Institute Of Business Management and Research (IBMR)

Summer Internship Project Report

A Study on Consumer perception and buying behaviour in Brand Factory (Future group Pantaloon Retail)

Submitted on: 22 n d august 2011 Submitted by Asha Lawrence Registration no 10PG10069

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to Mr Jitendranath Patri (Senior Marketing Manager) and Mr Ankush Sharma (Marketing Executive) for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project and also for their support in completing the project. I would like to express my gratitude towards my parents and members of Brand Factory (Pantaloon Retail) for their kind co-operation and encouragement which helped in completion of this project. My thanks and appreciations also goes to my college and my professors in giving me insights as to how to go about the project and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.

INTRODUCTION

Brand Factory is a Pantaloon Retail private sector of Future Group. The concept of Brand Factory is very different compared to all the retail outlets merchandising in apparels. They have 120 brands under one roof and moreover even offer 20% - 50% discount all 365 days. In Bangalore alone, there are four outlets of Brand Factory. They are at Marathahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Wilson Garden and Malleshwaram. The first Brand Factory was set up in Marathahalli in 2006. Brand Factory emphasises on providing the customers the widest range of brands and categories at absolutely affordable prices, in an ambience that benefits the brand as well as the customer too. The store offers a wide range of products including apparels for men and women, infant wear, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, sportswear, luggage, crockery, home linen and much more. Brand Factory has several Indian and International fashion brands including Levis, Pepe Jeans, Dockers, Wrangler, Provogue, Arrow, Nike, Addidas, Reebok, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Reid and Taylor, Gini And Johnny and many more.

ORGANISATION CHART OF THE COMPANY

Future Group

Pantaloons Retail Pvt Ltd

Central

Fashion @ Big Bazaar

Brand Factory

Senior Marketing Manager

Store Manager

Marketing Department

Finance Department

Operations Department

HR Department

IT Department

Marketing Executive Manager

Cashier

Operations Manager

HR Manager

Data Entry

Sales Manager

Floor manager

Assistant Floor Manager

Floor staff

Security

Admin Manager

Visual Merchandising Manager

PRODUCTS OF THE ORGANISATION

Brand Factory sells 120 Brands under one roof with 20-50% discount all 365 days. Apparels for men, women and kids can be found. For men, there are formal shirts and trousers, t-shirts, jeans, semi-formals shirts, jackets, suits and blazers, sports wear, shoes and slippers, accessories and many more. For women, there are formal shirts and trousers, t-shirts, jeans, kurtis, sarees, traditional wear, shoes and sandals, sportswear, accessories which includes gold plated jewellery and other items in jewellery. For kids, there are infant wear, kids wear and even trendy apparels. Other products include Titan Fast Track watches, glares, etc and electronic gadgets such as mobile phones of Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, etc. Among the home products, we can find crockery items, kitchen utensils and appliances, bed linens, luggage items from American Tourister, Wildcraft etc. Following are the names of Brands one will find in Brand Factory: Adidas Ajmal Annabelle Buffalo Chromozome Dreamline Fastrack Bags Jealous Lee Cooper Milestone Prince Rig Spunk Top 10 GM Stock 109 F Crocodile Flying Machine Globe Inexcess Just natural Lemax Mystic Options Ruggers Sports 52 Sthri Urban Yoga Wrangler Belmonte AFL Akkriti Bare Calzini Converse Earth Dress Material Fastrack Eyegear JM Sport Levis Mix N Match Puma Salwar Kameez Dupatta Srishti Umm And Celio Disneys Gini n Jony Harra KBC Jade Jwalk Levis Nayans Pepe Scullers for her Spykar Sushilas Welhome Sepia Bollywood
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Airwalk All Bare Denim Central Crocodile Elan Fastrack Watches Knighthood Local Pantaloon Rd Chilli Spalding T24 VIP Ant Colors DIXI Giordano Hoffmen Jealous Kims Levis Signature Newport Pretty woman Seals St lawrence Thomas Scot Wildcraft Allen Solly Bonjour

