Market analysis and business expansion of WeddingYatra

SIP project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the PGDM

Programme

By : Abizer Badshah (2013008)

Supervisors: 1. Mr. Mitesh Mehta

2. Prof. Shiv Nath Sinha

Institute Of Management Technology, Nagpur.

(2013-15)

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Acknowledgement:
I must acknowledge my indebtedness to various personalities, without whom, this project could
not have seen the light of the day. My gratefulness to the company head Mr. Mitesh Mehta who
has guided me through my project and for correcting various documents of mine with attention
and care. He has showed me full interest during my doubts and cleared it very cleverly. My deep
sense of recognition to Mr. Umesh Uttamchandani, partner of Wedding Yatra for his support and
guidance.

Thank you sir.

I would also like to thank my Institution and my faculty guide Prof. Shiv Nath Sinha without
whom this project would have been a distant reality.

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3
 Table of contents

Acknowledgement:..................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Objectives of the study: ................................................................................................................................ 7
Company description .................................................................................................................................... 8
Membership Plans: ................................................................................................................................. 10
Company Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 11
Major Competitors:................................................................................................................................. 14
SWOT Analysis of Wedding Yatra ............................................................................................................... 15
Methodology:.............................................................................................................................................. 16
Marketing Plan-....................................................................................................................................... 17
Appendices:................................................................................................................................................. 22
Findings ....................................................................................................................................................... 24
Recommendations: ..................................................................................................................................... 25
Future Scope ............................................................................................................................................... 26
Bibliography: ............................................................................................................................................... 27

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Introduction

India is known for its rich culture and its USP is its unity in diversity. Indians love and respect
their traditions. Even today, arranged marriages are done with blessings from both the families.
Wedding is an auspicious event for every Indian and they are highly involved in each and every
ritual associated with wedding. Thus, wedding in India is not only a relationship between two
individuals rather it is relationship of two families, souls and much more.

People from all the religions in world can be found residing in India, making it a very unique and
rich in cultural diversity. It is also known that there are various caste and creeds in India. Every
caste has their own specific customs, giving us opportunity for us to witness different styles of
weddings.

The question of marriage arises when you know or you have a perfect soul mate. With advent of
Internet in most of the urban and semi urban homes, online matrimony sites have grown. People
are finding such sites convenient and user friendly and options available are much more and better
than what provided by traditional marriage brokers. Online Matrimonial Services are internet
based matrimonial database which helps users to search and look for the partners. In India, online
matrimony sites are popular in urban and semi urban areas. It is also popular among Indians settled
abroad. Matrimonial search is the 13th most popular activity on the internet among the 88 million
urban users in India.

With a strong market in the country, there are lot of matrimony sites and are having huge turnovers.
Some of the popular online matrimonial services are Shaadi.com, BharatMatrimony.com and
Jeevansaathi.com etc. The sites asks user to register them, upload their profile into database
maintained by websites. User has liberty to not to disclose certain information in public. Filtration
is allowed so that user can get what he desires to.

Internet boom in India started in late 90’s and only few years have been passed since matrimony
websites are in the market. Since the decision takers in families are not tech savvy yet, Indians
feel hesitated in using the matrimony sites. These sites are designed by keeping all the Indian
traditions and customs so that people from all the religion and culture can use it.

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In India, age group ranging 25-35 forms the largest base of matrimonial users, followed by 19-24
age groups. Some of the offline matrimonial services are changing their strategy are coming up
with their own websites and giving stiff competition to existing players. Through research it has
been observed that people comfortable with internet are more satisfied with online matrimonial
sights rather than traditional form of matchmaking. With increase in number of internet users in
India, the market of online matrimony has lot of potential.

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Objectives of the study

The basic objective of this study was to promote the brand Wedding Yatra in new market
in different geographies of India primarily in state of Gujarat.

To generate revenue from B2B sales via sales force.

To gain in-depth knowledge of functions like Sales, HR, Marketing in online matrimony
sector.

To perform online and offline promotion of products.

To know the areas of improvements in the company services.

To study the effect of promotions done.

To attract more customers.

