is why
branding is important to companies (Cravens, 1982). Thus, the development of effective brand
strategy can make the difference between market leaders and market drivers in the globally
competitive marketspace and marketplace.
2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Mowen (1988) found that the focus of many consumer decisions was more on the feelings and
emotions associated with acquiring or using the brand or with the environment in which it was
purchased or used its attributes. The decision process discussed helps to gain insights into all
types of purchases like whether consumer decision was attribute-based or driven by emotional
or environmental needs.

Baiding Hu (1997) stated that the success of the economic reforms in rural China has raised the
living standards of rural households. This is reflected in households' consuming goods and
services that were not previously part of their consumption pattern. However, because of
differences in economic and demographic characteristics, not every household has been able to
increase consumption. Consequently, it will be useful to investigate how the likelihood of
consuming such goods and services is affected by economic and demographic factors. In this
paper, the profit model is used to compute the marginal and mean probabilities of consumption
of five such goods and services, namely, Food away from home, Recreation, Medical Care,
Transport and Postage. The empirical results show that the estimated probabilities of consuming
the first three goods are more sensitive to changes in the underlying economic and demographic
factors, while the probabilities of consuming the latter two goods are more sensitive to changes
in the model structure.

Vasudeva.A (1999) observed that the proportion of households, which are brand loyal to one or
more brands, are similar in urban market and rural markets. Toothpaste is the only product for
which rural market shows greater brand loyalty than the urban market. The rural brand loyal
consumers were found to be comparatively more price conscious than the urban brand loyal for
detergent powder and toilet soaps. Kannan.S (2001) pointed out that many companies take
different routes to reach rural consumers, FMCG used the weapon of sachets to modify and
motivate rural consumers to try their products and it is reaping, good results as the recent survey
clearly indicates that 80% of the companies from small stock keeping units.

LopamudraGhosh (2007) identified key challenges for FMCGs companies that are penetrating the
rural markets, which include infrastructure issues like poor distribution system, improper logistics
and the fragmented rural market, given the heterogeneity of the Indian population. The
companies which understand these challenges and tune their strategies accordingly will surely
be the winners in the years to come, taking advantage of this economic boom in the rural sector
of India

3.1. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

To study the brand positioning and promotional Techniques of Detergent Brands in chennai
3.2. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES

 To study whether advertising frequency affect customers to make purchase decision

 To know effect of price rise or price sensitivity
 To find reasons for brand switching

3.3 Research Methodology

 Research design : Descriptive research design

 Sample size: 200
 Sampling technique :Convenience sampling

4.1 RESEARCH PERIOD

3 Months
4.2. DATA SOURCES

4.3. PRIMARY DATA

Primary data is a term for data collected at source. This type of information is obtained directly
from first hand sources by means of surveys, observations and experimentation, and not
subjected to any processing or manipulation. For this study, primary data will be collected. The
survey will be undertaken using well-structured questionnaires.

4.3.2. SECONDARY DATA

Secondary data refers to the data collected by someone other than the researcher. i.e., the data
is already available and analyzed by someone else. Secondary data will be collected from
company websites, journals, and magazines.

5. WORK DONE SO FAR

 Need for the study

 Review of literature

 Primary objectives

 Secondary objectives

 Limitations

 Expected deliverables
6. WORK TO BE DONE

 Questionnaire preparation
 Data analysis
 Report preparation

7. LIMITATIONS

 The scope of the study is limited to analytics operations in Detergent Brands.
 The study is limited to 200 respondents.

8. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

 Exploration study on whether advertising frequency affect customers to make purchase

decision
 To Understand the effect of price rise or price sensitivity
 Comparative report between detergent Brands
 Customers decision for brand switching
 Reports depicting the impact of detergent Brands with reference to Chennai.

(SIGNATURE OF STUDENT) (SIGNATURE OF GUIDE)