Ajile American Tourister Bare leisure Chalk & PT kids DJ & C F Honey Kurta Co Lombard Pink N Blue Reebok Speedo Titan & Sonata & Zoop Watches VIP UG Celebrity Cool Colors Drop Global eye gear Hot topic Jus Cool Lee Manthan Nils Collection Rays Sneh Status Quo Twills Wonder Blues Arrow Buckaroo

Cally Fruit of the Loom Huur Indigo Plus Lee Cooper London Bridge New Hide Park Avenue Provogue Stephen Brothers Tracer Van Heusen

D Stress Ganuchi & Francoleone ID John Miller Liberty Louis Philippe Notting Hill Parx Red Tape Swagger Turtle V Dot

Espana Go Bahamas India Terrain John Player Lino Perros & Firenzi LP-Y Oxemberg Peter England Reid & Taylor Sweet Dreams Urbana Venus

Excalibur Hidekraft Indigo Nation Leather Land Lino perros Handbags MB Pan America Privilege Club Scullers Theme Valencia Wills

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS IN BRAND FACTORY

Operations is the main function of Brand Factory as the inward movement and outward movement of stock and products all depends on operation. Connected to operations are HR functions, Marketing functions, and Finance functions.

OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT:
Under operations we have the visual merchandising department, Sales management department and the Admin department. In the Admin department, we have functions like house keeping, security check and other facilities like maintaining the escalator, maintaining cleanliness on the floor, and other administrative functions. In the Visual metrchandising department, we have functions like putting up hoardings, diplay of brand names inside the store, display of clothes, other signages, etc. In the Sales Management Functions we have functions like meeting targets as to have much stock has to be sold, preventing internal and external shrinkage, bring the stock in and many other functions.

SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT:
There are two softwares used namely REM (Retail Enterprise Management) and SAP (Systems Applications and Products) These softwares are used for keeping a detailed account of all the stocks that is coming in and going out. SAP is used for all the PT Brands and REM is used for all the CT and other brands available in Brand Factory. REM software is also used for price updation, offers and discounts.

MARKETING DEPARTMENT:
The main functions of marketing are enhancing customer experience, space on hier, execution of promos and in store consumer initiative. For enhancing customer experience, customer feedback is take, customer service desk is provided, promotion of products is done and all activities for customers is done. For space on hier, space in the store is rented to brands who would want to display their brands like dsiplay of TVS bikes, or renting space for other branded apparels.
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Execution of promos is done through leaflets, television and basically communicationg to customers in all possible manner. In store consumer initiative refers to performing activities like painiting for children or setting up activities which can attract customers.

HR DEPARTMENT:
The HR functions is completely concentrated on employees, recruiting new staff, training, pay roll, getting documentation done, grooming the employees to company standards and selecting the employee of the month.

FINANCE DEPARTMENT:
Cashier takes care of all the financial functions in the store. His function comprises of billing the product,confirming discounts and offers, He reports to the Relationship manager in the zonal office on a daily basis.

SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths :

Market leader. Strong relationship with distributors. Strong backup from Parent group.

Weakness :
Low variety. Low product differentiation. Customer service. Few outlets.

Opportunities :
Expansion in sub-urban cities. Rising income of Middle class income group. Low average age of Indian Society ( 25 years).

Threats :
Low Entry Barriers. Seasonal Sales of Exclusive retailers.

A small project was followed with the organisation study.

CONSUMER PERCEPTION AND BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN BRAND FACTORY

Brand Factory has 4 unique outlets in Bangalore and a study was conducted on knowing what the customers like and dislike as well as what brings them to Brand Factory, makes them shop here and what possible steps can be taken to retain its customers and attract more customers in the immediate future. Two Brand Factory outlets were taken for study and further analysis. They are: Brand Factory, Wilson Garden Brand Factory, Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

A survey was conducted on random customers visiting brand factory. Questionnaires were given to them and an open ended interactive session was conducted with some customers who were ready to give their feedback and a few suggestions. Observations and analysis such as which gender prefers shopping the most in Brand Factory, is it the youngsters favourite outlet or is it more inclined to the family group, which section of the society shops here the most, what kind of apparels are preferred mostly by the customers and what they would like to see more in the store and many other such observations were made.