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Company description

In modern India the ideal blend between Indian Traditional system and Modern Technology has
created an ecosystem for Bachelors of the country to find for themselves a perfect match for their
life. The company uses various advertising mediums to keep growing its sales. Few examples
include distributing pamphlets, conducting online/digital media marketing, posting blogs in
social media websites, word of mouth, and print media (local newspapers). The company tries to
achieve its target by employing effective sales force.

It is established with a sole aim to provide all matrimonial services at one place. Wedding Yatra
specialize in providing Matchmaking Service, Organizing Wedding Event and Designing
Honeymoon Package. It provides customized end to end solutions for our clients and not only
enhance our valuable relationship with customer by providing our one of a kind match making
service but also help customer by providing allied wedding services like Wedding Decor
Services and Designing Honeymoon Packages.

MISSION:
Our mission is to help people find their perfect match. We will continue to provide people with
better services in matchmaking, wedding events through continuous innovation in services, tools
and technologies that can help them to get endless happiness.

About Wedding Yatra Services:

Matchmaking:

Personalized matchmaking services.

Filtration done on candidate’s choice

Privacy is taken care of

Facility of uploading and sharing of pics with one whom u want (with option of password
protection)

Share thoughts using blogs and forums.

Wedding Events:

Specialized team of exhibition, interior, textile and accessory designers from the National
Institute of Design.

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Provides Honeymoon Packages both in India and foreign countries.

Wedding Yatra has a large database of Indian Brides and Grooms. It is the responsibility to make
sure that customer receive what he is looking for in his potential life partner. Wedding Yatra
helps customer to get connected with his dream partner and also it is one of the India’s most
trusted matrimony service provider. It has been providing superior matchmaking experience to
customers. The advantage of meeting local dream partner can also be fulfilled with Wedding
Yatra.

Wedding Décor:

We have been offering wedding decor services for over 6 years for all kinds of social events like
Engagement, Mehndi, Sangeet, Youngster party, Cocktail Wedding & Reception functions. We
have a specialized team of exhibition, interior, textile and accessory designers from the National
Institute of Design.

Honeymoon Packages:

Provide exotic honeymoon locations at both India and foreign countries.

Why Online?

“Matrimonial Portals: Tradition and Technology Are a Perfect Match for Those Looking Online”
online article published in the year 2008 seem to have proclaimed the maturity of Indian online
matrimony business has come of age and adding value to the Indian Service Economy.

With the internet, a new economic system has evolved, known as the e-commerce marketplace.
The new economic concept involves exchange of goods and other services throughout the globe,
over the internet.

Entrepreneurs and investors believe that online matrimonial websites are a sure-fire success story
in India simply because of the fact that it caters to an extremely strong need of the Indian market
in general. Further this business is recession proof.

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Membership Plans

Free Basic (Rs. 1000 for 6 months) Priority (Rs. 15000 for 3
months)
View Latest Activities View Latest Activities View Latest Activities

Read Messages Read Messages Read Messages

View Profiles 5 Per Day View Profiles 20 Per Day View Profiles Unlimited

Search Profiles Search Profiles Search Profiles

View & Zoom Photos View & Zoom Photos View & Zoom Photos

View Videos View Videos View Videos

Total 5 Express Interest Express Interest Unlimited Express Interest

Upload Photos Upload Photos Upload Photos

Profile Records Profile Records Profile Records

Read Forum Read Forum Read & Write Forums

Send Messages 20 Per Day Send Messages Unlimited

Use Private Chat Use Private Chat

Add Comments Add Comments

Tag Lines Tag Lines

Set Password Protected Photos Set Password Protected Photos

Add Blog Posts

Horoscope

Relationship Manager

Exclusive Discount

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Company Analysis

Porter’s 5 forces model:

Fig. Porter’s 5 forces Model

Threat of new entrants:

• Low amount of capital is required to enter this market.

• Existing companies can hardly do something to retaliate.

• Existing firms do not possess patents, trademarks.

• There is no government regulation.

• Low barrier to entry.

• Services are nearly identical.

• Economies of scale can be easily achieved.

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 • Few legal barriers protect existing companies from new entrants

Also era of technology and number of users accessing net have increased tremendously, so scope
to reach customers has increased thus more players will try to enter.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

• There are few suppliers but many buyers.

• Suppliers are large and threaten to switch.

• Suppliers hold scarce resources like new technologies.

• Cost of switching is low.

• Threat of forward Integration is high.

