Course: Master of Business Administration

College: Pune Institute of Business Management

Academic year: 2019-2021
Consumer Behavior Assignment

Submitted by
Pritam Mukherjee 2019-2207-0001-0020
Acknowledgement
I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide Sonal Parmar for her exemplary
guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course. The blessing, help and guidance given by
her time to time shall carry us a long way in the journey of life on which I am about to embark.
Lastly, I thank almighty, my parents, brother, sisters and friends for their constant encouragement without which this
assignment would not be possible. I again would like to express my genuine compliments to my course instructor Sonal
Parmar for giving us such a great lecture which helped me to make the survey successful and to get an opportunity of
writing a report.

Regards,
Pritam Mukherjee
Date: 30th April, 2020
Place: Pune (Sonal Parmar)
Niche Market
Company
ITC Ltd.
ITC Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. Established in
1910 as the 'Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited', the company was renamed as the 'India Tobacco Company
Limited' in 1970 and later to 'I.T.C. Limited' in 1974. The dots in the name were removed in September 1974 for the
company to be renamed as 'ITC Limited' where 'ITC' would no longer be an initial. The company completed 100 years
in 2010 and as of 2012–13, had an annual turnover of US$8.31 billion and a market capitalization of US$52 billion. It
employs over 30,000 people at more than 60 locations across India and is part of Forbes 2000 list.

Product
Lite Cigarettes (e.g. Gold Flake Lite, Classic Mild, Classic Ultra Mild, etc.) which had comparatively low nicotine levels
and provided a smooth smoking experience.

Market
ITC Ltd sells 81% of the Cigarettes, Bidi in Asia, where 275 million people use tobacco products and the total cigarette
market is worth close to $11 billion (around Rs. 757399.4 million).
The business of promoting and selling a product or service to a specialized segment of market and a specific set of
customers. The product was aimed to target the consumers who did not like to smoke strong cigarettes and for
occasional smokers and chain smokers who were health conscious but were unable to quit smoking but a cigarette
with reduced nicotine level would be preferred.

Segmentation
Demographic Segmentation:

 Gender – Male and Female

 Occupation - Students, Professionals
 Age Group – 18 – 35
Psychographic Segmentation
 Occasional Smokers (Smokes very rarely maybe once in a month or once in two months)
 Health Conscious Regular Smokers (Who are chain smokers and smoke daily)

Targeting
The brand was targeted to all the genders who are in the age group of 18-35, students and professionals and occasional
smokers and regular smokers who are health conscious and may quit smoking as there were no option of cigarettes
which had low nicotine levels.

Positioning
The brand was positioned as a balanced cigarette which will is having a low nicotine levels and would give smooth
smoking experience (Honey Dew Smooth).

Consumer Behavior
It was seen that consumers who usually smoke a lot started preventing to smoke as a result the sale of anti-smoking
medicines such as nicotex, etc. was rising, and moreover the number of smokers in India were very less as people
perceived cigarettes as strong and hard products to smoke as a result there was an untapped market of cigarettes.
The launch of Mild cigarettes enhanced the smoking experience as it was smooth and people perceived as it contains
low nicotine levels, it encouraged the smokers who did not want to smoke strong cigarettes continue with the brand
and eventually the Mild segment of cigarettes captured the market and is sold more than strong cigarettes.
The Mild cigarettes was introduced as a niche product but it is consumed by the mass now.