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BRAND FACTORY - WILSON GARDEN

Located in Wilson garden , Marigowda road, it is impossible to miss this outlet with its colourful hoardings displaying numerous brands with exciting offers like Buy 1 get 1 free and great discounts offering popular brands at throw away prices. 200 random customers were given close ended questionnaires and the following analysis was derived.

Out of the 200 surveyed, 163 were men and the remaining 37 were women.

18% Female37

Male Female

82% Male-163

82% are male and 18% are female, there is a huge difference in the ratio of both groups which brings us to the conclusion that men prefer shopping in Brand factory more than women.

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Age group of consumers who shop in Brand Factory

On surveying it was easy to find out which age group of consumers shop more in Brand Factory. Is it the youngsters, the middle aged or the elderly or is it the whole family group which shops in the outlet.

AGE GROUP
4 20 44 9

13-17 18-25

116

26-30 31-40 41-50 50 and above

Out of 200 surveyed, Age Groups 13-17 18-25 26-30 31-40 41-50 50 and above Numbers 7 116 44 20 9 4 Percentage 3.5% 58% 22% 10% 4.5% 2%

The above calculation tells us that Customers of age group 18-25 shop more in Brand Factory. This group comprises of students as well as working individuals. The next group is the 26-30 age group which comprises mostly of office goers.

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Catchment
The survey also helped us to know from which all places customers come to Brand factory. Was it only that the Wilson garden residents preferred shopping here or was there a different scenario?

40 30 20 10 0

Residents of Wilson Garden preferred to shop in Brand Factory as it is nearby and hence they can come anytime and buy apparels compared to people coming from places like Kormangala, B T M Layout, Jayanagar, Electronic city and so on. Most of the customers who visited Brand Factory were from Wilson Garden, Kormangala, B T M Layout, Jayanagar and Madivala. Some of the customers who came all the way from B T M Layout and Electronic city said that since they have better malls and apparels outlets here, Brand Factory being one of them, they preferred coming here. Other places from where customers do come but less in number are:

Adugodi Mysore Road

K R Puram Hubli

Malleshwaram Annekal

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H S R Layout

Hanumanth Nagar

Hosur

Indira Nagar

J C Road

K H road

K R Market Kengeri Majestic

Kamanhalli Kudlu Gate Marathalli

Kapanpet M G Road R D Layout

Rajaji Nagar

Residency Road

Salem

Sarjapur Road Tilak Nagar Vijay Nagar

Shanti Nagar Tiptur Whitefield

Shree Nagar Vasanth Nagar Yehlanka

There were also a few customers from many other places in Bangalore and even outside Bangalore like Delhi, Calicut, Salem, etc.

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Annual Income of customers

Annual Income of customers was needed to know which section of the society shops more in Brand Factory. Is it the low income group, middle income group, higher middle and the high income group?

Annual Income
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20

85

23 9

Annual Income

20

18 10

18 7 10

10 0

Students shop more in Brand factory compared to the other sections of the society. The middle income group, the higher middle income group followed with high income group and even the low income group also come to Brand Factory. Hence it shows that Brand Factory caters to the needs of all the income groups of the society. Since we can find that the student ratio is more compared to the other groups, we can try to retain this group by coming up with new offers especially for students.

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How did Customers get to know about Brand Factory?

It is necessary to know how customers got to know about Brand Factory in the first place or as to how they become aware that an outlet called Brand Factory exists. This will also be helpful in knowing which media habit the customer is more inclined to and hence will be helpful to Brand Factory for future advertisement.

Factors

Other reasons

Hoardings 3

15

Television

Radio

1
Factors

Internet

11

Newspaper

25

Through Friends

97

Pass by
0 20 40 60 80 100

109
120

Most of the customers have seen Brand factory while passing by and thought of taking a look out of curiosity and hence have become loyal customers and for some its a
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place for family shopping. Out of the 200 surveyed, 109 customers that is 54.5% happened to visit Brand Factory when they were just passing by. Secondly customers have been aware of this outlet through word of mouth that is through friends and that accounts to 48.5% of the total interviewed. Print Media like newspaper has got more ratings in terms of customers knowing about Brand Factory which accounts to 12.5 % and Hoardings accounts to 7.5%. Some of the customers have said they got to know about Brand Factory through television but till today there has been no ads of Brand Factory on television. Other reasons refers to Brand Factory in other places like Hyderabad or other local outlets like Malleshwaram Brand Factory giving reference to customers as to where other Brand factory outlets are there in Bangalore.