Threat of substitutes:

• Number of players for substitutes.

• Performance of substitutes.

• Cost of shifting is low.

Bargaining Power of Buyers:

• There are many buyers.

• Most of the buyers register themselves in matrimony portal.

• It doesn’t cost much for buyers to switch to another matrimonial firm.

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• Buyers can easily choose alternative matrimonial, switching cost is low.

• Buyers are least price sensitive and their decision is often based on the service they get.

• Buyers do not threaten backward integration.

Competition Rivalry:

• High number of competitors.

• Industry is very large but have big competitors.

• Size of competing firm’s vary but they usually compete for different consumer segments.

• Customers are loyal to their brands.

• There is high threat of being acquired by a competitor.

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Major Competitors

Shaadi.com Bharatmatrimony.c Globalalliancematrimony. Jeevansathi.c

om com om
Target Unmarried Parents and youth Parents and youth Unmarried
audienc youth youth
e
Market 43% Maximum about- Less than 4% 8%
share 45%
Key Name is Largest online Focus only on communities Most of traffic
benefits easy to arranged marriage matrimonial from India
search site
Word of mouth
packag -free reg -free reg -free -free reg
es -400 per -1990 for 3month -premium -1295 for 2
month -2590 fro 3 month month
-diamond -2890 for 3 month -1700 for
550 per 2month
month
-gold 734
per month
Service -Personal as -display results -live help 24*7 - many paid
s well as without registration --meeting lounge membership
international -personal -astrologer options
advisor matchmaker tool -staff of 4 in single profile -astro
-assistance -regional sites -one time membership compatibility
to -horoscope -medical examination -message and
investigatio matchmaking -relationship manager chat options
n cell to -ad of paid clients in
tackle fraud hindustan times
users
-24*7 help
-
ematchmaki
ng tool
-astro

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SWOT Analysis of Wedding Yatra

Strengths:

• It provides matchmaking, wedding décor services and honeymoon packages all under one
roof.
• It has lowest membership fees for membership.
• It provides facility of relationship manager, who actively is involved in matchmaking
process across India.
• It has worked offline in this business for past 2 years and has experience staff to deal with
its clients.

Weakness:

• It lacks brand name.

• It has less number of profiles as compared to its competitors.
• No standard hierarchy.
• Trust issues are there as it is a startup company.

Opportunities:

• As less number of players are there in this segment, so the company has opportunity to
acquire the market.
• Excessive promotion will help to get more customer registrations.
• Location is Ahmedabad, which is the prime location of Gujarat which helps to gather
attention of larger pool of people.

Threats:

• Strong hold of major players in the market.

• Many regional websites are upcoming to offer such services.
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Methodology

Wedding Yatra came into existence in the year 2011, with services like matchmaking &
organising wedding events. It successfully provided more than 300 matchmaking till date. Now
this year it wants to expand its business all over india, for that the Plan introduces new strategies
that mainly focus on increasing the brand awareness, sales and growth of the company.

To effectively market your matchmaking business and attract matchmaking clients

through:

o Advertising
o A website
o Free publicity
o Networking
o Singles events

1) Demographic Factors: The majority (40%) of the users falls in the age group of 25-35, with a
majority belonging to urban areas.
2) Socio Cultural factors: A majority of the users of these services are the middle income group
with salaries above Rs 30,000 and with a good educational background.
3) Economic Factors: In conditions of economic recession, parents prefer grooms with a Public
sector job, depicting financial stability.
4) Political and Legal factors: The acceptance of LGTB rights (lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender) as well as the diplomatic policy of the government has an impact on the
matrimonial industry.
5) Technological factors: With advancement in technology like easy access to internet and
Mobiles, avenues have opened up for online matrimony to reach out to new markets and people.
6) Various microeconomic factors such as Customer needs, Competitor strategies, Use of media
for effective advertising and the contribution of employees also play an important role in the
strategy of the business.

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Marketing Plan

We have a directory specially designed for vendors/suppliers.

Highly experienced and innovative event management staff.

One window solutions to our customers.

Offer distinct package types for vendors/suppliers.

Wide range of options at just a few mouse clicks away for customers.

City-wise classification of vendors/suppliers.

We have a positive response from subscribers.

We offer match making service as part of our passion, therefore we do not ask for huge
membership fees.

