01-06-2013, 02:37 PM
Consumer preference and Consumer satisfaction regarding herbal shampoos (Ayur, Himalyas, Nyle) A case study of Hisar City
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Executive Summary
To know about the consumer buying behavior and factor which affect the consumer buying decision process. As the objectives of my study is to analyze the customer perception and the customer satisfaction towards specific brands of Herbal shampoos (Himalaya, Ayur, Nyle) on the basis of Price, Quality, Brand Name and Packaging.
Consumer buying behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers – individuals and households who buys services and goods for personal consumption. Consumer behavior is influenced strongly by culture, social, personal and psychological factors. Culture factors include the set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behavior learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions. The social factors include consumer’s family, small group, social roles and status. The personal characteristics such as buyer’s age, life cycle stage, occupation, economic situations and life style influenced by four major psychological factors: Motivation, Perception, Learning, Belief and Attitudes.
INTRODUCTION
AT A time when most FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) categories are inching along, personal products are being seen as the harbinger of prosperity. And hair care products are the fastest-growing category within personal products.
Between 1994 and 1998, the market size of products such as skincare and toothbrushes doubled in value. But the size of the shampoo market expanded two-and-a-half times over the same period. Not surprisingly, shampoos is a high priority area for major players such as Hindustan Lever. The current size of the shampoo market, according to ORG-MARG, is Rs 850 crore -- equivalent to 30,000 tonnes in volume terms.
A blip in growth rates
Despite its undisputed potential, the rapid expansion of the shampoo market was interrupted in 1999. Overall growth rates in the market slowed to 1.7 per cent in 1999, from 16 per cent the previous year. Between January and November 2000, however, the market appears to have recovered some, and the shampoo category has grown by around 10 per cent. The reasons for the slowdown? ``Lack of innovation'', says Mr D. Shivakumar, General Manager Marketing, Personal Products, Hindustan Lever. The company has identified three major barriers to shampoo use in India -- the perception that shampoos contain harsh chemicals that could damage hair, high price and the view that the shampoo is more of a glamour product rather than a hygiene product.
``We like to see it this way. Though we have a 69 per cent share of the shampoo market, we have just 10 per cent of the hair wash occasions in the country. We will work at getting consumers to switch over from alternatives, such as natural products and soaps, to shampoos'', says Mr Shivakumar.
Herbal opportunity
One of the key barriers to shampoo usage lies in the reluctance to use a synthetic product on hair. Worldwide, therefore, herbal shampoos or botanicals, are a fast growing category. Ayur from RDM Traders Private Limited and Nyle Herbal, a herbal shampoo launched by Cavin Kare, have been some of the early entrants in the Indian herbal shampoos market.
These products claim to use traditional Indian herbs such as shikakai, soap nuts and amla as ingredients and have been a success. Nyle Herbal is among the top five shampoo brands in the country and herbal shampoos today account for 10 per cent of the market size.
The corresponding ratio for the Indian market is not known. Accurate data is certainly difficult to come by. The definition of success often varies depending on who is looking at the market share of a new brand.
Major Players in the Market
CALVINKARE
Profile:
Every journey begins with the first step. The journey called CavinKare began with a young mind taking the road less taken. In 1983 with a single product offering, CavinKare started out as a small partnership firm. More steps followed and with the innovative Entrepreneur C.K. Ranganathan at the helm, CavinKare emerged into a successful business enterprise.
In line with the company’s progressive outlook, Beauty Cosmetics, the earlier name, was rechristened to CavinKare in November 1998. 'Cavin' a literary word
in Tamil, symbolizes beauty and grace. The company logo signifies dynamism, modernity, and a positive attitude towards the future - the spirit of the people behind the phenomenon called CavinKare.
Smart marketing and a clear product positioning ensured CavinKare’s growth from strength to strength, broadening its product portfolio extensively. The company now markets ten major brands. The turnover from all the companies in the CavinKare group touched Rs. 400 crores in 2003-2004.
Over the years, CavinKare has achieved significant milestones, and a competitive edge with sound understanding of mass marketing dynamics. The company offers quality hair care, skin care, personal care, food products and home essentials, borne out of a keen understanding of consumer needs.
Today, CavinKare has established a firm foothold in the national market. Efforts towards self sufficiency with backward integration has allowed CavinKare, along with its Group Companies manage its own advertising & media buying, product packaging and research and development activities.
PRODUCTS:
ANTI-DANDRUFF SHAMPOO:
A breakthrough anti-dandruff formulation that controls dandruff nourishes and strengthens hair roots and ensures a healthy scalp. It is enriched with Tea-tree Oil, the most effective natural, anti-dandruff agent, Rosemary, an anti-fungal agent, Sandal, to control itching and cool the scalp and Lemon, a natural cleanser. Use it regularly for healthy, dandruff-free hair.
PROTEIN SHAMPOO:
A unique formulation of specially selected herbs that removes excess oiliness nourishes the hair roots and gives bounce and shine to your hair. It contains Lemon, which cleanses the hair, Rosemary that controls excess oiliness and Chickpea, which has natural proteins that nourish the hair roots.
PROTEIN SHAMPOO (NORMAL HAIR)
A special blend of herbs that gently cleans and nourishes your hair and scalp.It contains Shikakai, a natural cleanser, and Fenugreek, enriched with lecithin and other proteins, to nourish, strengthen and prevent hair loss.
PROTEIN SHAMPOO (DRY/DAMAGED HAIR)
A shampoo that gives nourishment and extra conditioning to each strand of hair to make it healthy and silk-soft, which is easy to manage and style. Natural proteins from Chickpea are absorbed by the scalp to nourish the hair roots and prevent damage to hair shafts. Sesame extracts condition each strand of hair.
Customer preference
“How do Buyers form their preference? “. Their preferences are influenced by their past buying experience, friend’s and associate’s advice, and the marketer’s and competitor’s information and promises .Though customer preference is a very qualitative term and it is very difficult to measure. In this study an effort has been made to measure the customer preference level.
Multi Dimensional Scaling
Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a method for analyzing a (similarity or dissimilarity) proximity matrix based on a set of observations. The purpose of MDS is to model the proximity of observations in order to represent them as accurately as possible in a limited number of dimensions (usually 2). There are different MDS algorithms: XLSTAT uses the SMACOF (Scaling by Majoring a Convex Function) algorithm that minimizes the "normalized stress" function. Furthermore, there are several MDS models (or representation functions), i.e. several ways to transform the dissimilarities into disparities. The disparities are the distances that describe the optimal representation for the observations. The difference between the disparities and the distances measured on the representation resulting from the MDS is called the stress: the lower the stress, the better the representation of the observations.