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Customers Store Experience

Customers store experience comprises of his or her purchase experience, the store ambience that is the inner atmosphere of the store, the lighting and music, the billing section, the on floor staff and their assistance and the easy accessibility of trial rooms. All this sums up to an overall complete customer service package provided to every customer visiting the store.
200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

181

167 138

153

148

102 89 18 1 0 37 35 31 5 0 14 11 11 1 27 23 2
Bad Average Good Nil

When it comes to purchase experience, 102 customers have rated their purchase experience to be good out of 200 and 89 customers have rated their purchase experience as average. Most of the reasons stated were that the clothes are not trendy, small sizes were not available, formal collections have similar designs, collections are expensive and many other reasons. Customers were happy with the store ambience, but some customers were not happy with the folded arrangement of apparels as it was difficult for them to check the apparels. Some customers found the music to be boring and irritating while 2 customers out of 200 said that the lights hurt their eyes. Billing section is considered too slow by customers and some feel that the staff is not service oriented. Nil remark was given when the customer did not use the billing section or did not take the staffs help. Store Ambience scores the highest in the purchase rating of the consumers. The store ambience of this outlet gives a added advantage which makes the customers feel that there is more collection and they can walk freely browsing clothes without feeling congested.
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Reason for customers to shop in Brand Factory

Every retail outlet needs to know why its customer prefer shopping in their outlet so that they can work on those aspects and retain it customers and provide them satisfaction. In the survey conducted, it was necessary to find out why customers shop in Brand factory, what are their expectations and are they happy with the overall experience and service provided in Brand Factory.

Reasons

20

37 Value for money Affordable price

103

68

Quality All brands Proximity

57

One of the main reasons why customers prefer shopping here is because of the presence of all the famous brands known to them under one roof. Customers today are Brand conscious and hence find it extremely important to use branded products and when they find all the brands in one place, nothing can satisfy them more. Secondly, affordable price in the form of offers and discounts has attracted many customers which make Brand Factory a favourable place to shop for the customers. The other reasons are quality of the product, Value for money and proximity to the store.

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Other Shopping Outlets

Other outlets
70

69 66 60 66

60

51
50

53

40

30

Other outlets

22
20

10

Among the 200 surveyed, Westside is the customers favourite followed by Central and Mega mart, and then Max Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop and Pantaloons. Among the 200 interviewed 22 customers shopped in Brand Factory exclusively.

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Drawbacks
1. Collection: -Not trendy enough. -Expensive. -Old and defective stock. - Bad Quality. - Very few smaller sizes. -No party wear. -Outdated and expensive accessories for women. -Less accessories for men -need more variety in all the products -Collection not similar to the brand outlets -Womens collection is less compared to the mens wear 2. Offers: - Buy 1 get 1 free offers not applicable to all brands and customers feel they should be given choices to select from varied brands and not only from the same brand. 3. Discounts: - Customers feel there should be more 50% discount offers - Even after discounting, customers feel the products are expensive. 4. Staff: - The Staff are not well informed about the products they are selling. -Not co-operative and un-helpful. -Show ignorance if asked for less priced product. - No proper assistance given to customers 5. Billing section: - Customers feel that the billing section is too slow and needs more staff especially during the weekends. - Discounts and offers should be informed to them at the beginning of the day so that there is no need to waste time confirming the discounts and offers while billing. -Billing staff are rude while interacting. 6. Trial room: - There are fewer trial rooms than required.