For vendors/suppliers.

Package formation:

Regular Package (INR 5000/- only)

Display of vendors list on rotational basis (random manner).

Enhance your brand image by uploading your company’s logo.

Display your contact details and address directly to the customer.

Lifetime validity.

Premium Package (INR10, 000/- only)

Listing in top 3 search with company logo under your category.

Enhance your brand image by uploading your company’s logo and 1 corporate video.

Display your contact details and address directly to the customer.

Will publish names in newspapers and magazines of all the suppliers with events.

Microsite-
 Direct link to vendor’s webpage.
 4 page website containing Home, About Us, Services, and Contact Us.
 Advertising and SEO.

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  QR code will be generated.

Combo Package-(INR12,000/- only)

Regular Package + Premium Package + Guaranteed 25 hot leads every month.

NOTE: The supplier was guaranteed of 35 leads per year, if supplier gets more than that, then first
20 will be his profit and rest is based on sharing profit percent of 15%.

Ex- If 40 marriage lead is there,

Income generated= 10,000+ 15% of profit from rest 20 marriages.

B2B Sales
B2B sales were one of the prime targets of the interns during the internship period. In B2B,
interns were asked to sell the idea of wedding directory to all the business related to wedding,
like Bridal shop, Jewelry, wedding planners etc. in Ahmedabad and Baroda. Some of the
companies I visited are listed in appendix.

Category and requirement –

Astrologer
Bridal wear
Catering
Beauty and makeup
Decoration
Hotels
Footwear
Light and sound
Jewelry
Photography
Cards
Cakes
Wedding gifts

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Promotional activities-

1)Online Advertising by creating events like event planning like open house discussion where
people can give their suggestions about time of planning of event , how to involve people, time
duration and other things .Also brides chat where interested customers can chat with
bride/bridegrooms for a limited time period.

2) Roadshow plays- Places where maximum common audience is there.

Places in Ahmedabad like near maninagar or in Vadodara like kala ghoda etc.

3) Event plan- Getting all the existing suppliers and customers under one roof.

Planned a Wedding Expo named as Wedding Festival, where the aim was to promote Wedding
Yatra as a brand and get associated with big players of matrimonial industry.

Pricing-

Compared to most big players our prices are low for customers.

The reason to keep a low budget is as we are new entrant in the market so we have to make sure
what quality of service is provided by us to be cost effective to build a brand image in the
market.

The USP Part-

The services we offer is a complete Yatra i.e. from matchmaking, wedding event to honeymoon
packages.

Focusing on 3 parameters:

-Giving a clarity to customers about the services we provide.

-Ease of using the service by giving the proper outline so that unacquainted users can access
easily.

-Keeping customers motivated by constantly enhancing serviceability.

The latest data from the Internet and Mobil Association of India (IAMAI) estimates the e-
commerce turnover was $7.0 billion in 2010, up from $2.8 billion in 2008. The majority of these

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deals, 80%, are related to booking travel (airways and railways) and hotels, with the remainder in
e-tailing, net banking, bill payments, stock trading, job searches, matrimonial searches, general
classifieds, online advertisement and online search marketing.

So get a chunk of mass people who are interested in any of the above mentioned services and
their search will bring them to us. Technology can be used by management to permit faster
response to customer enquiries and problems, to improve internal efficiency and productivity,
and to raise the switching costs of buyers.

Using technology in a way that enables more effective and efficient communication and
distribution modes, and more customers to be served at any single point in time. In addition, the
creation of customer self-service options allows the costs associated with servicing customers
personally to be minimized. “

Online-Matrimony do facilitate social interaction online in a way that their offline counterparts
do not. This is through email, chat rooms and one-to one synchronous communications like
‘Skype’ prior to developing any relationship(s) offline.

SAF Framework:

Suitability:

B-Plan strategy suitable for mostly Gujarati people. As new entrant in the market to capture
market, focusing the right customers like middle-income class family group and providing
services at affordable price from different vendors. Like different package that too at low cost
will benefit customers.

Economically from research we can see that there is large scope of matrimonial business in
India, also rise of technological era gives fruitful advantage.

Feasibility:

Low cost advertising is feasible as without creating a good brand, investing excessively on the
advertisements is not a good strategy.

Also implementing is cheap as it is online process.