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-Trial rooms are always crowded during the weekends. 7. Display: -There are no proper sign boards indicating the bathroom. -Customers feel that the price after discount must be put up for at least 1 product in a particular collection so that they can figure out the price for other products in that specific collection. - Customers feel that the folded arrangement of clothes is troublesome and instead prefer them to be hung on hangers so that it will be easier for them to spot and browse the products. 8. Music: - The music played should be soothing. - Can put hip hop music in the youngster collection floor.

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Suggestions
Since more students are shopping in Brand Factory, once a month students with proper college ids can be given better offers and discounts like 70% off on anything they buy. This can be conducted once every month in all Brand Factorys alternatively. Along with the alteration desk we can include a tailor who stitches traditional dresses for women. For this we need to keep traditional dress pieces collection, they can buy it here and get the dress stitched here itself. Health and Glow can be put which will include all the types of cosmetics in one store.

Add Mc Donalds as most of the customers are not happy with the Food Court.

The staffs needs to be informed that elderly consumers have to be assisted even if they dont ask for help throughout the time they spend in the mall.

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BRAND FACTORY - RAJARAJESHWARI NAGAR

Located in Gopalan Arcade, Mysore road, Rajarajeswari Nagar, this Brand factory will never go unnoticed as it is located in one of the happening places and that is in a mall which is always filled with youngsters and family groups. 50 random customers were given close ended questionnaires and based on their response, further analysis and observation was made.

Out of the 50 surveyed, 37 were men and 13 were women

Gender
26% Females-13 74% Males-37
Male Female

74% are males and 26% are females, even here its the same scenario which is similar to the Brand Factory in Wilson Garden, men shop more in the store than women.

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Age group of customers shopping in Brand Factory

Age Group
4 7
13-17 18-25 26-30 31-40 41 and above

23 13

Out of the 50 surveyed,

Age 13-17 18-25 26-30 31-40 41 and above

Numbers 3 23 13 7 4

Percentage 6% 46% 26% 14% 8%

Similar to the Brand Factory in Wilson Garden, here we see the younger generation i.e. the group 18-25 shopping more. This group comprises of both students and working youngsters. Following this group is the 26-30 group which is completely the working group and this group mostly prefers formals.

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Catchment

Catchment

15 10 5 0 Catchment Catchment

The residents of Rajarajeshwari Nagar preferred shopping in Brand Factory as it was right inside Gopalan Arcade , a mall sitiuated right in their area. As it is nearby, the Rajarajeshwari Nagar residents shopped more in the store. Followed by Kengeri, Vijay nagar, Nagarbhavi and Banashankari Some of the other areas from where residents came but less in number are: Basaveshwara Nagar Malleshwaram Hebbal Mysore Road Sai Center Bidadi Bannerghatta J P Nagar Global Village Yehlanka Kormangala Bhoomika Layout Magadi Road Padmanabha Nagar

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Annual Income of Customers

Annual Income
16
16

14

12

10

8
8

6
6

Annual Income

5 3 2 3 2

Here also, there are more students coming to shop compared to the other income groups. After students its the higher income group which prefers to shop here followed by the middle income group, higher middle and the lower income group.

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How did customers get to know about Brand Factory?

Factors
Other reasons

Newspaper
Factors

Through friends

Pass by 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

All the customers who happen to come to Gopalan Arcade tend to visit Brand Factory either out of curiosity for the first time or have already visited before and have returned to buy apparels in Brand Factory. Therefore there were more customers in the pass by list who happen to visit the mall for watching movies in the multiplex and had to go through the outlet to reach the multiplex. Secondly, a lot of customers were aware of Brand Factory through their friends. Some of the customers have seen newspaper ads of Brand Factory. Other reasons include, future group employees shopping here and other brand factory outlets informing their customers about this one. None of the people surveyed, heard about Brand Factory on the radio or television and ever saw its hoardings.

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Reasons for customers to shop at Brand Factory

Reasons

11

Value for money Affordable price 21 16 Quality All brands Proximity

14

Similar to the Brand Factory in Wilson Garden, all the customers come here because there is presence of all the brands under one roof followed with affordable price which comprises of offers and discounts. And, then followed by quality apparels along with value for money with proximity being the last reason to shop here.

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Customers Store Experience

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5

39

40 37 34 35

26 24

9 2

11

13 9 6 2

Bad Average

Good Nil

0
0

When it comes to purchase experience, out of 50, 26 customers have rated their purchase experience to be average which is very bad for the store. Some of the reasons why customers purchase experience was average were in terms of collection of apparels, sizes and products not similar to the branded outlets. Most of them were not happy with the shoe collection and felt that more brands should be added. Unlike customers in Brand Factory, Wilson Garden, customers of this outlet felt that XL and Double XL sizes was not available. Here too customers felt, that the billing section was slow and needed more staff in the section, on floor staff were not interactive and helpful and trial rooms were crowded. The circular structure of the store was a bit confusing for some. Nil remark was given when the customer did not use the billing section that is he or she did not buy anything and when the trial room was not used.

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Among all the other factors, Staff Assistance has got more GOOD remarks compared to the other factor which means customers are happy with the co-operative nature of the staff.

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Other Store Outlets

Other Outlets
25 20 15

18 11 13

21

14 7 6
Other Outlets

10 5 0

Among the 50 interviewed, Shoppers Stop was their top most favourite followed by Central and then Mega mart and then Westside. Around 6 customers only preferred shopping at Brand factory.

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Drawbacks
1. Collection: -Not trendy enough. -Expensive. -Old and defective stock. - Bad Quality. - Very few larger sizes. -No party wear. -Outdated and expensive accessories for women. -Lesser accessories for men -need more variety in all the products -Collection not similar to the brand outlets -Womens collection is less compared to the mens wear 2. Offers: - Buy 1 get 1 free offers not applicable to all brands and customers feel they should be given choices to select from varied brands and not only from the same brand. 3. Discounts: - Customers feel there should be more 50% discount offers - Even after discounting, customers feel the products are expensive. 4. Staff: - The Staff are not well informed about the products they are selling. -Not co-operative and un-helpful. -Show ignorance if asked for less priced product. - No proper assistance given to customers 5. Billing section: - Customers feel that the billing section is too slow and needs more staff especially during the weekends. - Discounts and offers should be informed to them at the beginning of the day so that there is no need to waste time confirming the discounts and offers while billing. 6. Trial room: - There are fewer trial rooms than required. -Trial rooms are always crowded during the weekends.
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7. Music: - The music played should be soothing. 8. Store Ambience: - Customers find the store structure to be confusing and hence they tend to go halfway and feel like going back. There should be a proper and visible display saying these are the kinds of apparel and brands ahead.

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Suggestions:
Since more students are shopping in Brand Factory, once a month students with proper college ids can be given better offers and discounts like 70% off on anything they buy. This can be conducted once every month in all Brand Factorys alternatively. Along with the alteration desk we can include a tailor who stitches traditional dresses for women. For this we need to keep traditional dress pieces collection, they can buy it here and get the dress stitched here itself. Health and Glow can be put which will include all the types of cosmetics in one store.

Add the entry machine right to entrance of the outlet instead of putting it near the escalator as those entering the multiplex are also counted. A bathroom will need to be added. The staffs needs to be informed that elderly customers have to be assisted even if they dont ask for help throughout the time they spend in the mall.

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Observations made in both the outlets:

Men prefer formal wear more compared to casuals Less collection for women compared to men. Crockery items do not sell much.

Collection is better in Rajarajeshwari Brand Factory compared to Brand Factory in Wilson Garden even in terms of displaying the apparels. Customers need more brands in shoe collection Rajarajeshwari Brand Factory shoe collection is better compared to Wilson Garden Brand Factory. Some consumers preferred Wilson garden Brand Factory as it had more floors and consumers can walk around freely looking at the apparels. Marathahallli was rated the top Brand Factory outlet compared to all the other Brand Factory outlets.

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Conclusion
Brand Factory has a carved a niche for itself in the retail industry, a new identity and a new concept which is a clear outcome of innovative thinking. One out of 6 customers in Bnagalore prefer and shop in Brand Factory. Brand Factory needs to advertise more so that more and more people get to know about Brand factory. This venture under future group has proven to be successful and will be continue to be in the coming time.

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