Accessibility:

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As internet awareness is there in most of the urban population, so accessing webpage gives
advantage.

ROC (return on customer): Meeting the customers demand by providing them concise list of
suppliers and vendors. Also package offered to the customers helps us to what type of services to
be provided to customers.

Supplier to supplier:

Supplier gets option to recommend his choice of vendor for the event and price negotiable.

Customer database highlighted in a manner that people before going to any other resource will
definitely see through wedding yatra , where we provide their search with also an option of we
recommend by using filter options.

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Appendices

For Packages:

Labh Decorators Aangan Farm

Anand Decorators Expo hub

NR events Shah Events
Efesto events Aeby Events
Shalibhadra event and decorators Namokar Events and projects
Nine Events Peppers event
Pinnacle Events Plan Ahead
Sublime Events Star Decorators and event management
NR events Shah Events
Ganesh Decorators Jain Decorators and Caterers
janta decorators Jayhind decorators
Tulip flora Star Tours and travels
favourite holiday makers Heena tourism
suraj florist Comfort holiday makers
Mahakali mandap decorators We do weddings
divya decorators Navkar decorators
Vidhi wedding and event planning Avdhot light decoration
9 miles travel celestial salon

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For Stalls:

AVANI BOUTIQUE kayaan jewels

LARA FASHION STUDIO manyavar vedant fashion
AMI RASHMI DESIGNER STUDIO anika silk
jeet collection Sanskruti
border museum monsoon designer shop
rahi creation Kallistaa
mahalaxmi sarees diamond boutique n jewellers
salman sarees ozone celebration wear
maya jewels aakruti jewelers
nanakshah cards shubham designer footwear
bhagwati card agency Pehnaava
card palace star and sitaara
venus spalon AMI RASHMI DESIGNER STUDIO
border museum LARA FASHION STUDIO
jeet collection mahalaxmi sarees
salman sarees manyavar vedant fashion
monsoon designer shop shree bhavani cards
Roopkala chandra cards

The successful were:

Charismatic Boutique , Mona Vora , La femme.

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Findings

1. Professional attitude among interns was missing.

2. No control over workings of interns.
3. Induction process was not up to mark.
4. Daily Evaluation system was not accurate.
5. No check over registrations.
6. Time-taking decision process.
7. No proper structure of organization which causes communication gap.

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Recommendations

• More varieties of membership packages for matrimonial services should be introduced.

• The website should updated regularly with new innovations & new designs i.e user
friendly.
• More measures should be taken to make the customers aware of the Wedding Yatra.
Special measures for promotions must be taken.
• More variety must be added to POD activities.
• Improving the matchmaking process by implementing MBTI tool for match making or to
filter candidates.( from the research article)

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Future Scope
Some new trends in this industry are movement towards brick and mortar model, Growth
potential in young economies, integrated platform for services like wedding planning, legal
services, etc. being made available and rise of niche matrimonial sites, catering to a particular
segment of customers. So special kind of services demand is there, where catering to needs of
such customers is essential.

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Bibliography

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

http://www.projectevolove.com/education/25/myers-briggs-dating#.Uz-SBfmSx0Y

http://www.lovetypes.com/index.html

http://dating.about.com/od/matchmakingsites/

http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~smokeefe/u3a2.htm

http://www.capt.org/take-mbti-assessment/contact.htm

http://www.im.org/Meetings/Past/2007/Documents/2007%20APDIM%20Chief%20Residents%2
0Meeting/Plenary%20Session%20V,%20MBTI%20Personality%20Type%20Test.pdf

http://www.eharmony.com/singles/servlet/questionnaire/relationship

http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-Your-Myers-Briggs-Personality-Type

http://www.weddingyatra.com/about.html

Butt, J. (2005). Extraverted sensing thinking perceiving. TypeLogic. Retrieved from

http://typelogic.com/estp.html

Research article:

“Matrimonial Portals: Tradition and Technology Are a Perfect Match for Those Looking Online”
online

Article published in the year 2008.

http://www.icmis.net/ictbm/ictbm13/proceedings/pdf/D3111-done.pdf

Ref- Technology Driven Online Matrimonial Services-An India Specific Review

http://www.icmis.net/ictbm/ictbm13/proceedings/pdf/D3111-done.pdf

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